Customer Reviews

TomTom GO 730 4.3-Inch Portable Bluetooth GPS Navigator

5 star:		(39)
4 star:		(38)
3 star:		(19)
2 star:		(16)
1 star:		(33)

 

 

We purchased the Tomtom 730 unit about 1 week ago and really like it. We were Garmin fans but decided to give the Tomtom a try after my brother swore up and down about how well it worked. We have owned and used Magellan and Garmin GPS units.
Likes:
Voices are good
Routing is execellent
Ability to reroute around 1 road is awesome
Tomtom support is very helpful. They speak english and seem to be located within the US.
Much better software than other GPS providers.
Most accessories for the 720/920 work for the 730 including the Traffic antenna

Dislikes:
Screen washes out in sunlight - We will have to look for a sunshade
Mounting system - What were they thinking? It fell off the window twice and doesn't even clip into the mount. Had to purchase a 3rd party mounting system (Ram mounts work)
Should come with some type of case to protect the unit.
Really wish the speeding and red light cameras were supported in the US
POI doesn't seem to be as robust as a Garmin. Tomtoms have millions of POI but just not the stuff we normally look for such as grocery stores, etc.

We almost took the unit back because the screen washes out in sunlight without some type of sunshade. We took the 730 and compared it directly with the Garmin 770. The garmin seemed to find more points of interest around us and everything was much easier to see in direct sunlight. We finally decided to keep the Tomtom because it calculated the routes much faster and allowed us to reroute around a single road, the garmin doesn't give you any control and reroutes the whole route which was the deal breaker for us. My wife also noted that the Garmins felt very unrefined after she had experienced a Tomtom. The Tomtom 730 is a great device but plan on spending at least 50 dollars more to purchase better accessories such as mounts, sunshades and cases.

9/30/08 5 months later
I still have a few gripes regarding this unit. The battery life is awful. When turned off, the unit will keep a charge for 4 days before it needs to be recharged by the computer adapter. The car charger does not charge the unit but instead supplements battery power. In the case of low battery, the unit will run totally off the car adapter but will not charge. I have called Tomtom two times regarding this issue and was told this behavior was normal for these types of electronics. REALLY? A co-worker has a Garmin that can go a couple of weeks turned off before it complains about a low battery.
Another complaint I have is the screen, it just wasn't made for the Arizona sun. It washes out and becomes nigh impossible to read during the day. Sunshades help reduce the issue but it is still an issue.

I am tired of spending money on accessories just to bring the unit up to what it should have been. If I could redo this purchase, I would get a Garmin. I know they aren't perfect either, but the Tomtom just isn't pulling its weight for the price paid.

Overall, I really like the 730. However, I ended up returning mine to Circuit City and biting the 15% restock fee because of a few serious flaws (see cons section).

Pros:

- Extremely fast interface response. You tap a button on the screen, and it switches screens instantly.
- Very fast routing. A 15 mile trip with many streets takes about 1 second to calculate the fastest route using IQ Routes mode.
- High quality; both the over-all feel of it and visually.
- MapShare. MapShare is great and I use it all the time. If a road was recently renamed, closed, the speed limit changed, etc, I could instantly correct the map while driving and share the changes with other TomTom users.
- Tons of features! Hands-free calling through Bluetooth cell phones, FM transmitter, MapShare, IQ Routes, iPod control, etc.

Cons:

- My main complaint and the reason I returned the 730 was because it would freeze while in hibernate mode about once a week. It never froze when "on", only when it was "off" (which is really hibernate/sleep mode). The power button would do nothing to turn it back on. I had to use a paper clip to hit the hard-reset button to start it back up. Maybe I just had a lemon unit. If not, hopefully a software update will fix it in the future.
- The second reason I couldn't keep the 730 was because it was hard to see the screen on sunny days. The screen could be a little brighter, but I think the main problem was the screen itself. I would see a reflection of myself on the screen during the day, even when the unit was on.
- The computer software (TomTom Home) that connects the TomTom to your Mac or PC is horrible. It crashes all the time, is slow, has a strange interface, and is pretty limited. You cannot plan routes on your PC in a real app and load it into your TomTom. You have to use the "Control my TomTom" feature to do this, but that is just seeing the TomTom's little screen on your PC and using the normal TomTom controls.
- FM transmitter is weak. While I've never seen a good FM transmitter, TomTom messed it up with a firmware update. It was a lot stronger in the same place all the time, and with the firmware upgrade, it made the signal weaker.
- Hands-free control of the TomTom is useless to me because you have to interact with the TomTom with your fingers just to start it, and even while speaking commands to it.
- Last, but not least: when upgrading the maps on the 730, you loose all your MapShare corrections. For some reason, TomTom keeps specific MapShare corrections tied directly to the specific version of the map. This doesn't make sense to me, and seems to defeat the purpose a little.

Conclusion:

A great product that has a lot of potential. If your unit doesn't freeze and you don't mind seeing your reflection in the screen, I would recommend the TomTom 730.

After about 3 months of research, I had decided I was going to buy the TomTom Go 720. I waited for a few weeks while I shopped around for the best price, and during this time, the 720's successor (Go 730) was available on the market. The 730 now includes IQ routes, which from what I understand, works similarly to the Dash - it gathers speed information from other TomTom users on every road, so if a certain route is known to have a very low average speed at a given time of day, the 730 will route you around that road to avoid the potential traffic. It also has the new lane guidance pictures - I've only seen this once so far in the month or so I've owned it, but it looked cool! At first I was torn between this model and the Garmin nuvi series, but the nice thing about this TomTom that was the selling point for me was that you can easily add/remove/edit points of interest. This is done on the unit (not via new map updates or mapshare) and can be done pretty quickly. The Garmin's brag that they have more points of interest in their bank, and while that might be true, there is always going to be some missing somewhere, so this is a nice feature to have. In fact, in my new town, a nearby grocery store was missing from the TomTom bank. I chose to look up the address of the store online, then store that address in the GPS as this type of POI with this name. You can also accomplish the same thing under the "Browse Map" option and find the proper menu option for adding the point.

Suction cup:
I've seen other reviews online about people having problems with the windshield suction cup mount. All I can say is that I used this GPS during my move from NY to NC, which was about an 11-hour drive. Not once during that time did the suction cup mount fail, however since then it has fallen off the windshield a couple of times. The trick that seems to work is to actually lick a few of your fingers and moisten the suction cup before pressing it onto the windshield.

Washed-out screen:
Some users have commented that in intense sunlight, the screen becomes difficult to see. I've seen this happen maybe once or twice, but it only lasted a few seconds. From what I've experienced, the sun has to be at just the right angle, and this doesn't happen very often. In the absolute worst-case scenario, you have a little trouble seeing the screen for a few seconds, so you simply listen to the voice commands. I don't see that as a very large drawback at all.

Other features and comments:
The nice thing this model does (I'm not sure if lower models do this as well or not) is that it predicts what time you'll arrive at your destination based on the IQ route information, current speeds, etc. I found this to be a handy little feature.

The actual routing seems spot-on so far. Re-routing after you miss a turn is nearly instant (literally 1 second at the most, from what I've seen). Also, initial positioning after powering-on the unit takes only a couple of seconds. I did notice some fun things after coming out of a tunnel - my car seemed to be flying in the middle of nothing for a second or two before all satellite signals were locked on. No big deal, and kind of amusing, I thought. You can also very easily route yourself via roads or POI's. For example, I needed to do some shopping at both Target and Home Depot. I first calculated my route to Home Depot, then went to "Find Alternative", then "Travel via..." and chose Point of Interest. I found Target in the list, and it then routed me to Home Depot with a stop at Target first. My only complaint about this is that when I got to Target, it didn't say anything like "you've reached your first destination" - it's up to you to realize you're there, park, shop, then continue your route to your next stop. As far as I know, you can travel via several (more than 2) stops as well.

I have an Apple computer (Powerbook G4, so not even an Intel mac) and have had no troubles with the TomTom Home software. I was able to download a bunch of free voices, a new car icon, and there's tons of other stuff in there, both free and not.

Another minor feature is that it has a bank of POI symbols for the major chains. For example, McDonald's, Wendy's, Starbucks, and quite a few others have their company logo in there. If you pass by Wendy's (for example) you wont see the typical knife and fork logo for a restaurant POI, you'll see the Wendy's logo on the map.

I was also able to easily pair my Bluetooth cell phone (LG VX8350). A lot of phone numbers for POI's are stored on the GPS, so if you need to call any one of them, it will forward the call to your phone for you.

I haven't really used the spoken road names feature - this is only available on the computerized voice, which is the main reason. Nice feature, but not all that necessary for me. There's also a voice-input feature when you're entering town names or zip codes in your destination search.

Overall this unit seems like a great bang-for-your-buck. I purchased this at $400, and it really is packed with features. I'm glad I went with the TomTom Go 730, and would recommend it to anyone in the market for one. I've had some experience with other brands (Garmin, Magellan) and didn't like their menus, features, or price tag. Hope this helps!

Since this is a newer TomTom model and I haven't found much of anything in regards to reviews I will post some of my findings about what I liked and disliked with the unit thus far.

Likes:

- Helio: "Ocean" users can connect to this unit via Blue Tooth even though Helio was not listed as a vendor. I would imagine that means that most if not all Helio phones with blue tooth can connect. I am able to only do Hands-Free calling from the unit which is fine and the calls were very clear from the 730's speakers. I didn't remembers seing Helio listed as compatible so this is verification for all of you Helio "Ocean" owners.

- Voices: My wife and I thorougly enjoyed the free voice downloads, some really good ones from the TomTom community. My wife likes British voices and we found some excellent ones for her including some funny community driven/created for me, the geek, like C3P0, Daleks from Dr. Who and Stephen Hawking :) Keep in mind most of these voices are Free and I wasn't expecting that much. The voices you do need to pay for were very good if not somewhat cheesy and didn't cost too much $6-13 US. I did like the John Cleese voice, maybe I'll splurge.

- IQ Routing: My first thought was "Yeah right, bull@#$&" it won't know my local short-cuts, no other GPS I have used was able to. I entered and locked in my home address and the machine began to route. It recognized I was deep inside the parking lot(No Mans Land) of the store from where I purchased the unit so I was surprised to see the unit pick up my location within about 5-10 seconds(very fast) then navigate me to the parking lot exit via a dotted line to show me that in about 200 feet I would hit the road it wanted me to be on.

Being a local in my area, I know all of the back roads and short cuts which have the least amount traffic lights, stop signs and traffic in general in my area and I was very happy to see the unit did as well. It totally detoured me around those typical boondoggles that plague drivers in the town I'm in. Keep in mind it knew the "entire" short-cut I was going to take like it read my mind, not just part of it. What it didn't know, out-of-the-box, was that they were fixing a overpass on the route and workers had blocked the road. Since this GPS has input to note road blockages, I decided to use it when I got within 200 feet of the blockage. I clicked the appropriate road blockage icon, and the machine immediately noted the blockage and re-routed me around it. I'm assuming now that when I take this route again, should it route me this way in the future it will route me around that blockage, at least that's what is claimed. I like the fact I can remove that blockage which I know in a few months time won't be there anymore.

I'll give it a few more weeks then come back to this review, just in case that was an anomaly with the short-cut. I know other short-cuts to other places I visit, we'll see if this unit has the IQ.

- Text to Speech: Is not turned on out of the box, I read so many complaints from users who were not getting Text to Speech and realized it must just be their stupidity. You need to turn it on! I'm not sure why TomTom doesn't just default it, I guess that's just life. Text to speech worked great, and worked as well as any of the competing GPS models.

- Voice Address Input: Surprisingly, it actually works pretty well, though I'm not sure how much I'll actually use it.

Dislike:

- Default Language(out of the box)on US Model: I don't know if this was just me but I'm going to note this to users who purchase this unit(early adopters). My units default language out of the box was in German! Thankfully I knew a little German so my wife and I fumbled our way through the introductory screens and eventually got screen that listed a bunch of countries. Someone with less aptitude with the German language might be extremely annoyed by this and could be frustrated. Was this a fluke? I hope TomTom notes this review and double checks their US machines are defaulting as English.

As I use the GPS more over the coming weeks I'll add more findings, especially once I start using it on the highway.

I had done a lot of online research regarding GPS'. I read many reviews and looked at all the options and features for each device. I was leaning towards the TomTom GO 730 as my top choice, however, I did not really want to spend $400 on it. I liked all the features that it said it came with, especially IQ Routes and MapShare. To make a long story short, I went to the store and I bought the Magellan 4250 for $350. You may ask why not spend the extra $50 and get the TomTom, well Magellan was giving me 1 yr free traffic which I thought was the better deal.

Well, the Maestro 4250 was a good device, however, the thing that frustrated me was the outdated maps. The maps for from Q1 2007 and the next update would be out Q3 2008. That is a long time to wait. Another bad feature was that when I chose a route, I could not choose a POI along the route, I had to cancel my first route, and make a different one. The final thing that made me mad was the inaccuracy of arrival time. I am sitting in bumper to bumper traffic and it states I will be at my destination in 20 minutes. I would be if I was not sitting in traffic. So I returned it and bought the TomTom 730.

I am so happy with this GPS. It has all the features I read about plus many more. I truly love the MapShare feature. There are restaurants that went up 2 months ago that are listed as POI's. This is because other Tomtom users create that POI and you have the option of downloading it. This is a great feature. Of course sometimes the POI may be of by a few yards but you can change it. For instance, there is a restaurant located on a main street and someone added the POI to be on that street. Although the building is on that street, you actually have to make a slight right turn to get into the parking lot of the building. I was able to move the POI so that the GPS will tell me to make that right turn. Then I can upload it to everyone else. Very good feature if you like precise directions and accuracy.
the IQ Routes is also a great feature. It gives you an incredibly accurate arrival time. I have no complaints about the feature.
You can also search for POI's while already in a route. The 730 will show you POI's along the route, near you, or near your destination. Awesome!
I just placed a 8GB SDHC card in my 730 for mp3 and photos. Works great!

This is a stellar GPS system and blew my 4250 out of the water. I am very impressed with how accurate it is. I will say that the 730 can automatically change a route if you have taken a different route then it offered the first time. The next time you route that destination, the route you took before will be routed instead of the original one over and over.

Great product!

I've had a TomTom One for several years and have always been very happy with it. I decided to upgrade to the 730 for its extra features like speech recognition, lane assist, FM transmitter and spoken street names. I used the 730 for two weeks and decided to return it today, for the following reasons:

1. The speech recognition worked once and then stopped working. It wouldn't recognize any input anymore; I think the microphone broke.

2. The battery life is extremely poor. It needs to be constantly plugged into the car charger and a few minutes after taking it out it already complains about low battery. This is also the case with my old TomTom One (not when it was brand new though!), but at least I have some time to plug it in when the battery is red. On this 730 when the battery goes red it shuts down instantly!!!

3. At some time the spoken instructions were inexplicably off. We were driving around Chicago the other day and did not hear any instructions even though the volume was on high. Next time we turned it on the spoken instructions were back.

4. The FM transmitter is a cool concept, but here in Chicago there are too many stations that keep interfering and this makes it hard to hear the instructions. (Plus, if you update the TomTom through your computer the new software will remove this feature)

5. The spoken street names are pretty cool, but sometimes very hard to understand. It speaks much too fast and leaves off syllables. For instance "Michigan Avenue" will sound like "chigan vnue". Also some other words are worse than I'm used to. On my old TomTom One it would clearly say "Toll Charge", but on this one it sounds like "Tll Chrg". It's very strange.

6. Maybe worst of all, the screen is VERY poor. I had a very hard time seeing the picture if the sun was shining. The screen is a lot less bright than my old TomTom One. With my old TomTom the person in the passenger seat can also read the screen, but on the 730 this is impossible; the screen cannot be seen at an angle.

I originally bought a TomTom ONE 3'rd Edition. It is a very nice unit. Excellent screen and routing, but not much on features. If all you want is a GPS to get you from one spot to another you can't go wrong with that unit. However if you're a tech lover the GO 730 is for you. Bluetooth, mp3, photos, FM output, voice input and much more. And the new map features, especially the zoom (what they call "Advanced Lane Guidance") are very useful. The only thing keeping me from giving it 5 stars is that the screen washes out some in bright sunlight. I found that tilting the unit down just a little helps.

My family now owns a TomTom Go 730, Garmin Nuvi 760, and a Magellan Maestro 4360. I have spent a long time with each of these units and used them on the same routes. They are all excellent devices that I can recommend. But, which one I recommend depends on the buyer. Let me explain:

- The TomTom is best for technically oriented people that like lots of options and will be impressed with the clever IQ Routes routing system.

- The Garmin is best for people that want a system that is straight forward to use with clear crisp on screen graphics/instructions.

- The Magellan is best for people who use the system to look up places by name instead of address. For example, they have a nice feature that tells you the restaurants at the next highway exit.

Here are some more details.

I have ended using the TomTom. My top four reasons: (1) I love the IQ routes feature that uses the experience of drivers to calculate the actual typical travel speed on a road rather than the published speed limit. It seems to be time sensitive. Even without traffic connected, the system recommended a different route from work to home at 5pm than it did at 8pm on the same date. (2) I like all of the detailed options and choices, although it is hard to dig through the menus. You can change shortcuts, download graphics, and more. (3) I like the traffic network that uses the data channel on my BlackBerry. No need to get an FM traffic receiver. It connects via the Internet through my BlackBerry to get traffic data. (4) It immediately displays a map of the route you will be going.

My spouse uses the Garmin. The top reason is that it is much easier to know what to do at a glance. For example, I love the speed limit feature that displays the speed limit of the road you are on. It proves to be helpful. On the Garmin, it is easy to see because it looks like a standard American white speed limit sign. On the TomTom, the data is there (once you select the option), but it is a small number next to the speed you are travelling: 35/40 means you are going 35 and the limit is 40. The directions are a little crisper.

My adult kids (in their 20s) use the Magellan. Frankly, I like this user-interface the best. The icons are clear, unlike the cryptic icons in the TomTom. My favorite parts (1) I like the integration of the POIs. You can look for a restaurant at Exit 17 and see the list. The chosen POIs seem to be more useful. You can find directions to CVS just by entering the request for the nearest CVS store. (2) The driving instructions are clear, with split screens on turns. But, it is nearly impossible to display a map of the route you will be travelling - which is a deal killer for me.

I did not cover everything. But, it gives you the idea. I am the type of person who tweaks the settings on my cable box. If you are that type of person, then the TomTom is highly recommended.

I did research on Garmin's and Tom Tom's and I bought my girlfriend a Garmin. It works pretty good and it is simple. My dad has a Tom Tom and loves it and my sister has a Gramin and she said she liked my dad's Tom Tom better. Best Buy pushes Garmin like the own a stake in the company. They were the reason I bought my girlfriend her Garmin. After researching everything and playing with my dad's Tom Tom I decided to but a Tom Tom Go 730. I love love love this unit and it is way better than my girlfriends Garmin.

One of the things I like about it is Tom Tom home where you can customize what you put on your Tom Tom besides just the basics. I have seen reviews that say the Tom Tom is not user friendly. It does have more options in the menu than Garmin but you can choose to simplify the menu and it will take away features so the menu looks like a Garmins pretty much you can change it back if you like too of course.

It picks up the satellites allot faster than Garmin and it reroutes faster too. I love the lane guidance I find it very very helpful when you have to take a certain lane on the interstate.

A huge feature about this unit is you can make map corrections and upload them to other Tom Tom users. You can't do this with Garmin.

If you want to be able to customize your GPS the Tom Tom is for you.

I have read that Tom Tom's POI's are not good. Please, when you go to Tom Tom home you can download whatever you want for POI's 1,000's of them. I was amazed how many POI's they have on their site. Of course it comes with POI's already on it too but you can add allot more by using Tom Tom home.

The screen I did notice does fade in the sun and that is the only problem I have seen with my unit. You can still see it in the direct sun light but it is allot lighter.

The windshield mount works like a champ I love it and have not had any problems with it at all.

The Bluetooth works great too. I was able to connect my Iphone and my work Black Berry Curve on it. I can't receive messages on it with my work blackberry but I can make calls and receive calls on both phones.

It alerts you in plenty of distance too and speaks the street name well. If you pick celebrity voices or anything other than the computer voices it won't speak the street name will just say turn right or left but it tell you this when you pick a non-computer voice.

Bottom line if you want a great GPS then this unit is for you and you can't go wrong getting a Tom Tom. From my experiences they are better than Garmins hands down.

Like many on here I spent month's reading reviews from Amazon and many other consumer sites before selecting the TomTom 730 as my new GPS. I was replacing a 4 year Garmin Nuvi GPS that stop working. I was so confused on which GPS would fit my needs and received the most positive reviews. As with any GPS there will always be good and bad reviews. The TomTom 730 had all the features I wanted at a price I was willing to pay. Also the TomTom 730 came with the new reality view of the road signs ahead and shows you what the landscape or road ahead looks like and how many lanes and which lane you should be in. I also liked that the reality view shows me lakes, bodies of water as well as the name of the body of water. While traveling through the downtown area of a major city it showed some of the major buildings with the names of the buildings all while still speaking directions to me. This unit has more up to date maps and the directions then other GPS unites I have used. For my 1200 mile road trip from Michigan to Florida I viewed the directions and compared them to MapQuest, and the directions where more up-to-date than even MapQuest who listed a closed road, where the TomTom730 took me down the new interstate that open last year. I like the feature of traffic updates because the unit warned me of a traffic jam 7 miles ahead and offered an alternative route to get around the traffic jam. This unit does it all. I love the free updates using the map share software. If you're undecided on which GPS unit to purchase, I would say pick TomTom as it's simple to use, easy to program and it is more accurate than the Garmin I had for 4 years. And it syncs up with the satellites within 10 seconds of turning on thanks to the new quick link up software included in the GPS unit..This is the current winner of the GPS battle and beats out most other companies.