Automotive GPS Systems

5 comments

1. 

   R. Pertusio says:

   July 31, 2010 at 6:08 pm (UTC -6)

   Review by R. Pertusio for TomTom XXL 540TM World Traveler (Lifetime Traffic & Maps Edition) 5-Inch Widescreen Portable GPS Navigator
   Rating:
   History with GPS Navigation:
   
   I’ve used built-in Honda (Alpine), standalone Garmin, and Ford ‘Sync’ audio GPS navigation devices.
   
   I loved the Honda navi for its size, and I hated it because updates were sparse and expensive.
   
   I loved the Garmin for being up-to-date but I hated it because it always seemed to change its mind a lot, or direct me into strange areas.
   
   I didn’t really care for the Ford Sync navigation, as it wasn’t a visual navi. Included for free with the car, but I choose not to use it. Maybe only good as a ‘back-up’ in case the TomTom fails– though I don’t think it ever will.

   I sold my Honda and needed a new navigation system.

   I bought the XXL 540TM for…
   
   1) Screen size
   
   2) Frequent map updates (4x a year + Map Share)
   
   3) Ability to customize it (lots of settings to play with)
   
   4) Well Known & Quality (I’ve always heard ‘Garmin’ is the best, but when I’ve tried Garmin, I didn’t like it!)
   
   5) Lane Guidance
   
   6) IQ Routes (figuring out which roads were best to use)

   By the way, in case you were wondering the “TM” stands for “Traffic” and “Maps”, indicating there are free traffic and map updates. I had NO problems entering the “Lifetime Maps & Traffic” code provided.

   What’s in the box:
   
   -> GPS device itself
   
   -> Window mount (with suction cup)
   
   -> Dashboard ‘sticky’ pad
   
   -> USB cable (to connect to PC)
   
   -> Car Power adapter
   
   -> Set Up Guide
   
   -> Slip of paper with 1 code, valid for Lifetime Map/Traffic updates

   The first thing I did was hook it up to my PC and run all the updates. (A newer map was available + GPSFix + Map Share.) It took about 1.5 hours to update all of it. After it was done, it took up about 96% of the 2GB built-in memory. (I didn’t check how much it used before updating.) Not a lot of ‘wiggle room’ to add more features. No built-in SD slot to add memory, either.

   One major downside is that I don’t like how easily the device ‘pops off’ the windshield mount. (See further explanation under “The BAD” below.) I am considering getting a (non-adhesive) weighted/padded mount to put on the dashboard.

   The GOOD:
   
   + Screen size met my expectations. Easy to see everything on the screen

   + Startup time (including time to lock onto satellites) seemed fairly quick

   + Roads were up-to-date and labeled properly. Didn’t find any errors

   + Allowed me to customize just about everything I wanted to.

   + It functioned perfectly as a Navigation device. This is where I felt Garmin was lacking. With all the features a Garmin has, it never seemed to ‘navigate’ the way I liked. Of all the features, the ‘Navigation’ is the most important, and TomTom does it well from what I’ve seen.

   + It pronounced some ‘hard to say’ roads perfectly! I’m sure I’ll find some that are not right, but Garmin/Sync had a hard time saying road names.

   The “OK”:
   
   +- Traffic is only updated by RDS (sent by local FM radio stations). This is what I paid for. RDS updated only major roadways (Interstates) and marked some accidents / road construction / road closures. It only worked when the power cord was plugged into the accessory power port on the car (as the cord functions as the antenna.) I would have preferred TomTom’s GO/Live line of products which has a built-in ‘cell phone’ to grab more detailed and current traffic information. But, these were out of my price range. The XXL 740TM does “just enough” traffic to make it useful.

   +- It takes some time to calculate a long distance route. But, I also know that it is using IQ Routes to choose the best roads. It seemed 1 or 2 seconds longer than it needed to be, but certainly not a huge problem.

   The BAD:
   
   - Internal memory not expandable. 96% used up without any ‘extras’ installed? Hope I don’t need more…

   - When browsing maps (dragging my finger) it is a bit ‘laggy’. I don’t expect perfection, but it seemed sluggish. Fortunately, I don’t plan to browse maps often, so I’ll deal with it. I tried turning off Points Of Interest (POIs), and turning off 3D maps (using 2D maps instead), and it really didn’t seem to make a difference. I’m impressed with the detail it showed, but wasn’t thrilled about waiting 10 seconds for the entire screen to finish ‘drawing’.

   - Windshield mount seemed to ‘pop off’ too easily. When suctioned to the windshield, I have to use 2 hands to ‘hold’ the GPS and keep it attached to the mount while I adjust. I suppose it is useful for people who leave the mount stuck on the windshield. I prefer to remove the device AND the mount and hide them when not in use. (I figure a thief will know that the mount is for a GPS, and that the GPS is hidden in the car somewhere.)

   I have yet to try this out on a LONG or COMPLEX road trip, but I have no doubts from what I’ve seen so far that it will be just fine.

   OVERALL, I’m happy with the device. Happier than I was with Sync, Alpine, or Garmin. I consider myself an ‘Average’ navigation user (not a beginner, not an expert) and will update the review after using it more.

   Sidenote: I ordered through Amazon, using “Beach Camera” seller. It was delivered ONE (1) business day after I ordered it! I used ‘Standard’ shipping, and FedEx (Home service) had it delivered fast. Very pleased with Beach Camera’s shipping emails and speed!

2. 

   Pete says:

   July 31, 2010 at 6:13 pm (UTC -6)

   Review by Pete for TomTom XXL 540TM World Traveler (Lifetime Traffic & Maps Edition) 5-Inch Widescreen Portable GPS Navigator
   Rating:
   I bought the TomTom XXL 540S a few weeks ago. This gps is the big brother to the TomTom XL 340S. This gps just has the bigger and brighter 5″ screen.

   I have very mixed feelings about the gps. There are many things that I like about it, but there are also so many small details and functions that are lacking on it that TomTom either decided not to work on or decided to exclude. These little things that are missing drive me absolutely crazy at times and I don’t know if I can stand them or not. I may consider returning this gps and getting either a Garmin or Magellan instead. I don’t know yet. I really hope TomTom starts addressing some of these issues.

   Some of my pros vs cons are below which I hope will help others who are trying to decide on a gps.

   Pros:

   + IQ Routes (TomTom uses historical speed data for roads based on the time of day and day of the week, so that it can give you the best possible route)
   
   + Big 5″ Screen, which is easy to see.
   
   + Very loud speaker. (Option in Volume Preferences to link the volume to your cars speed if you want)
   
   + Satellite acquition is fast (less than 10 sec for me). Shows usually around 9 satellites.
   
   + Map Color can be changed.
   
   + Can change the color of the car symbol in 3D mode
   
   + Auto Day/Night mode changes the brightness and color.
   
   + Ability to prepare a route with any Depart and Destination coordinates.

   + Shows the current street that your on at the bottom of the screen and the next street to turn on in the top right corner.

   + Advanced Lane Guidance on the highway is displayed really nicely. Shows an arrow with the lane that you need to be in and also sometimes shows a 3D sign for your exit. It is nice and big and it stays on the screen long enough to be viewed so that its clear to see where you need to go.

   + Status bar can be customized to how you like it. It can be displayed either horizontally or vertically. Can show the remaining time, remaining distance, current time, arrival time, your speed and the speed limit, distance to your next turn, compass, ect.

   + TTS (text to speech) instructions are very helpful in letting you know where to turn and also preparing you for your next turn as well. For instance it will say something like “After one qurter mile turn right”. Then as you get closer to the street it will say “Turn right Main St. Then take the second left”

   Cons:

   - POI (Points of Interest) Map Screen shows the POI name, street and cross street, phone, city, and state. But it gives NO street addresses! So you don’t know the address or what side of the street the POI is on, unless you call the place ahead of time and ask. All you get is a checkered flag shown in the middle of the street with TomTom saying “you have reached your final destination”. On the Go model the POI Map Screen has a “Details” button that shows the street address, zip code, and food cuisine type for instance. Why TomTom decided to remove this on this model I have no idea.

   - No AutoZoom enable/disable option (like on the Go model). You can manually zoom in or out on the map, but about 5 sec later AutoZoom will kick in and take you right back to what TomTom wants you to see. Its very frustrating because I like to zoom in and out sometimes so that I can see more map detail, but TomTom won’t allow me to for anymore then about 5 sec. When I turn on the gps the zoom level that TomTom has picked is so bad that most all of the street outlines around me have completely vanished from the screen. All that I see are a bunch of street names just floating around on the map with no streets being shown.

   - Doesn’t speak which side of the street your destination is on. (If you enter a street address for a destination however it does show a little arrow on the map pointing to the left or right hand side of the street when you are approaching your destination. Along with a little checkered flag on the side of the street your destination is on.)

   - Change Preferences screen is 6 pages deep and only has a button to advance foward to the next page. There is no back button. So if you say accidently go past the screen you wanted to be on you have to then press the foward button 5 more times just to get back to that page.

   - No simple way to get into the Browse as Text turn lists display from the main screen.

   - Browse as Text route instructions, the text and arrows for the turn list is just way to small. Also there is no Auto Scroll function. To view the next page of new upcoming turns you have to scroll down the list manually yourself.

   - POI Map Screen in Night mode shows the cross street text in black, which is extremely difficult to see unless you get very close to the screen.

   - 3D mode during the day the maps background brightness isn’t consistent across the whole screen. There are noticable lines across the screen where you can see the various brightness stages. Towards the bottom of the map its the brightest and then as you pan up the screen it gets slightly darker.

   - Can’t enter the street name untill after you have entered the city. Its bad news if you know the street but unsure of the city. You should be able to search for the street in any city near you or near the city that you entered (if it was incorrect).

   - TTS (text to speech) of multiword street names sounds sometimes garbled.
   
   - TTS pronounces some words and streets pretty poorly.
   
   - Can’t change the color of the car symbol in 2D mode.
   
   - Can’t search restaurants by cuisine type.
   
   - No MicroSD memory card slot for expansion. Room is pretty tight with only 2GB of internal flash memory. After removing all of the voices except for computer voice Susan and removing most of the car symbols. I still only have 105mb of space free remaining.
   
   - Only supports USB 1.1 transfers. So when you install maps or performing backups its very slow.

   Miscellaneous info: gps chipset on mine was a GL2 BCM4750 (Global Locate 2), The CPU speed is 266MHZ. 64MB of RAM.

3. 

   C. D. Hess says:

   July 31, 2010 at 7:06 pm (UTC -6)

   Review by C. D. Hess for TomTom XXL 540TM World Traveler (Lifetime Traffic & Maps Edition) 5-Inch Widescreen Portable GPS Navigator
   Rating:
   I have owned several GPS units, including models from Garmin and Navman. I upgraded to this model from the TomTom 140S. This model has twice the screen size. The screen is brighter, and the sound is louder and fuller. I cannot recommend it highly enough. Routing is excellent. The Points of Interest database is huge. Advanced lane guidance is very helpful. The large screen makes data input easier. Like all TomToms, you can configure it to your liking.

   The only negative is that battery life is reduced because of the larger, brighter screen.

4. 

   Roman F. Sims says:

   July 31, 2010 at 7:16 pm (UTC -6)

   Review by Roman F. Sims for TomTom XXL 540TM World Traveler (Lifetime Traffic & Maps Edition) 5-Inch Widescreen Portable GPS Navigator
   Rating:
   This is a good product, that is reliable, works as expected, and comes with good customer support. After I purchased and tried out this TomTom XXL 540S, I promptly installed and used TomTom Home to update it, and used the Map Guarantee for my free full update. All this worked exactly as expected. Once I had the device and started using it, I noticed how easy it was to operate and configure. It does a better than expected job of routing, and map accuracy is also pretty good. The Text to Speech function works pretty good, this is what gives you spoken street names, places and addresses. The voice is clear and loud (I had to turn down the volume a bit from maximum). It does fumble some odd or foreign street names.

   More recently I got a notice of new maps available in TomTom Home, and attempted to purchase and update while signing up to the Map Update Service, which is an excellent value, as you get 4 more map updates during the next year, and you do get those, as TomTom releases 4 full map updates per year, every year. This is where the support comes in. During this update I was offered 1 full map update for about $12 when combined with the Map Update Service for about $52. This is for the North America Maps which include the US+Canada+Mexico. It let me purchase the full map update, but not the Map Update Service, and it would not let me download and install it. I called TomTom customer support line on a weekday about 10AM, got a customer support representative in just minutes, and when I explained my issues to him, he was ready with a solution. It involved TomTom correcting a problem with my online account so my purchase registered correctly, and manually deleting some files from TomTom Home and the TomTom device, after which the update was successful. We also figured out that this same issue was preventing QuickGPS data from updating, and that was corrected as well. Over all I spent about 40 minutes on the phone. Excellent and polite service.

   I also had ordered a Magellan 4700, and this device was compared to that. After 2 software updates, no map updates, and no map updates expected for 12-18 months (as per Magellan documentation), their map guarantee is worthless. Also, in the less than 30 days I had that unit, I applied 2 software updates to correct issues with crashing, performance, satellite acquisition, and position accuracy, it still did not work correctly and I returned it.

   There are some things I wish they would improve. On this 5″ unit it becomes apparent that their display is low resolution. I like the Magellan display much better. However, the Magellan is much slower to power up, and seems much less responsive. The TomTom turns on and off very quickly. And as long as QuickGPS data is current (a QuickGPS update is good for about a week), it gets a fix in less than 15 seconds. In 3D view, which is normal for navigating, you can see some color banding as the shading goes off into the distance. The TomTom is a little thicker than the Magellan, but some of that is due to the larger speaker the TomTom uses. I like the compact windshield mount, but it is a little tricky to snap on and off the device. The windshield mount has a fairly stiff swivel joint, so you need to adjust it with care using two hands or with the device detached. The joint being stiff is a good thing, as there is little flex, vibration or bounce during driving. But if you attempt to adjust it with your hand on the TomTom, you will just detach it from the mount. I believe this is intentional, so that the mount does not move when you attach or detach the device for theft or break in deterrent. The device reminds you to remove it on the shutdown screen for this reason, the reminder can be disabled. I wish they would make a more feature rich version of this device. It is their largest display, but only has the most basic features. This is equivalent to the ONE series. It does not have bluetooth, live services, or any extras except for an optional traffic receiver/power cord. I tried the traffic receiver, but coverage is spotty, and updates take too long to be really usefull. A TomTom GO Live edition with an internet connection through a bluetooth connected phone is much better, but also pricier. I got this for it’s large display, as my folks are going to be using it, and they have trouble seeing, and operating a small touch display. More room for fingers and bigger text. One last issue, this unit has 2GB of memory, and it is just enough. There is little room for extras. I have removed foreign language voices, especially the text to speech, and all extras I did not need to maintain some free space, and allow the few customizations that I installed. I installed a vehicle cursor that matched my car, and custom shutdown and startup screens. This issue is fixed on the TomTom XXL 540S World Traveler model, which has 4GB of memory, to load additional maps for more countries. This model does not have a SD card expansion slot for additional storage. I wish I could get terrain/elevation mapping, and 3D landmarks. Watch the sky above the horizon in the display, it changes from day to night. There are clouds in the sky during the day, and twinkling stars at night.

   Overall I am very pleased with my purchase. The price at Amazon was good during Christmas, and free trial of Amazon Prime let me get free fast shipping on it. It meet the needs of my folks, and is easy to use for them. I have pre-programmed their most common destinations into it, and it performs well. With my familiarity of the TomTom interface and its easy operation, the mostly don’t need my help, and if they do, I can usually walk them through the menu.

   Sorry that this was so long winded, but I hope this provides some useful information for your decision making. And please understand, that for the purpose I purchased it for (my folks) it works really well and I am very satisfied. The issues I bring up are from my point of view, which would be a more advanced and demanding user. I have looked at a number of Personal Navigation Devices from various manufacturers, and I think the TomTom is the easiest to use, with good maps, frequent map updates, and good customer support.

   Falko

5. 

   yogi says:

   July 31, 2010 at 7:48 pm (UTC -6)

   Review by yogi for TomTom XXL 540TM World Traveler (Lifetime Traffic & Maps Edition) 5-Inch Widescreen Portable GPS Navigator
   Rating:
   I just bought it two days back. I was kind of skeptical with the map updates and activation code not working, after reading through so many reviews related with update failure etc.

   So I started with a full explorer backup of the device at windows level. It took about 45 minutes. Then I took another backup using Home software. That was another 45 minutes.

   Then I deleted unwanted voices to free up some space. It probably removed some 30-40MB of space. There was close to 400MB free after this step.

   Then I entered the activation code for lifetime free map updates using the Home software. It worked fine (at least it did not give me any errors).

   Then it detected that there is new versions of map available for download. I downloaded the new maps, which took another 20 minutes or so, and took further 30 minutes to update the device.

   The downloaded size of new maps was about 1.7GB, whereas the previous versions of maps occupied 1.43GB. Now my device has close to 60MB free out of the 1.9GB memory it has. I think if I would not have deleted unwanted voices, I would have come close to filling up all the space.

   I also downloaded the GPSquickfix.

   For the safety camera, when I had entered Canada as the home country, it did not show any information available to download. But after I switched it to US (from within HOME software), then it showed the data for US-Canada safety cameras, and I was able to download them.

   So overall, I did not face any issues earlier reviewers of TomTom XL/XXL series had mentioned.

   Regarding performance, I was pretty impressed with the speed it took to acquire satellite signal. I have a four year old HP-IPaq GPS (which runs TomTom software), and this new one is much faster than the HP one.

   Now before I made this purchase, I had bought Garmin 755T last week. I did not like it for one main reason that it did not have up to date maps of my area (especially it didn’t show my home even after 7 years it is on TomTom maps). I updated the maps to latest, and still didn’t show my home street. Contacting the customer support for Garmin was a pain, with 30-40 min. of wait every time I tried to call them. It was a breeze to contact TomTom support. First time I was connected instantly, and every time after that, it took only few minutes to get connected. Finally, I did not like the colour schemes and sounds which came with Garmin. May be that is my personal preference. But Garmin is not too much customizable, pretty basic stuff you can configure. So it went back within few days.

   Hope this review will be useful to you all.