TomTom GO 730 4.3-Inch Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator

by TomTom

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 3.3 x 4.7 x 1 inches ; 7.8 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B00160GOR6
• Item model number: GO 730
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (110 customer reviews)
• Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #862 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)

  #44 in

  Electronics > Car Electronics > Vehicle GPS > Portable Vehicle GPS

• Date first available at Amazon.com: April 1, 2008

Product Description

Model: GO 730

Amazon.com Product Description

TomTom GO 730's award-winning software means groundbreaking new technology for the ultimate driving experience. Switch on and it's ready right out of the box. Just enter the address on the touchscreen or use voice address entry and start driving anywhere in the U.S. and Canada. TomTom guides you door-to-door with turn-by-turn spoken instructions, including street names.

Groundbreaking new technology for the ultimate driving experience. Click to enlarge.

Includes windshield mount.

IQ Routes technology gives you the fastest route every time by using actual average speeds of travel to calculate your trip rather than posted speed limits. Advanced Lane Guidance uses photorealistic images to bring even more clarity to complex multi-lane exits so you can be more confident on the road.

TomTom has the most accurate maps, and with TomTom Map Share technology, you instantly can modify street names, street direction, points of interest, and more on your own device.

And with the "Help Me!" menu, added safety features enable you to easily access local emergency providers. The GO 730 makes driving even safer with Bluetooth hands-free calling.*

The TomTom GO 730 is the ultimate car navigator.

*Compatible mobile phone required

GO 730 Features

• Maps of the U.S. and Canada with TomTom Map Share
• Bluetooth hands-free calling
• Spoken street names
• IQ Routes technology
• Advanced Lane Guidance
• Voice address input
• FM transmitter
• iPod-ready

All TomToms Feature

Plug and Go--Works right out of the box.

Pre-loaded Points of Interest--Easily find millions of gas stations, restaurants, hotels, and more on your route.

30-Day Latest Map Guarantee--Up-to-date, off the shelf.

TomTom Map Share--Modify your own map and benefit from other users' verified changes with TomTom Map Share.

Help Me! Emergency Menu--Easily access local emergency providers such as police, fire stations, and hospitals.

TomTom HOME--Always-up-to date.

Traffic-Ready--Optional RDS-TMC traffic receiver accessory keeps you up-to-date on traffic events to minimize potential delays.

Fuel Price Service (optional)--Know more, pay less.

Why TomTom?

TomTom believes that personal navigation should be as easy and safe as possible. TomTom develops smart technology that gives you straightforward solutions and innovations to make life easy.

Easy to Use

• Award-winning navigation software
• Plug and go

Best Maps

• 30-Day Latest Map Guarantee
• Modify your own map and benefit from other users' verified changes with TomTom Map Share

Best Routing

• QuickGPSfix
• Traffic-ready

Leader in Safety

• Help Me! emergency resources menu
• Safety preferences menu

What's in the Box

GO 730 device, windshield mount, USB cable, adhesive disk, car charger, and user's guide.

About TomTom

Founded in Amsterdam in 1991, TomTom has established itself as a global leader in navigation by being an innovative company with a strong brand, clear customer focus, and high-quality products and services.

TomTom is a leading navigation solutions provider, with navigation products sold in 30 countries and in over 20 languages. To further its commitment to car navigation, TomTom acquired Tele Atlas maps in 2008 so that the company can continually provide the most up-to-date maps and intelligent routing.

TomTom has its own mapping company!

Did you know that every year, roads change by up to 40% in high-growth areas? Tele Atlas manages this by using the world's most comprehensive systems to identify and incorporate these changes into our maps with unprecedented levels of speed and accuracy. All TomTom devices benefit from the Tele Atlas advantage--more coverage, more points of interest, and more freshness and accuracy.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

235 of 238 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Nice Device but missing vital accessories, May 8, 2008

By	Average Joe (Phoenix) - See all my reviews (VINE VOICE)

This review is from: TomTom GO 730 4.3-Inch Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator (Electronics)

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.

143 of 147 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Some good, some bad, May 30, 2008

By	timmerk (Tucson, AZ United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: TomTom GO 730 4.3-Inch Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator (Electronics)

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.

66 of 66 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very pleased with the Go 730, June 26, 2008

By	Jeremy (Chapel Hill, NC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: TomTom GO 730 4.3-Inch Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator (Electronics)

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!

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