11 out of 11 people found this review helpful.
Average Unit - Many Short Comings - Why Pay $600
Date of Review: Sep 4, 2006
The Bottom Line: If I paid $300 I would have written a very different review. But at $600, look for something else.
The unit works out of the box and is easy to use as stated, however there are many shortcomings one needs to be aware of. Rather than re-hash everything that is on the website and easily obtainable, I will focus on an honest and candid review after using it on a week long driving intensive vacation in three very different types of locations:
1. Ocean City New Jersey - Suburban area with many well established tourist attractions and restaurants.
2. Cape May New Jersey - A well established tourist destination.
3. Philadelphia and Manhattan - Large cities.
Set-up:
As I mentioned before, hooking up the unit and getting it started and connected to my Razor V3C (on Verizon) worked fine. Since my phone is not compatible, I had to use the Bluetooth wireless speakerphone setting only. It sucked in my contacts from the phone with no problems. All is well so far.
Destination Planning:
I type in my first destination, the Marriott Fairway Villas Resrot near Ocean City, New Jersey. The unit finds the destination with relative ease and we are off and on our way. It tells me to take the Holland Tunnel rather than the George Washington Bridge or the Lincoln Tunnel. This confirms my suspicion that the Holland Tunnel is the shortest route. However, after listening to the radio, the back-up is a half hour at the Holland Tunnel and only five minutes at the Lincoln. I decide to go for the Lincoln. Once I get into Manhattan, the unit does a good job of re-routing my trip through the Lincoln. So far everything is great. However, pet peeve number 1 sets in. The trouble starts when I go across the city on 36th street. I then try to make a left turn to head into the tunnel entrance but the unit does not recognize the avenue. How can that be, the avenue was built long before I was born 38 years ago. Otherwise all is going well.
We get to the Marriott Fairway Villas Resort but the unit tells me to turn into the hotel rather than the resort (about a 1/8 mile off). So my wife has to run into the Hotel to get the rest of the directions. This turns out to be pet peeve 2 and something I can not overlook. First, the resort has been there sine the late 90's. Second, it was off by a 1/8 mile. Lastly, it does not announce which road to turn on so on many occasions, when there are several roads in close proximity, you have to read the display to see which one to turn on. Not a very good idea considering that you are first reading very small print and second taking your eyes off the road too frequently.
After we arrive, we decide to go off the resort for dinner. We plug in the restaurant and we find it no problem. We then have the GPS take us back to the resort, it aims for the hotel so we ignore the GPS and make the adjustments on our own.
The next day, we decide to go to the Ocean City Boardwalk and the GPS navigates us well. However, when we get near the destination, it had us turn right too soon into a dead end. However, it recognizes the boardwalk as an accessible street and tells us to turn left. Unfortunately, there is no road, one can only walk on the board walk. So, we turn around and make the adjustments on our own to find the place while the GPS keeps trying to get us to turn right then left into more dead end streets. So, we hit pet peeve number 3. The unit is unable to recognize a road from a walkway.
On the way back from the resort, we decide to go to a restaurant that we saw advertized on a billbord. We plug it into the GPS and it recognizes the place. We find it with no troubles. On the return trip to the resort, it again tries to get us back to the hotel. So, we manually make the adjustments.
The next night, we decide to go into Ocean City for dinner. The GPS gets us there no problem. On the return, the unit gets confused and has us doing circles for a little while until we decide to just wing it. A block later, the unit reorientates itself and again has us going to the hotel not the resort. So again, we make the manual adjustment.
The next day we check out of the resort and head to a hotel in Wildwood New Jersey. As we head toward the hotel, it had us make the wrong left turn. Then it tried to get us back on course but takes us way off mark. We make the manual adjustments and we are back on track again. As we get close to the hotel, since it is on the beach, the GPS navigates us into a dead end street and tries to get us to make a left turn on the beach. We ignore the unit and get to the hotel on our own. I am really starting to wonder why I need a GPS if the darn thing almost gets us to the destination.
That evening, we decide to go to the boardwalk at Wildwood Crest. The unit gets us close but again navigates us into a dead-end block and tries to get us to make a left turn on the boardwalk. We manually adjust and get to our desination. We look up a restaurant and find it no problem. The untit returns us to the hotel no problems this time as we are approaching from the opposite direction.
The next day, we have the unit bring us to the center of Cape May (no specific address). The unit has us make the wrong turn again and we are off by a good two miles before we relaize we are headed in the wrong direction (with no arnings from the unit). If we had not recognized it, we would have been drignin for 8 more miles. We turn around and the unit redirects us back on track. We make it back to the desintation with no further problems. On our return trip, we decide to go to the Cape May Lighthouse. The unit leaves us at the entrance of a walking trail, not the parking lot for the lighthouse. Our return trip goes without any problems back to the hotel.
The next day, we decide to go to Atlantic City. We arrive with no problems and get back to the hotel with no problems.
The next day we head to Philadelphia. We get to our destination with no problems. Once in the City, we try to use to GPS to find a japanese restaurant. This is the first time we try to use the unit while walking. A total disaster. First, the unit can not find a signal for 15 minutes. Then, it had me walking in circles in a 20 foot radius. The unit is confused and possessed. I try to hold it still and stop walking and the unti loses its signal again. We get frustrated and pull out our map and find the restaurant and the remaining museums we wanted to see for the next two days because the GPS is possessed. It keeps losing the signal and had me walking in circles.
The final day of our trip, we decide to stop at New Hope PA on the way home. The unit cant find a GPS signal so we instead use the printed directions on the unit. Once we get onto the interstate, the thing finally finds the signal and we arrive at the destination with no other problems.
After lunch, we decide to drive home. unfortunately, the unit has no singal so we wait until it gets one. About 15 minutes later, it gets the signal and we are off driving in circles because the unit is confused. So I decide to aim in one direction and a block later, it realizes where it is and navigates us back to the interstate fine.
One the return trip home from New Hope, the unit is aiming for the Holland Tunnel which has 39 minute plus delays. So, I decided to take the George Washington Brige. However, we hit traffic the radio had not known about so I get off the interstate and decide to go for the Lincoln Tunnel. The dang thing is lost around Giants Stadium. It has me going in circles. I find my own way to route 3 and then the thing eventually directs me to the Lincoln Tunnel, through Manhattan and all the way home with no problems.
I have decided that the unit has problems or I have a defective unit. It is going back to the shop before the 30 day return policy runs out. I think I will try a different brand to see if I have similar problems. It takes too long to get the initial signal at times. It had trouble recognizing established roads.
Other things I tried out during my trip:
Making and Receiving Calls -
Making calls from the contact list and/or dialing a number worked flawlessly. Receiving calls also worked flawlessly. However, the short coming here is that to have handsfree, it would be nice if you could use the features of the phone with the unit and tell it to call a contact rather than having to take youe eyes off the road and click a bunch of options on the screen. Not sure if this is possible with a compatible phone so maybe another epinions user could write that up.
Planning a Destination -
This was relatively straightforward and easy to do. You can search of a point of interest or type in an address.
Reception -
I had a tough time using this unit in Philadelphia. It would take 10 - 15 minutes to connect to a GPS satellite forcing me to rely on turn by turn written directions which are also included in the unit. Nice but do you really expect to take your eyes off the road with a GPS to read turn by turn directions on a 4 inch screen?
Included Equipment
The windshield mount is crap. The unit is too heavy for the mount. So, whenever you hit a bump, the unit slides down causing you to constantly re-adjust it. This has to be a manufacgturing flaw. Also, placing the unit on the mount is difficult unless you clip it on just right. If you try to swivel the unit on the mount, it falls off. Not what you would expect in a $600 unit. TomTom should think about recalling the mounts.
The included microphone works well enough for the front and back seat passengers to all converse with a caller.
The volume for the speaker on the unit is kind of weak. It would be nice if it had an FM modulator so that you can play it on the auusio system. This way, you could also play some MP3s on the audio system.
Construction and Durability
I was very dissappinted with the quality of the unit. The rubber anti-slip piece on the bottom of the unit is falling off after one week of use. As I mentioned above, the mount is crap. It just plain does not work. The lighter power cord seems weak and is a pain to plug in. It seems to be too big for the hole. I cant see it lasting long if you have to tug at it to disconnect it.
Display
This is the best part of the device. It is large and bright. the touch screen works well. However, I have large fingers so some of the touch screen command buttons are quite small, like choosing a point of interest or scrolling, making it too easy to click on the wrong thing.
Other Features:
The TomTom Plus service is not available in the states so not of any use to us Yanks.
Overall:
Nice unit but I think the shortcomings outweigh the positives. I am regturning to the store to try something else. I can not see paying $600 for this thing.
