TomTom ONE (3rd Edition)

OK – Tom Tom does not adequately replace a good old paper street directory. Tom Tom has tried to kill me many times. On my first trip along the Omeo Road to Falls Creek in Victoria it kept telling me to drive over the edge of the cliff. At Albury it sent me hurtling to towards the cement wall of the free-way by-pass that was built through the town… Read more

several years beforehand. When on the Western Distributor at Darling Harbour trying to get to North Sydney, Tom Tom told me to get off the expressway (the most direct and quickest route) and instead go into the Sydney CBD - an incomprehensible detour in the one place in Australia you'd expect to be up to date and correct. Perhaps this is due to the Sensis digital maps, but there are more accurate maps on my 10 years old paper street directory so why are these digital maps so out of date? It is difficult to mount on my car - I cant reach it when stuck to the car window and the mounting options are limited. It constantly falls off the window in our other car. Bring on the day when these come as standard built into the dash board. I like this new technology that gets you where you need to go, one way or the other, without the distraction of having your head buried in a street directory. This is my first device, so cant compare it to others very well. You can set lots of default settings such as avoiding or using toll roads (useful in Sydney) which is somewhat useful. It often selects very strange and long (in terms of time) routes to your destination. Human brain still selects better routes than this electronic device. There are many errors in the supplied maps which too frequently send you the wrong way down one way streets, or into blocked off roads. My unit came with 2007 maps but it was clear that many roads had been changed many years before but those changes were still not reflected in the supplied maps. While you can buy new maps these cost almost half the value of a brand new unit. It is difficult to punch in the letters of suburbs, and I frequently hit the letter next to the one I want.

Good – The TomTom One is a great value, feature packed, easy to use GPS unit. It does well at directing you to your destination and alerting you about nearby speed cameras as well as places of interest. The TomTom Home software lets you download items for your GPS unit such as map updates, different voices and the GPS QuickFix service helps your unit… Read more

to find your position faster. The windscreen mount is a little week but its grip can be strengthened by putting a little water on the suction cup. The TomTom One has been a very useful gadget for me and well worth the money. Good performance, Easy to use interface, TomTom Home software lets you easily download updates The windscreen mount is not very secure which means my GPS unit will often fly off my windscreen

Good – This GPS unit is getting old now and I am sure there are newer models that provide alot more in the way of features but this is a good basic unit that is easy to use and for the most part reliable. I live in the city and find that I use it all the time. It doesn't always take the 'smartest' route but it is great to have the reassurance that it… Read more

will help me find my way. I would definitely buy a TOM TOM again. Easy/intuitive to use, clear concise directions, useful features (such as fastest. shortest, avoid part of route). Quickly recalculates routes when wrong turns are taken. The suction cups do lose their stick easily and the device often falls off mid-journey, when in the CBD the satellites bounce off the buildings and the GPS becomes useless (not sure if this is specific to this device or all GPS units). It does take a while to find a satellite when turned on.

Good – I have found that it takes a while to pick up a saterlite to start navigating when you first turn on the gps, but once it has found its position is a great device. It has quite a few options for your trip including fastest time/shortest distance/by foot etc. The Gps unit is a great little device that is relatively cheap to buy compared to some… Read more

other brands but gets the job done and helps you find your way. The windscreen mount is absolutly crap, my Tom Tom has flown out the window twice now, thankfully at low speeds whilst im turning a corner.When i take the gps inside at night, by morning the mount has fallen off the windscreen

Terrible – Whilst the comparative value of the item appeared to be good I am now of the view that perhaps the value of reliability should be considered as part of the purchase process. You are probably better off to pay a little more for a similar product. that hopefully will be more reliable and less problematic than TomTom. Cost of the product? Initial… Read more

purchase price + 2 trips to the retailer to try to resolve problems 5.5hours, 420km vehicle travel + 1 hour computer/phone time (toll free though) = 1 sub standard navigation system and 61/2 hours of wasted time, fuel and vehicle wear and tear. the product is compact yet still maintains visual clarity. Navigation though the device is fairly straitforward. The down side to the device in this instance is that unlike earlier tomtoms it seems to have problems in locating itself and positional fixing from satellites. Coupled with this outdated mapping systems and failure to connect to tom tom home for 30 day free update service. Having spent 30 minutes on the phone to try to rectify this to no avail the unit is now destined to be returned to tom tom for repair/assessment.

Excellent – I'm not much of a techie peson, and so I admit that I was intimidated by this technology at first. As days went by, I learned how to use it with ease, it's not so bad at all. I thin it's one of the better GPS navigators in the market today. MapShare technology works by letting you add your own map corrections and other landmarks that you might… Read more

want to take note of. TomTom also has a website where users can be interactive (in the sense that you can share information to and from other TomTom users). This is truly one great technology at your fingertips. TomTom MapShare instant map updates. Compact size. Sharp display.

OK – Overall, does the job, but it's a bit rough around the edges. This is our second Tom Tom, and both have been pretty good. Given that Tom Tom generally gets great reviews, I would assume that the sound not working on my after a year is a fluke. I'm eyeing the new versions though that appear to handle complex freeways better (the better version… Read more

is only about $50 more and if you're going to be driving in inner city Sydney, I think it may well be worth it). +Gets you were you want to go. +Relatively easy to use with a robust set of features. -Does not stick to the window. The original version of Tom Tom had a much more powerful suction cup which this one lacks.

-On mine, the sound stopped working about about 14 months.

-Not ergonomic at all for inner city Sydney driving. What does "in 500 meters, take the exit" mean when faced with 4 different signs, one going to the city, the others to various tunnels/expressways?

-Mum tried to take this on a rural trip, and it apparently it took her some really crazy route. However, I've used it to go Syd-Brisbane, Syd-Canberra with no problems whatsover.

Other non-critical features:

-The speed camera alert is a nice idea, but most speed cameras are not programmed into the Tom Tom (am in Sydney).

-The built in database for petrol stations is only about 65% up to date.

Terrible – What a piece of junk! It took at least 10 minutes to "find a valid GPS signal" and would constantly drop the connection, it always chose bizarre and ridiculous routes, and could not even find some Melbourne suburbs/addresses! It would always change the colour mode from the settings I had chosen, I couldn't stick it to the window, it would fall… Read more

off. I chose this model because it had spoken street names but a lot of the time it didn't say the correct street name, for a well known highway it would call it "state highway 14" instead I got a refund! It was terrible, it always dropped the GPS signal, it didn't have some melbourne suburbs on record, it couldn't find some addresses

Excellent – I like the fact that the Tom Tom will reroute you if you accidentally take a wrong turn instead of insisting that you turn back. This model was a toss-up between the XL version which is just larger in size, but may be advantageous if one is long-sighted. ALso considered the Navman, however found that this Tom Tom was easier to use. Also has the… Read more

option of map-sharing so that the community of TomTom users can share their map adjustments Clear instructions, small but readable screen, quite like the speed monitor - it beeps if you're travelling over the recommended speed limit. Also you can access a list of traffic problem areas or red light/speed cameras

Good – Quick and easy to use, recommended if you just want a no-fuss GPS. Good response times. It gets a little confused in the city and around tall buildings or if there's a tunnel below where you are (probably same with other GPS too). Easy to use, good presentation of information in-car charger gets very hot