Tom Tom remains King for me! (TomTom One 3rd Edition Great Britain)

Member Name: fayp

Product:	TomTom One 3rd Edition Great Britain
Date:	01/11/07 (787 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Simple, easy to use, small and light.

Disadvantages: No SD slot, no bluetooth.

Having borrowed my friends Tom Tom One and loved it, I decided to get my own. I’m delighted with this unit, it is cheap (£127 on Amazon at present) and does what it says on the box!


The unit is small and compact, but with a large clear screen. In the box you get a USB cable, car power charger, windscreen mount and quick guide start. There is no case so you need to buy one separately but they are cheap online with lots of choice of colours.

To start up you need to hold the button in for a few minutes and you get a cool Tom Tom drum sounds! There is no set up virtually, it asks you a few questions about which country and language you are in, if you want male or female voice, and if you wish to set your home address. It then finds a GPSR signal quickly and you are ready to enter in a postcode, city centre or address and go!

It does not do all the flash things that some Sat Navs do like audible books, MP3 and photos, but do you really need these?

Version one and two had SD slots and Bluetooth. For some odd reason both these have been removed on Version three! That is fine my me as I don’t wish to drive outside the UK, and don’t wish to link up my phone, but if you do, this unit will not suit you. There is 512Mb internal memory so not enough to add foreign country maps. Seems odd of Tom Tom to remove the SD slot when memory is now so cheap.

The unit is easy to slip into the windscreen mount, which can be attached to the windscreen or dashboard by a suction pad. It quickly finds a signal, is easy to enter where you want to go, and seems very accurate in getting you there! You can enter favourites and store them. You can plan a journey before you wish to travel so view maps and apx times and distances, which I think is useful. There are different settings to warn of speed camera, you get a month’s free updates then it is £39 a year to update.

You can download Tom Tom home software to your PC free, and when your unit is plugged in, it is very simple to do a number of things, such as back up your unit, update maps and speed camera, buy new voices (John Cleese is the latest!), and keep your unit up to date with the latest software. It recommends you plug it into your PC every 7 days to download the latest satellite positions so the unit finds them quicker! Again very simply to use.

One reason I bought this unit is it works with the free traffic signal that is slowly developing on most UK motorways. You buy a separate TMC traffic receiver (apx £35-70!) and it is plug and play, It picks up a silent FM signal and warns you of delays, giving you the option of being guided around the delay. At present the signal is a bit hit and miss but seems to be improving all the time! Unlike some other makes, tom tom allows you to tune manually if you wish, so you can Google and find the best signal for your area, or it will search automatically. I find in S Wales the classic FM signal is good, and I can even pick up the traffic alerts on some A roads, and most stretches of the M4. It does lose it sometimes then pick it back up.

I’m delighted with this unit, and would thoroughly recommend it to others, so long as you don’t want to add Europe, or use Bluetooth. But a simply, cheap unit that does what it says!

Summary: Easy to use straight from box, does what it says.