TomTom GO 700 GPS unit

Reviewer: Stuart Miles
Review Date: 16 August 2005
Manufacturer: TomTom
Price as reviewed: £550
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9/10

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User: Philip Godden, Southend-on-sea, UK
Date Posted: 17 November 2005
Review: I purchased a new Tom-Tom 700 from the duty free shop at Euro tunnel in August on my route to Switzerland. It came with Version 5.201 software. I drove to Reams without taking it out of the box. Plugged it in and charged it up over night at Reams. I had printed out the operator guide before departing UK from the TomTom web site. I had also printed off an Auto Route map and instructions set. Saturday morning I set the TomTom up as described, which took a good 10 minutes to initialise and go through the first time start up and self-check. My car was a Chrysler Grand Voyager and from the drivers seat with the TomTom set up in the windscreen the easy touch contact was not permissible. I set up the destination and set off expecting to go to Strasbourg as per the Auto Route map. After 20 minutes or so the TomTom wanted me to take an exit off the Motorway, but I ignored this and continued onto Strasbourg with the TomTom advising me to turn off at each exit for the next 70 miles or so. Eventually the TomTom recalculated my route via Strasbourg, but its route then took me to Basel. Now it was at this point I discovered that TomTom’s do not receive clear signals when there are electric overhead tram wires. Thus it kept loosing the signal and produced allsorts of strange commands while the map danced around. I followed the road signs for the motorway and luckily the TomTom started to behave again once on the motorway and it took me to my destination. It was raining on my arrival and little did I know it was the start of the major flooding, central Europe was to experience. The TomTom performed well with in the local towns in Switzerland, but its behaviour in many tunnels was quite different once the ANS system was lost - commands to turn around had to be ignored. On one occasion very low cloud formation and a route shadowed by mountains caused a lot of signal disruption. The POI database on Swiss open-air car parks is very out of date with swathes of car parks just not listed. I had roof box and high rise cycle rack. Loaded, my vehicle height was 2.3 meters so open-air car parks were essential. A week later I was to leave for Desintist and unfortunately the hotel was not listed in the POI. The TomTom’s route was to take me over a mountain pass, which seemed ok as all the flooding was down in the valleys. 23 miles up the pass the road was completely washed away, so the TomTom re-routed me via another mountain pass but this time the army stopped me due to the road being damaged. The TomTom when programmed with the second roadblock came back with the response of 'no other alternative route available', so I had to get out the map and program the TomTom for Lucerne instead. Lucerne was to be Tom Tom's toughest test. Flooding in Lucerne meant that seven roadblocks were programmed in total. Again electric tram wires hampered TomTom’s performance. Eventual I ignored TomTom and drove some way out of Lucerne and reprogrammed it for Desintist. Now it was on route to Desintist that TomTom decided to take the long route around a lake adding another 50 minutes to the journey. The journey should have taken 2 hrs 10 minutes and covered 70 miles. It took 7 hrs 30 and I covered 350 miles. TomTom works well in good weather away from electric tram wires, off mountain roads and out of tunnels. My homeward route back through France was uneventful with TomTom working well. Sunday mornings return home was a different matter! I setup France Eurotunnel terminal as a POI the night before, I inserted the power supply cable, placed the TomTom into its cradle and pressed the on button, but nothing! It was completely dead, with nothing on the screen. After grumbling because I had a train to catch I tried the 'Restart' button and the TomTom came to life and once through the tunnel I re-programmed the TomTom for home. The TomTom thinks I live 100 yards further up the road than my house number actually is. During my holiday I used the speed display function set up in kilometres. There was a discrepancy between the speedometer in the voyager and that of the TomTom. The faster I drove the greater the discrepancy. At 110 kph clock speed TomTom displayed 98 kph. My TomTom still won’t always start when the on/off button is pressed. I have had to use the 'Reset' button once since being back home. My overall satisfaction = 5 / 10.
Rating: 15 people have rated this review helpful

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User: Keith Spragg, Manchester, UK
Date Posted: 27 August 2005
Review: In your review, you say that the 700 is the only TomTom with Bluetooth - The TomTom Go 500 also has Bluetooth, and allows for hands free calling, although I'm not sure you can do the Email on it, it can also take advantage of the Traffic routing. For something like £100 cheaper (if you shop around) you aren't getting much more for your money.
Rating: 7 people have rated this review helpful

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User: Cverrier, London
Date Posted: 26 August 2005
Review: A correction or two... The TOMTOM 500 does have Bluetooth (I've got one) - Where the 700 differs is that it has 64 Mb RAM and an internal 2.5 GB hard disk where the 300 and 500 have 32Mb RAM and an SD card slot only. This obviously gives the 700 much more room for maps. The 300 also has Bluetooth, but only for data/traffic updates, and cannot act as a phone hands free. It also differs by having a slower processor than the other two. It also lacks the Assisted Navigation feature which attempts to update your position even when the GPS signal is lost.
Rating: 5 people have rated this review helpful

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