TomTom 6100

PicklesDad · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jan 06, 2008 Posts: 35

I've been struggling along with a flaky Go 720 for the last few years and have been meaning to upgrade. The new 6100 looked appealing with lifetime maps and traffic so I decided to take the plunge. I have yet to take it out, but I thought I'd post what I have found so far compared to the 720:

The screen is larger, clearer, and now useable with fingers, as opposed to a stylus. However, it is on par with a cheapish smartphone in terms of responsiveness and not at the same level as some of the latest capacitive touch screens. The graphics and interface have improved and there are 3D maps in some areas. GPS locks on really quickly compared to the 720.

What surprised me most was the number of features that had been removed. Gone are Bluetooth, and hence connection to the car stereo. Likewise the music player, which is a shame as I liked the way the 720 paused the player whilst it spoke directions. Now the 6100 will conflict with the car stereo and need to be loud enough to be heard over it. Likewise without Bluetooth it cannot act as a handsfree device.

TMC has gone and has been replaced with a built in SIM and a subscription to traffic. It takes a long time for traffic to start up, but I suspect TomTom is using Vodafone since their coverage at my home is almost non existent. This would also explain the trouble I had logging into the online services. In the end I connected the 6100 to a laptop and it signed in via that route and all was OK.

You still have navigation voices you can change, but there is no option to change the icon for the car, you are stuck with an arrow. You can add POIs, I have successfully tested this with the POIs from this site. The POIs are imported via the MyDrive web application and are then synced to the TomTom via mobile data. However, it doesn't seem to use the icon files, so you get a generic ballon. If anyone knows how to get it to use the icons please let me know. There are no custom sounds for the POIs either. I had both of these with the 720.

The MyDrive web app can be used to plan routes and these successfully transfer across to the device via the mobile network, so no need to connect it to a PC/Mac. It's quite basic at the moment, so I am hoping TomTom will continue to add further features here.

The 6100 now has voice recognition which works reasonably well even if limited in commands. A natural language interface would work better here, but mobile coverage, data usage and cost to implement probably prohibited that. It looks like it will be useful if you need to detour off your route to get petrol as this can be done by simply saying "Hello TomTom" followed by "Go to Petrol Station". The 6100 then displays the closet petrol stations by number, you respond with "Number" followed by the number of the petrol station you wish to navigate to. This worked well indoors, but a better test will be with road noise present.

I'm using the device to drive tomorrow which will give me a fuller view of it's performance. My first impression is the 6100 works better for the core navigational side of the device, but lacks some key features of the 720. The ability to plan journeys on a laptop via MyDrive is useful. Since MyDrive also displays your current position, TomTom should look to expand this so that family members can log in to see where you are on your journey from mobile apps. I couldn't locate the iOS MyDrive mobile app mentioned on TomTom's site.

Andy.

dhn · Posted: Wed May 13, 2015 10:42 am Post subject:

At this point, there is no way to add .bmp's or sounds to custom pois.

Also, the iOS app for NA is available now, supposedly Europe will have access at the end of the month.
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David

PicklesDad · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jan 06, 2008 Posts: 35

Thanks for the update David.

Flashyphotos · Posted: Fri May 22, 2015 1:51 pm Post subject:

Be interesting to see if they are using 3G now this has moved over to a worldwide unit

If its gone 3g then its top of my purchase list, if not its a dinosaur and not worth touching for me.

Main areas I need are reliable data connection in the UK & US for traffic.

The rest is secondary.

DennisN · Posted: Fri May 22, 2015 10:35 pm Post subject:

Unless I'm mistaken, the data connection won't work in US for traffic, only Europe.
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Dennis

If it tastes good - it's fattening.

Two of them are obesiting!!

Flashyphotos · Posted: Sat May 23, 2015 7:56 am Post subject:

Cheers DennisN

Yes just confirmedby TomTom Support.

Very deceptive wording on the 6100 box, Lifetime Worldwide Maps and Traffic included.

Spoke to 1st Line support who could not help, 2nd Line confirmed Voda sim is EU roaming only. Not Americas/Asia/Ociana etc etc

The real rub being as there is no bluetooth in these models you cannot connect to a smartphone to get Data that way like you can with the 510/610

So the 510/610 seem the better option for those that travel at least with them you canuse your smartphone for data. the 5100/6100 seem crippled as they are being sold as "Worldwide" Devices.

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