Gadgets: TomTom XL 340 In-Car GPS Navigator – Review – 78
Now that Navman looks dead in the water, the way is clear for Dutch incumbent TomTom to sling it out on the in-car GPS front with Garmin, although you have to wonder just how much impact GPS mapping on mobile phones is having on the sales of dedicated navigation devices.
TomTom has quickly proven its strengths in the New Zealand market as it has done elsewhere: simple navigation of the navigator (!) via intuitive menu interface and sensible features.
This latest mid-price model (the cheapest unit to feature a widescreen) has a couple of significant advances on last year’s efforts. IQ Routes is genuinely useful, as it crunches accumulated road usage data to change the recommended route depending on the time of day. Of course, it’s not real-time like some overseas services, but we do live in the boondocks, after all.
TomTom has also at last added street names to its voice instructions, which has certain benefits but also means that you end up with some twisted pronunciations of Maori names.
While the new unit is typically TomTom in all kinds of positive ways, this reviewer found that it took up to two minutes to find the GPS signal after switching on, which was a big frustration when in a hurry. And despite it being a brand new model, in several instances the mapping was way out of date (by a year or more). Both of these are crucial points and somewhat let the unit down.
GARY STEEL
TomTom XL 340 In-Car GPS Navigator – Tech Specs
- 4.3-inch, 480 x 272 touchscreen
- IQ Routes
- TomTom Map Share technology
- TomTom Home desktop application
- TomTom Help Me! menu for emergencies
- Red light and speed camera locations
- Built-in speaker
- Speed limit warning
- USB connectivity
DIMENSIONS: 119 x 23 x 81mm (W/D/H)
Verdict
Some useful new features, but needs a few practical tweaks
Loading ...