Most Helpful Customer Reviews
|
|
105 of 107 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
GPS Comparisons - Edited 10/5/2008, January 16, 2008
Edited 10/5/2008
I've had a chance to use the 920 for about 6 months of heavy use and here's an update to my prior review:
1) Mapshare really works. It's great to get updates from users all over the country. What a great idea.
2) Map updates have refined the product over time. I got the 920 when it came with the original 920 maps. Mine had the 1 year map guarantee, so I have now gotten about 3-4 map upgrades (I forget the exact #) and with each update the maps have improved. The application has also improved. The latest 920 app and maps include Lane Assist and Intelligent Routing which come standard on the 930.
Lane assist is like Reality View on Navigons. You get a very nice highway view with clearly delineated flashing lanes that tell you which lanes to stay in. So, if you are on a 5 lane highway and you should stay in any of the 3 left lanes, Lane Assist will clearly show you that.
I have not had a chance to compare the IQ Routes to non-IQ routes as I just figured out how to turn IQ routes off in order to do the comparison yesterday; but the new routes have served me very well in terms of minimizing time. IQ Routes take traffic data from different times and days that are accumulated in a data base and use that to predict the best route. This isn't very intuitive to me, since I would think that the Traffic function would do that better; but maybe this works best for situations where there are no traffic sensors or you can't access the Traffic features.
3) Cell Phone Traffic. Let's you connect the TT920 to your cell phone (mine is Sprint) and downloads traffic in near realtime. I have noticed lately, with the latest mapset, that it is predicting delays, when in fact there aren't any; but don't know if that's because the traffic conditions are changing and there were delays. It is certainly possible because I find that this occurs in construction zones. It might also be a function of IQ routes. I need to investigate this further now that I can turn IQ routes off.
Biggest complaints:
Because of the primitive data entry interface described below, I have found the need to use my cellphone's GPS function to locate POI's and addresses, and then use the TT for routing on many occassions. This is so absolutely ridiculous for such an expensive and premium device in other ways. It's really a shame that TT can't / won't address these issues.
1) You need to know the something about your POI before you can search for it, so you need to enter the city, or the route first. You can't just search for Grand Canyon; you need to know it's in Arizona.
2) Brain dead address entry. This is where Magellan and Garmin are worlds ahead of TomTom. There are millions of address of the form ##A### such as 12W234 and these can't be entered into a TomTom. You won't be able to navigate to these locations; you'll need to know a cross street, perhaps, but how would you know that? Why can't they fix this?
3) Need to know a City to enter an address. Again, an absolutely dumb idea. In suburban areas, a street can pass through multiple communities. Needing to know the City to enter an address makes no sense. Both Magellan and Garmin figured that out years ago.
So, while TT has evolved in many positive ways, it is still very primitive in the way it handles some basic navigation data entry.
Edited 2/14/2008 TT Home reported a new European Map available for the TT920. So, in the process of downloading this I have some interesting observations.
1) A distinct TT advantage, and one I really hadn't thought much about since my 920 is only a few months old, is that Map Updates are downloadable. With Garmin you have to order a DVD. For my i5 it took weeks for the DVD to arrive.
2) But even more interesting than that is that the new Euro maps would not fit on my TT920. It said I needed to delete 110MB to free up enough space, but I didn't have 110MB of stuff to delete. So, now I thought I had a real problem. What I found out is that there is a feature in the TT920 that neither my Garmin 360 or Magellan 4250 have.
Specifically, I put in a blank 8GB SDHC card into the TT. I selected removable drive from TThome. I then downloaded the update to the TT DOWNLOAD folder on the HDD of my PC.
I then formatted the 8GB card to 4GB while it was inside the TT. I then went to Files on My Computer and ADDED the new Euro Map to the 4GB SD card. I copied the contents of the 4GB SD card to my HDD. I then removed the SD card from the TT and reformatted it to 8GB on my PC. I then copied the the contents on my HDD that I copied from the 4GB card to the 8GB card and inserted the 8GB card into the TT
3) At this point, TT920 recognizes Guam, North America and Western and Central Europe.
4) The real impact here is that I can hold 10GB of maps between the internal and removable flash. This is great news. On my Garmin 360, for example, if the North America maps exceed 2 GB, then you have to split the installation of Upper Canada and Lower 48 US. You can't just switch between them, you have to reload the maps. On the i5, I can drag and drop upper and lower maps, but again, can't have both on at the same time.
5) So, the SD cards on the two Garmins I have really serve no purpose for mapping and navigation, whereas on TT the SD card can be an extension of the internal memory. What a great design.
As you are probably aware, with the release of the 2008 maps, Many Garmin units ran short of internal memory to handle the larger maps, requiring the splitting of Upper and Lower north america. This is far less likely to happen on TT920's. SD cards on the Magellan are for backup only and custom POI's.
------
Edited 2/9/2008 The i5 refurb is now $99. The Nuvi 360 is going for $249. Prices are dropping and this is very good!
-----
edited 2/7/08
Well, there is a serious problem with the TTx20's. This may be enough to take them off of your short list. I am debating what to do here. The situation has to do with address numbers. TT does fine with an address in the form of, say, nnn street address. Like 414 Janes Street. What it can't handle is any street number that has something OTHER THAN A NUMBER in it, like 55N123 Anystreet, Anytown, CO. There is no way to enter 55N123, because all you can enter are NUMBERS, not the letter "N". Now this might not be so bad, but I'd guess there are millions of addresses that either have a special character, like a hyphen "-" or a letter N, S, E, W, embedded in the street number.
Both the Garmins and Magellans referenced above, can handle the forms of address numbers that have alpha+numeric combinations. Others who have reported this to TomTom say that the problem is known, but there is no indication as to when or even if TT plans on fixing it.
So, if the TT920 didn't have that nifty Bluetooth Traffic feature, I would go with the Garmin i3... or the Magellan 4250. I can buy 4 i3's or 1.6 4250's for the price of 1 TT920. I should note that the TT720 has the same feature, but I got the TT920 for just about the same price as a TT720. The price has now gone up $90 on the 920 in the last 30 days.
=======================================================================
ORIGINAL REVIEW
During a recent illness I think I read nearly every review of the most popular GPS's on the market. I also have had the chance to use
Garmin i5, 200, 360, 550, 680.
Magellan 4050, 4250
TomTom 720, 920
Navigon 2100t
I bought the i5 for my daughter, the 200 for my mother, and the 920 for me. Different markets, different needs.
After reading all reviews and using these products I have concluded that there is a cult-like following for GPS's. There's the Garmin, TOMTOM and Magellan Cults. Probably the Mio, Sony, HP and other cults that I am not following <grin> as well. They will banter and chatter on the relative merits and demerits of the various technologies. In the end, the following summarizes my analysis of the comments and products. Note that for the most part when you look at the distribution of Positive and Negative comments, there is almost always a plurality of positive comments for all units. I attribute some of this to the Cult-Status of GPS's
1) They **all** produce goofy routes at times, but overall work about the same. If you had the choice of either having any one of these or not having anything, I'd take any of them. One needs to acquaint ones self with the manual in order to get all of the value out of the products. They all do some things in arcane ways, at times, so it may not be obvious how to make it do what you want it to do. Even the easy to learn Nuvi's have some cryptic functionality.
2) None of the maps are 100% accurate, but all are pretty good. I don't see a big difference between products based on Navteq and TeleAtlas maps, considering all the chatter that is written about Navteq being better than TeleAtlas. There are probably differences in maps, algorithms, routing engines, etc. that all play a part in determining the optimal route, but they all do pretty good on average and badly at times.
3) The best value for a basic GPS is the GARMIN i3 which can be had for $100 refurbed with 1 yr Garmin warranty. The i5 is about $130, also a great deal. If you have expensive nails (ladies) it's nice because it has a touch wheel instead of touch screen. It also runs on 2-AA batteries... slick.
4) For simplicity, the Garmin 200 series is great. Rechargeable, Garmin Lock, nice form factor, fits in pocket or purse. Handy when leaving car with a...
Read more ›
|
|
|
152 of 159 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Good value, but ALOT to improve upon, December 5, 2007
I've spent the past few weeks picking out the "best" portable GPS unit. Features in particular that I was looking for are Text to Speech, MP3 player, FM Modulator (transmitter) and Blue Tooth phone capabilities.
I purchased the Garmin Nuvi 660 (about 4 Bills), Garmin Nuvi 680 (about 5 Bills), and the TomTom Go 920 (about 4 Bills) to sample with the intention of returning the other two. My ultimate decision was the Garmin Nuvi 680. This review will be, in large part, a comparison between this and Garmin Nuvi's 660 and 680, but here is my review of the TomTom Go 920:
MAIN PROS
The GO 920 is VERY FEATURE RICH for a relatively low price. It was (and still is) promotionally priced at Costco at $399. In terms of navigation and mapping options, it has FAR more alternatives than Garmin's Nuvi 660 and 680. The two main features that it has over Garmin are Voice Address Input (speak addresses and it takes you there) and Map Share (making corrections to maps as you're on the road to share with others). The Voice Address Input works better than expected. It asks you a city and after you name a city, it lays out a number of options that you can confirm by saying "One" or "two" or "Three" based on where the city falls on a list. If it misreads your words, you simply say "back" and you can start over. It has maps of Europe which for many, is a make it or break it feature. The search time of points of interests is VERY fast - I would dare to say that its twice as fast as Garmins. There were a number of points of interests that I found on the 920 that I couldn't find on the Garmin. Over time, I imagine that the 920 will have FAR more POI with the mapshare technology. Another feature that I LOVED about the 920 is that you have the option to change the keyboard from an ABC to a QWERTY which makes keying things in MUCH faster.
OVERALL DESIGN:
Overall, great quality product. The materials feel solid and expensive. In fact, it felt much more expensive and "polished" than Garmin's units. From a sleekness standpoint, its well-designed and relatively compact. I really liked the fact that the SiRF-Star III antennae was internal and doesn't protrude out like the Nuvi. One thing that Tomtom should have done is include some kind of carrying case. Tomtom even reminds you to take it with you every time you turn it off. The least they could have done is provide some protection for your device. Garmin throws in a nice leather case to protect your $500+ investment.
My main complaint about the design is the mounting mechanism - it's absolutely useless. The suction cup mounting unit is probably the most primitive system out there, and although Garmin uses a similar concept, they have a much more effective mechanical solution that results in a MUCH stronger attachment. Realizing that it would likely fall, I used rubbing alcohol to clean the suction cup and the window, AND I used water to between the surfaces to improve suction. It STILL fell off within 2 hours of use (thats not a gamble you want to take for such an expensive gadget). MOREOVER, the TOMTOM does not incorporate the traffic antennae or the USB charging device into the mounting unit. Once you hook the unit onto the suction cup mount, you have to proceed to plug in the USB cable and antennae on the bottom of it. When you're done using the 920 and you want to take it off, there is no "quick release" button or anything. You just have to pull it up off of the mount and then proceed to unplug the USB cable. Horrible design mounting design.
EASE OF USE
This was THE deal breaker for me. Unless you're pretty tech-savy, using this device is an absolute nightmare. There are 3 screens of the "main" menu. Under settings, there are 8 screens worth of options. If you want to access your phone book to make a call, you have to go through 4 screens. If you want to cancel your current route, you have to go through 4 screens. You can create a "quick shortcut menu" from the main navigation screen, but again, you have to program it to choose what you want. There are numerous options available in terms of navigating that Garmin lacks such as avoiding certain roads and providing alternative routes. Moreover, you can pick a host of multiple destinations and it will guide you to each one (although it doesn't calculate the most efficient route such as Garmin Nuvi 760). But these features are WELL hidden and not very intuitive.
QUALITY OF NAVIGATION AND MAPPING
In my tests of using both the Nuvi 680 and the Tomtom 920 together, the Nuvi consistently chose routes that made more sense and would consistently save anywhere from 2-5 minutes over 30-40 minute trips. The announcement of turns and directions were provided in time for you to change lanes or to prepare for turns (a problem that the Nuvis need to work on), but it seemed that the Nuvis would give more frequent directions. The Nuvis announce directions in on 3 levels ("turn in X miles", "turn ahead", and "turn"). The 920 would give directions as needed, but sometimes, its nice to have a vocal reminder because the screen display isn't that great. There is probably some feature to adjust the frequency of directions, but I couldn't find it. Reception on the 920 was good, but not as good as the Garmin Nuvi. The flip-out antennae, despite being a hassle and hideously ugly, is more functional and effective. Driving through downtown LA, it took the 920 an extra 30 seconds to grab a signal when the Nuvi took about 5 seconds.
The mapping image is done MUCH cleaner on Garmin. The 920 has a more "realistic" layout of overpasses, roads, and parks, but as a consequence, the text is smaller and harder to follow. You have a number of color schemes to choose from, but none of them are anywhere near as clean as Garmin's. You can't see merging roads and freeways as easily as you can see on the Nuvis. The 920 provides alot more information such as ETA, distance remaining, time remaining, current time, current speed, the distance until the next turn, and reception. Thats all fine and good, but when you're driving, trying to find a destination, Less is really more. You CAN, however, cut out some of this display options under settings (if you can figure out how).
MP3 PLAYER
It works. You can connect the 920 to your computer and move about 300mb of music onto it, but I would recommend using an SD card (I used a 2gb card, but I've heard you can use up to a 4gb). You have to create a folder titles "Mp3" on your SD card and put your music in that folder for it to work. It has a pretty good search function, looking for artists and albums. Nevertheless, Garmin's was much more "MP3 player-like." On the Garmin, if you paused it, you can turn the device off, and it would start off where you left off. On the 920, if you turn it off, you have to find the MP3 again and it starts off from the beginning of the song. Overall, the MP3 player works. I would say that its essentially a wash when compared to Garmin.
FM MODULATOR (TRANSMITTER)
I'm in Los Angeles where there are virtually no open signals. The best signals in LA are 88.3 and 88.5. The strength of the transmission is VERY weak (although comparable to Garmin). In fact, unless your antennae is in the front of your car or integrated in your windshield, this feature is likely to be useless. But if it does work for you, I would say that works pretty well. Compared to Garmin, however, MP3 volume is substantially lower. Changing between FM and Internal speaker takes about 4 screens, but you can program it off of the Shortcut list. The MAIN shortcoming of this feature is when you use your bluetooth phone. Basically - it was not designed to transmit your conversation over your car stereo. See Below:
BLUE TOOTH PHONE FEATURE
It took me a couple of tries to get my Motorola RAZR V3 connected to the 920. I had to turn my phone off and turn it back on to get it to work. Once it was connected, it worked fine. Accessing the phone on the device isn't as intuitive as the Garmin, but its functional, and again, there are tons of options. You can set it to pick up automatically, or after a few seconds. Sound quality is pretty good. The person on the other side said that that the voice was clear, but it sounded "small." BUT... HERE IS WHERE IT FALLS WAY SHORT OF GARMIN - if you have the modulator (transmitter) activated, the phone DOES NOT run the conversation over your car stereo speakers. It mutes the music/navigation, and it turns on the internal speaker on the 920. If you're going 80 mph on a freeway, good luck trying to hear what the other person is saying through the tiny little speaker. The Nuvis have a MUCH more integrated system where it mutes your music/navigation, and plays the other side of the conversation over your car stereo so that you can hear. Sound quality is MUCH better on Garmin.
TEXT TO SPEECH
On the 920, you have a number of options of voices. If you're willing to stick to "In a quarter mile, turn Left," you can select a "human voice" and the vocal quality is great. It really sounds like someone is talking to you (in fact, its a real person who is recorded). You can even program your 920 to use your own voice. If you want your 920 to speak out street names, you're going to have a hard time understanding what it's saying. It seemed like about half of the streets are glitchy where the voice COMPLETELY butchers the pronunciation. You can find a video on Youtube of someone making a correction for Mapshare, but as it is now, I would say the text-to-speech technology on the 920 is sub-par. The Garmin does a much better job.
CLOSING
Although it seems that I hate the GO 920, I actually things it's a great device. But when you're comparing it...
Read more ›
|
|
|
229 of 246 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Still needs work..., November 28, 2007
Just got this. I was debating between this and the Garmin nuvi 660. A friend has the 660 so I figured I try the TomTom. In terms of navigation accuracy, it's pretty good. Locked in on a gps signal in seconds after turning it on for the first time; I was still in a covered parking structure. Location accuracy is good as well but it always depends on your location and environment (eg, tall buildings). The 920 always reminds you of what turns to make. Usually I'm reminded about two or three times. Depending on how fast you're moving on a city street, the 920 will give a final reminder approximately 2-3 seconds before the next turn. My favorite perks of the 920 is the remote control and the custom POIs you can create.
Let's first start with the Pros:
1. Desktop cradle included to link to your computer
2. Slim but not as slim as the nuvi 660 since the TomTom has a curved back.
3. No antenna to flip up like with the 660
4. Multipoint destination planning (660 has no such thing; it's included on the nuvi 760 but that costs way more and would be an unfair comparison).
5. Voice activation (doesn't work too well but at least it's included)
6. Bluetooth remote control included but TomTom could've created one that attaches to the steering wheel. Aftermarket car stereos have this very useful feature. (Fixed this problem with some velcro on the steering wheel. Yet, this remote is very handy and an undervalued accessory; no more reaching for the windshield to get to the gps unit. It also has excellent tactical feel. The buttons are laid out perfectly and have little nubs to distinguish them. I can skip forward/back/pause my music, increase/decrease the volume, repeat voice commands, and bring up traveling info directly via the remote.) You do have to re-sync the remote everytime the 920 is shut on/off. That takes about 7 seconds and it's pretty annoying.
7. Search addresses with zipcode. Strangely, the 660 won't allow searches by zip.
8. FM Transmitter is nice but only is good as the available frequencies. You can have the 920 play music and directions through your car's speakers. But, when you answer a cell phone call via Bluetooth, the 920 won't send the call through the car's speakers. It shuts off the FM transmitter and the 920's speaker engages. Very strange.
9. Far more options for taking detours and recalculating routes than the 660. Unlike the nuvi 660, you can block a road or a section of the directions and the 920 will recalculate an alternative, or just let the 920 automatically recalculate dozens of alternatives unlike the 660 where it recalculates only a few redundant detours.
10. Map Share via the included TomTom Home software allows registered users to share new POIs and map corrections. Garmin has no such thing.
11. You can edit and add POIs. I have many major retail POIs installed such as Best Buy, Walmart, Costco, Starbucks, etc. I even have a listing for redlight cameras and speed traps. You can purchase these lists from vendors on the internet or visit forums operated by TomTom enthusiasts that will provide POI lists for free. They'll even have custom icons for those POIs that show up on your gps. Or you can make it yourself. It's very easy. Officially, the icons can't be greater than 22x22 pixels (I've created ones that were 24x24 and they work). Also, the 920 allows you to create an audio warning/reminder anytime one of these POIs are near you. It'll read the exact title of the POI or you can record your own voice warning. You can also adjust how close you have to be for the 920 to give you that audible warning. I'm certain you can customize POIs on the 660 but I'm not sure if the 660 will read the POI to you.
Cons:
1. Windshield mount does not include port replicators (eg, car charging port). This means that you have to plug the car charger (mini-USB) directly to the unit. On the 660, it plugs into the mount so you don't have to mess with the wires when mounting/dismounting the unit. In addition, the mount only has one ball joint, near the attaching braket. The 660's mount has a ball joint near the attaching bracket and a hinge near the suction cup. With the hinge, you can move your unit up and down and eliminates having to remove the suction cup on the windshield to move it around.
2. Because of Con #1, the unit does not power on automatically when the unit is mounted and the car is started. 660 has this excellent feature.
3. Windshield mount fell off in the first five minutes. My 920 fell and I thought I broke it. I had it mounted near my rearview mirror. I know that the nuvi 350 I had before never fell off but that weighed much less than the 660 or the 920. I didn't use the included windshield mount but if I change my mind on the placement, I'm screwed. My friend doesn't use it on his 660 and never had a problem. I used some water (more like saliva) on the suction cup. I think that'll work.
4. No carrying case included. 660 has an included carrying case.
5. Voice recognition is very poor (that's for entering addresses verbally) and it's fairly limited. And voice activation is only for entering addresses within the same state last entered. You still have to press a button to begin voice activation or to change the destination's state. That defeats the whole purpose of voice activation, although TomTom's literature specifies it's only for address entering. Unsuspecting consumers, like myself and others, would think that voice activation would be a little more robust and logical.
6. Auto Dimming feature is way too sensitive. During a partly cloudy/sunny day, the 920 thinks it's night so it's in night mode. If I want to change it to Day mode, it asks me if I want to disable the auto dim mode. If I enter "No," it won't let me get to the Day mode. Hence, I have to enter "Yes" but then it won't automatically go dim when it's night time. The nuvi never had an issue on cloudy days.
7. FM transmitter is weak and volume is very low. Volume for the FM transmitter do not have separate settings for the MP3 player and navigation voice. Also, volume for the FM transmitter and the voice via the unit's speakers cannot be adjusted independently.
8. Quick access to the TomTom Jukebox (mp3 player) via the Music Button on the driving map has a caveat: If other menu options are selected for the "Quick menu preferences," the Music Button becomes the "Quick Menu Button." That means that if you select the FM transmitter or 2D display functions for the "Quick Menu," the Music Button becomes the "Quick menu preferences" button and the TomTom Jukebox button is grouped with the FM transmitter and 2D display buttons on the next screen. 920's manual does not mention this and makes it appear that the music button is always available in the driving map if you select the option.
9. Names of bridges are sometimes announced as "Branch" (Br). That's because when you allow the 920 to read road signs (another plus), the signs abbreviate bridges as 'Br' as opposed to 'Brg' which is written in the 920's maps. The 920 doesn't realize it's a bridge and that it's not a suffix to a street name (eg, "George Washington Br" (road sign) as opposed to "George Washingston Brg" (map)).
10. In Manhattan, New York City, some of the streets are incorrectly labeled such as Sixth (6th) Ave. You won't be able to find 6th or Sixth Ave because it's labeled as Avenue of the Americas. Officially, Avenue of the Americas is an alternate name but no one really uses it and most people in NYC wouldn't know which avenue it's referring to even though they've heard of it. It took me about ten minutes to figure out that Avenue of the Americas was the "preferred" listing. This is quite strange considering Seventh (7th) Avenue is listed as well as its alternate name - Fashion Ave.
11. Bluetooth remote has to be reconnected everytime the TT is turned off. This is annoying.
12. Bluetooth calls are routed to the TT's speaker instead of the FM transmitter when taking calls, even when the FM transmitter is activated.
13. The software is a bit buggy. Since Jan '08, I've had to reset the device at least 6 times because the mp3 player and voice recognition stopped working and POIs disappeared.
I've only had this for a day, so I'll edit this review if there's anything else to report. I'm only giving it three stars b/c I feel like it's missing simple features like a port replicator for the windshield mount and very poor voice recognition/execution. I purchased this from a warehouse club and not on amazon.
UPDATE
Nov 30 '07: edited the FM transmitter function, volume control, missing auto on feature, hinge on mount, poor auto dim feature, and misleading music button feature.
Dec 10 '07: Bluetooth remote functions and improved navigation via detour/alternate route functions.
Dec 12 '07: Custom POIs.
March 25 '08: Bluetooth shortcomings, mislabeled streets, and buggy software.
|
|
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews
|
Voice instructions are available in over 30 languages (complete list below) ($33.99). You can even record directions in your own voice, download specialty voices free at TomTom's website, or purchase celebrity voices. Listen to sample clips.
Saving...
