TomTom GO 910 Car GPS Receiver
- Form Factor: Fixed
- Map capabilities: Internal
- GPS Type: Automobile
- Input Method: Touch Screen
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Ditch those paper maps..
Pros
Gets me there easily and quickly. Text to speech translation is clever.
Cons
Silly features. Buggy Software. Clumsy engineering for attaching it to the windshield.
Recommended it?
Yes
The Bottom Line:
The mapping and directions are fantastic, but the software is not perfect and it has silly features that you probably won?t use.
I've bought a TomTom 300 about 3 years ago and it was quite revolutionary for me.
The ability to drive and never have to worry about how to get to my destination.
The TomTom 910 is a huge improvement over the TomTom 300 but let me stand back and tell you what I think of the 910 objectively without comparing it to other TomTom models.
I bought the 910 because I recently immigrated to America from England.
I needed something to guide me around the glorious states as I searched for work.
I went to job interviews guided by my 910. I drove to my first day of work using my 910 and I explored the new town I intended to live in for many years to come, with my 910.
In a nutshell, it did the job and it did it well.
I like the 910's method of display where you see a 3D layout and you progress your way through it with fluid motion. Other Satnav systems (such as Garmin) switch the display to an overhead one when you approach turns and this can be confusing.
The idea with TomTom is simplicity. The graphics are clear and consistent, and the directions are very concise and clear. When taking an exit off a freeway only to discover that the exit splits into 2 additional exits almost immediately, the 910 delivered results and warned me exactly which lane to stay in.
"Take the exit, then stay in the left lane."
" After one quarter mile stay in the right lane"
The choices of voice are vast. There are lots of different accents and languages. I was pleased to see a British accent both in a male and female variations having been born and raised in sunny south London.
The 910 voices are detailed in that it tells you exactly which road to take by using text to speech translation. The algorithm used for the speech is impressive. It gets the pronunciation correct in many cases, but can falter with the weird ones, as would be expected.
The light sensor on top of the device is a nice touch and automatically dims the display depending on light conditions outside. At night, it even goes far as to switch to a night mode which is less distracting.
The radio controlled remote is another great feature to control the device without being distracted.
Now, lets get to the nitty gritty.
The 910 boasts features of MP3 playback and photo slideshow viewing. These are merely toys that never reach the full potential. The MP3 player lacks any thought and seems as if it was hacked up in a day just to add more to the feature list.
The photo viewing feature is a poor attempt to keep vehicle occupants occupied by looking at small images way over near the windshield.
TomTom have attempted to make use of the built in hard drive by offering these features and I believe it's just an attempt to attract more interest in the product more than functional value.
The software is another issue.
It's flaky.
It can crash just as bad (in fact more times) than Windows.
The light sensor fails to work so many times and I have to do a hard reset by pushing a pointy object in a small hole to reboot the system.
The unit can be docked to a PC and have software updates sucked into it, but how long will it take to create something flawless? I've had numerous updates, but it's still so buggy.
It's not bad enough to disrupt my journey, but it's a major issue that should be addressed.
The method of attachment to the windshield is awkward, but stable and solid. It's a 2 handed job and involves a lot of twisting and positioning before you can be confident that it's 'welded' on.
There are lots of downloadable goodies available for the unit using the bundled TomTom software, all at a cost. These include voices, additional maps and more. See http://www.tomtom.com
The ability to drive and never have to worry about how to get to my destination.
The TomTom 910 is a huge improvement over the TomTom 300 but let me stand back and tell you what I think of the 910 objectively without comparing it to other TomTom models.
I bought the 910 because I recently immigrated to America from England.
I needed something to guide me around the glorious states as I searched for work.
I went to job interviews guided by my 910. I drove to my first day of work using my 910 and I explored the new town I intended to live in for many years to come, with my 910.
In a nutshell, it did the job and it did it well.
I like the 910's method of display where you see a 3D layout and you progress your way through it with fluid motion. Other Satnav systems (such as Garmin) switch the display to an overhead one when you approach turns and this can be confusing.
The idea with TomTom is simplicity. The graphics are clear and consistent, and the directions are very concise and clear. When taking an exit off a freeway only to discover that the exit splits into 2 additional exits almost immediately, the 910 delivered results and warned me exactly which lane to stay in.
"Take the exit, then stay in the left lane."
" After one quarter mile stay in the right lane"
The choices of voice are vast. There are lots of different accents and languages. I was pleased to see a British accent both in a male and female variations having been born and raised in sunny south London.
The 910 voices are detailed in that it tells you exactly which road to take by using text to speech translation. The algorithm used for the speech is impressive. It gets the pronunciation correct in many cases, but can falter with the weird ones, as would be expected.
The light sensor on top of the device is a nice touch and automatically dims the display depending on light conditions outside. At night, it even goes far as to switch to a night mode which is less distracting.
The radio controlled remote is another great feature to control the device without being distracted.
Now, lets get to the nitty gritty.
The 910 boasts features of MP3 playback and photo slideshow viewing. These are merely toys that never reach the full potential. The MP3 player lacks any thought and seems as if it was hacked up in a day just to add more to the feature list.
The photo viewing feature is a poor attempt to keep vehicle occupants occupied by looking at small images way over near the windshield.
TomTom have attempted to make use of the built in hard drive by offering these features and I believe it's just an attempt to attract more interest in the product more than functional value.
The software is another issue.
It's flaky.
It can crash just as bad (in fact more times) than Windows.
The light sensor fails to work so many times and I have to do a hard reset by pushing a pointy object in a small hole to reboot the system.
The unit can be docked to a PC and have software updates sucked into it, but how long will it take to create something flawless? I've had numerous updates, but it's still so buggy.
It's not bad enough to disrupt my journey, but it's a major issue that should be addressed.
The method of attachment to the windshield is awkward, but stable and solid. It's a 2 handed job and involves a lot of twisting and positioning before you can be confident that it's 'welded' on.
There are lots of downloadable goodies available for the unit using the bundled TomTom software, all at a cost. These include voices, additional maps and more. See http://www.tomtom.com
