Gadgets: TomTom GPS Navigator – Review – 74

At the risk of sounding like a stuck record, I find it necessary to admit a certain predisposition to in-car navigation devices. In fact, I love GPS. Not because I’m hopeless at finding my way around, but because there’s something grand about having a disembodied voice telling you where to go, and choosing to ignore it if you’ve got 
other ideas.

TomTom’s revised One is as good and as quick at accepting the driver’s changes of mind and diversions to the plan as it is at… well, just about everything that gets flung at it. If you do decide to take a slightly different route, it asks you once, nicely, to turn around. But if you don’t, it accepts your verdict and adjusts to the new road without further ado. I mention this because with GPS, and the inevitable repetition of voice cues, these things become important. Some GPS units have the capacity to nag like the classic mother-in-law when you make a sudden change of route. Similarly, some GPS units take a few minutes to get their new bearings.

The new TomTom One is a slightly slimmer unit than the previous version, and its window suction mount has been simplified so that it’s much easier to remove. The suction mount is my only real grumble, but it’s not specific to TomTom: with the proliferation of GPS thieves around (who will break into a car when they see the tell-tale sign of a rubber suction circle on the window), surely it’s time to look at completely new mounting options. I have my unit just floating loose in the car, usually on the passenger seat, because of this, and it is a nuisance.

Generally speaking, the previous TomTom already had it so right that the new One is a story of tweaking rather than major innovations, although I did discover a fun factor with this model. Currently, I have it set so that whenever I pass a church a cuckoo sounds, and whenever I pass a winery there’s a triumphant trumpet fanfare. It’s a good feature, that.

And finally, it’s possible to get the voice to announce New Zealand street names and addresses. This is something that TomTom took some time to introduce (previously it was just “you have reached your destination”) because of the difficulty of getting Maori pronunciations right. And believe me, certain other companies have really cocked this feature up, hilariously so for pedants.

The GeoSmart maps are reliably, er, reliable, although I did, as always, find a few instances where new roading configurations hadn’t been updated. TomTom’s ingenious answer to this problem is TomTom Map Share, a new facility that allows users to make corrections to their own map and pass these on to the greater body of TomTom owners [see box].

TomTom has got all the important things right: a touchscreen that even the technologically impaired could work out in a minute, a speaker that’s loud and clear (and easily adjustable against road noise), an endless range of voice options (I like the plum-in-her-mouth, BBC-style English marm), speed camera and speed limit warnings (I have a cow mooing when I exceed 100kph). It’s even got password protection so those bastards, if they do steal it, can’t use it.

GARY STEEL

TECH SPECS

One
GPS Navigator
$399

Display: 3.5-inch touchscreen
Mapping software: GeoSmart NZ map (pre-installed)
Battery life: 3 hours
Features:
-    TomTom Map Share
-    EasyPort mount
-    Automatic day/night mode
-    Password protection
-    TomTom Home compatibility (free software updates, map purchases, personalised screen shots)

CONTACT

www.tomtom.nz

PROS

• Simple to use

• Responsive GPS signal

• Intuitive touchscreen

• Improved suction mount

• Voices with New Zealand names and pronunciations

CONS

• A generic in-car GPS problem: needs new idea for mounting to prevent thief visibility

VERDICT

• I couldn’t live without my TomTom

This review is from Tone issue #74.