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Dr Gadget - Gadget Shop - TomTom Go 720 Traffic Edition

TomTom Go 720 Traffic Edition
List Price:
Our Price: £237.28
Your Save: £ ( % )
Availability:
Manufacturer: TomTom
Average Customer Rating: Average rating of 3.0/5Average rating of 3.0/5Average rating of 3.0/5Average rating of 3.0/5Average rating of 3.0/5

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Binding: Electronics
Brand: TomTom
EAN: 0636926017633
Label: TomTom
Manufacturer: TomTom
Model: 1M00.761
Publisher: TomTom
Release Date: 2007-09-16
Studio: TomTom

Accessories
TomTom GO iPOD & Audio Cable for 910/710/510
TomTom USB Home Charger - Power Adapter
TomTom Safety Camera Scratch Card
TomTom GO 520/720 Fast Charger
TomTom GO 520/720 Additional Windscreen Holder & USB Car Charger

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Spotlight customer reviews:

Customer Rating: Average rating of 2/5Average rating of 2/5Average rating of 2/5Average rating of 2/5Average rating of 2/5
Summary: OK, but...
Comment: I had the TomTom Go 700, which is a fantastic piece of kit, so when my daughter moved to University I thought I would treat myself to a new TomTom 720 and give my old 700 to my daughter.

Having waited over a month for delivery I was sure that it would have the latest maps - however on my first journey the first two roundabouts were missing and the third was there but it treated it as a turn. Not a good start, but then again this is Norfolk and not so well populated.

The traffic thing is a bit bizarre. I can't say I really understand it. For example travelling from Norwich to London(along the A11/M11) it gave a warning then increased my journey time to 7 hours. So I ignored its route and went towards the A12, to which it insisted I went back to the A11, despite it being 4 hours longer and over 10 miles further.

It likes motorways. For example travelling from Chelmsford to Whitechapel is straight down the A12, but the TomTom routes A12 / M25 / A11, adding a good 10 miles to the journey for no apparent reason. It also routed from Norwich to Nottingham via Cambridge.

The 700 is smaller than the old 720, but now all the wires plug into it, and not the mount, which is a bit fiddly especially when the traffic thing sticks out at an ugly angle. The sucker is also much more basic and totally useless, falling off just at the wrong moment and sticking it back with the wires trailing can get downright dangerous.

It does have more bells and whistles, but these depend on the data being up to date - for instance it can beep when exceeding the speed limit, but not so good when its speed information is wrong. The touchscreen is also more sensitive - resulting in a game of 'What have I switched off this time?' every time I manage to retrieve the screen after it has fallen off.

I also can't get music to play from the SD card. It could well be me doing something wrong, but I couldn't find any TomTom helpdesk to ring and prove otherwise.

The incident that summed it up was sitting in a traffic jam on the new flyover between the A2 and M25. Not only was it not on the map, but every few minutes the traffic sensor made a strange noise and told me that the road was clear, despite Radio 2 reporting a solid jam between there and the Dartford Tunnel.

Before buying any GPS check to see how up to date the maps are and try contacting the helpdesk to see if there is one.

Thank you Amazon - writing a review is very therapeutic!

Customer Rating: Average rating of 4/5Average rating of 4/5Average rating of 4/5Average rating of 4/5Average rating of 4/5
Summary: Some features and up-dates need reviewing
Comment: I've used this sat-nav for courier work. Although it has some helpful features, some of them seem to lacking in functions and need to be reviewed and updated with more depth.

1) The Blue-tooth phone is not loud enough to hear in all types of vehicles.
2) There seems to be NO (free) safety camera alert that you get with other sat-nav systems.
3) Map corrections don't seem to change even after reporting them and up-loading them on-line.
4) After updating, some features fail to function. a) The use of the on-screen system application on the PC. b) The spoken address with dialogue wont work. (This maybe due to using the Vista OS as these features worked ok with XP).


Customer Rating: Average rating of 1/5Average rating of 1/5Average rating of 1/5Average rating of 1/5Average rating of 1/5
Summary: Don't buy if you have a Mac
Comment: Do not buy this product if you have a Mac as the support team only have Windows tools to fix problems. I bought a new map but after installing it the device is "unable to store settings: file access error". The only solution from TomTom is to plug the device into a Windows PC and run a Windows exe. So I'm stuck with a device that either won't work or works with an out-of-date map. AVOID.

Customer Rating: Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5
Summary: A Nice Piece Of Kit
Comment: Used a Navman N20 for the last 6 months and liked it I decided to upgrade to the new Navman S901i.Liked the idea of an integrated traffic facility but as I checked out other satnavs the TOM TOM 720T caught my eye.Even though the traffic facility wasn`t integrated I decided that the Tom Tom was a better buy and purchased one.Out of the box I easily installed supplied software and conected to Tom Tom Home site and downloaded recommended updates.Easily paired it up to my Sony Erikson 750i and it transfered all my stored numbers to the unit in about 15 seconds.Transfered 2 Albums to the unit from my PC easily and set up all my personal preferences easily.Took the unit to the car and placed the unit on the windscreen using the supplied sucker.In short setup was very easy and small sucker works well(hasn`t yet fallen off)Hands Free works Very well,mp3`s play either through the unit itself or plays through your car`s audio system using units FM transmitter.Very clear and volume can be adjusted by radio dial.The traffic module plugged in got a signal quickly and updated info but haven`t been on any significant journey`s yet to thoroughly test it.Lastly menus on the unit are easy to use so anyone can set it up quickly.All in all this is a very good unit and have not had any problems at all with it`s use but only had it a week. So far so good and would certainly recommend this unit.PS the only thing I would suggest to Tom Tom is to integrate the traffic module into the unit itself.

Customer Rating: Average rating of 1/5Average rating of 1/5Average rating of 1/5Average rating of 1/5Average rating of 1/5
Summary: Good navigation, unstable firmware
Comment: I really wanted to like this product, and in some ways I still do. It performs most functions very well but in just one month of ownership I have spent 10 to 20 hours battling with what appears to be software conflicts introduced when connecting to the USB docking station and downloading application and data updates.

The Good News: Satellite location is rapid and the device is far more sensitive to satellite signals so that you can actually use it indoors (!) or more realistically in a mid or low dashboard mounting rather than perched in line of sight on a windscreen sucker. The satellite location is helped by the quick fix downloads, the command interface is clear and simple to master, and routing and navigation is near faultless. I discovered one incorrectly mapped one-way street which I corrected simply on my map and uploaded for other users. Automatic speech recognition was an excellent feature.

The Not So Good News: I tried the Traffic aerial on just one long journey round the M25. Connection to the device was simple, but reception was non existent in most country areas even when I tuned manually. Round the M25 reception was fine, and the device reported 2 locations with a 5 minute delay at each. The actual delay time was 55 minutes and had been built up for some time. As much use as the proverbial chocolate teapot as the TMC functionality is severely limited by aerial sensitivity and the paucity of traffic data that is broadcast. My verdict is that it isn't worth buying the "T" version of this product, but that isn't really TomTom's fault.

The Really Bad News: As I mentioned I really wanted to like this as I'd heard and read so many good things about TomTom, but my experience leads me to a firm Don't Buy recommendation. My first TomTom 720T worked brilliantly straight out of the box. Where it all starts to go horribly wrong is when you connect to the PC software (TomTom Home) via the USB docking station to download updates. On the first occasion I did this, it was recommended that I update to the latest version of the application, as well as downloading several small safety camera updates. That appeared to go well enough, but I noticed that the ASR (Automatic Speech Recognition) function no longer worked. Under the guidance of Customer Support I downloaded and installed a new set of ASR files, but to no avail. I also wasn't very impressed that CS had interpretd my carefully described Speech Recognition problem as "Text to Speech" which isn't the same thing at all.

After a few days I decided to ask Amazon to replace the unit as faulty which they did by return of post with no drama. Replacement unit also worked straight out of the box...but on connection to TomTom home it failed in exactly the same way, with updates knocking out the ASR. This time my query was passed to second line support for a deep and meaningful consideration of what might be wrong. Now I found first level support to be very helpful and friendly, but with varying technical knowledge. The response I got from the second level was pitiful - their best shot was that ASR wasn't working because maybe I was speaking too loudly (I admit that a bit of shouting had taken place for understandable reasons!)

Strangely, after several days of use and several reboots, the ASR suddenly started working again, but after a week or so I noticed that the initial safety camera information was no longer active or visible. I requested a repeat download of the intitial safety camera data via support, and connected up to download it. Oh dear, I'm recommended to download another update to the application software on the device. I simply knew it was the wrong thing to do, but I selected the software update as well as the camera data download.

You've guessed it, although I now had the camera data again, the download had knocked out the ASR functionality again. Worse, when I connected to TomTom Home again a few minutes later, the newly downloaded camera updates were knocked out as well. The support desk suggests I reload the ASR software files again, but that didn't work last time so I shall just wait to see if ASR returns. There is a backup and restore function which I am sure would be really useful if I could ever get the device to a state of full usability. In the meantime I have written a stinking letter to escalate this to Customer Relations in Amsterdam - just note that you have to write them a letter and send it through the post to Amsterdam - but they are happy to email you back!

In summary, the satnav functions allow you to proceed in a forwards direction very happily, the Customer Service Desk are friendly and helpful but mainly have you going round in circles, and the firmware that controls some ancillary functions actually goes backwards!

If you do buy one, I recommend using it out of the box and never, never, never connect it to the USB docking station; madness that way lies.


Editorial Reviews:

Perfectly engineered; New TomTom GO 720, the ultimate car navigator. Elegant, slim, pocketable design - perfect fit for your car and your pocket. GO 720 takes everything that has made TomTom the world leader in portable navigation and builds on it. Perfectly engineered, and with a range of enhancements to every aspect of your navigation experience. Speech Recognition: Speaking an address, to tell your device where to take you, is much easier than typing. TomTom GO 720 understands the pronunciation of city and street names. You can also answer questions while driving, so you can keep your eyes on the road with the combination of text-to-speech and speech recognition technology. For example: Your GO 720 asks: "Traffic delay now 12 minutes; shall I try to optimize?" "A new text message was received; shall I read it aloud?" and you just reply "Yes" or "No" Best Navigation At the heart of the TomTom GO 720 is its navigation performance: High sensitivity GPS chipset gives you the best positioning Industry-leading route calculation takes you there the best possible way Should you deviate from your planned route, fast route re-calculation adjusts to your new location instantly And when you first turn on, TomTom QuickGPSfix technology is best at finding the GPS satellites, to give you even quicker start-up Navigation innovations include: See where you are: Building footprints, for a more realistic representation of your surroundings Hear where you are: text-to-speech means your device announces street names, for even easier identification of your turn Today's best maps. And tomorrow's. TomTom GO 720 come with the latest and most complete maps pre-installed on 2GB internal memory, for accurate, door-to-door navigation throughout Western Europe. Coverage includes Andorra, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Monaco, The Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Republic


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