I know this might not be the right forum for this but I am posting it here as I know there are lot of sedan owners trying to get Bluetootha and Nav in their cars. So, i thought this might find more useful audience here - Please don't flame me

Ok, here is my review -


I just got a TT GO 700 last week and love it so far. Here is my review based on my experiences so far.

1) Bluetooth Phone feature -
I love the bluetooth phone feature, My phone Motorola v330 was not listed in the supported list but I was successfull able to connect and use it. Based on my experience, I don't think the phone compatibility list is always up to date, just try your phone and see if it works with the device.

Making calls and recieving calls is very convenient though the GPS screen, sound quality is excellent for hearing the other party through the GPS speaker. Talking though the GPS microphone ranges from good to excellent. I had few freinds who could not believe i was talking thorough a Handsfree GPS device, while sometimes my friends complained the voice was very hollow. You have to give the benefit of doubt to the TomTom device as there are lot of variables involved in making a phone call though bluetooth like Phone Signal quality, road noise, etc... Overall i am very impressed with the phone capabilities, although I have some gripes which i will list below.

2) Mapping and routing - I have not tried it on a long trip yet, mostly I have driven locally where I know all the routes. Routing in general is very good and accurate. Although I found few new addresses that were not listed. I drove to one of my friends place who lives in the far west suburbs of chicago and his community streets were totally absent / missing in the TomTom maps. So, once I got to his house, I bookmarked the Map position on to my favourites, so that I can get to his house. Since there are no street level data for his community, all I could do was use the map point as guide to get me to his house.
Even for my house which is about 3-4 yrs old, the street names are slightly mixed in the subdivision and moreover I cannot get my address by typing / searching for the location in the GPS.
Rest of the regular routes are very accurate and detailed.

3) POI - I was surprised that I could find some local stores which I did not expect to find on the device. Haven't used the feature extensively but seems fairly OK. Although I would like to know how to update the POI?

4) Voice / Sound quality - Voice and sound quality is excellent. Instructions are read out loud and clear. I have read that there are darth vader and yoda voices available, love to get them installed on my device.

5) Visibility / Brightness - I have my brightness set to full and it looks very sharp and bright. I haven't seen any major issues during mid afternoon sunlight so far.

Complaints and like to have features -
First the complaints -

1) I am not able to see my "Phone book" numbers from my cellphone on the TomTom GO 700 device. I have the option to "Get numbers from phone" when clicked tries to retrive numbers from phone and after couple of minutes says retrieved numbers successfully, but my "Phone book" icon is always disabled on my TTGO 700.
My phone is the Motorola V330 with T-Mobile service.

2) Not sure if the TomTom Plus service is available in USA yet? No proper documentation available on the website and Manual.

3) The POI search capability could be improved, in the current version you are forced to select a category for searching the POI, this makes it hard if you are not sure what category the POI you are looking for is listed in. It would be great if you could just type the name of the POI and find it. As an example "Walgreens" is a "Store" which could also be a "Pharmacy". So, to search for Walgreens you have to know if it is in the "Store" or the "Pharmacy" category. This might not be the best example, but I hope you get the idea.

Like to have features -
1) I would love to have voice recognition / voice dial through the GPS device. I don't think it is a big ask, as the device already has a microphone through which you answer your calls. Most phones already have voice recognition capability, so it should not be hard to just pass my voice command to the cell phone.

2) Extending the above mentioned feature, it would be great if we can use voice commands to enter our address. That would make it truly hands free and very safe to operate.

3) Frequent updates to MAPS & POI through the internet?? Not sure if it is available or how to get updates?

These are my complaints so far, will keep updating as I use the device.

Cool features -

1) Hands free calling through GPS, I was really amazed this morning when I had the TTGO 700 in my living room and the bluetooth phone in my bedroom which is one floor above and the opposite end of my living room, the device could connect to the phone.

2) Ability to search for POI's and make calls to them through the GPS is really helpfull.

3) Linux based OS - ability to customize.

 

Thanks for that review. I 've been keeping my eye out for one. One of the mortgage companies I refer to now has them on their loyalty program and I now have enough points.

I take it that if you had it do over you would?
Wear do you place it - is their a windshield mount or something?
Any chance of in car pictures?

Thanks again. Awesome timing.

 

It does come with a windshield mount, which is the best in the market. It sticks to the windshield like a leech and is rock solid.

I had used one of my friends TomTom GO when I was in UK couple of months ago, and was very impressed with the product. Since, then I have been waiting for the US launch and got one as soon as it was available.

Definetly there are some functionalities I would love to have, but to be realistic you will never have a product which is perfect in all sense.

Very happy with the product so far.

 

I bought the Lowrance I-Way 500C two weeks ago. So, far it's worked perfectly. It does not have bluetooth, but it has a MP3 palyer. (Which I probably will never use.) The windshield mount on the I-Way is also very good, but I would prefer to mount the unit lower down. It comes with a weighted base, but it does not work well on the G.

 

Image of TomTom GO attached to the windshield mount.

 

Can you map a route all the way across the country? I know that the old TOmToms' can't do that, it only routes to a certain state, then it has to start over from that state to another region, etc. THey basically seperated the country into differnt regions and u cant route pass a region. I might try to pick one up if this does that.

 

Any chance it would fit in the little cubby where the Infiniti nav system is supposed to go? I'd rather not use a windshield mount...

 

Yes it does route all the way across the country or into different country (i.e. Canada). The old TomTom's had the regions seperated and it was a pain. The new ones are all integrated maps and it works like charm.

Yesterday while going to a store which is close to my house, i tried "Shortest route" and it took me through all kinds of subdivisions and weird routes which i never knew existed. It was the shortest route as normally the distance to the store is around 7.3miles and in the shortest it came to be 6.2miles

I got mine at CircuitCity for $729 + tax. Retail price is $899, so i got a very good deal

Oly8080

 

Nope it would not fit in the infiniti nav cubby. You have to use it with the windshield mount if you want to use the Bluetooth system as the Microphone is integrated into the windshield mount.

The speaker is integrated into the GPS system and you don't need the windshield mount to just listen to the directions for navigation. The in-built speaker is of very good quality.

 

Not sure how big it is, but maybe you could mount it to this