TomTom, the largest GPS manufacturer and mapping software developer in the world has just entered the New Zealand market with the launch of two of their models. For a couple of weeks I had the TomTom One XL with us in the car so that we could test it.

The first impression counts a lot, and the unit is nicely designed with just an on/off button – all user interaction is done through its 4.3 inch touch screen interface (480 x 272 pixels), which is really sensitive and easy to use with nice large icons. It is not a large unit by any means, measuring 119 x 86 x 27 mm and weighing only 208 grams.





Icons are what you get – the TomTom One XL provides a large number of features, including navigation, point of interest information, traffic information (not yet available in New Zealand), configurations options and even first-aid instructions.

Maps are downloaded to the TomTom On XL and stored on its main memory (512 MB), but you can use SD memory cards to store more maps or even store files.



A desktop application allows you to download updates from TomTom’s website, and install on your device. This includes new software, additional maps you can purchase or other information.

For example, the TomTom One XL has the fastest time to get a fix I have ever seen, thanks small data files you can download and transfer to unit, containing information on satellite ephemerides. With this data the GPS knows where to find the satellites in the sky given the current date and time, instead of having to scan the sky, like other GPS devices do.

Navigation works really well, although once while driving around an inlet it reported our car on the correct side but showing the wrong road name – the one that would be on the other side of the inlet. And the distance was quite considerable between roads.

It also allows you to select different voices such as American male or female – but my wife couldn’t really see the Kiwi accent when we selected New Zealand male and female voices.

Instructions are loud and clear, although we both notice that coming to roundabouts are kind of funny experience. With other software such as the Navman we hear “At the roundabout take the third exit on your right”, while the TomTom says something like “On the roundabout go straight through, third exit”. When I hear “straight at roundabout” I understand the instructions as “continue on this road, do not take exits”. Probably something the Europeans say?

The TomTom charges from standard USB and you will find a cigarette lighter charger for use in the car. It also comes with a car holder that you attach to the windscreen – convenient and easy to slide the unit in and out of it.

This model also comes equipped with Bluetooth and you can pair it with a mobile phone so that it can access the Internet – important for traffic information downloads but not yet available here.

At this point TomTom have not announced New Zealand maps for their Windows Mobile map client software, which I would like to use. But the dedicated GPS and navigation device is very convenient, with a larger and easier to read screen than you would find on a Pocket PC, so it is not a bad replacement.

Pros

Over the Internet updates

Quick satellite fix

Clear voice and good selection of accents

USB charging

Cons

Recalculating a route may take time (not excessive) and the first instructions comes too near the road you need to take.



More information: http://www.tomtom.com...

Comments

 

Comment posted by pebbles on 20-NOV-2007 00:16

I have been told at work that you are able to have celebrity voices telling you where to go, is this true and if so who's voices are there?

 

Comment posted by lotech on 20-NOV-2007 07:40

There are both 3rd party and official TomTom voice packs available - authentic celebs and really bad attempts at them.

As for the XL - it is good to finally have TomTom here in NZ, and with authentic NZ accents on the navigation - disappointing to have no extras in the XL - even though it has Bluetooth it can't do handsfree (just traffic updates - costly on NZ data plans) - also no MP3 player or photo viewer. I've had a Garmin for nearly a year and I like it. I think the TomTom is the best GPS for nothing but navigation alone but a Garmin 310 wins for features.

 

Comment posted by BPWool on 20-NOV-2007 19:28

I have also played with them - nice units. I strongly encourage Tom Tom to make available the Pocket PC version with NZ Maps - none of the major players have done this (yet) and looks like plenty of demand for it (myself included) from various posts.
Cheers

 

Comment posted by bvalleygirl on 22-NOV-2007 08:35

We used TomTom One in Europe and never had one fight!  It was totally worth the Euros we paid for that alone.  Never got lost, found service stations and food when we needed it and even accommodation.
We havent got the NZ map yet, but since we are in the accommodation business, we may do if the price is right, for the use of our guests when they head to the city.

 

Comment posted by portege on 4-DEC-2007 02:41

I currently reside in London and have just bought one of these babies - great device for only £149.99!!! Anyone anyone know how much will a NZ map cost?

 

Comment posted by cheeba23 on 4-DEC-2007 14:09

While living in the UK, I had a TomTom One v1 and found it aboslutely invaluable. When I moved back to NZ in Dec 06, I sadly had to part with it as there were no NZ maps available at the time. Needless to say, when TomTom finally came to NZ, I snapped one up as soon as finances allowed (day before yesterday, in fact!)

I was pleased to see the NZ maps are as reliable as the UK ones. I drove from Dunedin to Picton along SH1 with it, and one feature in my mind stood out - the map has information on speed limit zones. It knows as you move from a 100km/h to a 70km/h zone, and as the unit calculates how fast you are travelling on-the-fly, it will emit a subtle warning tone if you are travelling beyond the speed limit. May be annoying for some, but I believe you can turn this off.

Hopefully the TomTom NZ user base gets bigger, and a support site similar to pocketgpsworld.com starts up, so that we can share and download POIs and map corrections.

 

Comment posted by bluedisk on 11-DEC-2007 09:53

Thanks for a helpful review. Its always interesting to have a product tested locally especially when it relies on a mapping system that is criticised on US websites.

Navigation works really well, although once while driving around an inlet it reported our car on the correct side but showing the wrong road name – the one that would be on the other side of the inlet. And the distance was quite considerable between roads.

Its a worry if it shows the wrong road name, isn't it. It undermines any claim of being a good navigation tool.


Instructions are loud and clear, although we both notice that coming to roundabouts are kind of funny experience. With other software such as the Navman we hear “At the roundabout take the third exit on your right”, while the TomTom says something like “On the roundabout go straight through, third exit”. When I hear “straight at roundabout” I understand the instructions as “continue on this road, do not take exits”. Probably something the Europeans say?

This sounds really confusing. Although some units refer to a roundabout as a "traffic circle", thats a new one for me. Is there a way to switch this idiom to a local version I wonder?

Recalculating a route may take time (not excessive) and the first instructions comes too near the road you need to take.

I have only used a Magellan "Neverlost" GPS in the United States and that always gave plenty of warning in advance of any turns ahead. Is it a big problem to those who have used this gps?
This last comment in an otherwise useful review has me worried.

 

Comment posted by freitasm on 11-DEC-2007 10:06

I wouldn't worry too much. I think the instructions came late because of a combination of factors:

1.noticing that I was off route
2.recalculating
3.next turn was just half block away

In general the unit will give you turn announcements about 200m away, which works well. It looks like the behaviour I've seen happen when the distance between the turn and the route is too short.

 

Comment posted by bluedisk on 11-DEC-2007 11:06

Thanks for the explanation, that makes sense.

 

Comment posted by PDAMan on 18-DEC-2007 17:41

I'm going to be trialling one over the holidays. I have a One, but now I'll try the One XL which has many more features. One feature I hope to try is the Buddy Feature if my friends at Voda will loan me a phone as neither of my current Voda phones (BlackBerry 3707 and previous generation iMate are compatible even though they do pair with Bluetooth. The ability to see where friends are that you might want to meet, or someone who's missing out of a convoy is pretty cool.

Not that I'm a geek or anything but I'm keen to try all the features including recording voice instructions etc.

I'll let you know what transpires.

 

Comment posted by raftcomm on 26-DEC-2007 01:04

I just received this as a Christmas present from the wife today and am loving it so far although i havent really taken it around to use it yet.

One of the biggest downside for me with this device out of the box is that the residential areas, especially the eastern suburbs of Auckland arent able to be located when using the Navigate To option. The irony is that when you browse the maps, you can actually see the road and the number of the houses along the road. I tried searching for my own address and couldnt find it but was eventually able to locate it when using the Browse Map option. The street options out East is extremely limited. It does get better as you search closer to the main city however.

I can see that Tomtom has since released a version 7.11 of the NZ maps for this device. Would love to hear some reviews on it before i would purchase it. ie: Can anyone find streets out east like Botany Road or Union Road through the Navigate To option?

 

Comment posted by rscole86 on 29-DEC-2007 10:47

You do not have to purchase the map, from when you register your unit online, you have a 30 day map gaurantee. Ie, if a new map is released within 30 days of registering you get a free upgrade/update

 

Comment posted by bradstewart on 29-DEC-2007 23:16

How much do updated maps cost?

 

Comment posted by fai on 30-DEC-2007 09:18

It's on special in DSE. Only costs $410 now. Just bought one online.

 

Comment posted by rscole86 on 30-DEC-2007 10:19

The updated map for NZ costs AUD$150.

http://www.tomtom.com/products/maps/select.php select your model, and which map you want and it will then tell you the price.

 

Comment posted by paradoxsm on 5-JAN-2008 09:50

it's an awesome unit. Compared to most i have used it "just worked" and was very intuitive. I Had a chance to have a good play with it yesterday. The only downside was that i could not use it's internal gps as a remote device over bluetooth. Having two navigators concurrently would just be awesome.


476.6500

 

Comment posted by allstarnz on 23-JAN-2008 21:18

having spent about a month using this around Australia, I can highly recommend the TomTom One XL. It is quite intuitive and straight forward, even for those who aren't very tech savvy.

As long as the maps for NZ are as good as those of Aus, there are plenty of good way points, ranging from where's the closest Burger King, to where is 'insert landmark name'

Please login or register to post a comment on this article.