Pre Christmas run:
Had to go to Naples via Venlo (Holland) just before crimple and my old Tommy is only 'main road Europe' so not good enough to find any little streets in any city in Europe.
Being as this call was literally a 'last minute' shout I had no time to source a bargain buy anywhere. so I stopped at 'Tesco' by the roundabout just short of the terminal in Dover - it was just before 1 am! (Boat at 2am) they had a fair range of sat navs to be fair. But only 1 that was any good in Europe.
It cost £189.99p which is not what I was looking to part with!
With nothing else available, I bit the bullet and set fire to my card
.
Waiting for the boat (Norfolk line) I had a play with the new toy - it comes with all the usual stuff - MP3, voice input, cell phone bluetooth and such likes. It also came with 3 months free 'LIVE' service - which I am a complete newcomer to.
Apparently, it tells of hold-ups before you get to them, so saving you time by allowing you the opportunity to avoid them.
It also allows you to programme a trip with multiple stops (destinations) so it could be useful for a travelling holiday planner.
I tapped in the address in Venray (nr Venlo) - enough for now, as I had no way of knowing the exact address in Naples yet.
I used my old Tom Tom alongside the new one, to compare their performance.
My initial findings:
TOM TOM has ditched the 'point compass to destination' (TO destination pointer) that I like so much, in favour of a pathetic little arrowhead that is not easy to see.
Useing the unit is as straight forward as ever, with good postcode and address usability and with enough POI's to please anyone.
Visually, I prefer the new unit, it is certainly an improvement on my old one - it is now a sleek, slim unit sitting in a new cradle - which itself takes a bit of getting used to - it has a very clear screen, even in good sun, and changeable colours for mapping day or night etc - you can even choose a car symbol as your pointer!
So how does it do then?
It's a bit more 'fussy' than the old one, it has far too much detail sometimes - and I think the zoom out for junctions and turns could be a little earlier - on very complicated junctions - like that one outside Eindhoven - it could'nt make up its mind which way it wanted to go (the old unit had no such qualms - it didn't know any better than to charge straight through)
There are several built in ideas that I do like, one being the drag a route bit, whereby you drag the route line off course to include a new route, or perhaps, include a particular poi, and Tommy instantly comes up with a new milage figure.
It found it's way to Naples with no problems, even to within 20 meters of the address I wanted (not bad over 2000+kms)
There is a short coming in the address input stage though - I couldn't see how to add an address that contained a letter i.e. 47A. There could well be a method for it, though I didn't find it. Consequently, when you are faced with an industrial area where one entire area is '47' and you are looking for A, B, C etc. it can be a bit of a problem.
Overall then?
A very good sat nav, that is clear and easy to use, with touch screen input and loads of gizmo's that I would never use.
Likes:
Large clear screen, ease of use and live traffic updates. A very good battery life - mine seemed to go for ages even when not plugged in.
Dislikes:
I wasn't very happy about the unit asking me every so often 'there is a new route that is 4 mins* quicker than your present route, do you want to choose the new route?' (*it could be 4, 5, or 25 minutes)
Would I recommend it?
With the array of sat nav's about, it is certainly one to keep an eye on. Though Garmin also do a beauty, I haven't had the pleasure of it's company, if you own one, how about giving us the benefit of your experiencies?
All the best, George
Had to go to Naples via Venlo (Holland) just before crimple and my old Tommy is only 'main road Europe' so not good enough to find any little streets in any city in Europe.
Being as this call was literally a 'last minute' shout I had no time to source a bargain buy anywhere. so I stopped at 'Tesco' by the roundabout just short of the terminal in Dover - it was just before 1 am! (Boat at 2am) they had a fair range of sat navs to be fair. But only 1 that was any good in Europe.
It cost £189.99p which is not what I was looking to part with!
With nothing else available, I bit the bullet and set fire to my card
.Waiting for the boat (Norfolk line) I had a play with the new toy - it comes with all the usual stuff - MP3, voice input, cell phone bluetooth and such likes. It also came with 3 months free 'LIVE' service - which I am a complete newcomer to.
Apparently, it tells of hold-ups before you get to them, so saving you time by allowing you the opportunity to avoid them.
It also allows you to programme a trip with multiple stops (destinations) so it could be useful for a travelling holiday planner.
I tapped in the address in Venray (nr Venlo) - enough for now, as I had no way of knowing the exact address in Naples yet.
I used my old Tom Tom alongside the new one, to compare their performance.
My initial findings:
TOM TOM has ditched the 'point compass to destination' (TO destination pointer) that I like so much, in favour of a pathetic little arrowhead that is not easy to see.
Useing the unit is as straight forward as ever, with good postcode and address usability and with enough POI's to please anyone.
Visually, I prefer the new unit, it is certainly an improvement on my old one - it is now a sleek, slim unit sitting in a new cradle - which itself takes a bit of getting used to - it has a very clear screen, even in good sun, and changeable colours for mapping day or night etc - you can even choose a car symbol as your pointer!
So how does it do then?
It's a bit more 'fussy' than the old one, it has far too much detail sometimes - and I think the zoom out for junctions and turns could be a little earlier - on very complicated junctions - like that one outside Eindhoven - it could'nt make up its mind which way it wanted to go (the old unit had no such qualms - it didn't know any better than to charge straight through
)There are several built in ideas that I do like, one being the drag a route bit, whereby you drag the route line off course to include a new route, or perhaps, include a particular poi, and Tommy instantly comes up with a new milage figure.
It found it's way to Naples with no problems, even to within 20 meters of the address I wanted (not bad over 2000+kms)
There is a short coming in the address input stage though - I couldn't see how to add an address that contained a letter i.e. 47A. There could well be a method for it, though I didn't find it. Consequently, when you are faced with an industrial area where one entire area is '47' and you are looking for A, B, C etc. it can be a bit of a problem.
Overall then?
A very good sat nav, that is clear and easy to use, with touch screen input and loads of gizmo's that I would never use.
Likes:
Large clear screen, ease of use and live traffic updates. A very good battery life - mine seemed to go for ages even when not plugged in.
Dislikes:
I wasn't very happy about the unit asking me every so often 'there is a new route that is 4 mins* quicker than your present route, do you want to choose the new route?' (*it could be 4, 5, or 25 minutes)
Would I recommend it?
With the array of sat nav's about, it is certainly one to keep an eye on. Though Garmin also do a beauty, I haven't had the pleasure of it's company, if you own one, how about giving us the benefit of your experiencies?
All the best, George
