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.
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? |