TomTom ONE 130-S 3.5-Inch Portable GPS Navigator
by TomTom
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List Price: Our Price: $76.35 You Save: $32.64 (30%) Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Buy Used: from $50.00 (click here) Category: GPS or Navigation System See more product details |
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of TomTom ONE 130-S 3.5-Inch Portable GPS Navigator
Customer Review: Friendlier and faster than the Garmin - FIXED volume problem
Summary: 4 Stars
Have owned this for a week. It replaces our Garmin Nuvi 350 that was stolen from our car. My fault - I accidentally left it on the windshield when coming home late one night, and it was gone the next day. The Tomtom has a visual warning not to do this, which appears briefly when turned off - so this will never happen to us again!
We did not especially like our Garmin (and I reviewed that last year). Although (current discounted) prices and high-level features are similar, here is where the Tomtom is better:
- It is much faster at locking on to the satellites, and noticeably quicker at calculating a route. When you make a wrong turn, it doesn't give that annoying warning but rapidly updates the directions.
- The speed in "demo" mode is easily configurable (e.g. to 3x real speed) which is very handy.
- Although the maps look a bit uglier, the real-time zoom is nice, using the slider a la Google maps. Zooming with the Garmin was fiddly.
- My favourite feature is the ability to press a couple of icons to avoid a specific segment of the current route. Don't want to go down Broadway, and don't want the device whining at you all the way? No problem! It is not perfect, and it will sometimes attempt to sneakily reroute you back to a later section of that road, but as all the steps are listed on one screen you can rapidly add/remove points as necessary.
- Downloadable and VERY easily replaceable voices (some free, some for 10 or 20 bucks). Drag-and-drop from your Mac/PC, no software required.
Of course it's not perfect:
- The speaker volume is no better than the Garmin, despite its large size. By default it is adequate; however, in "text to speech" mode (computer voice) it is practically inaudible with any engine noise. This is with the volume set to 100% and the "link to car speed" turned OFF. (I noticed enabling this option would set a lower volume at slower speeds, and only increase to the "set" volume later on.) I have heard similar reports on other reviews (e.g. CNET), so plan to wait a month until the next batch is manufactured, then return the unit to Tomtom for a warranty exchange.
- The screen has a relatively plasticky feel compared with the Garmin.
- Minor gripe: it is not obvious that you are meant to twiddle a ring on the suction cup to stick it to your windshield - as without doing this it will still stick reasonably well, until you go over a bump. However this is MORE than outweighed by the joy of having the suction cup fold into the back of the device, for quick & easy portability / storage.
In conclusion: to whoever stole our Garmin, we ended up with a better product - so nyah!
UPDATE June 29: I explained the volume problem to Tomtom who unhesitatingly said it was a known issue. I returned the unit to Tomtom and they shipped me a brand new unit a week later. The two computer voices (the second one - male USA - is a free download) are slightly softer than the recorded voices, but even at 70% they are now more than loud enough at high speeds, and at 100% they are so loud you can hear the distortion: unquestionably louder than our old Garmin 350. I really like that the volume is lowered at slower speeds.
I would echo another reviewer who says to use the MENU to disconnect the device. Even when the software updates and it says "please unplug & restart" you still need to select the menu item so you get the message explicitly saying "It is now SAFE to unplug". The first time you connect your unit, be sure to use the Backup menu before doing anything; that way if there is a problem you can easily reformat & restore (it's just a USB drive to your computer so if you have a backup, you can recover from anything, which is handy).
After some more trips, we still feel it's very accurate. Of course it's just a computer, and its attempted pronunciation of the more obscure place names is entertaining, so do watch the street signs; also while it's usually quite good at getting the lane correct, on occasion you'll hear the contradictory "Keep left, and take the exit on the right" which isn't much help in traffic unless you were paying attention to the signs!
Customer Review: BUYER BEWARE-nice item but Company nor item 100% reliable...
Summary: 3 Stars
I bought this item after the last time I drove aimlessly about trying to find a destination with just a map and directions. The item works great overall. Some of the time. As packaged, this GPS covers all our needs. Warning: A GPS needs to have clear access satellites. This one needs access to four satellites. If it can't reach the satellites, you don't get a signal. When you don't get a signal the TomTom is totally useless. Picutre a paperweight with graphics on it. I could not get a signal in an area surrounded by a forest. I could not get a signal during an overcast day, and on another day I couldn't get a signal on a partly sunny day. Good thing I knew the area I could not acquire a signal or I would have been lost. And that did happen a few days later while driving to a new destination. The TomTom lost the signal while I was making a turn and I no longer had directions from the GPS how to proceed after the turn. I wound up pulling into a parking lot to wait for a signal. It took 10 mins to eventually get one. Sometimes, I've had to wait as long as 20 minutes to acquire a signal.From then on, I still carry a map and directions in case the TomTom loses its signal. Hence, though I like the concept of the GPS and enjoy using it while it has a signal, it's too unreliable for me to rate it any higher than I did. If you can't acquire a signal to guide you, what good is a GPS, any GPS?
Important warning for US consumers: if you purchase anything from the [...] website, or TomTom Home, which connects to the websit, be forewarned that the bill will be processed from their office in Amsterdam, Netherlands and NOT in the USA. As a result, your credit card may or may not charge you a foreign transaction fee/finance charge for the purchase. And note, nowhere on the TomTom website, nor on your receipt nor ahywahere else will you be told this. You won't find out until you are charged on your credit card. I learned about it in this exact way. My Mastercard charged me 3%.
FYI: I contacted TomTom by phone about this, and they basically don't care with the reply that "they're not required to tell the U.S. consumer anything because not all credit cards charge a fee." Hello, how many credit card companies do you know of that don't charge a fee for foreign transactions.I then asked, "How about just adding a disclaimer to inform your customers that they may incur additonal fees from performing a foreign transaction?" They didn't care:it's not their legal responsibility, so they can care less.If you want to buy American, stay away from tomtom. I wouldn't mind the purchase if I was warned up front, a disclaimer would have made me an informed consumer; a professional courtesy would have been appreciated, but I wasn't told at all until the credit card company billed me. Shame on you, tomtom. They list an address in the U.S., which is listed as their contact address, as if they are out of the U.S.A., BUT they're NOT. They deliberately lead you to believe that your purchase is billed in the USA. Are they hiding something here? They do no list their address in the Netherlands. I wonder why. Buyer Beware. By the way, they were supposed to have called me back WITHIN a week for a Customer Service Representative to explain the terms of their site, not to work with the consumer. NOTE: Its been over a week now and no call has been made to me. I did receive an email that I can't respond to(It comes from Do Not Reply) that says "since you did not contact us, this issue is closed." I did contact them. I'm waiting for that call back.
Customer Review: It's OK...fell out of love with it very quickly
Summary: 3 Stars
I've had my TomTom for about a year now, having been on several road trips, it's been pretty good. This being my first GPS, I was very happy at first but alas, the honeymoon was over pretty quickly. Several complaints:
* It takes FOREVER to get a GPS signal. I live in the NYC metro area and take lots of road trips. It takes a long time if I'm in the city, suburbs or the middle of nowhere.
* There seems to be a disconnect between avoiding "some" toll roads, versus avoiding ALL toll roads. If I try to get from NJ to NY without wanting to take the turnpike or garden state (two toll roads), it sends me on an 8 hour trip up through Albany. If it takes 3 tanks of gas and a third of my day to avoid a toll, then don't bother.
* There also seems to be a lack of understanding what a highway is. If I ask it to avoid "highways" it still puts me on "freeways", "expressways" and "parkways". To me, a highway is a road without stoplights. Same as a freeway, same as an expressway, same as a parkway.
* My TomTom has a bad habit of what I call "floating off" the road, especially, and much to my dismay, during exits when I am confronted with 5-6 off ramps in front of me. The navigation arrow will just decide to float off the road into a river or field, leaving me in a state of panic as I try to figure out which ramp to take. (I once even threatened to throw it out the window for this very reason).
* My mount broke within about 3 months. Now granted, my brute of a boyfriend was trying to take the mount off, but still, I would have expected it to be a bit more resilient.
* The battery life on my TomTom is not really good. And if it's kept off and unplugged for more than 2 days, it won't even start on unless plugged in.
* The novelty of having different voices wears off very quickly. Who wants to listen to the slingblade guy for SIX HOURS straight on a road trip?
* I think this is just a feature of most GPS's but, I don't always know the name of the town. I may have a street name, and know it somewhere near a certain area of the state, but you cannot navigate ANYWHERE unless you have a town name. This is especially annoying in the suburbs, where certain streets run through several towns.
* The "Street Name" feature only works with 3 of the voices available. Of the 3, none of them seem to be able to pronounce well. Now granted, I wouldn't expect a computerized voice to pronounce "Kosciuszko Bridge" very well but the word "Bridge" shouldn't like "Brajze". Just an annoyance.
So after nearly a year, I've come to use my TomTom as follows:
1. I use my Blackberry to access google maps because their trip routes are just soooooo much better.
2. I then use the TomTom to ensure that I am following the google maps directions correctly.
3. In ideal situations, my boyfriend drives, I turn off the sound on the GPS and read off the directions to him (the voices are just really annoying, not pleasant at all)
I originally wanted a Garmin, but ended up with the TomTom because I got a good price. I don't know if the Garmin would actually be any better but the reviews are.
Customer Review: FINDER KEEPER with 2 problems
Summary: 4 Stars
I have owned the tomtom ONE 130S for a few days.
**IT GETS ME TO WHERE I WANT TO GO ON THE ROAD WITH NO PROBLEMS.** No complaints about it's GPS functionality. It works GREAT.
There are 2 issues though:
1)PROBLEM and Solution! (May help out other customers for this product.)
Paragraph (2) of the amazon Product Description noted that:
"The ONE 130S adds text-to-speech to the base 130 model. This means instead of hearing "turn right in 50 feet", you'll hear, "turn right in 50 feet at Ohio Street". In our experience, this is probably the most useful step-up feature for a GPS navigator, and if your looking at the 130, we'd definitely recommend stepping up to at least the 130S."
I ordered and received a 'step up' TOMTOM ONE 130S GPS. I was unable to get the item to function as a 130S. It functioned like the described ONE 130 (not the upgraded 'S'.) It seemed as though it was the WRONG item, or something else was wrong with it.
This problem, or solution to the problem, is not mentioned in the printed instructions that are included in the box with the GPS or in the Adobe Acrobat Operating Manual available from tomtom HOME.
Solution was found on the tomtom website (www.tomtom.com) under the question/answer section:
QUESTION:
What are computer (text-to-speech) voices?
ANSWER:
((** "SAMANTHA - English US" is the ONLY computer voice included among the 130S voices. The others CANNOT read out street names! THIS IS IMPORTANT!-HawkEYE))
A computer voice, also known as text-to-speech, uses a text-to-speech program to convert written text. For example, an instruction like "Turn right", into the sound of a human voice. Your TomTom device makes use of text-to-speech technology to generate computer voices.
Computer voices can read a wide variety of things that a recorded human voice cannot, including street names. This makes spoken instructions much easier to follow.
For example, the spoken instruction using a human voice is limited to "Turn right". The computer voice will say, "Turn right, Church Street."
Among other things, computer voices can also read aloud the following:
Street numbers
Incoming text (SMS) messages
Traffic warnings
Weather information
POI alerts
Tips
2) PROBLEM NOT solved yet.
The "map update guarantee" map is too large to fit the available memory. I tried to download the 'latest' US/Canada map on three different occasions and the download failed because there isn't enough available memory.
Customer Review: Speaker volume not an issue on all units, really nice compact GPS!
Summary: 4 Stars
This is my first GPS unit, though I spent 12 hours in a car with someone else's Garmin Nuvi recently. I have tested the TomTom around town (small city, upstate New York) for several days, and accuracy is spot on; calculating directions for out-of-town trips I know well is also extremely accurate.
The speaker volume issue certainly seems to have affected some part of the production run of this unit -- for others (as evidenced on other online review sites), the purposely large speaker on the back is more than loud enough and is actually too loud if cranked up too high. Mine seems fine, and that's at 75-80% volume, so I can even go louder if needed.
If you have a unit with the low volume or garbled speaker, send it back and request another if possible. A note -- the "link volume to speed" function doesn't boost the volume higher at faster speeds; rather, it lowers the volume at lower speeds; at regular highway speeds, the volume will be unaffected by this setting.
I don't mind the somewhat more pixelated maps on this unit as compared to the Garmin; in practice the map view moves smoothly. I do wonder if there is enough free memory in this unit to accommodate future map upgrades, as there's only 30 MB free now and that's with just one "computer" voice installed (the only one that can read the street names, as opposed to the generic "turn right" voices available).
I like the compact, foldable mount, I like the screen and I like the ability to submit map corrections and to be able to benefit from the corrections of others; even though this unit doesn't support multidestination routing, It seems to have more choices than the lower-end Garmins to avoid particular routes, use particular routes, put in detours and add waypoints.
The software is compatible with Mac, though the early version I was prompted to download had an immediate upgrade. Be careful disconnecting the TomTom from the computer -- make sure you have disconnected it through the TomTom Home menu, rather than just ejecting it off the desktop/Finder view, as I evidently corrupted something by not disconnecting properly. I was able to restore it, but this shouldn't have to be done -- back up your TomTom (option available through TomTom Home software) so that you can restore its contents if needed.
I do wish the battery life was a bit better, though this is an improvement (by 50%!) over previous TomToms.