Customer Reviews

TomTom GO LIVE 1535M 5-Inch Bluetooth GPS Navigator with HD Traffic, Lifetime Maps, and Voice Recognition

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

I've updated this several times: After unpacking, you'll see that this is a cool looking GPS. It's patterned to look like carbon fiber, and is all black and sleek. The suction-cup is attached and features TomTom's locking wheel - this also doubles as a place to wind the USB cable (provided.)

So I opened the box while in the car and took it for a test drive. The 12v plug (what we older drivers still call a cigarette plug) has a standard USB outlet - so it can power other devices as well. The TomTom uses the smaller USB port common to cell phones and newer devices - so it will also charge and power my Droid. I plugged in the power, stuck the GPS to my windshield (It includes a dash mount, but I prefer windshield) - and was stuck. It would not turn on. Time to open the manual. Turns out the power button has to be held in for 10 seconds. That solved, I was ready to go.

The opening screen looked like a mini-hidef TV intro. After the opening screen closed I was given the option of taking a short intro/tutorial covering navigation. I took the tutorial. It only covers the very basics and takes about two minutes. I added my "home" location - took another couple of minutes and drove around. The GPS starts up and finds satellites blazingly fast - only a few seconds. While it discovers the satellites the GPS shows tips on using the GPS.

It's highly accurate - more so than my previous TomTom or two year old Garmin. The large screen is gorgeous and crisp. It's less cluttered than other GPS unit's I've used. The new interface is akin to the minimized Google maps you see - smaller icons that expand when you touch them. There are no buttons except the power - everything else is touch-screen based.

The features list goes on and on and on. Voice commands, traffic avoidance (updates every 2 minutes), built-in Google places, Expedia, TripAdvisor and Yelp, instant twitter updates and more. The "live" services are included for one year (currently $60 a year.) One big reason to take a serious look at this GPS - FREE LIFETIME MAP UPDATES ($100 value! That's worth the price of the GPS alone. If you keep it plugged in, the unit will turn on and off automatically. It also pairs with your phone via BlueTooth - it acts as an extension of your phone - displays caller ID and can even place calls. HOWEVER: The volume is terrible. Even at 100% the car would have to be parked to hear anyone.

Pretty much every feature can be customized, so you can tailor the GPS to your tastes and needs. You can mount the GPS right side up or upside down - the display flips automatically. There's even an area where you can create a custom menu. Other settings include removing non-essential items from the display, selecting what is spoken (signs, text messages from phone, etc.), call answering options and more.

Pairing with my DroidX took moments (after I made the Droid discoverable.) The GPS supplied step by step instructions - nice. After pairing, the GPS had my phone book, calling history, etc. Great! Now I have a new hands-free device to try.

One thing to be aware of - the TomTom website is quirky. You can't hook the GPS up to a hub (no idea why) - it has to be plugged directly into the computer. If the update hangs it WILL lock-up the GPS. The software does not provide this warning - but if you contact TomTom support, it's the first thing they'll tell you. Speaking of support - TomTom uses volunteers for the majority of their support (this is according to the couple of TomTom tech support people I have dealt with.) I went through this with my TomTom Ease. The software turned it into a paperweight and I had to do a factory reset (easy once tech support told me how.)

So when you hook it up to your computer, use a port ON the computer. Don't use a hub!

This part I'm entering/editing while using the TomTom website, a work in progress...

The "My TomTom" website: Still needs a lot of work. I already had an account. It took a five (yes, five) logins to work. I would login, click a link and had to log in again. Every time I clicked a link, I had to log in again. The next thing I knew I had 6 browser tabs all open to the same page. This is the only way to update your GPS and add custom content.

Once I was finally logged-in, updates were detected. I downloaded the three updates and watched the status portion of the browser flash, change size, disappear, and finally stop with the blue status displaying only the top half, stating "Your navigation device is up to date. There are no updates waiting for installation." All the while in the other part of the screen displaying pending updates.

The included instructions for activating the lifetime map updates did not work - again, website issues. There is no place to enter the code! Plus the help screens sometimes calls it an activation code and other times a promotion code. The option is missing from the menu. I'm also forced to update my profile every few screens. It looks like TomTom has two different sites they are trying to merge and all the links have not been updated. After clicking on the "MyTomTom" menu literally 50 times, the "Activate Code" finally showed up - and the other screen issues cleared up as well. Time to enter the code. Or so I thought. I had to "connect the device" - although it was already connected because of the previous update. So I unplugged the GPS and plugged it in again. I was then able to enter the code. After doing this, I was forwarded to the update detection screen. It displayed the "No Updates" message and a status indicating the device needed updating and that updates would be done in 4 minutes. 5 seconds later, that message was gone. Sheesh.

I still give the device 5 stars, but the website gets 3. They really need to update it. Since they use the website to communicate with and update the GPS, this is no little thing. My other issue with this is that the TomTom software (even though it's web based) takes up 4meg of RAM whether the GPS is connected or not.

OK, back to the software update. It started at 24 minutes remaining. 5 minutes later it was at 6 hours and change. A couple of more minutes and it was at 1 hour, 15 minutes. Then it moved around between 45 minutes and 2 hours. I'm on a business class broadband connection - this bizarre download estimate is not from my end. The total time was closer to 30 minutes. After this was complete, it displayed that the update would take 2 hours and 22 minutes to update the GPS. Then it displayed 44 minutes. Then 22. Then 35. As I watched the display on the GPS (and monitor) it would constantly jump up and down. Really bizarre and very annoying. this is over a period of 20 minutes) It in fact took 1 hour 11 minutes. At the end it jumped from 8 minutes to 0.

Hopefully not everyone has these issues. Once I was past all these problems everything worked fine.

If you do have issues:

First try unplugging and plugging the GPS back in (as long as no updates are installing.)
Try a computer reboot.
Try a GPS reset - hold the power button in for 20 seconds.

 

Length:: 5:37 Mins

Since submitting my original video review and accompanying narrative, I discovered that I had a defective unit and have therefore removed much of my original narrative. I've added to what remained to reflect the current state of affairs.

The touch-screen was out of calibration on my first 1535M. By that I mean that if I tried to touch directly on an on-screen button or make an on-screen selection, the screen registered my touch as if I were touching the item above what I wanted. The unit was also very sluggish in responding to on-screen touches. The replacement 1535M which I received after waiting for almost a month has none of the calibration issues but is still not as responsive to touch as I am accustomed to on my iPhone 4 or my Garmin GPS. You have to really make a deliberate jab at the screen for it to register your touches. It's aggravating and made all the more aggravating since trying to touch the screen deliberately when it is mounted on your windshield is next to impossible. You really need to remove the mount from the windshield each time you need to program in a route and that is my next issue with the 1535M.

At first I thought the integrated windshield mount was good but now that I've used it I can say that I dislike it greatly. It is not convenient to remove from the windshield once it's attached. Since the touchscreen requires such a deliberate touch, you need to remove the device from the windshield each time you need to enter in route information which is frequently for me. And usually my navigator (my wife) is the one who has to enter route info while I'm driving with her. Needless to say, the inconvenience and hassle of trying to release the mount every time you need to enter info into the device is a great nuisance. My Garmin Nuvi had a simple clip that easily allowed the GPS to be removed from the mount, leaving the rest of the mount stuck on the windshielf. Not so with the TomTom mount. I also find it very difficult to remove and remount the windshield mount on my windshield. It's extremely awkward. I'll be looking for a beanbag dashboard mount in the near future.

Prior to this TomTom, I have used Garmin devices. Consequently the TomTom menu system and the entire way the TomTom is designed and the way it works is quite different from what I'm accustomed. In other words, if you are coming from the Garmin world, you've got some adapting to do... in a big way. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but be forewarned that they way you used to do things will be much different with the TomTom.

Upon unboxing, I was immediately struck with how elegantly designed the TomTom 1535M was. Surprisingly thin, nice rounded edges and and gently flowing curvature on the back side. The USB port is recessed which is nice and the GPS has what I consider to be a somewhat novel mounting arrangement. The swivel and suction cup is integrated with the GPS itself. You can swivel the GPS 360 degrees and as you do so the display auto-rotates. That was not expected but was pretty cool. It's similar to how an iPod touch or iPhone display rotates when you turn the device to a different orientation. However even though the screen re-orients itself, it is only doing so at 180 degrees (it's always going to be in landscape mode.)

The on/off button on the back is a nice size, not too small, not too large and is also recessed so that it flush with the back panel. Aesthetically it was very pleasing. To turn the unit on, you depress the button and hold it for a few seconds. The manual says 10 seconds but I never hold it that long, usually only about 3 seconds. Startup is quick speedy especially compared to my Garmin Nuvi which takes much much longer to start up. The TomTom also seems to acquire satellites much faster than the Garmin.

I think the way that TomTom displays routing and maps in general is superb. It is such an improvement in the way that my Garmin Nuvi displays maps. TomTom has a really cool 3D look and arrows to indicate turns are huge, well-positioned and make it so much easier to read on-screen.

The manner in which spoken routing cues are delivered is also way different that the way that Garmin does it. And I much prefer the TomTom method.

Bluetooth connectivity was difficult with my iPhone. It took me several pairing attempts before I was able to successfully pair my iPhone with the GPS. And then once they saw each other, it took several attempts for the TomTom to accept the pairing code. Once paired, the TomTom quickly retrieved the phone book from my iPhone. I have continual difficulty actually trying to place calls though. TomTom will say that the line is in use when in fact it is not in use. When trying to receive a call, the TomTom had difficulty recognizing my touch on the screen and I was not able to easily answer an incoming call. Once a call was answered via the TomTom. the caller told me that my voice was garbled and very difficult to understand. The caller did not sound very loud to me and was difficult to hear through the TomTom speaker. I actually had to terminate the call and call back using my bluetooth headset since I was unable to really use the TomTom for cell phone use and once the call ended, the TomTom continued to display the name of the caller at the top of the screen. Not sure why it didn't just go away after the call ended. When I clicked on the "banner" for the call, the next screen showed an option to end the call and clicking on that displayed an error saying that it was "unable to end the call please check your mobile phone." Oh brother. Looks like a firmware update is needed to get the bugs out of this device.

Once, I entered a route and the TomTom told me to "turn right Route 20, then." Then what? Then nothing. Fortunately I knew where I was going and it wasn't until my next upcoming turn that I was alerted what I was to do next.

The 1535M has some great qualities and features and maybe Firmware updates can fix the sensitivity issue of the touchscreen. Maybe not.

So compared to my original 1535M, I am happy to report that the terrible problems I was having with the touchscreen have mostly been remedied by the new unit. However the sensitivity of the screen still requires a deliberate touch on the screen to register. I still find the touchscreen more difficult to use than any other touchscreen device that I own, such as my iPhone 4 or Garmin GPS. It's way better than the original 1535M, but still not as good as I would like to see.

An unexpected glitch in the return process has rendered my "Live" service as "expired." So now I have to go through the time-consuming process of contacting TomTom service again to resolve this issue. Sigh. This is such a chore. And the TomTom website continues to operate very strangely. After downloading the MyTomTom software and connecting my GPS to my computer via USB, it then auto-connects to MyTomTom website but there are glitches galore on the site. First it says my unit is up to date, then later it says there is a new map update and HD Cameras update. It starts downloading the map update which took over 4 hours... really TomTom? 4 hours on my 10Mbps Time Warner RoadRunner connection? And after downloading the new map, it did it again.
I spent the better part of this afternoon with my Garmin connected to my computer instead of in my car.

So now it's back to getting used to all the differences between how the TomTom works as compared to Garmin GPS's. I'm more of a Garmin kind of guy given all the issues I continue to have with the TomTom. Today I entered a route that Garmin gets me to logically and efficiently, TomTom came up with a "fastest" route that was unusual and not at all intuitive. It may have been about the same mileage as the Garmin route, but from my point of view, I would never choose to go that route. Fortunately TomTom also offered an alternate route that was the same as what Garmin chose but it wasn't intuitive to choose the alternate route instead of the primary suggestion.

On the plus side, I do like the vocal cues better on the TomTom. There are more cues that a turn is coming up and they are given with more advance notice. It's much easier to miss a turn with the Garmin. I also prefer the default female voice on the TomTom. Not all the voices on the TomTom speak street names. In English, only Samantha and in French, only Julie speak the street names.

It's a decent GPS that is very different from Garmin. If you've never had a Garmin, you may not have as many mis-givings about the TomTom as I do. On the other hand I do like a lot about the TomTom. I'll give it some time and see if I adjust and will certainly update my review if my opinion changes in any of the areas I've mentioned.

Until then I've updated my rating to 3 stars. I'm docking it some stars for the finicky touchscreen, awkward windshield mount and flaky website which must be accessed frequently to stay up to date with maps, cameras and other possible updates.

UPDATE: 11/28/2011 - This GPS has some very annoying characteristics. When routing instructions are spoken, it will say something like "In a quarter mile turn right" but as I approach the turn, no further command is given such as "turn right". I frequently fly by my turn because I am not reliably given notice except at the quarter mile mark. And in an area with lots of side streets, this just doesn't cut it.

I also can't seem to easily save a destination as a favorite. Just tonight I searched for a destination and then used it as my route. Upon arriving at the destination, I wanted to save it as a favorite but could not figure out how to do that. On my Garmin It's way easier to do this.

UPDATE: 11/30/2011 - As I use this more, I find more annoyances but have also found a few pros. First the cons... The 1535M does not tell you when it is "recalculating". If you miss your turn, and you will miss your turn because of my aformentioned comments on that, it just creates a new route on the fly but doesn't tell you. It just shows the new route. The problem with this is that there is a period of time... maybe 10-20 seconds where you have no route at all on the display. You're basically lost until the new route displays. So you might miss several opportunities to get back on route quickly due to the fact that the TOmTOm hasn't told you what the new directions are yet. This is very annoying.

I am also increasingly bothered by all the extra button-pushing that the TOMTOM forces me to make. Arrrrrgh. all I want is to put in my route and see it. Give it to me TomTom, don't force me to push buttons to see the map. Whatever team of brainiacs that designed the user-interface for this needs to learn more about effective UI's.

On the Pro side, I have finally discovered the joy of using voice commands. Although I like the way Garmin displays restaurants, for instance, the TomTom doesn't really do that unless you use voice command feature. With that you can just say, "Drive to the nearest Starbucks" and it will show you the list of Starbucks. But a BIG DOWNSIDE is that it only shows the miles. It doesn't show the address. This is once again really poor design. I want to know the address so I can make an intelligent choice. And again, you have not say what number you want on the list... wait... then TomTom asks you to confirm your choice... then you wait some more... then you are finally taken to a summary page where, you guessed it, you have to push a button to get to the map. I hate this. See, I even turned my pro into a con.

Regarding routing... it's really frustrating to know your common routes... know that Garmin will usually route you the same way as you would logically want to go but find that TomTom makes these crazy routes that I would never in a million years choose to go. And these are often routes in my hometown where I'm pretty sure I know the best, fastest, shortest way to get somewhere. It happens all the time, not just once in a while TomTom nearly never routes me the same way that my Garmin would route me. This is obnoxious.

UPDATE: December 2, 2011 - A feature on my Garmin that I've come to rely on is that the display will show the posted speed limit next to your current speed. This is really helpful and the TomTom also has this feature but it is not as complete as the Garmmin resulting in the TomTom not always having the speed limit displayed for all roads. For instance, today I drove a route that was 10 miles and had 5 speed zone changes. None of the speed zones were displayed on the TomTom whereas the Garmin displayed all of them correctly.

I've also got a gripe with the voiced instructions. TomTom will say something like "Turn right, then turn left ahead." Well how far is "ahead." It seems more appropriate for it go say "turn left in 1/2 mile." But instead it says the generic "ahead" which means basically nothing to me... is it the next left turn, the second left turn... You just don't know unless you look at the display to see the mileage indication of the next turn. Obviously it's safer to not have to continually look at the display when you are driving and put more reliance on the spoken directions. The Garmin has much better voice commands leaving less to conjecture and guessing.

I haven't used any TomTom products for several years owing to an unfortunate incident with their customer support, which - several years back - could be described in one word: awful.

Here we are years later and I am offered the opportunity to review a TomTom GO LIVE 1535M which actually excites me. Hey, all that new technological goodness TomTom claims to have incorporated.

The unit arrives today, I unpack it and read the simple illustrated instruction sheet, bring up their website as instructed, turn the unit on and - oh, oh - the touchscreen doesn't work. Fiddle with it for a while, try connecting it to the computer through a direct USB port, the unit is recognized, but communication quickly fails. Try it on another computer. Nada. Read the TomTom tech support pages on the web, looking for a way to reset the unit. Find Soft-reset instructions, which don't remedy the condition. Can't find hard-reset instructions.

So I called TomTom support. The first woman is clueless, keeps asking me the same basic questions over and over, keeps putting me on hold and simply can't seem to understand that the touchscreen is inoperative. Touching the "Next" button does nothing. She seemed incapable of comprehending that simple fact. She didn't have any troubleshooting steps. She refused my request to escalate the call. She tells me I can return the unit at my expense - and then wait 10 days or more for a replacement. Wow! TomTom really cares about customer relations, don't they? Bizarre.

So bizarre, in fact, that I called back in and spoke with another customer support representative. Again, I spoke with a polite, well-mannered woman who spoke English reasonably well without a difficult accent. But it was obvious that if she couldn't quickly find an answer on a script, she would put me on hold for a minute or two - and then recite a canned, usually inappropriate, response. Once again, I was asked the same question over and over.

After refusing my earlier request to be escalated, she now told me that I could be escalated for further troubleshooting. I should expect to receive a call within 24 to 72 hours.

Talk about abysmal customer support. I'm sitting here with a unit I had been excitedly waiting for. It doesn't work out of the box. Okay, not a big deal and such things do happen. I tried self-help without success (because there appears to be no way to hard-rest the GO LIVE 1535M without being able to reach the main menu, which I couldn't do because the touch response was inoperative). I patiently answered the same elementary questions over and over, dealing with well-mannered women who clearly knew nothing at all about the device and were merely reading from a script or asking other personnel for answers.

Then they want me to return a brand-spanking new unit to them at my expense for a replacement that may take 10 days or more - and that is after waiting another 24 to 72 hours for a hope-for return call, which may or may not come.

This is TomTom support. It remains what it was several years ago when I last had a TomTom product: awful.

If this were an ordinary transaction, I would simply return the product for replacement or refund. But consider this: I spent an hour -wasted an hour - trying to get helpful information from their website and then with two women who are entirely unknowledgeable about the product or how to resolve the problems. And now I am waiting 24 to 72 hours for a call from TomTom customer support that may or may not come.

Given that, would I be interested in getting another TomTom product - considering that someday I might need customer support again?

If and when I get a working replacement, I will amend my review to include product performance (if indeed, the replacement works). But anyone considering TomTom should be wary of TomTom' just plain awful customer support.

Jerry

Originally I left a good review of this TomTom gps unit. At first it worked perfectly. Then after only a few weeks the GPS did not power on. I tried everything possible to get this GPS unit to turn on and it just would not turn on. So I called Tom Tom customer service. Spoke to a guy who was nice enough and offered to replace it with a free brand new unit. He gave me an RMA number to return it and said he would be sending me a prepaid shipping label so I could return it and gave me the address where it would need to be returned. He told me he would email me the shipping label. After waiting a week and still receiving no label I called customer service again. I gave them the RMA number the first customer rep gave me and the guy then had me hold for several minutes. He said that shipping label had expired and they had to pay for it. He acted like it was my fault when I didn't even receive it. They never mailed it to me.

So then I proceed to tell the guy the whole story again about it not powering on. He then tells me to try the same things that the other guy told me to try and that I had tried multiple times. Basically I felt like he was treating me like an idiot. He had to get his supervisor to give the ok on the new shipping label. So again I waited several minutes on hold. He came back and told me I needed proof of purchase even though I had already given him the serial number and the first rep did not ask me for any proof of purchase. Basically they were trying to make it as hard as possible for me to get a new unit that actually worked....at least that's how they made me feel. Since I received this unit through the amazon vine program there was essentially no proof of purchase so I ended up taking a screen capture of my amazon shipping page showing it had shipped to me and the date shipped. I sent that to the rep who said it was ok for proof of purchase and they would be sending me the prepaid shipping label the next day as it takes 24 hours or something along those lines. So here it is three days later and I still have no prepaid shipping label. I emailed the rep this evening to see why I have not received it yet and hopefully will have an answer tomorrow.

Overall this TomTom GPS unit was a complete dud and now I sit here with a non-functioning unit. TomTom customer service is a complete joke. I have NEVER had this kind of customer service from Garmin and unfortunately I CANNOT recommend this GPS unit due to the poor quality of the product and the bad customer service. Save yourself the heartache and buy a Garmin.

UPDATE 1/27/12:
Placed my fourth call to customer service over the past few weeks as AGAIN the shipping label did not show up in my email. The customer service person on this call told me she looked at the file and a supervisor NEVER SENT THE LABEL! So three different times I had someone tell me to expect a pre-paid label in my email and all three times the supervisor never sent it. Unbelievable. I really think they just want to frustrate me to the point where I won't even bother returning it. If I had not called all these times to follow up I never would have received a replacement for this non-working unit. I should have the pre-paid shipping label by tomorrow according to today's call. I am skeptical but will update this review later to detail how this works out. TomTom customer service is just horrible.

This review is actually the copy of my email to the Amazon seller I purchased this unit from.

=====

Hello,

thanks for sending the item. It took some time to get more familiar with it and have everything clarified by Tomtom support; as the result, I would like to return this item, because too many of its functions are not working as expected.

1. Bluetooth connection to the phone did work initially, but stopped working after firmware update. Called Tomtom support, they confirmed that this can happen, and after the updates some models may become incompatible with some phones; this is unpredictable, undocumented, they don't have neither the list of phones, nor the gps units, there's no warning to the user before the upgrade that will ruin it, but it does happen, and it's expected. This statement was later proven 100% false by Tomtom users on the forum, who are much more knowledgeable about the product than "support", but the very admission that this can happen makes it unacceptable.

2. HD Traffic, the flagship feature of this unit, is going to expire in one year. This fact is not indicated anywhere in the selling materials of this model. The materials mention that "Live Services" (such as fuel prices, google search, and more) need to be renewed annually, but they don't mention that HD Traffic is part of Live Services. Plus, to my surprise, I found Live Services to be fully inaccurate: just returned from a trip, and there was not one time when real traffic jam was predicted by the unit, as well as not once when the jam the unit has predicted, did take place. The unit shows jams where there's none, and it does not show jams that do exist. HD Traffic is actually premium feature #1 of this model, and 80% of the reasons why I wanted it.

3. Fuel prices are outdated by several weeks, while they are supposed to be realtime (admitted by Tomtom in another support incident).

5. voice recognition can't recognize practically anything. For example, if you say "navigate home", it takes it as "navigate to nearest starbucks"; recognizes "yes" after not less than 3 attempts, and so forth.

4. The device has numerous other defects of its internal software; some functionality that is supposed to be there, is still in the stage of development by Tomtom (this applies to many other Tomtom models as well; more specifically, to all models based on "MyTomtom" platform). On Tomtom forum there's ongoing discussion "I Want The Functionality I Paid For." with dozens of outraged participants. Meanwhile, Tomtom releases new version of their firmware that shows that couldn't care less - the brand new features of the new version are "improved icon" and the ability to post your destination on Twitter while driving.

Tomtom support knows only one resolution to any problem - reset the unit to factory settings, losing all favorites and custom data. Didn't help? too bad.

All this means false advertising. I fully understand that this is none of your fault, but this unit is basically a scam by too high percentage. So I would like to return it for full credit. If not that, then our next step will be contacting an attorney, I'm sure this unit gives more than enough material for a lawsuit.

Over the last few years, I've owned several GPS devices including the following:
TomTom Go Live 1535M (I'll refer to this as "TT1535")
TomTom XXL 540T (This will be TT540)
Magellan 2045T-LM (M2045)
Magellan 9055-LM (M9055)
Garmin nuvi 265 W (Garmin)

I've already written a review comparing my TT540 to my Garmin. This review will echo many points in that one, but will also incorporate the newer Tom Tom and the Magellan GPSs. I will post this same review in the other new models, so the comparisons will be more comprehensive than if I were to individualize more. I have broken the review up by model, so if you are only interested in this model, skip to its section, below

Let's start with the
**** Garmin ****.
Navigating style: First = "Continue 1.6 miles, then turn right." Nearing = "After 500 feet, turn right on Elm Street." At turn = "Turn right on Elm Street." OR, if the next step is quite soon, "Turn right on Elm Street, then stay in the right lane."

Strengths:
1) Of all the units, the Garmin has the best name pronunciation. That is, it sounds the most like a human speaking and/or pronounces the names of streets correctly the most often. Not perfect, but the best in the group (the Tom Tom is also very good--sometimes arguably better).
2) The suction cup is very easy to use
3) Sending an address from your computer to the GPS (look it up on Google maps first, then send the address to the device via a USB cable) is BY FAR the easiest to do on the Garmin. You only have to download an active x control (happens automatically, with your consent, when you use the "send" function in Google maps) and you are good to go. The other brands require you to download a full app that is always running in the background. Updating the maps is also very simple.
4) To me, the user interface is very simple and intuitive.
5) The point of view in 3D mode is just right--not too high in the air, not too low to the ground.

Weaknesses:
1) No lane guidance. Here I am referring to when you are driving on the highway and you have an exit coming up--on the other devices, you get a picture of the highway and lanes and what-not. The Garmin just sticks with "Keep left" or "Take exit xxx on the right." Honestly, I don't think there is a whole lot of benefit to the "Lane guidance", but it is a nice little feature that would be nice on this unit. Note that my Garmin is several years old--the newer models may have this. Note also that lane guidance is only useful when it is correct. An interchange near where I live used to have 3 exit lanes, but about a year or two ago, they changed it to 2. Both the Magellans AND the Tom Toms incorrectly show 3 exit lanes for their lane guidance. This is the exception (they have been correct in all other instances that I have noticed), and yet, bad data is always worse than no data.

**** Magellan ****
Navigating style: First = "Turn right in 1.6 miles." Nearing = "Turn right in 500 feet." At turn = 2 dings. For a left turn, the first ding is a higher pitch, for a right turn the second ding is a higher pitch, and for continue straight, the 2 are the same.

Strengths:
1) Fastest route calculation. When I missed a turn, the Magellan was ALWAYS the first to have a new route planned and start telling me about it.
2) Current speed is in tenths (1/10) of a mile per hour. You can also display your current elevation. These strengths are totally trivial, but these units were the only ones that had this data.
3) "Lane guidance", although I didn't really like the way it was displayed because it would show 1 sign saying which way to go, and another sign saying which way the wrong way to go was. The idea was to make it look exactly like the freeway signs. The incorrect one was slightly shaded. I didn't like this method--until I got used to the unit, it took more than a mere glance to figure out which lane I was supposed to be in because it wasn't intuitively obvious which sign was the "correct" one. I very much preferred the Tom Tom's method of lane guidance.
4) The 9055 has an input so you can attach a backup camera to it. It is also quite large, so you can see much more map (or backup view) at a time. The size is both a strength AND a weakness--see below.
5) Both models are easy to put in/take out of their windshield holders--they sit in a cradle and when you pop them in, it plugs the USB power in at the same time. This makes it really easy to take the unit out of the car and put it back in every time. (see weakness #5-c, below)
6) The 9055 is Bluetooth enabled and can be an in-car speaker phone when paired to your mobile device. It was OK. Not fabulous, but OK.
7) Included with the various points of interest are Triple A ("AAA") points of interest and events, although they didn't seem to update with the rest of the device. Even though I had updated my unit, it was still showing events from last year and nothing for this year. Still, being able to search for a near-by restaurant by AAA rating was a great feature.

Weaknesses:
1) By far, the worst, most difficult model to update via computer (map version updates). You have to go download their little app and have it running in your system tray and you can't do it on Windows 7 64-bit. I don't know if you can do it on Win7-32, but I tried 3 different Wind7-64 computers and couldn't get it to work. I involved tech support and they had no idea what was going on. I'm the one who figured out it was OS dependent--they were totally unaware of this problem. Note that it works fine on my Win XP-32 computers (I tried 3 of these and they all worked). ...Oh, and don't even bother trying to send a location from Google Maps--you can't do that at all. This more than anything is a deal breaker! Minus 2.5 stars for this alone!
2) The UI was not intuitive to me and entering in addresses was the most difficult. Remember that you cannot send an address via your computer, so if it is also the most difficult to type in an address, you can see that these units become quite a bit less useful.
3) No speed limit data. You see how fast you are going, but you never see the posted speed limit. Both the Garmin and the Tom Tom show the posted speed limit, though only most of the time--there are several stretches of roads where there is no speed limit data for any of the models.
4) "Dings" instead of saying "turn right" or "turn left" when you get to your critical point. This may be a trademark or something, but it's one I think they should lose.
5) The 9055 is HUGE! This is both a plus and a minus. On the plus side, you can see a lot of map at once which gives great perspective. On the minus side,
A) it takes up a considerable amount of windshield view.
B) Even though it dims at night, it is so big that it adds a lot of light to the inside of the car at night which slightly impairs night vision.
C) the mount is enormous, unruly, and is not just a suction cup, it requires them to put some sort of glue on it to really hold it in place which made removal VERY difficult, and it's not the kind of thing you will be putting up and taking down on a regular basis. Note that it is really easy to get the unit itself in and out of the mount (see strength #5 above), but the mount "ain't goin' nowhere". If you wanted to buy 1 unit and move it between 2 cars as needed, you'll have to get a second mount or (better yet) one of those little pads you set on you dash and rest the GPS on. A second problem with the non-removable mount is that a thief passing by may see the mount and decide to break into the car because the GPS unit itself may be in the glove box.
6) Worst name pronunciation.

**** Tom Tom ****
Navigating style: First = "After 1.6 miles, turn right." Nearing = "After 500 feet, turn right on Elm street." OR if the next step is somewhat close, "After 500 feet, turn right on Elm Street, then take the third right." At turn = "Turn right on Elm Street." Or, "Turn right on Elm Street, then take the third right."

Strengths:
1) Something the Tom Toms do that neither of the other 2 brands do is detect when you come to an intersection where you can turn left or right but you cannot go straight. In this case, it says, "at the end of the road, turn right on Elm Street." I really like this because it is quick and easy to understand and you really cannot mess that up.
2) The best thing that the TT1535 (Go Live) has going for it is the "HD" traffic thing. I have found this to work pretty well, but don't expect TOO much out of it--my experience has been that it only occasionally rerouted me to avoid traffic when my other units didn't. That is, if the TT1535 was rerouting me, usually one of the other ones did too and if the other ones weren't rerouting me, very seldom did the TT1535 try to do so. And don't expect it to reroute on the block level as is shown in web advertisement--the delay needs to be at least somewhat significant in order for it to bring it up. HOWEVER, there is one traffic-related thing that TT1535 does that the other do not do and that is it shows on the map where it knows there is traffic. I LOVE this about it because I can be driving and see there is traffic on a road right near me and then see if the TT1535 knows it is there or not. What's more, if the traffic is somewhat light, it shows on my map as yellow, but if it is quite heavy, it shows as red. My experience is that this is pretty accurate most of the time, but, as mentioned above, only if it is significant enough. Not only does this instill confidence, but it allows me to leave the map somewhat zoomed out and quickly see if there is any traffic between me and where I'm going. This is useful if I'm driving between two points I know well and don't want to have to program the GPS to navigate me to (or I don't want to listen to it giving me turn-by-turn directions when I already know where I'm going).
3) The TT1535 also has the best graphics. The curves are smooth, the roads are proportionate to their actual size and the points of interest are marked with nice-looking icons. Contrast that to the Magellan units--very angular and... I don't know, just less pretty to look at. One thing that bugs me about the TT1535, though, is that in 3D view, they put in a false horizon--the top ¼ inch of the screen is the sky. What a waste of space! This has to do with (and is also made worse by) the fact that in 3D view your "eye" is closer to the ground (less of a bird's eye view) than with the other models. In my opinion, it is TOO low to the ground. My real view is all the way low to the ground--I KNOW what THAT looks like. I want the GPS to give me more of an aerial view so I can get my bearings. I certainly prefer the 3D view to 2D (or 100% aerial) because it gives me a sense of looking at the same thing out my windshield as on the map, but I ALSO want to see what's AROUND me and if the GPS "comes too low to the ground", you can only see what is immediately around you and the stuff that is further off kinda' disappears. My opinion is that both of the Tom Toms are "too low". Magellan was a little better, but only the Garmin is "just right".
4) Lane guidance that is quick and intuitive to use. You get a series of arrows at the bottom of the screen that represent individual lanes. The correct lanes are bright white.
5) The TT1535 is Bluetooth enabled, though I didn't use this. It also has voice recognition, but I only found this to be marginally useful as you have to activate the voice recognition by pressing a button on the screen.
6) UPDATE 1/19/12: The TT1535 comes with apps like Google Search that really do help to make it easier for you to find what you are looking for.

Weaknesses:
1) A major problem with either Tom Tom is the mounting system. I hate it. You have to stick it up to the window and then turn this knob--something that feels very awkward. Once you get that mounted, the TT1535 is held too loosely so that when you press buttons, it pivots and moves in its holder and the TT540 sometimes falls out of the holder. Come on, guys, you can do better than this!
2) Going back to "wrong data is worse than no data," the TT1535 prominently shows you what your next turn will be and how far away it is. This is great, except that it seems to ALWAYS be 50-100 feet off. You wouldn't ever notice, except that there it is saying your turn is in 50 feet when you're in the middle of the intersection. For all the other models, they tell you how far your turn is, but once you get under 0.1 miles, they just say to turn here (on xxxx street).

3) UPDATE 1/19/12: Although you CAN send locations of interest to the TT540 through your computer with Google Maps, it appears you CANNOT use this feature on the TT1535. [...] BOO! Also, although updates are much easier on the TomTom than on the Magellan, I still much prefer the Garmin. (However, see strength 6, above--it makes this less of an issue...)

Conclusion:
If I'm driving to a new location and I don't know where I'm going, the Garmin is still my favorite. On the other hand, if I'm just driving around town and I only want to know about things like traffic, my speed vs. the speed limit, etc., then I like the TT1535 best. Both Tom Tom and Garmin make great units and I think you would be very happy with either one, but if I HAD to choose, I'd go with Garmin. On the other hand, the Magellan is easily my LEAST favorite (both models). Not that it is bad--it isn't. It works correctly, it helped me avoid traffic more than once, it is easy to follow and tells me fun things like my current elevation... BUT most everything that it can do, the others can do at least as well and often they do those things better.

I purchased the TomTom GoLive 1535 in early December 2011. The unit appears to work but I haven't tried it in a car yet. I've been trying to activate it for 60 days. The error I received is - Internal server error, please try later. Finally gave up and contacted service - they tried to tell me it was my internet. When I told them I had tried from several sites including work and several friends they suddenly admitted they were having problems. They tried to tell me my map was current since I just bought it two months ago. The TomTom warned me the map was 7 months old. I verified this in the version information window. Next they told me the problem should be fixed next week. This doesn't help me for my long trip this weekend. I was impressed with my first TomTom five years ago. Things have changed for the worse in that time. I will be returning this at a loss since I've had it so long.

I primarily use this device for the traffic - you can't beat the traffic data. The radio will tell me the road is clear as I am stopped on the highway. The traffic on the TomTom finds the fastest route on the main roads, highways or side streets.

The TomTom WebSite is COMPLETELY worthless. It is very un-user friendly. When hooking up the device you have to search in several different areas to find your way around. It's like they have several different versions of their website and they are trying to make 2 into 1. One thing I noticed with the GPS when I purchased it and pulled it out of the box (12/2/2011) is that it hardly recognizes you pushing your finger on the screen. There is a delay, and sometimes nothing happens.
I bought this GPS for the traffic and for the Gas Price look-up feature. Most of the gas stations do not exist. Example: Clarance, MO it has a gas station pointed towards a dirt road next to an old farm house. It did not have the 5 year old Caseys gas station listed that we had to end up asking where a gas station was located. (not good when pulling a 5th wheel!!!) This is not all that was wrong with the unit. The unit has very bad interference (loud buzzing noize even with the volume turned almost off) with the vehicles radio everytime it receives information (every 5-15 minutes) very abnoxious (which others have complained of on best buy's site)! It also powers down in the middle of a route after it receives information. (It had the latest software and maps downloaded!) Needless to say this unit was sent back we purchased a Garmin! TomTom has alot of improvements and better testing to do if they want to sell quality and reliable GPS units for consumers... Best Regards.

this is nice unit. IQ routes are very accurate. I like the 3 ways of searching for gas on a route. I use cheapest on route option. Prices are accurate. Is very easy to mount / unmount to windshield with one hand. HD TRaffic warnings are slick too. When the price came down $40, it made $139 very attractive. You cant go wrong for $139 !!