TomTom ONE XL-S 4.3-Inch Widescreen Portable GPS Navigator
by TomTom
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List Price: Our Price: $45.00 You Save: $304.95 (87%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: GPS or Navigation System See more product details |
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Customers in the UK,
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for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of TomTom ONE XL-S 4.3-Inch Widescreen Portable GPS Navigator
Customer Review: Everything I was looking for
Summary: 4 Stars
Well, I did all the looking around and investigations as to reliability, options, etc. and figured out what I needed for my application. I bought the XL-S unit. Took it to my car and had it installed and turned on and set up in less than 10 minutes. I entered my base location as home and then plugged in a couple of addresses that I know to see if would 'take' me there. It did! Did a 200 mile road trip that weekend. Popped in a waypoint for our first stop of the day (a car show) and the destination (a restaurant) where we were to meet friends that knew the area - I didn't. Flawless directions in all cases. Used it again this evening to another destination about 45 miles away and it was complete bedlam. I knew I was in trouble when the route said "This will take you over dirt roads - is this okay?" Well - it' NOT a new area but I figure what the heck. We drove to the location with the system still set for the address we were going to - it kept recalculating and wanting to go somewhere else. I just turned it off - no big deal. Hey - it's technology that relies on the accuracy of the information being fed to it - it's NOT the unit itself. Anyway, in both instances - even when it wanted us somewhere else - it KNOWS where it is (GPS) and when I hit "Destination" then "HOME" - it flawlessly took us in the right direction - even took my 'shortcut' :) The voice is nice as the default. The night / day settings are great and appropriate and adjustable (different themes). I plug it in and I go. In a couple of months, it will be put to the test with me driving over 300 miles to Fort Lauderdale that I know nothing about. All I have is an address and the TomTom XLS to get me there unscathed -- we'll see how it goes, but I am pretty confident. Additionally, I REALLY like the Points of Interest that scroll by when I am driving -- I can grab one and figure out what it is and determine if I want to go there and eat or get gas (Those are the only two I have set to display). The HELP feature is good but a little 'busy' with the First Aid instructions etc. -- and they're from the British Red Cross, not the American Red Cross. After reviewing the instructions, I didn't find anything that bothered me about them - I am an American Red Cross certified CPR-AED / First Aid Trainer for Adult, Child & Infant.
All in all - I give it 4 stars for doing everything I want it to do. I have XM Satellite radio, I don't need the mp3 player. I don't talk on my cellphone (hands free or otherwise) while driving and if traffic is jammed up due to an accident - oh well! :) If I gotta go - I'll go! :)
Customer Review: Excellent, Full-Featured GPS for a remarkable Price
Summary: 4 Stars
I really like this unit. I got one for Christmas, and I enjoy it so much I purchased another one for my wife. I had done tremendous research on this product and its competitor's prior to the purchase and was wavering between the Garmin Nuvi 350 and this one. Luckily, a friend of mine purchased the exact Nuvi was was considering prior to my purchase, and he let me borrow it for a long road trip (800 mi each way). So I got a lot of use out of it to base my decision on. What I'd really like to see is a combination between these two units. Overall though, I feel like the TomTom One XL-S was the right decision for me.
Pros: Text-to-Speech works really well. It finds its location significantly faster than the Garmin Nuvi does. The menus are easier, it has a much better display than the Nuvi in my opinion. It seems to show more detailed entrance / exits from highways, the image seems a bit crisper (although this is a minor difference), but most of all, if a route is planned it still shows information like current speed. The Nuvi does not show the map and speed if a route is programmed. If you want to see your speed on the Nuvi with a route programmed in, then you must switch to an alternate view but you lose the map. I think the menu options are a bit more user friendly in the TomTom. I also had, as have everyone I know with a Nuvi, multiple problems with the suction cup coming off. The TomTom suction cup has been rock solid since I put it up. So that is obviously a much better design.
Cons: The one huge feature the Nuvi 350 has over this unit that I would really like is detailed trip information. For example, the Nuvi will calculate your total stopped time, total trip time, avg moving time, max speed, etc. The TomTom does not seem to give this information which would be nice. The TomTom also allows you to download additional computer voices and such, but there is no room, so you'd have to get an SD card to supplement. The website is horrendously slow. I'm hoping that it is because they were extremely busy with people playing with their new toys after Christmas and that it will improve; however, I felt like I was back to dialup days. The TomTom Home update software app for Windows seems to be just a bit cheesy. I'm a software developer though, so perhaps I'm overly critical on it.
Overall, I would recommend this product in a flash to anyone I know. I'll be anxious to see how well maps get updated as time goes on, but so far they've been very accurate.
Customer Review: Worst Customer Service EVER!
Summary: 1 Stars
I received this TomTom as a gift and have used it, more or less, with no real problems UNTIL . . . we decided to try to purchase a new map. My husband got transferred to Europe for his job, and so we have been trying to download the Western and Central European map now for over a week. After numerous calls to customer service (from Europe, no less), we were given about 10 different reasons why we couldn't download our map. some of which include - 1) you can't download via a wireless connection, 2) our SD card was too small (2GB), 3) we bought the wrong type of SD card once we bought a new 4GB one (apparently you can't use a high capacity - hc - card and that is what we purchased. There was no mention of this by the agent who told us to purchase a larger card, and 4) our SD card reader had problems. Not to mention that in the diagnosing of this problem, EVERYTHING was wiped off my device - including the voices that speak the directions to you while you drive. Ultimately, they decided that it's the reader in the device that had the problem and when we asked for a refund for the price of the map were flat out told no. We were not getting a refund, yet, we had no product which we had paid $100 USD for (not only did we spend $100 on the map, but we also spend $25 for a phone card - we are living in a hotel - and $17 for a new SD card). What we were told our only option was to download a lesser European map that would fit on the hard drive of the actual TomTom device, but that also meant that we could not have both the US and European map on the device (another point to mention is that this lesser map costs less and they wouldn't even refund us the difference!). We wanted to have both for when we traveled back and forth between the US and Europe. However, we were told that we would have to switch back and forth between maps depending on where we were going (remove the Europe map from the device, add the US map) when going to the states, and then vice versa for when we travel back to Europe. I cannot believe that a company would actually not provide a refund for a product when it's not received - through no fault of the consumer. I have literally spent 15 hours on the phone with them trying to resolve this issue. Very poor customer service - honestly, the absolute worst I have ever encountered. Good luck if you ever have to deal with them!Customer Review: OK but not great
Summary: 3 Stars
I have three navigation systems - one for each of my cars. All are different brands so the comparisons are apt. The TomTom falls squarely in the middle of the three brands. The screen size (4.3") is deceptive. While it is true that the screen is 4.3", the maps take up only about 2/3 of the screen, while the other 1/3 has some rather large and real-estate intensive text. There is no way to access the entire screen for the map, which is a disappointment for people who want maximum screen size. The color scheme is a trifle strange and is unchangeable. Time to satellite lock-on is also in the middle. Garmin is definitely the slowest, while Magellan locks on to satellites nearly instanteously. TomTom takes almost a full minute in my neighborhood.
Perhaps the most annoying feature of the TomTom is that it will NOT turn on and off with the auto engine, unlike both Garmin and Magellan. This means that the unit has to be turned on manually and turned off manually. If you use your DC adapter as a mechanism for recharging the battery, you'd best remember to turn the unit off before leaving the car; otherwise, you'll end up with a completely useless unit off charger. I don't know how many times I've needed the GPS "in hand" and found that the battery was completely or nearly discharged because I forgot to turn it off when leaving the car. The TomTom tech support people have told me that they are working on a software upgrade to make auto on/off a user-selectable feature, but at the moment this is not part of their units' firmware.
Map quality is good, but the graphical quality is ragged at best. When you compare the actual graphical interface of Magellan, Garmin, and TomTom side-by-side, there is no question that TomTom has the most poorly implemented graphics. Garmin's graphics are clearly the best; Magellan a close second.
For the price of this unit, I would have expected a better quality graphical interface. It works as advertised, but I would probably go with a Magellan unit for overall usability. The TomTom is OK, but is too expensive for what you get.
Customer Review: It was fun while it lasted
Summary: 1 Stars
Well, it worked perfectly right out of the box. Once. Then I downloaded the Tomtom Home updating software to my Mac and connected the device to my computer to update it. After that, the device didn't work properly. I know it has sound because it makes the drum beat sound when I turn it on, but it won't read any directions or make any other sound. So, I called tech support, and the man I talked to was very nice and he sent me an email with detailed instructions of what to do to fix the problem. It didn't work. According to what he wrote in the email, I could just reply to the email if I needed more help. I did that, and the email bounced right back to me because it was sent from a "do not reply" email address. Why tell your customers to hit reply for more help when the email is not designed to receive replies???
So, I called tech support again and again got a very nice person who genuinely wanted to solve my problem. She figured out that because I have a Mac, the Tomtom Home software I downloaded was not the most recent version of the software (I guess they don't have the most recent version for Mac yet). But the device I bought, ONE XL-S only works with the most recent version of the Home software. What to do? Well, the very nice tech support person had me on hold so long while she tried to talk to her supervisor that the battery in my phone died. So I called back and got someone else, who told me that everything the last tech support person told me was incorrect. How am I supposed to know which person is right and which is wrong??? She says the software I have is fine and the problem must be with the device itself, so she said I could mail it in to them to fix the speakers. I reminded her that the speakers definitely work because the device makes the drum sound when I turn it on. Her only advice was to mail it in for repair or take it back to place I bought it from. Considering that she couldn't even tell me what is wrong, I don't think mailing it in for repair is a good option. So, Amazon, I'll be sending this piece of junk back to you for a refund.