TT or Garmin

howie555 · Regular Visitor Joined: Jun 26, 2005 Posts: 99

My trusted 920 is dying. I would like to stay with TT but 2 important functions appear to missing from newer devices. 1. full itinerary planning. 2. ability to operate unit from pc. Would I be better off with a Garmin Nulink ,or is it into fire from the frying pan!!

inthe128 · Posted: Sun Sep 11, 2011 12:53 pm Post subject:

I have an old 720 that started to play up, lots of daft things, so I bought Garmin er, something, its in the car, its mid range one anyhow.

Its defo American, very colourful and you seem to have to accept that as the one and only scheme, its a bit mickey mouse. It has some great functions that my 720 does not, but then my 720 has a few things the Garmin does not.

I am in Poland and driving mostly Europe, Germany and Denmark are the normal ones.

The look of the mapping, the scheme is pink, its unpleasant to me and the graphics a tad mickey mouse. Routing seems fine, plan your destination and it will give you some info on cost, distance of the route, some options of what you what to see on the screen. A nice bit is the trip information, so after a journey you can view the route and that can also be downloaded on a PC or Mac if you like doing that sort of thing. The device draws a line as it goes along as well, so you can see yourself when you come back er.....

It does traffic on mine with an arial on the power cable, seems okay, much faster than my old TomTom. The menu system is fine, big buttons to press and I have this bluetooth thing that tells me when the car is unhappy, this is quite funky and I have used this when an amber light can up the other week on the dash.

Hand on heart, I prefer my TomTom 720, I managed via this forum to get the thing working again and I find its functions better for my needs, its seems easier to use on the move, the look of the map less pink and you can change it to whatever you want anyhow.

The camera database of this wonderful forum goes on the Garmin via its own program, very easy, although I have had it freeze when it arrives at a camera. The updating of the device seems really good compared to Home, it can be done online or via program.

I will stick with my 720 though, Garmin is a backup and engine diagnostics.
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in the 128

Kremmen · Posted: Mon Sep 12, 2011 6:26 am Post subject:

sussamb · Posted: Mon Sep 12, 2011 7:29 am Post subject:

I have 2 Garmins and the display certainly isn't pink!

I prefer the Garmins for the reasons the OP mentions, full itinerary planning (on specific models though so choose the right one) and easily operated/played with via my PC. I do a lot of route/waypoint planning on my PC and download to my GPS, although on my model (1490) it's also very easy to do it on the device itself.

I've looked at tomtoms but find the Garmin display and menu system far more to my liking, course that's a personal thing.

inthe128 · Posted: Mon Sep 12, 2011 9:40 am Post subject:

I stand to be corrected on the pink issue, I would love the absence of anything pink on the screen and the next time I turn it on I will search again.

Its going to be fair to say that both TT and Garmin have some plus and minus points. The itinerary function is indeed more useful on the Garmin, its ace is information generally. A few programs that live on my Mac give some options to plan a route or view one done. I like the eco route part of the system, I get real time data of what the car is doing, temps, fuel use etc.

What tips the balance to my old 720 for me, is setting a top speed for arrival, its important for me as I have perhaps 1,400km before a ferry arrival time, as I pass through Germany I won't be doing the top end speeds, so the Garmins arrival time is based on the speed limit of the road, so its out by an hour to two (Garmin experts please say its possible Exclamation

)

Also I need the device to tell me there is a toll on route, but I use tolls when it suits me, so on the Garmin its a setting/default rather than a option when making a route, The TT allows me to set top speed and tolls when planning the route, in this case a Navigon is the clear winner as it gives you a list of the tolls. I had a concert in Northern Italy, whatever I do its tolls or tax, its choosing the cheaper route against time.

All of these things I can work around, but possibly the decider to stick with the 720 was routing. On a journey from Katowice to Glasgow the Garmin added 120km. Looking at the route via the inbuilt map is awkward, via the text of the route it seemed to get confused several times in Germany, the TT seems to follow my choice of route looking at a good old fashioned analogue map.

I would download the manual of a Garmin device have a read, then get down to Halfords and have a good old poke around the menus, try to do the things you need it to, I think the other posters will agree the attaching it to a computer side of things is a known good/great/better then TT so don't worry about that.
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in the 128

inthe128 · Posted: Mon Sep 12, 2011 9:41 am Post subject:

Give in, where is the less pink setting?
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in the 128

Kremmen · Posted: Mon Sep 12, 2011 11:03 am Post subject:

I haven't got mine to hand (2200) but I'm sure there is a 'Theme' area somewhere where you can change between them by country.

Display options ?

I'm also sure that one of them was beige and one may have been pink.
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inthe128 · Posted: Mon Sep 12, 2011 11:29 am Post subject:

I have a nuvi 1490T, seen a couple of web sites this morning seeming to give hints and tips, also to the possible update from Garmin to allow it. Changing country still gives a feeling on pink and at this point I will say the offending pink is the route rather than its all pink.

Just saw this http://www8.garmin.com/support/download_details.jsp?id=4967 seems a recent update, not that that has helped, but the post were this link comes from thinks its something for the future.
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in the 128

MaFt · Posted: Mon Sep 12, 2011 12:05 pm Post subject:

regardless of what map scheme you use the current route is always shown in pink/purple - perhaps this is what inthe128 is referring to?

MaFt

Kremmen · Posted: Mon Sep 12, 2011 12:15 pm Post subject:

.. or could be:

Navigation - Car - Map Theme

I didn't look at them all but Suomi for example is indeed Pink.
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inthe128 · Posted: Mon Sep 12, 2011 12:41 pm Post subject:

Yes MaFt, although its not purple, its 100% screaming pink.

Kremmen, thanks for the efforts, but I don't have this option, the best I can do is restore it so it asks me the question on which country and from there seems to be different colours apart from a global use of pink for a route, which at best in my view should apply to a cycle path only and not the Queens highway.
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in the 128

MaFt · Posted: Mon Sep 12, 2011 1:02 pm Post subject:

inthe128 · Posted: Mon Sep 12, 2011 1:12 pm Post subject:

Andy_P · Posted: Mon Sep 12, 2011 3:28 pm Post subject:

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