TomTom ONE XL 4.3-Inch Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator
by TomTom
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List Price: Our Price: $59.99 You Save: $239.96 (80%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: GPS or Navigation System See more product details |
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of TomTom ONE XL 4.3-Inch Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator
Customer Review: Good starter GPS
Summary: 4 Stars
This is my first GPS unit and I wanted was something simple. I needed one quick, so I ordered the TomTom One XL, which was on sale at the time (from Dell, which charges a hefty restocking fee). I had experienced some buyer's remorse when I learned about the Mio c520's text-to-speech function, but after using the TomTom One XL on 6 road trips I think the TomTom One XL is a good choice if you want the latest large-screen GPS w/o all the bells and whistles, which suits me perfectly.
GUI: The user interface is intuitive and though some people may complain about not having enough shortcuts to certain commands, I was able to memorize the menu structure so quickly that I can easily jump through the menus faster than I can memorize some of the shortcuts. I played around with the Mio c520 at Fry's for quite a while and didn't like the interface at all. To be fair, I wasn't able to road test it, but the 10 minutes I spent with it was a lot worse than the first 10 I spent on the TomTom One XL. Another reviewer on this site says that the Mio c220's interface is a lot better than the c520's, so maybe my conclusion was reasonable.
VOICES: Some other reviewers complained about the English speaking voice on the Mio, so it's great that the TomTom has a large number of good quality voices and languages to choose from. I didn't like the sound of the voice on the Mio C520 when I tried it out and I don't think I was successful in changing it.
POI: I didn't have any problems with POIs for the places I've looked for, which were mostly gas stations, airports, and a few restaurants.
ROUTING: Like many mapping systems (including Google and Yahoo!), you have to take their guidance with a grain of salt. I used the TomTom to get to a few places where I know the routes and the traffic patterns (e.g. cars and traffic signs) and the TomTom didn't always choose the most efficient one. To be fair, I'm not a computer running off algorithms so I just know better sometimes. Having said that, the purpose of these navigational systems are for places where I've never been to and it's been a great time saver. Oh, one nice feature I've noticed more recently is that the screen actually shows you which side of the street your destination is on (assuming you enter the street number or it's a listed POI). The little arrow turns to one side when you're close enough to the destination.
BATTERY: The TomTom is rated for 2 hours of use and I'm glad I get about that b/c it bugged me that the Mio c520 is advertised to have twice that. However, I did read one user review (on another website) that claimed that their experience with the Mio c520's battery life was nowhere near the 4 hours that it's supposed to. So maybe it's a tie since electronic manufacturers typically rate battery life based on ideal usage.
PORTABILITY: I typically transport the TomTom in my computer backpack. I don't have a case for it, but I haven't damaged any part of it yet. When I don't have my backpack, I keep it in my front pant pocket along with my wallet. Surprisingly, it doesn't make me any less comfortable.
WISHLIST: Having experienced my first car nav device on half a dozen trips, I now know what I want for my next GPS unit once the prices are more reasonable: Text-to-speech, longer battery life (3+ hrs), voice command operation, and live traffic (assuming it's free). The TomTom One XL should last me until that happens.
Customer Review: Love TomTom, Despite Flaws
Summary: 3 Stars
Although I only give TomTom 3 stars for this device, I really like it and I would purchase ONE XL again.
For city driving, there is little to fault. This is my 3rd GPS, and compared to my archaic Garmin III+ and previous TomTom for Palm Treo, this is a beautiful unit. It is also one of the first electronic gadgets that my wife likes as much as I do. On a trip to San Francisco, it enabled her to leave me in meetings and set off alone across the Bay Area to visit her 90 year old aunt. The TomTom was wonderful, guiding her through freeway lane changes and complicated interchanges. Then it brought her safely back to the hotel -- all in an area so foreign to her, she did not know north from south, east from west.
My problem with the TomTom surfaced on a recent road trip from Texas to Utah and Idaho. First, I noticed problems with the map around a couple of Texas State Parks in the Panhandle, Palo Duro Canyon and worse in Caprocks. The TomTom was insisting I route down roads clearly marked 4 wheel drive only, and when I went around Caprocks to the main entrance side, the TomTom indicated roads that were not there, and took me down a labyrinth of dirt roads through agriculture fields. I reached the destination, only to realize there is a nice paved road into the park that TomTom didn't route.
An even worse problem surfaced in Northern Idaho. I lit out from Idaho Falls, assuming Yellowstone was further north on I-15. Wrong. I turn on the TomTom after driving half an hour, not figuring I needed it, but wanting to determine an arrival time. The TomTom quickly revealed I was on the wrong highway, so I routed East towards a little dot on the map - Kilgore, Idaho. That's then the trouble started. Once you get out on dirt roads, even those carrying state highway designations, the TomTom fell apart. Between Kilgore and Winter Park Idaho, the TomTom would have killed me if I paid any attention to it. Non-existent roads were prolific, and the voice prompts to turn become nagging. At times, when a road was present, it looked like something heading off into a cow pasture. Luckily, Idaho keeps the main road well graded and maintained, so it was obvious where to go. In fact, there are a lot of nice vacation homes in the area, so no real concern. But the TomTom database was a mess, so bad the features to allow users to give feedback on non-existent roads were utterly useless because errors were simply overwhelming.
In balance, I highly recommend the TomTom if your travel plans don't include dirt roads.
Also, I'll note that TomTom provisions to download map updates and application upgrades has dramatically improved over my previous GPS units.
Major point for me: Macintosh support is excellent, totally first class. The Mac software is polished and easy to use.
Other than outback map problems, I'd give the TomTom 5 stars!
Customer Review: Has a mind of its own
Summary: 3 Stars
I've owned this product for over a year at this point. Let me say that this is a complicated product to review for a whole bunch of reasons. Basically, there's some good, some bad, but overall it works.
Let's start with the good. The price was really good in my opinion for the feature set it offered vs other GPS on the market, at the time. The input is fairly intuitive and for the most part, the touch screen is very responsive. If you have an itch for dunkin donuts, this GPS will help you find the nearest one to your current location, and I've used that feature a lot. It finds all airports via the airport code no problem and other points of interest if they happen to be loaded in it's memory. It's very sturdy and has taken a beating, literally, multiple times (see "the bad" below). The TomTom online features allow you to download some fun features and I myself have gotten the Yoda voice which is pretty funny to listen to (and it drives my wife nuts).
Now, onto the bad. My unit is probably defective, but I like to call it "character". On ocassion, it likes to press buttons on its own. There is a certain point on the touch screen that will repeatedly "click itself" as if you were pressing the screen yourself. It would happen so that you couldn't type in an address or it would randomly shut the sound off while you were driving so it stopped warning of you of where you needed to turn. This is a bad, bad thing. Out of my frustration of this happening for a few weeks, I punched the touch screen repeatedly while yelling at yoda. It miraculously started to work again, for about a week. Shortly after that, the problem cropped back up and my next solution was to press the touch screen as hard as I could with my thumbs. I actually thought this would break the unit but I didn't really care. Oddly enough, it once again began to work after I did this (as an engineer, I believe a mis-contact was made via dust or some other particle in the screen touch assembly forcing the unit to think someone was touching the screen). Whatever the case, I haven't had this issue since trying to break it, and it has been well behaved since then. There is one other "bad" worth listing - it seems that the maps in East Peoria, IL were way out of date, by about 10 years. It got me pretty lost at one point and I had to rely on my droid's google maps to get me back on track. I have never had that issue prior or since, but it's worth mentioning for new buyers to be aware that it could potentially occur.
Overall, I'm "happy" with it. It gets me where I need to go 99% of the time and it is very sturdy from a handling perspective. My wife got a garmin with more features and that is a great GPS, but for the price you can get this one for, I'm not sure it's justifiable if you only care that it gets you from point A to point B.
Customer Review: Product Great, Service meh
Summary: 3 Stars
In the USA, TomTom has the reputation as a "value product" since their models are often priced lower than similar offering from Garmin and Magellan. However, they enjoy a major market share in Europe.
I shopped for a 2007 model to get at a deal price because I do not intend to use the latest-greatest features like text to speech or live traffic updates. I'm an occasional user with basic needs. As an older driver, the 4.3 in. screen and voice turn directions are basic requirements.
I found the TomTom ONE XL to be easy to use, very intuitive and with a responsive touch screen. The directions were easy to follow. The map is easy to follow at a glance and the daytime and night time illumination are very good.
I practiced using the device before my trip and downloaded the latest version of TomTom HOME, the PC based end-user support program.
TomTom HOME encourages updates to the map for highway changes over time, a good idea. It also encouraged backing up a copy of the map to your PC hard drive, normally good idea for any system.
Fifteen minutes before I planned to leave for my driving trip, I found that the map of the USA & Canada had completely disappeared from the TomTom !!! The Only map available was Guam !!!
Searching the library on the TomTom web support site produced no solution after 30 minutes of trying suggested fixes. Several attempts to restore the back-up copy made two nights before also failed. That was very surprising since I could clearly see the file folder on my PC.
My follow-up call to the support center on the toll-free number lasted about two and a-half hours. The support person I spoke with was VERY CORDIAL and VERY SUPPORTIVE. She conveyed the sense that the problem would be solved and she was the only reason I remained on the phone through it all.
About an hour into the call, I made up my mind that the device was useless for this, which that was THE reason I bought the thing. By this time, I printed a route on MapQuest and fully intended to demand a return and refund.
The support person never gave up. We never figured out what caused the problem, but TomTom eventually created a file of the USA/Canada map for me to download through my account on the TomTom web site. That solved the problem. However, I left three hours late for my four hour trip. The delay meant making the drive in rush hour that extended the drive time by 45 minutes.
Bottom line, high marks for a well made product with easy to use features and reliable turn by turn directions; mixed feelings about support; excellent when I got them on the phone, but needed a faster resolution of the problem.
I would buy this product again, but would ask my friends about support issues they have had with other brands.
Customer Review: Driving Ms. Fiona
Summary: 4 Stars
As a former U.S. Army Ranger, I said that I would never buy a GPS. Then I got lost four times making a trip of about fifteen miles in an unfamiliar area. If someone had been selling a GPS on a corner for a thousand dollars, I would have purchased it then.
I had bought TomTom Ones for my son-in-law and son-out-law, and they both loved the devices. When it came time to purchase my own GPS, because of my aged eyes, I opted for the XL, which I guess stands for Extra Large. The XL offered lots of customizing options, including route preferences, all of which were easily programmed. The first thing I did was to change the voice from the default voice to the sweet brogue of an Irish woman. She told me to get on the motorway rather than the freeway and that I was coming to a roundabout rather than a traffic circle. Her given name Kathy didn't sound very Irish, so I called her "Fiona". I also changed the cursor from a blue arrow to a little red sports car to make it more in keeping with my geezer mobile.
Fiona shows me an oblique map of my route, and tells me when to make turns or change lanes. Of course the real test of a GPS is whether it gets you to where you want to go. I couldn't find many places around home to test Fiona, although when I couldn't find a COSCO on Long Island, I told her what I wanted and she led me to the door. On the other hand, she couldn't find a Starbucks.
I decided that the ultimate test would be a 2000 mile road trip to the Gaspe Peninsula. I trusted Fiona enough that I didn't bring any maps. For the most part, she was reliable, except on a few occasions where the highway made a big arc around a small town, and then she led me across a chord through the center of town. On the other hand, when the highway would have led me all around the tip of Gaspe, she showed me a shortcut across the Peninsula that saved thirty miles. Occasionally, she seemed to lose a satellite and showed me driving through a field parallel to the highway, but she usually corrected herself within 30 seconds.
Fiona can be programmed for a multi-stop trip, to a specific address, a town center or a point of interest.
Her menus showed that she could be linked by blue-tooth to my mobile phone, presumably for traffic updates, but my phone told me it didn't support that service. I believe this service is not available in the US, but it would have been nice if the documentation had made that clear.
Fiona's maps can be updated by computer, and while she came with U.S. and Canada maps, other maps are available. I wish that I had had Fiona when I rented a car in Japan that could only chide me in Japanese.
Now I have 2 problems: my girlfriend is jealous of Fiona; and I have two women giving me instructions when I drive.