| Products Electronics & Photo GPS TomTom ONE 3rd Edition | Satisfaction | Experience | |
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| Name | Date | Helpfulness | Review | Overall satisfaction | Ease of use | Quality of Manufacture | Durability | more... |
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| Amazon.com customer | 2008-06-09 | | We love the thing | 10 | NR | NR | NR | | | | Helpful? | We bought it a few weeks ago and love it. It tells you where and when to turn. If there is a multiway intersection it highlites the correct turn in red. So you know you bear right instead of a sharp right. My wife gets lost very easily and is afraid to go anywhere. She is boldly going where no wife has gone before. AND I don't have to go. YES... Also Consumer reports this one as a *Best Buy* I agree with them for the price you can't beat it. It is quite fast also. | Satisfaction | Score |
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| Overall satisfaction | 10 |
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| | | | | | | Amazon.com customer | 2008-05-30 | | I (heart) Tom Tom | 8 | NR | NR | NR | | | | Helpful? | After being led astray one too many times by Mapquest directions (not to mention how hazardous it is for me to try and drive and read directions simultaneously), I finally gave in and ordered the Tom Tom One GPS system. I gave the Tom Tom One the ultimate baptism by fire. It arrived the night before a family vacation. I opened it (the near impenetrable clamshell packaging almost required a chainsaw and blowtorch), turned it on, and after answering a few questions on the touchscreen it was ready to go. I haven't encountered a gadget so intuitive to use since the Flip video camera. Instead of bringing a sheaf of Mapquest printouts on our road trip, I just plugged the addresses into Tom Tom, which navigated us successfully and efficiently (and with a delightful British accent) to each destination, whether rural or urban. It's a little annoying if you intentionally go off-course to find a restaurant or gas station, but I was impressed at how quickly it recalibrates the directions to get you back to where you need to go. It's also pretty good at identifying various stores and restaurants in the immediate vicinity, though some of its information was a bit off. You get pretty much everything you need right in the package, including a car charger, USB cable, and window mount. The pocketsize unit is small enough not to be too obtrusive while driving, and is easily detachable so you don't leave a tempting target for thieves. The Tom Tom One proved its worth on its very first voyage (especially given Amazon's impressive discount rate), and I know I won't be traveling anywhere without it in the future. PS - At the moment, John Cleese is the only celebrity voice available. If anyone at Tom Tom is reading this, I'd love to have Samuel L. Jackson shouting directions at me. James Earl Jones would be another awesome navigator voice.
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| Overall satisfaction | 8 |
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| | | | | | | Amazon.com customer | 2008-04-27 | | TOMTOM ONE 3RD EDITION - AMAZING!! | 10 | NR | NR | NR | | | | Helpful? | I have had my TomTom One 3rd Edition (TT1/3)since November. I LOVE IT. And to think I almost bought a Garmin! I am from Ontario Canada and since early March I have been doing deliveries in rural areas of the Great Lakes states. My wife made me a large "bean-bag". I glued a plexi-glass disk onto the top and some rubber mesh onto the bottom. I filled it with about 2.5 pounds of aquarium pebbles. The windshield mount sticks onto the disk. I now have a custom mount that stays put on the dash even on rough rural roads. When I leave the truck, my TT1/3 comes with me, often in my shirt pocket. Try that with your STREET-PILOT! I have driven thousands of miles and still am impressed with the performance of my device. I have compared its features with the Garmin 250 and yes the 250 has some features not found on my TT1/3, but the TT1/3 has so many more USABLE features that it seems impossible that it sells for sometimes $100 less than the 250. TomTom devices are designed to be USED and do not have many of the "toy" features that today's SUV crowd seems to expect. I have had to contact the support folks a couple of times and was impressed with how quickly my emails or phone-calls were handled. If I had a case of these devices, I could have sold them all by now. Anybody who rides with me is really impressed with the performance and price. In some areas, especially in Ontario, the rural roads do not have the correct current name. This is a TeleAtlas mapping error, not a device error. Such as this is, it is still better than what I found with Garmin. If I encounter a mistake, I can correct it on my device then upload this correction to TomTom. When they verify it, it is downloaded to all other users. TomTom is continually upgrading their mapping and then downloading these corrections to all users. Since November, I have had over 20,000 changes made to my on-board maps. As the maps are always kept up-to-date with these downloads, I will never have to buy another map update. You will note that OTHER GPS companies basically charge you up to the price of of a new TT1/3 for their annual map upgrades. The TT1/3 at first seems rather generous in its ETA calculation, but it is surprising how often this extra time seems to get used up before you arrive. Other brands essentially use the speed limit and distance for each segment to calculate the total time needed for the trip. This works out well under ideal traffic conditions. Each time a TomTom user connects the device to his/her internet enabled computer, our driving history is up-loaded to TomTom. They now know how long it took me to travel a certain route segment at a certain time of a certain day of the week. Their ETA calculations are modified to reflect the actual average performance of thousands of drivers. Yes this does open the door for certain "Big-Brother" concerns, but I have nothing to hide. The one problem with the TeleAtlas mapping (NOT a device weakness!) is the assignment of street numbers in both urban and rural areas. They assign a house number (usually NOT the correct one) at one end of a street and blocks or miles away they assign another number (again often incorrect)for the house at the other end of that street/road. This range of numbers is then divided up over the distance covered. The device will always get you onto the correct street as long as you selected the correct one. This is the best you can do following a map. In certain Ontario communities I am usually about 1/2 block away from the actual location and have been as far as 3 blocks away. Again this is better than trying to drive while reading a map and is a mapping error, not a flaw in the device. In many communities, it does get right to the driveway. As the maps are upgraded this type of error will disappear. Any GPS user will tell you how much more relaxing it is to drive in an unfamiliar area following a GPS. All you have to do is focus on driving safely even through the most complex city freeway systems. I shudder to think there are drivers out there steering great big 18 wheelers or tour buses along unfamiliar highways or streets while fumbling with a map or directions written on the back of a cigarette pack. Any good GPS device will eliminate this danger to the motoring public. HAPPY MOTORING! | Satisfaction | Score |
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| Overall satisfaction | 10 |
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| | | | | | | Amazon.com customer | 2008-04-19 | | Wonderful for GPS Newbies, Strong Mac Compatibility, Excellent Functionality | 10 | NR | NR | NR | | | | Helpful? | I confess; I had GPS-phobia. Being a techie, this admission was embarrassing but seemingly well-founded: much of the GPS market features overpriced, clunky products bogged down by confounding user interfaces. The TomTom One 3rd Edition (TT3), however, changed everything. This amazing little device is a GPS masterpiece; easy to configure, even simpler to use. Arguably the foundation of its success lies in the terrific PC/Mac-based, TomTom Home Software. (It's VERY Mac friendly) Regularly updated and fully featured, Home makes map updates a breeze, likewise the addition of different voices. Regarding the latter, there is a surprisingly rich selection of free voices provided by TomTom users. (You haven't truly experienced a road trip until Yoda insists on, 'left turn...you must make!') The TT3's crisp speaker admirably relays these voices even over excessive road noise. The in-device menu system echoes its computer-based counterpart. In only a few minutes' time, it becomes second nature to customize appearance, find points of interest and/or edit existing maps on the TT3. The touch screen is very responsive, arguably the perfect combination between appropriate sensitivity sans hyperactive touch recognition. Moreover, the TT3 is one sturdy device. I certainly don't baby the thing; it regularly goes on/off my windshield and into the glove compartment. Related, the TT3's USB cable port and accompanying charger are surprisingly durable. Not a sign of give and/or deterioration. Still, the TT3 isn't perfect. It occasionally hiccups when initializing routes, requiring re-entry of the destination. Also - akin to any GPS - not every street is [obviously] featured. It is admittedly a bit disconcerting to find yourself on an unnamed path. Also, the TomTom Home software has a tendency to provide peculiar error messages when doing updates. These shortcomings aside, the TT3 is a steal at Amazon's new price point. (I spent $45 more for my unit.)
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| Overall satisfaction | 10 |
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| | | | | | | Amazon.com customer | 2008-04-13 | | Nice For The Price | 10 | NR | NR | NR | | | | Helpful? | For under $150 this is a great unit. Lots of useful features and very accurate. Of course you won't get all the bells and whistles of more expensive units but you do get a solid, reliable GPS . A tip for all those who say it takes too long to aquire a satellite signal --- there is a downloadable update available thru the tomtom "home" software program that causes the unit aquire a signal almost instantly after turning it on. | Satisfaction | Score |
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| Overall satisfaction | 10 |
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| | | | | | | Amazon.com customer | 2008-03-03 | | Superb Device for the Money (and a case tip) | 8 | NR | NR | NR | | | | Helpful? | a tech friend of mine once said, "a car without a GPS is like a cell phone without an address book." he's a pretty smart guy, so when i bought a new car i thought i'd just order in a factory GPS -- then i saw that would be another $750. so after a little research, i bought the tomtom one 3rd edition here on amazon during their black friday sale in 2007. here are the up-sides: * it's frightfully easy to use. * it's tiny enough for travel. * it's tough. * it's REALLY fast at picking up satellite signals -- even when i've had it off for a long time or have travelled a long way without the device on. * it comes with several choices of what you use for day and night colors. * the menu items can be re-positioned from the horizontal bottom to the vertical side. * the default turn-off screen (which can be disabled) reminds you to take it off your dash so it won't get ripped off. * by default (though adjustable), the voice gets louder as you travel at higher speed. * you can turn the animation of the screen off above a screen you determine. * software upgrades (free) and maps of foreign countries (charge) are available online. here are the down-sides: * the software is very obviously european in design, so a few nuances are missing. for example, there are two hierarchical menu items in their main menu, but you don't know that until you tap them (which means you sometimes forget what item you want to change is in what specific place); and you have only one direction of navigation through the menus (meaning if you want to go back to something on the last screen, you have to keep tapping to the right until you see it again). * there are some tiny bugs in their "shortest path" algorithm. it looks like extremely sharp right turns are somehow either ignored or wrongly compensated for so you can find yourself driving around a block to get to a destination (or possibly turning right and then doing a u-turn) rather than going a few extra feet and turning a sharp right. * there's a "walking map" mode, but no good way to hold the device without touching the screen. since the screen doesn't have a "ignore touches" mode, it can't really be used this way. * the outlet for the power cord on the bottom isn't recessed -- this would make the plug easier to push in in the dark (which is the way your car is half the time). * it doesn't automatically switch night/day mode, nor does it automatically adjust for time zone. both of these are very possible since it knows where you are withing 3' on the planet. i'm guessing this is something available on higher level models. * the built-in points of interest aren't always accurate (it's directed me to out-of-business gas stations and headquarters of restaurants that weren't actually restaurants, but business facilities). i've had several other friends look at it and we've compared units side-to-side on long drives. the tomtom is definitely the easiest to use out-of-the-box of all major brands. text-to-speech (TTS) is certainly nice to have, but not necessary. i actually prefer not having TTS and glancing at a map when i drive if i'm not sure -- only because (for me, at least) spaghetti interchanges are easier to understand as you look at them than to be talked through robotically. the size of this device is fine. i think that if you're going to use the device only in one vehicle, and never move it, you want the biggest screen you can get (bigger than this one) -- you can install it permanently (or semi-permanently) in a place that doesn't obscure any portion of the windshield. certainly your fingers will appreciate it as you type. if you're going to take it with you as you travel, you want a smaller screen both for travel size and the overall real estate it covers on various car windshields. i've used it for trips to CO and FL and in both cases it lets me navigate like a local, which is really great. of all the devices i've compared this against (a couple of garmins and a magellan), it's easily the biggest bang for a buck. ==== addendum 3/24 ==== oops, i forgot to mention ... i wasn't happy with the tomtom choices of carrying cases because i wanted to take the stand, the power cord and the USB cable with me as i travel ... so after crawling my local electronics store for two hours i bought a case logic "compact camcorder case." (you can't buy here, but the sku is DCB-36 if you want to take a look.) it's just a tiny bit big (the extra space does add protection in your luggage, though), but the great thing about it the moveable central divider -- you can snug the unit right on down against the inside of the case. the suction cup will fit over the top of the power cord in the main pouch. the USB secures in the side pocket. it comes with a very useable carrying strap and a 25 year guarantee. i've been as happy with the bag as i have the tomtom itself. thanks for reading. | Satisfaction | Score |
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| Overall satisfaction | 8 |
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| | | | | | | Amazon.com customer | 2008-02-24 | | Great machine for the price | 10 | NR | NR | NR | | | | Helpful? | I waited over one year before purchasing a GPS. Although a sad confession to make , the anticipation of the 'buy' was a harmless past-time in this period. I assessed my needs & how often I would actually use one & when the one 3rd ed. hit the 160 ish mark , I bought it. I am very happy with it. I set up the on-line downloads & that updated it straight away ( free for the first month ) & allows one to create routes etc & download more 'points of interest'. For example a sign for Dunkin' D's shows up when I drive past one ( there are many other options , to appease my wife , a sign for Target also appears ) . I also downloaded, for free, an English ladies voice for the directions. All personal choice & I prefer the sound of her. I like the option of Zip/post codes & it shows telephone numbers of points of interest . On driving, I have found it to be quick in picking up signals ( again , one can download sat' info' each week that assists the GPS in locating them ) & the information to be just what I need. The announcements , thus far, have been easy to understand & operate on; as have the screen directions. I like the 'help' features that give basic information on first aid & car stuff. I wld strongly recommend this product. My 2 pieces of advice : If you drive & need to use a GPS ALOT , consider one with a larger screen - that is true for any GPS ( I didn't think the extra 100 or so was worth it for the number of times I really need to use it , but a daily user may think differently) . ALso , I strongly recommend buying the bracketron Nav-MAt. I live in a high crime area ( my car has been broken into 4 times & once they only stole the rear view mirror ) & this beauty ensures that no marks are left on the screen , also , it makes it easier to take the GPS out of the car & away somewhere safe. Overall, this is a very solid & well priced unit that will serve most buyers well . It does exactly what it says 'on the tin'. ----- Update - I have used this a lot over the past few weeks. Updating points of interests is quite easy. Like a few other reviewers; it is far easier to plan ones route & update etc via the computer screen. The TT allows 'remote' access & from the computer ( with the TT attached ) new routes & map updates can be processed. I have also set my screen to show the 'map update' icon. For example, when driving, if you notice that a shop has closed & it is on the POI ( points of interest ) -or you want to add a new POI, simply tap on the icon & it will save the location & allow one to edit & send the information to others. I used this option last night. It was very quick & once you have done it once, it will be second nature. | Satisfaction | Score |
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| Overall satisfaction | 10 |
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| | | | | | | Amazon.com customer | 2008-02-15 | | Like a music virtuoso who sometimes ignores audience requests! | 8 | NR | NR | NR | | | | Helpful? | I was deeply impressed when I was first handed a TomTom One Version 3 in June 2007. It accurately took us over the river and through the woods along winding, Upstate New York country roads between a wedding site and the reception site. When It said, "You have reached your destination," our car was ten feet from the sign of the restaurant where the reception was held. Awesome! With printed MapQuest or Yahoo Maps, we would certainly have gotten lost and arrived frazzled. Now, after a year with my TomTom, and I am still in love with it. But, like a favorite relative, it can be annoying and even intractable at time. But considering that the built-in GPS systems of five years ago cost thousands of dollars, ran off 5-CD changers, cost thousands of dollars, and required $75-$150 annual map updates, the TomTom (now around $160) is a fantastic value. Not to mention that all map updates are FREE online, and that you can move it from vehicle #1 to vehicle #2 just by plugging it into the cigarette lighter outlet. Is it perfect? No. Do I love it? Yes. Would I buy the next version? Probably - depends on the extent of the upgrades and how the competition (Garmin, for example) has upgraded their units. Richard N. Côté, Mt. Pleasant, SC 29464. Good points: * Crisp, clear color display that the owner can personalize to taste. * Adjustable volume and brightness controls enable you to adapt it to day/night and sound preferences. * Map zooms let you adjust for long-range driving (large overview) or short-range, densely-populated urban environments with frequent turns. * If, while using it, you make a wrong turn, it immediately recalculates the way to get you back on the right route. Typically, it takes less than six seconds to do so. And unlike your wife or husband, it never chews you out for having taken the wrong turn! * All GPS systems get their position information from a number of GPS satellites in geosynchronous orbit around the earth. When turned on in my car, it usually takes 15-20 seconds to lock onto the satellites, but I haven't had it lose them yet while underway. * It comes with two English male voices, two English female voices, and one each in Spanish. There are other voices available for $4.95 each. My favorite was - for a week - the low, sexy voice of "Sylvia," a seductress who, at the end of your trip, purrs, "You have reached your destination. But don't stop yet....!" After a week, I tired of her and went back to "Richard," an American male voice with no "attitude"! * I comes with complete maps of the U.S. and England, with maps of most of Europe available by download for a reasonable fee. * It gives you accurate advance "when-to-turn" info, taking into account how fast you are going. It includes warning you well in advance when to change lanes to avoid being forced off your route by traffic. I think this is awesome, especially when navigation spaghetti-like urban Interstate highway routes involving frequent, high-speed turns. * It rarely tells you to drive into lakes or through swamps and forests with no roads, but this is not always the case! A couple of times when using MapQuest, I would have needed a boat or ATV if I had actually followed the maps that MapQuest gave me. * The built-in battery will run the unit for about two hours without being plugged in. And you can back up everything in its memory on your PC via the TomTom to PC USB cable. It enables the TomTom unit to talk to the TomTom "mother ship" on the Internet, and download map and software updates as often as you like. Weak and bad points: * It doesn't recognize non-public roads well. If you punch in a store's address, and the store is in a huge shopping mall, it will tell you that you've arrived - even though you have to drive another quarter mile and make eight more turns before you are actually at the store. * The suction-cup mount won't stick to most dashboards (with their fake-leather veining) - only to glass. I prefer a dashboard mount, which takes up less visual space, and in addition, my Honda van had such a sharp windshield slope that the suction cup base wouldn't work on it. The TomTom unit comes with a 3.5" round plastic plate with adhesive strips that enable it to be mounted on dashboards, but I found that the suction cup, even when moistened, often would not hold the TomTom in place on the flat plastic surface and it fell onto the car floor. I solved the problem by putting Velcro strips on the top surface of the plastic plate and the same on the bottom of the suction cup. That home-made fix works like a charm. BTW: these GPS units are very attractive to thieves. Put yours under the seat and out of sight when you leave the car. * If you know better than it does about the best way to get to there from here, TomTom may disagree--and is very hard to train. Although it took us flawlessly from a Charleston, SC suburban address along a 275-mile route to a suburban Charlotte, NC address, it won't give me reasonable directions from the Charleston, SC suburb to a downtown Charleston, SC address! * Although it has a "calculate different route" option, and may come up with six alternate routes, the "best" one may not be one of them. If you know better than it does, just go your own way for a few blocks and it will usually catch on and recalculate the proper directions. * Although it gives the "when-to-turn" directions in advance, it will say, "After 400 yards, bear right, then take the highway," instead of "After 400 yards, take the on-ramp for Interstate 526 East." The screen clearly shows the "Interstate 526 East" red-and-blue symbol, but TomTom can't convert the visual information it displays into speech commands. Maybe the next version will. * As you will read below in the other reviews, the how-to-use-it documentation is AWFUL. It explains virtually nothing about how to use many features. Nothing. If you buy a TomTom, be prepared to poke a lot of touch-screen buttons if you want to use the more advanced features, because you won't find any instructions built into the unit or on the TomTom online site.
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| Overall satisfaction | 8 |
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| | | | | | | Shopzilla customer | 2008-02-04 | | Great features, Great buy! | 10 | NR | NR | NR | | | | Helpful? | PRO: Easy to use,accurateand great features can be used for hikin CON: smallish screen | Satisfaction | Score |
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| Overall satisfaction | 10 |
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| | | | | | | Shopzilla customer | 2008-01-23 | | Most bang for the buck. | 8 | NR | NR | NR | | | | Helpful? | PRO: Clear voice, good screen, great map. CON: Had to press the reset button once. | Satisfaction | Score |
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| Overall satisfaction | 8 |
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| | | | | | | Amazon.com customer | 2007-12-27 | | Defecive | 2 | NR | NR | NR | | | | Helpful? | TomTom shipped a large quantity of these knowing they are defective. Every time you turn it on it locks up in a White Screen of Death (WSD) and you must use a paper-clip or some other pointy object to press the reset button. Mine was like this, my brothers and apparently as many as a thousand others according to several references I found when I searched the internet. Yes, Tomtom claims they will replace these with new units if you send it back and wait a week. But I don't believe they send new units. What are they going to do with the defective units. And their web site is off-line now that Xmas is over. I going to return it. Also, they imply that you get free map updates forever but when I opened the package I found it's only for one year. Try to find this in their literature. | Satisfaction | Score |
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| Overall satisfaction | 2 |
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| | | | | | | Amazon.com customer | 2007-12-25 | | A basic GPS navigator for most of us | 8 | NR | NR | NR | | | | Helpful? | This is the second unit I've bought and the fourth I've played with. There are at least 4 versions of TomTom One: version 1, 2, 2 "new edition" and 3. They are very similar electronically but quality control and software issues plague versions 1 & 2. Some Version 3 models malfunction within days of purchase, stuck on its infamous 'white screen' that persists until machines are reset, but reoccurs. Its likely a production batch with serial numbers containing 46,47,48; e.g. Y12448Cxx. Tomtom Home v1.x has caused some machines to completely lose data, but no reports of issues once users upgrade to Home V2.x. "New Edition" US version is noted as having the US/Canada maps preloaded, few to no bug reports and ready to run, out of box. The recent model in this series is Version 3; it has no SD card slot but has built in capability to make some corrections to its maps. The US/Canada version ships in a hard plastic 'skin pack' that is difficult to open and can cut your fingers from sharp plastic. Beware. Prior versions shipped in a cardboard box, with an easy to open, plastic shrink wrap. I strongly suggest users leave their units on for 2-3 days connected to computer USB port to 'burn in' their units, and allow for premature failure, while under warranty. Not documented by TomTom, the One series will charge via any computer USB port. Navigation Test I did a "Turing Test" by comparing my favorite known driving routes against the TT1 recommendations. My often used routes are optimal for time and distance. In planning mode, TT1 gave many identical recommendations, from 0.5 - 500mi away. On test trips, I purposely pulled over to a side road that I knew reconnected to the planned route some distance ahead. After the 'turn around if possible' warning it automatically re-routed my trip to take me back on track. On other tests, it simply rerouted me directly back to my plan, without other warnings. I hit the 'road block' option that suggests I'm stuck in traffic for 'X' miles. TT1 would tell me get off the next exit, turn around, make a turn here or there and follow a new route to bypass this X miles jam. I did this numerous times to check how it would reroute me in local driving & highway driving. Expectedly, it gave 'reroute not possible' when my destination was within the minimum distance required to reroute, about 0.5 mi. After preliminary testing in local roads, the TT1 went on a road trip of over 2500 mi. I entered GPS coordinates for addresses I had not been to but expect to visit. If faulty coordinates were given that terminated without roads, the TT1 quickly reported a route could not be plotted to that destination: you can navigate to the nearest turn off road if the coordinates are known. I arrived at all the plotted destinations flawlessly, following TT1 directions instead of what I would be told. In a notorious area in Washington DC, traffic jams that cause over 1 hour trip delays were very common ... TT1 routed me around DC easily, so my arrival time changed by under 5 minutes. In prior trips, I had no choice but to stick it out on the traffic jam. On the return trip, part of the bypass route also had traffic, I hit the 'road block' feature and again, TT1 navigated me around the block through local roads and to the highway with ne'er a change in the arrival time. Anyone who has driven through the confusing DC inner roads will know how difficult such navigation is without detailed knowledge or maps of downtown Washington. The TT1 easily saved me 1 hour wasted in DC traffic that I had done many times for years prior. As I sped down south, I simulated jams on the highway, and the TT1 would quickly route off the next exit into local roads, some of which I saw easily paralleled the main highway. Some bypass routes were complicated. I did this off and on, through 2000 mi of highway travel, passing through 8 states. At my rural destination a few roads were non-existent, often dead ends or into housing development. You could plot a GPS location to a main road before a turn off. The locals had preferred routes, but the TT1 would route me through existing known roads, dirt or otherwise, that still got me to my destination regardless of what other route a local recommended. Rarely, the road names on the TT1 was different than that posted on the road signs. I spent about 500 mi traveling through these country roads. The supplied TT1 POI database is practically useless. Except in exceptional cases of carelessness, gas or rest stops marked were far from a preferred road stop: I knew some of those stops had poor food, rest room or gas prices, while the better stops were like a mini WalMart with gas prices often lower by as much as 25c/gal. TT1 allows the user to make their own POI database, and this I did. On the return trip, TT1 tools easily allowed me to optimize my stops. In the end, I reduced my travel time by 2 hours, each way! After over 2500mi driving the TT1 recommendations, I can say the TT1 has been accurate and invaluable. Lastly, the TT1 is actually a Linux PDA type computer, and it can be 'hacked' to add or repair it in ways it was not designed to be! More info can be found on the 'net. | Satisfaction | Score |
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| Overall satisfaction | 8 |
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| | | | | | | Amazon.com customer | 2007-12-24 | | New software download fixed WSOD | 4 | NR | NR | NR | | | | Helpful? | My unit arrived just before heading out for our Christmas travels and I used it side-by-side with my older Garmin 2610. Hardly a fair comparison given the price difference, but the TomTom was great - I'm impressed, particularly with the signal acquisition time (very, very quick). But unfortunately, I get the white screen of death. The unit won't warm start and requires a reset each and every time. That might even be okay if the reset button was easier to reach, because the reset startup is still faster than the Garmin regular warm-start. UPDATE: early January Tom Tom released a software update that fixes the white-screen problem! My unit now works perfectly and I'm very happy with it. Too bad Tom Tom didn't publish this update where it could be found just with a web search - you have to call Tech Support to get the URL from them.
| Satisfaction | Score |
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| Overall satisfaction | 4 |
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| | | | | | | Amazon.com customer | 2007-12-23 | | Superb value for the dollar..... | 10 | NR | NR | NR | | | | Helpful? | I got this item for christmas gifts as I work for direct sales company and do many numerous "cooking parties" and needed to find a way to get to the hosts homes without getting lost. I have not had any previous experience with gps prior to my purchase but the first time I used it I fell in love with it. My first destination was to a business that was on a four way divided hwy and the tom tom told me I had to make a u-turn at the break in the island to get to where I needed to. Once at my destination others who also were there said that their gps does not do that and that it will let them pass and then tell them to basically go around the block to get to where they need to go. Just this week I went out of state and rented a car with a gps. They gave me the Garmin Nuvi and I would not purchase that at all. The darn thing ran us around in circles numerous times. I have read some reviews prior to my purchase and the biggest complaint I have read was that it does not give street names but instead will tell you your turns in distances which is something I prefer because street names change. I would definitely buy the tom tom one third edition again. | Satisfaction | Score |
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| Overall satisfaction | 10 |
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| | | | | | | Amazon.com customer | 2007-12-18 | | a GPS for Goldilocks? | 8 | NR | NR | NR | | | | Helpful? | This GPS is not too big and not too small; not expensive but neither is it cheaply made. As Goldilocks might have said as she navigated herself home from the 3 Bears' house, "It's just right!" I drive a lot and frequently I'm on unfamiliar roads. I've envied friends whose cars are equipped with built-in navigation systems. Since I drive a fleet of old clunkers I've been waiting for the prices of portable GPS navigators to drop, which recently (late 2007) they have. I read many reviews, at Amazon and GpsReview dot net and GpsMagazine dot com. Frequent references to "ease of use" drew me to the TomTom One. I ordered the 3rd Edition since it has the latest maps. (There are some reviews that suggest that the 3rd Edition hardware is slightly de-contented compared to the previous edition, but I don't believe I'm missing anything significant.) Incidentally, the more detailed reviews were helpful in making the TomTom One useful for me right out of the box, as the user guide is not very comprehensive. What I like: - Easy to use. It's easy to enter a new destination. I was worried about entering addresses but this is accomplished with a few taps due to the TomTom interface. The One seems to present the options I'm most likely to need, at my fingertips. - It really works. I'm surprised by the detail of the maps. Once I pulled off the road into a cemetery to change my destination and was surprised to see that all the lanes within the cemetery were mapped! - Unobtrusive. I selected one of the standard female voices as I'm used to being told what to do by my Significant Other. The TomTom One gives me just enough information and not too much. (I should note that my S.O. complained that the TomTom One "voice" does not tell us the name of the street I'm supposed to turn on. I knew it lacked this "text to speech" feature when I bought it, and I haven't missed it. The street name text is clearly displayed on the screen and I find the map image more useful since many New England intersections don't have road signs anyway.) Room for improvement: - It's only 90% accurate. I give my TomTom only 4 stars because its directions are generally good but not always excellent. I have not tested other GPS devices but suspect that it is always good to use common sense rather than relying 100% on the GPS. What I do with the TomTom One is look at a real paper map before a journey and/or directions provided by whomever I'm visiting, and if the TomTom One ever gives me an instruction I don't like I ignore it. The TomTom never sounds irritated; it just quickly recalculates a route based on my new location and we get along just fine. I know this seems as if it defeats the purpose of having a GPS but this little device is a navigational aid, not a substitute for common sense. And I want this review to be honest, not an ad for TomTom.
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| Overall satisfaction | 8 |
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| | | | | | | Amazon.com customer | 2007-12-15 | | Spend a few bucks more and get text to speech | 6 | NR | NR | NR | | | | Helpful? | I bought the TomTom One 3rd edition with the leather case and home charger for $162.00. It's my 4th GPS device; two are built-in units and one is a Garmin i5. The TomTom is ok; I don't miss the larger screen because the screen quality is fine. It's very easy to set up and get going, and TomTom's website is nicely coordinated with the products and very easy to use, unlike Garmin's site that seems ancient and unfriendly. However, there are a couple of issues that new GPS owners should be aware of. First, although the TomTom One 3rd edition is simple, it's almost too simple. It gives very few spoken instructions. "Right Turn Ahead" doesn't tell you much at all when it's given a couple of miles from a turn. The next warning is "Turn right in 800 yards." 800 yards?? When's the last time you measured anything in yards? My old Garmin i5 says "In 3 tenths of a mile, turn right." Much better -- car odometers are in tenths of a mile, not yards! But then the TomTom waits until the last 100 feet or so to tell you "Turn right." I found this warning to come too late on the 2-3 lane state roads in busy south Florida while on a trip. There are no options to change the measurement from yards to tenths or feet, only meters. I can understand not having text to speech (although I'm sure every GPS will have it probably within a year, even the cheap ones), but how about some more instructions to help us get around? I found that I have to look at the TomTom GPS much more than any other GPS I own, which is dangerous. It just doesn't give me enough verbal information. Although the map is clear (3D is a gimmick, use 2D instead) and it has a neat feature to zoom in as you approach an intersection, it doesn't give enough information on the upcoming roads. Mine seems to always display the road I'm on, both on the bottom of the screen and the top. It should display the street name of the next upcoming turn on top, but it doesn't. All in all, it's an ok device, but as an experienced GPS owner, I can't recommend it for first-time GPS owners. My 3 year old Garmin i5 provides more information, although Garmin's upgrade policies, awful software that crashes every computer I try it on and their unfriendly website forced me away from the company. My advice? Spend the extra money and get something with text to speech that provides more verbal info. You don't really need to look at a gimmicky map and instructions on a tiny screen -- you should be watching the road. Verbal instructions are way more important, but this fact is hardly emphasized in any GPS reviews. Take it from me... | Satisfaction | Score |
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| Overall satisfaction | 6 |
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| | | | | | | Amazon.com customer | 2007-12-12 | | TomTom suffers from poor engineering, clumsy POI selection | 4 | NR | NR | NR | | | | Helpful? | I bought my TomTom from Amazon for $125 on Black Friday. As a result, I really tried to appreciate the GPS for its great value. Unfortunately, despite the bargain pricing, I decided to return it to Amazon. TomTom uses Tele Atlas maps, which are less accurate/comprehensive than Magellan and Garmin's NAVTEQ (let's just say there's a reason why Google Maps chose NAVTEQ over Tele Atlas). TomTom's routing software is poor. It has taken me on the most bizarre routes for the simplest trips. One time, I decided to go to a local deli listed on the TomTom. It directed me to a residential neighborhood (where I began to lose some confidence in its ability), then to the last house on a dead-end road (needless to say, I did not find the deli). The TomTom interface is not intuitive. For me, the biggest disappointment was its POI selection. If you want to know which POIs are near you (i.e. - find the nearest gas station), you have to click through about 5-6 menus to locate it. With other competing GPS brands, you will be en-route to your POI with minimal clicks (the way it should be). Its POI database is also small (around 3m compared to Magellan and Garmin's 6m+). While the POIs show up on the default map while driving (you will see icons indicating food), there is no way to click on them to find out what they are. Instead, you have to fumble your fingers through several menus to see what restaurant that fork and knife icon actually represent. These icons should be interactive (as they are on the Magellan - with a tap of your finger, you can see what you're approaching). Pros: - Good customer support - Quick map refresh rate - Easy to customize (I loaded my own POIs, voices, and alerts) - MapShare (TomTom's exclusive technology allows its huge user base to make map edits/corrections) Cons: - POI interface is difficult to use - I shouldn't have to click through several menus while driving just to find the closest gas station; there should be interactive POI icons (see above) - POI database is small and poorly organized (categories are highly limited) - TomTom uses Tele Atlas maps (NAVTEQ is better) - Routing engine is slower than competitors (all the research shows that Magellan and Garmin will consistently get you from Point A to Point B much faster) Conclusion: I would advise you to look elsewhere. Although the TomTom will do the job, I think its major weaknesses make this product difficult to recommend (despite its low price tag). TomTom needs to take a lesson from the two GPS leaders and start replacing clumsiness with simplicity, and haphazardness with solid engineering. | Satisfaction | Score |
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| Overall satisfaction | 4 |
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| | | | | | | Amazon.com customer | 2007-12-10 | | Crazy routing - missing POI's (big ones at that) | 6 | NR | NR | NR | | | | Helpful? | Update - The GPS recently got updated to a more recent version of software (the update process landed up being confusing). I haven't re-checked on the errors I mention in my earlier review after this update - but I can tell you that it does take a while longer to cold boot now (I thought it had hung up). In terms of functionality, the routing now seems to work better. It made no mistakes while I was driving around in Monterey (California) and that too on vague streets. It really was a life-saver late at night in a strange place. I'd up the stars to 4 now. Lack of tactile buttons for common functions is still a negative - so one star taken away.. Also - I dropped the GPS from my car roof to the garage floor in a bad way. Well - nothing happened. I was amazed. Quite tough.. ================================ Earlier review below - It does get me where I need to go - but in a sort of convoluted way on some occasions. Case in point - to travel from Sunnyvale Fry's to the Walmart in Mountain View - (UPDATE ADDED LATER - Following its directions, I landed up at the Target in Mountain view rather than the WalMart which is on the other side of the road - it told me to make a left when I should be making a right. This type of mis-routing is happening in a fairly urbanized setting. Wonder how this will fare in less travelled locales?) Firstly - the GPS unit POI thinks that Wal Mart is in Los Altos (a neighboring city) while the WalMart web site lists it as Mountain view. How does this get a POI as big as a Wal Mart wrong? The most sensible and fastest direction is to take Central Expwy almost all the way to the Wal Mart, and this is what Google Maps tells me - but this unit makes me take Central Expwy then exit Middlefield Rd and then take an extremely slow road (El Camino Real) to the WalMart. A rather suboptimal solution both in terms of distance and speed of travel. On another occasion I had to make a slightly convoluted left turn. The screen indicated the left turn, but the voice directions got confused and told me to make a right turn!! There sure was a right turn as well over there - but going opposite from where I needed to go. OK - so the routing certainly has problems - and these were fairly simple routings. (update added later - tried to find - "whole foods store" "near me" - while in Cupertino, CA. It didn't find any. I asked a passerby - he pointed to a large building almost across the street. A store as big as "whole foods" is not in its database. Incidentally - I did multiple searches - using just the world "whole" for instance) The other thing I don't like so much about this unit is that there are absolutely no buttons you can push to make certain adjustments. Everything is touch screen based - meaning you have to touch the screen and look at it (instead of the road) when you are trying to adjust the volume or get the screen to dim. This is ridiculous on a device meant to be used in the car while driving!!. Tom Tom allows you to update the map - Once - within 30 days after you buy it. I don't know how Garmin and Magellan do this - but the devices are basically disposable unless you pay a stiff premium to keep your maps updated. Otherwise the unit works well. Acquires satellites fast (from even inside the office) and the display is clear. I don't like the map graphics that much but haven't yet experimented around to see if there is any other option. It appears to be sturdily built. I am yet to find out if the screen on this unit will dim automatically to the "night mode". Mine certainly does not do so out of the box. I don't like its suction cup mount too - a lot of force is needed to make the unit slide off the mount and in the process the suction cup comes off most times I need to take the unit out. A better solution would have been a spring based latch that hooked to the suction mount (so that force is not needed) or some kind of magnetic mount. I am investigating my own magnetic mount solution using a bunch of hard disk magnets I have lying around. I don't agree with the leading consumer reporting publication that gave this model (rather its earlier incarnation) a "best buy". | Satisfaction | Score |
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| Overall satisfaction | 6 |
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| | | | | | | Amazon.com customer | 2007-11-28 | | Good value for money | 8 | NR | NR | NR | | | | Helpful? | I bought TomTom One Third Edition in online deal on Black Friday sale from one of the websites for just $105 (after getting $20 gift card). For that value I am extremely satisfied with the product. It's been couple of days since I got it but so far I am very happy. Screen: It's a 3.5 inch color screen, which is standard for basic GPS. Map looks pretty sharp and clear on TFT LCD touchscreen (320x240 pixels, 64,000 colors. Ease of Use: Extremely easy to use. All you do is connect this device in your car (if first time, using car charger) and just go thru the basic demo if you have never used GPS before. Set up your home location and that's it. You are ready to roll! All instructions are spoken loud enough without beig irritating. Unit is very portable and got a very good form factor. Map: Map is pretty accurate with tons of POI locations. It has about 5 million Point of Interest database, which is good. It located pharmacy stores such as CVS, Walgreens and gas stations around my home accurately. Help Me! Menu: Help Me! menu is indeed a nice to have for emergency use if you get lost! Map Share: With Map Share software you can update and share maps with others as well. Map Updates: FREE. This is very important feature. Many other companies charge extra to update latest map data. On this unit you get it for free! Just install the software (when you connect tomtom to your PC/Laptop, it will install the software), connect your devide using USB cable and select what all info you want to update. WHAT I DONT LIKE: =============== 1. If I want to search any greek or asian restaurant in the city, I CAN'T do that. If I know name of the restaurant and it is in its POI database, it will show it but it won't give me list based on my criteria. This was a significant downer for me. 2. Browse Map functionality is not that user friendly. When map opens in "browse map" mode, zoom in and zoom out is very cumbersome. 3. It doesn't like taking u-turns. So you get that turn right-turn left-turn left thing - which is annoying. But overall, excellent device. I would not pay 250 bucks - the price it was selling not long before. But for anything less than 150 I would happily suggest anyone to buy this. | Satisfaction | Score |
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| Overall satisfaction | 8 |
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| | | | | | | Shopzilla customer | 2007-11-27 | | Avoid Tomtom One 3rd Edition | 2 | NR | NR | NR | | | | Helpful? | PRO: Fast route re-calculation, Download Updates, Maps, voice CON: Poor customer service, Outofdate list of Gas Stations/Stores | Satisfaction | Score |
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| Overall satisfaction | 2 |
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