REVIEW COMMENTS: TomTom GO

OZ · Regular Visitor Joined: Mar 17, 2004 Posts: 165

Hang on guys, apologies if you thought that i was aiming at you. Not at all, i was thinking more in general terms, myself included, that we were all sounding like it was a major issue, and i would hate to give the impression to prospective new buyers that this is a reason not to buy.
Secondly, Yes sifi my Go is the 4.120 which i believe is the latest version, so i would assume that the uk shipments are all the latest kit.

Wonderwall · Posted: Tue Jul 06, 2004 11:02 pm Post subject:

Sifi..its very logical mate, its even showed me some new routes in my local area I thought I new well, this is one Brilliant little machine..and 4.21 is bang up to date..

OZ · Regular Visitor Joined: Mar 17, 2004 Posts: 165

Sorry i did the same, obviously i meant version 4.210.

Hardnuts2Crack · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jul 05, 2004 Posts: 9

I tested the TT last night by driving from my house to south London, a 9 mile journey that normally takes me about 45 minutes. TT first came up with the route I normally take but, because I wanted to try it out, I ordered an alternative route. It claimed the new one would take 34 minutes. It did, in fact, take precisely 34 minutes, which I found astonishing given London traffic at that time. One minor wobble when it lost the satellite signal and placed me in the middle of an office block, but it found itself within two or three seconds and got me back on track.

Of course, even though the map data is as up to date as possible, there are bound to be inconsistencies: a couple of roundabouts have been replaced with traffic lights, for example. Once or twice I deliberately strayed from the route to see what would happen, and TT immediately recalculated a route that would take me back on target.

Not having to think about where I was going, even on familiar roads, made the journey the most stress-free one I have ever enjoyed in London. I'm really knocked out by the ease of use of this device: touch-screen selection of town and road names is enhanced by a memory for recent searches, and all the options are easy to find and customise.

Most impressive of all is the accuracy to which individual buildings are targeted. Inputting not just the name of the street but the house number delivered me, every time, precisely to the door: "You have reached your destination" is announced when you're directly outside the number you've requested.

It's been a couple of years since I last experimented with a GPS unit (that was another TomTom product on a Psion 7) and I'm amazed at the improvement. I'll never drive without it, now.

Oh, and as for the screen smudge issue - just use the back of your fingernail instead. No problem.

sifi · Posted: Wed Jul 07, 2004 9:02 am Post subject:

Thanks for the replies. Now where's my credit card ...

Dave · Posted: Wed Jul 07, 2004 9:03 am Post subject:

Dave · Posted: Wed Jul 07, 2004 9:05 am Post subject:

BanziBarn · Regular Visitor Joined: Jun 24, 2004 Posts: 82

I've seen a vid of the unit being tested in Paris and the TomTom guy uses his nail of his little finder, with his palm pointing up - I'll be trying this to see if it improves the smudge situation!

Syt · Occasional Visitor Joined: Feb 29, 2004 Posts: 16

sifi · Posted: Wed Jul 07, 2004 5:20 pm Post subject:

Yes I agree. When I had a Psion touch screen and couldn't be bothered to get the stylus out, the back of a nail worked fine and left no marks.

alanmcg · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jul 07, 2004 Posts: 3

Hi
nOOb here. Just got my TomTom Go from Expansys in superfast time (who seem to have still charged me the 450 price originally listed)...
As my first foray into GPS routefinders I can say its great. Really easy to use, looks very cool and much nicer than the Garmin things - they just look so trainspotter compared to this.

screen / display - The 3d visualisations great, and although the screen is pretty shiny, with a bit of angling it is more than usable in bright sunlight. The numbers section (times, distances, speed etc) is pretty small so on my Audi windscreen mount its quite far away.

Startup - time was about 2min before it pinpointed my address. Unit came fully charged too! Came in Ipod style box with good cut to the chase startup leaflet with just pictures on it.

Route entry is pretty good - I found keying in on screen really easy and saving favourties very simple. One thing I cant figure out is how to save routes rather than destinations. I live in London and it always wants to send me up the M1 to my favourite destinations. If I want to go up e.g. the A1(M) the only way I have found is to browse on the map until I find a town near the motorway and choose a road which junctions with the motorway. I'd much rather be able to choose "route via" and be able to select motorway junctions to help constrain it a little, and then save that route. Any of you experts able to help?

On the road - I found it always had me spot on the right road facing the right way. Occasionally it would get my rate of turn wrong and have me moving sideways on the road, but nothing serious. Overshooting resulted in recalculating before even getting to the next street junction. In tunnels the ASN kicked in and seemed to work well, even through a long one like Blackwall tunnel.

Speaker vol is great - really loud

Battery life -seems great - used for 2 hrs today and only 1/3 down the battery meter.

Windscreen mount - seems ok. Can't for the life of me get it tight enough though - seems to slowly creep down til it touches the dash. Docking mechanism is pretty good though, esp with the charger pass through on the back.

Overall I'd thoroughly recommend...

Now all I need to do is figure out how to load speed camera locations into it. Anyone help with idiots guide to that too?

Alan.

Darren

OZ · Regular Visitor Joined: Mar 17, 2004 Posts: 165

As for the route, try alternative route icon.
The mount, umm... i am really surprised you say that as mine is probably the toughest fix i have ever had with a suction cup, but i stopped useing it because as you rightly say it puts the unit too far away.
As for speed camera's, dream on. Read some of the other posts here. We may be lucky enough to get to be able to use custom poi's and 3rd party apps later but at present it looks like only poi's.
Hope this helps and have fun with the toy.

MrRubberGloves · Posted: Wed Jul 07, 2004 8:45 pm Post subject:

OZ · Regular Visitor Joined: Mar 17, 2004 Posts: 165

Blimey rubber gloves have you got a spare hour!!.
seriously buddy i spent the whole of sunday arvo thinking this through, as the windscreen mount was to far away and the mount sat the unit up too high for my liking.
So what i settled on after much thought and trial and error was to get the sticky round baseplate and use the rectangular shaped base from my ipaq2210 TomTom car kit and stuck that to the baseplate of the GO kit. The reason for this was to sit the unit up a little so you can get the power lead in the back jack. Next i took the cradle connector from the GO setup and took it apart upto the piece that connects to the main body, a wheeled bolt passes through it.
Next i got the piece i stuck on the GO baseplate and lined up the locating holes to the hole in the rectangular ipaq base and screwed the wheeled bolt through the holes and into the base, luckily enough the threads and size are the same and screwed it up tight. Sits at a lovely height and just to the left of the speedo cowling, being a left hooker it works for me.
Admittedly it is a pain having to do this, especially if you dont have the spare bits, but a little improvision will see you with something that works for you.
Hopefully in time a more compact mount will surface, it is a shame that the original sits up too high because it really is a rock solid mount.

	PocketGPS
	Web