Tom tom one xl and me together forever! (TomTom One XL Europe)

Member Name: rrharmston

Product:	TomTom One XL Europe
Date:	22/02/09 (218 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: good directions, fairly easy to use, mid range price, strong and sturdy, large screen

Disadvantages: hard to insert into holder

I was given the tom tom one XL at Xmas 2007 by my partner who I think felt guitly as he had bought himself a much more expensive model. I don't drive much and usually stay within the wilds of Norfolk or occasionally venture onto the A11 when I feel brave enough to drive to Cambridge. Owning this st nav has made it so much easier to find out the location of freecycle items (much to partners disgust). Also to the horror of visiting friends I've developed a bad habit of pressing the shortest route button - if you like adventures and seeing lovely country side on your own doorstep while avoiding traffic then sat navs are for you!

Features

Plug & Go: you don't have to install sofware on the sat nav to use it. Simply charge and go. From memory it does come with software from the PC but I have harldy use this.


Large 4.3" crystal clear high quality touchscreen - this is not the most sensitive touch screen and sometimes almost has to be given a sharp prod to get a response.


Easy-to-use navigation: Some of the features are easy to navigate but it's not obvious where some of the headings are hidden. I usually find that plan an a to b route is hidden away. When the system has run out of power and not been used for a while it appears to lose the options that you have saved on it. My own one then just assumes I want to go everywhere the fastest route possible....

Portable, light and easy to handle - its fairly chunky and sturdy as proven by my toddler.

One of the more useful features is the ability to find your exact location using the free QuickGPSfix software. Very useful if the car break down and you don't know where you are when phoning for rescue. Also when visiting a new place I save the cars last position as a favourite and then If if forget where I left it (occurs a little too often for my liking :) ) the I can plan a walking route back to it.


Fast route calculation and re-routing if roadblocks occur - this is fairly fast but as the system doe not have voice recognition you may well find your self trying to press buttons, listen to toddler, re-play mr tumble and drive at the same time.

Large choice of routes: including quickest, shortest, and avoiding toll roads, walking, cycling and congestion charge areas. I have a friend who has a phobia about slip roads so you should seesome of the routes it can come up with to avoid dual carriage ways (no motor ways in Norfolk).

Convenient postcode navigation: this assumes that the postcode you have is not for a new housing estate that does not exisit according to your sat nav....

This sat nav has a large screen which can display day or night colours.
This is probably useful but my car is a fraid of the dark and refuses to be driven at night on small country lanes.

Problems - it can be difficult to insert the sat nav onto its holder on the car wind screen and my own one has come out whilst driving. If at all wobbly it's not in correctly. Seems to lose power quickly if not charged but looking at the other reviews this appears to be normal. Loses saved settings if it loses all the power and not used for a couple of weeks.

Not the sat navs fault watch out - when buying a sat nav always remember that the maps are not automatically updated so you also have to pay attention to the road your self. My own sat nav has directed me down one way streets, down a cycle path, into a field, a left turn off a flyoever etc etc Most of them rely on people going onto the internet and correction new road lay outs but if you live somewhere like norfolk this does not always happen. Also unless you want to be driven mad turn it off before going into high multi storeys otherwise it will tell you to turn around where possible all the way up and down :).

Summary: Good mid range priced sat nav