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Have owned this for a week. It replaces our Garmin Nuvi 350 that was stolen from our car. My fault – I accidentally left it on the windshield when coming home late one night, and it was gone the next day. The Tomtom has a visual warning not to do this, which appears briefly when turned off – so this will never happen to us again!

We did not especially like our Garmin (and I reviewed that last year). Although (current discounted) prices and high-level features are similar, here is where the Tomtom is better:

- It is much faster at locking on to the satellites, and noticeably quicker at calculating a route. When you make a wrong turn, it doesn’t give that annoying warning but rapidly updates the directions.

- The speed in “demo” mode is easily configurable (e.g. to 3x real speed) which is very handy.

- Although the maps look a bit uglier, the real-time zoom is nice, using the slider a la Google maps. Zooming with the Garmin was fiddly.

- My favourite feature is the ability to press a couple of icons to avoid a specific segment of the current route. Don’t want to go down Broadway, and don’t want the device whining at you all the way? No problem! It is not perfect, and it will sometimes attempt to sneakily reroute you back to a later section of that road, but as all the steps are listed on one screen you can rapidly add/remove points as necessary.

- Downloadable and VERY easily replaceable voices (some free, some for 10 or 20 bucks). Drag-and-drop from your Mac/PC, no software required.

Of course it’s not perfect:

- The speaker volume is no better than the Garmin, despite its large size. By default it is adequate; however, in “text to speech” mode (computer voice) it is practically inaudible with any engine noise. This is with the volume set to 100% and the “link to car speed” turned OFF. (I noticed enabling this option would set a lower volume at slower speeds, and only increase to the “set” volume later on.) I have heard similar reports on other reviews (e.g. CNET), so plan to wait a month until the next batch is manufactured, then return the unit to Tomtom for a warranty exchange.

- The screen has a relatively plasticky feel compared with the Garmin.

- Minor gripe: it is not obvious that you are meant to twiddle a ring on the suction cup to stick it to your windshield – as without doing this it will still stick reasonably well, until you go over a bump. However this is MORE than outweighed by the joy of having the suction cup fold into the back of the device, for quick & easy portability / storage.

In conclusion: to whoever stole our Garmin, we ended up with a better product – so nyah!

UPDATE June 29: I explained the volume problem to Tomtom who unhesitatingly said it was a known issue. I returned the unit to Tomtom and they shipped me a brand new unit a week later. The two computer voices (the second one – male USA – is a free download) are slightly softer than the recorded voices, but even at 70% they are now more than loud enough at high speeds, and at 100% they are so loud you can hear the distortion: unquestionably louder than our old Garmin 350. I really like that the volume is lowered at slower speeds.

I would echo another reviewer who says to use the MENU to disconnect the device. Even when the software updates and it says “please unplug & restart” you still need to select the menu item so you get the message explicitly saying “It is now SAFE to unplug”. The first time you connect your unit, be sure to use the Backup menu before doing anything; that way if there is a problem you can easily reformat & restore (it’s just a USB drive to your computer so if you have a backup, you can recover from anything, which is handy).

After some more trips, we still feel it’s very accurate. Of course it’s just a computer, and its attempted pronunciation of the more obscure place names is entertaining, so do watch the street signs; also while it’s usually quite good at getting the lane correct, on occasion you’ll hear the contradictory “Keep left, and take the exit on the right” which isn’t much help in traffic unless you were paying attention to the signs!
Rating: 4 / 5

After reading the reviews and trying to comparison shop I recently purchased the Tom Tom One 130 S. The first unit I had, the sound level was so low as to be barely audible even at 100%. I spent an hour on the phone with the very nice lady at customer service downloading all sorts of stuff and it made no difference.

Traded it in for another unit and the same. Spent much time on the phone and the second unit was only marginally better.

Can not hear the directions with the windows open.

The Magellan I rented once from Hertz, blew off the windows.

Back this unit will go and my quest will continue.

By the way, other than sound, it performed well.

I’m a first time GPS buyer.
Rating: 2 / 5