Don't give up on the maps yet! (TomTom XL)

Member Name: ScottishWestie

Product:	TomTom XL
Date:	31/07/09 (206 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Well made, simple to use website, clear display, standard mount

Disadvantages: Outdated maps, upgrades pricey, power lead, battery life

I bought a Tom Tom One XL sat nav device two years ago & wrote a glowing review about it on Ciao, however after using the device for two years my opinion of this device has changed.

Originally I was looking for a no nonsense sat nav unit that was small enough to fit inside a jacket pocket when not used. Tom Tom had just introduced the basic 'One XL' model with the new extra large screen. At the time the price was competitive & Tom Tom had a great reputation.

It came in a stylish yellow box with a car based power lead, USB lead, CD, manual, SD card with UK & Ireland maps on it & what I thought at first was a rather flimsy windscreen mount but no slip cover.

The flimsy looking mount turned out to be quite fantastic, once attached to the screen it holds the device rock solid & can be difficult to remove!! Even when driving over rough roads the unit never shakes or vibrates & I don't feel the need to upgrade to a more durable mount. Latest models come with the mount built into the device.

Take this unit out of its box & switch on & provided you are not inside the house it quickly finds a decent reception & is ready to use. You need to enter your home location on the system, entering any location is made easy with a choice of a post code or address options & no matter how big your fingers are the touch screen can cope.

There is only one switch on the unit for switching it on & off; all other tasks are carried out with the touch screen. I entered about 40 favourite sites into the unit's memory so finding a location is made even easier with this facility.
I have used the sat nav from the highlands of Scotland to the South of England & reception is always first class. The screen can be set to individual requirements but I have on screen my estimated arrival time, distance, vehicle speed, compass & an excellent coloured display which can be changed to suit individual tastes & which can easily be read in strong sunlight or dimmed at night.

Voice instructions can be changed quite easily or many others can be downloaded from the Tom Tom website. You can update or back up your device from the Tom Tom website which is very user friendly. So far so good!

At first the sat nav proved to be quite accurate getting me to destinations without much hassle but after a couple months I was finding that a lot of places I was driving to were not recognised on the sat nav mapping system.

Here are a few examples; the main road from the M11 to Norwich was upgraded a few years back but its not even entered into Tom Tom's maps, as you drive along it all you get is a field & all the info disappears for a few minutes.
Another bypass close to Morpeth in North East England which was built a few years ago isn't recognised. The new link form the Forth Road Bridge to Edinburgh Airport doesn't exist according to the maps a housing estate I have visited outside Dundee since 2004 isn't recognised either & there are many more.

However, about 9 months after I purchased the unit, Tom Tom introduced a map correction facility which could be downloaded onto the device. This would allow the user to make corrections & enter details on the unit & send them to Tom Tom. They would then have them checked & then updated when you next connected your device to the website.

Fantastic I thought, if even a few owners downloaded updates the mapping system would be more up to date. Around 15000 changes are made on the European road system every year so this just might make a difference.

I downloaded the software which put a small icon on the screen, if you were travelling to a destination & found for instance a roundabout had replaced a crossroads, all you do is tap the icon at the place where the changes have been made.
Later you enter the map correction mode & make detailed changes to your update, connect up the device to the Tom Tom website & download your changes. Other changes which had recently been made by other users are uploaded to your device at the same time.

You can imagine that with travelling all over the country every day I was entering about 15-20 changes weekly & downloaded them on a regular basis.
However, I was very disappointed in the end results, a year after spending a lot of time download numerous changes not one of those had been updated. Tom Tom sent me a questionnaire about my map corrections & I stated on it that it had become a total waste of time, they never replied but I have since spoken to many other users who have the same opinion.

One of them purchased a new update from Tom Tom for £49.95 only to find it was out of date, missing all the changes he had sent them via map corrections.

Other gripes, the car power lead is long enough to run from my centre console mounted cigar lighter socket to the far right hand corner of the screen but the lead is a too inflexible & goes out of shape quite easily. Battery life is poor battery, two hours maximum if you are lucky when new & about one hour now, the battery can't be changed easily as the unit has tamper proof screws holding it together.
Also the safety camera information which was loaded on from new is also out of date which defeats the purpose of having it. Worse still during my regular updates via Tom Tom website they wiped it off after the first year of use & sent me an email offering me upgrades for around £20.00. I have since found a way of getting third party safety camera software on it which operates a little better than the original.

Often you will enter a postcode to get you to a destination, however postcodes can be inaccurate if you're in the countryside. Quite often a postcode covers a huge area & you can be sure this device will take you miles from where you actually want to be.

It is also worth noting that you can set the device to get you to your destination either by the shortest route or the fastest route, this can make a considerable difference to your journeys. The device cannot plan a journey taking traffic jams into the equation so the shortest route often ends up being the longest in peak times.

The device has got Bluetooth to allow traffic updates but I have never used it after my friends complained that it never reports incidents accurately. However if you do get informed of a road blockage ahead via the radio the until will give you an alternative route if possible to avoid being stuck in traffic. However it has to be done whilst you're parked up as it can be a bit 'long winded' in its operation.

I purchased a Tom Tom carry case for £17.00 which is small enough to fit in a jacket pocket & SD cards with Europe or North America are available if required.

Another problem that has come to light recently is that the unit switches itself on when being stored. I only found out when on two occasions it switched on during the night & bleatered out "You have reached your destination", it was quite scary at first hearing this in the dead of the night, but it flattens the battery very quickly as it can't switch off again.

Other good points, it does keep up quite well to your location, I have friend who owns a Blaupunkt sat nav which takes about 30 seconds to catch up with your position on the road, that doesn't sound very long but of your driving through a busy town centre it can make all the difference between getting lost & being in control.

Would I recommend a Tom Tom sat nav device? Yes, but its not the 'be all & end all', I would still advise taking a map with you. The maps are dated & it's not worth buying the updates.

Summary: Doesn't live up to expectations