Friday March 29, 2024

TomTom One 3rd Edition GPS Review

Navigating With the TomTom
Navigating with the TomTom is pretty straight-forward as I mentioned previously. You input your destination and if your route will take you through toll roads, it will ask if you want to avoid the tolls and try to calculate a toll-free route. It then calculates a route (usually takes 3-5 seconds depending upon the complexity of your route), then the screen changes to show you your current location in 3D. At first I thought the 3D map seemed like an odd way to have it guiding you, but it's actually pretty helpful knowing which way the road is curving and being able to judge your next turn. You do always have the option of using the 2D map if you are so inclined.

As you begin on your journey, the TomTom guides you through every turn. You will be forewarned when a turn is coming up with voice commands like "left turn ahead" and "turn left now". The display screen shows your route with a green arrow indicating your next turn, so even if you're confused about exactly when to turn, the 3D map with an arrow makes it very clear exactly when you're coming up on the turn. The one downside to this cheaper TomTom model is it will not read street names, but this really isn't a big issue when you set the display to show you the name of the next street you're turning on. A quick glance at the TomTom display and you'll know the name of the next road or highway in your route.

I should mention that the TomTom warns you far ahead of time of an upcoming turn. I was worried that it might wait until you're 10 feet away and tell you to turn left at the last second. It will give you an initial warning well in advance, then remind you just as you're coming up on the turn. On highways, it will warn you of exits coming up a few miles in advance so you can change lanes if you need to. These GPS units, after all, are supposed to help make your drives less stressful and less dangerous.

Night Driving
Without a doubt, one of my main caveats driving anywhere I've never been before is driving at night when I can't read dimly lit street signs. I miss turns, I get lost, I turn around, I aim my headlights at the street signs. It's hard enough trying to find a house number in the dark once you're on the right street, let alone getting on the right street in the first place! The TomTom solves this problem wonderfully -- no more guessing if you missed your turns, no more aiming headlights at the street signs. No more cursing while you miss appointments or parties because you're lost. If you do end up missing a turn by accident, the TomTom recalculates your route on-the-fly to get you turned around. This device will pay for itself in gas you'll alone!

Another neat feature is the night-driving mode for the display. This feature dims the display screen and changes to a more soothing color scheme so you don't have to be blinded by the normal color scheme. I actually use night-driving mode during the daytime too -- partly cause I'm too lazy to change it back and forth, but it works well in the daytime too. It'd be nice in future versions if they'd allow you to set a time for it to switch the display between nighttime and daytime driving, so at 6pm you could have it switch over to nighttime and 6am you could have it switch back. But like I said, nighttime color scheme is totally acceptable for daytime driving as well -- so I prefer to just leave that scheme set.

page1 page2 page3 page4 page5


Comments:
TomTom One 3rd Edition internal memory flaw..
Posted 11/20/09 1:54PM by Anonymous Techdoser
I had my TomTom One 3rd Edition for about 18 months before the internal memory went bad. Now it won't do anything. I thought a neat mod project would be to replace the memory with a SD or microSD slot to upgrade to removeable memory with more capacity.. Interested?