Sat Nav Neebie Needs Help

happyhotspur · Occasional Visitor Joined: Mar 16, 2008 Posts: 25

I am in the process of purchasing my first Sat Nav system. I will use it for mainly travel in Europe (Spain) and occasional trips back to the UK. I have spent hours trawling various Sat Nav review sites and comparing various systems. This forum is a great help but I have now narrowed it down to three units but cannot decide between them. There is a substantial price difference and I understand the difference between the basic module (Garman Nuvi 250W) and the more expensive (TomTom One XL Europe & Navman S90i) but I do not want to buy a system that in two years time is obsolete.

As I do not have a Bluetooth mobile at present (although this could change over the coming years) I am struggleing to justify to myself why I would need this facility. the same with TMC etc at present most of my jouneys would be for pleasure with no time scales for arrivals or departures so would knowing that I might be stuck in a traffic congestion really be a problem.

Then there is the speed camera technology do they work for Europe and how often would you need to update them, is it really worth the extra just to know in advance where the speed cameras are that you should not be speeding near anyway?

Any help, advice & experiences would be appreciated, please be gentle this is my first post

many thanks

mikealder · Posted: Sun Mar 16, 2008 10:09 am Post subject:

Welcome to the forum, for ease of use I would go with the One XL as it is the easiest to use and offers the best future upgrade path based upon past history.
All three on your short list will have some degree of upgradeability but this will vary from a simple map upgrade to comple new software and/ or maps, only TomTom out of your list have offered this sort of service over the years.

Speed Cameras do work accross Europe, although its best not to use them in Switzerland where it deemed illegal to have them on the GPS device, there are a number of sources for the database, the three sat nav companies on your shortlist offer their own database, or you can use the one from this site, or a mixture - its up to you - Mike

happyhotspur · Occasional Visitor Joined: Mar 16, 2008 Posts: 25

Thank you for your speedy reply, I had sort of made up my mind on the TomTom 1 XL Europe, but some of the threads I had read had made me look closer at the other two.

The only other area of concern is that I am sure I read somewhere that TomTom is not compatable with Windows Vista which I am currently running, will this be a problem?

mikealder · Posted: Sun Mar 16, 2008 10:35 am Post subject:

I use 32 bit Vista Ultimate and have no problems with any of the 5 TomTom units sat in front of the PC, one of which is an XL.

What have you heard that doesn't work? - Mike

happyhotspur · Occasional Visitor Joined: Mar 16, 2008 Posts: 25

I maybe mistaken but I thought I read somewhere that there were problems with Vista Home Prenium which I run but if not then you have helped to make up my mind and I will go for the tt1XLEurope, at present it is on offer with Dixons at £167.99 via an internet order including pp, I would also purchase the mains charger as it does not come with one.

once again many thanks

john877 · Lifetime Member Joined: Mar 16, 2007 Posts: 468

I think all three will get you from A to B without any problems !!!
I suggest you go and have a look at them in the shops you will get an idea of which you prefer !! It really is down to personal preference at the end of the day .

In the UK the Tomtom 720 is about £22 more to buy than the One XL .
Does the 720 have any features that you may find useful if not now but in the future it may be worth spending that little extra

Tomtom are releasing there X30 range in the near future!! have a look at the specification on them and see if it would be worth waiting

happyhotspur · Occasional Visitor Joined: Mar 16, 2008 Posts: 25

Thanks John, again very informative but as I stated before it just keeps adding to the confusion.

I looked at the 720 and as you say it is only £22 more but looking at the features I really do not know if I would ever use them or not and this is always the difficulty. I have been to Halfords (no help whatsoever as the salesperson must have known less than me judging by his help and the same at PCWorld).

Where can I get information on the X30 range?

mikealder · Posted: Sun Mar 16, 2008 11:35 am Post subject:

john877 · Lifetime Member Joined: Mar 16, 2007 Posts: 468

If you do decide to buy a One XL or a 720 you may find some of the newer features of the X30 range may be available via map updates ( at a charge) and software updates ( usually free) at a later stage

happyhotspur · Occasional Visitor Joined: Mar 16, 2008 Posts: 25

Thanks for all your help, like I stated originally the more information you receive the more you are confused as to what to get. I am now torn between the XL 1 Europe and the 720, but should I wait until the new X30 range are released and then what about the X40 after that and the X50 after that. Its a bit like staying with Windows98, 2000, XP, or Vista!

My heads hurting

Stop it!

happyhotspur · Occasional Visitor Joined: Mar 16, 2008 Posts: 25

Just seen the TT720 Europe on special with Comet for £154 & the TTone XL europe from Amazon for £159, now in a real quandary as to what to purchase. I had really made up my mind to go with the XL one europe, but if the 720 is cheaper should I now go for this one?

algypan · Posted: Thu Mar 20, 2008 3:56 pm Post subject:

Hi Happy hotspur. I think at that price you should go for the 720 it is a nice piece of kit and as far as all the extras are concerned you are better off having them for future reference (even if you dont need them now).
I have a tomtom520 and I am over the moon with it I upgraded from a tomtom1original the only difference to the 720 is that 720 is europe maps
and 520 is uk and ireland
Ihope this helps
Allan

chris_ah1 · Regular Visitor Joined: Feb 24, 2008 Posts: 106

Do you use bluetooth? I've heard of a lot of problems with the TT units regarding bluetooth and the tomtom home software amongst other issues.

I've also found that the TT screens need to be treated very carefully as they are prone (more so than other units I've had experience with) to failure with the touch interface. I've also found that they are quite variable in terms of performance - e.g. all garmin 200W series I've used are slow in map scrolling, and all 700 series are faster, but some tomtoms (with replicated display options) are fast and some worryingly slow as in you have to wait for them to catch up after every click despite reset.

I'm not a fanboy of any brand since I haven't chosen between the TT, navigon, Mio and garmin camps yet, but just beware of the pitfalls of choosing any one over another as with anything in life.

	PocketGPS
	Web