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"Real Dissappointment"
on by qc03547Pros I'll skip the pros since the reviews have covered them
Cons Poor screen visability is sunlight, No Blackberry Bluetooth support, Crazy mount system, Poor USA feature support.
Summary Wow, where do I start? After waiting 6 months for this product to come out I discovered that our local Best Buy had received 6 units. I scrambled down to snag one thinking that they would all be gone during the 10 minutes it took me to drive there. After purchasing, I took the time to open and inspect the unit before I left the parking lot. Good thing I did because the $800 device was packaged in a brittle egg carton type material that completely disintegrated and the GPS was free to rattle around in the box during shipping. I tried to power up and nothing....dead in the box. I took the unit back in to the store and showed them what happened and they said they would get me another one. Fortunately I asked them to open the box of the new one and to our surprise, the same thing had happened. They opened all 6 boxes and 5 out of 6 devices were damaged to some degree. You would think that they would spend more than 10 cents to package a $800 GPS. Reluctantly I accepted the one unit that did not appear damaged and DID power up. Upon power up the first thing you notice is that the default language is NOT English. You spend the next half hour trying to find the language change screen while blind because it is several layers into the menu and instructions on how to change is not in the manual. I powered up and decided to give it a try and map my way home. One of the features of the 910 that attracted me to it was the "text to speech" that allows the unit to say street names and not gut "turn right", etc. Guess what....not supported in English and feature is grayed out in the menu. The second feature that really attracted me to the TOM TOM GO 910 was Bluetooth and being able to use my Bluetooth phone "hands free". Disappointment #2....Blackberry devices are not supported. Actually there are not that many phones that are supported after looking at the TOM TOM web site. Being that the Blackberry is one of the most popular Bluetooth devices out there, and there are more Blackberries on this planet than any other cell phone, you would think that it would be supported. I just don't get that since I can buy a cheap $30 Bluetooth headset and it connects to ALL Bluetooth devices. My next observation was the strange mounting system for the 910. The only option you have is the windshield mount that comes with the 910. The suction cup mounting is well designed and works great but the other end that mates to the 910 is just insane. It has a weird connector which requires the user to couple the two ends at just the right angle to engage the electrical connector and lock the two ends together. Now disconnecting is a different story. Be prepared to get out a crow bar to separate the two. Ok, I'm exaggerating but not by much. There is a release button on the front of the 910 that you press and is supposed to disengage the 910 from the mount. Not so easy! You must press the button and pull REALLY hard to separate. I mean so hard that you think that it is going to break. This requires you to remove the entire system from your windshield since it would be almost impossible to disengage the 910 from the mount while it's still on your windshield. Want another mounting option other than your windshield? Forget it, it's not an option. Actually, there are no options or accessories currently available for the 910. I'm sure that they will have them eventually on their web site but not yet. Ok back to my first nav trip home. The 910 worked flawlessly and took me right to my front door. When I arrived I went to clear the current route from the 910 and could not figure it out. I spent the next 20 minutes going from menu to menu to find an option to clear the route and NOTHING. Finally I found a option button to add more menu items. I selected that and it added several more layers of menu items. I paged through all the menu items and found on the very last page a button to "Clear Route". YOU HAVE TO BE KIDDING ME! I could go on but will leave it here. One last thing.......be real careful to check the availability of the Tom Tom Plus features because not all of them are available in the USA either. In summary, I traded a prefectly good Garmin 2620 StreetPilot for the 910 and really regret it. I should have waited for the new Garmins with Bluetooth to come out this fall.
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"TomTom has a real winner with the Go 910"
on by jmstearnsPros Intuitive, accurate and fast. Full of features. Big hard drive and long battery life.
Cons A bit pricey. No voice-activated calling using Bluetooth. Only suction mount available.
Summary I purchased my TomTom Go 910 at BestBuy before general release, expecting to see a few bugs. And indeed, the first unit I bought met those expectations. The windshield mount, which provides power to the unit through a cigar lighter adapter, did not fit the base of the unit securely. The bottom line was a poor connection and a unit that shut itself down on a frequent basis.
I walked the defective unit across the parking lot and exchanged it for a second one. This one, we tested in the store before I left. Everything checked out, and I walked quickly from the store and eagerly installed it in my car. This one powered up immediately.
The TomTom Go 910 is an intuitive and easy unit to set up and use. It’s quick to boot and the new GPS chip is quick to lock on a position. I paired my Verizon Motorola E815 phone with the unit and imported the phone book. It worked flawlessly and the quality of the speaker phone is very good. I let the unit take me home pulling off the road a couple of times to change to a different language just for fun. The voices are natural and even the text-to-speech was pleasing to listen to (although it kind of butchered the street name, “Via De La Escuela”…I’m in California).
Upon arrival at my house, I installed the TomTom Home software on my computer and hooked the unit up via the USB connector on the included home dock. I easily loaded several megabytes of MP3 files and photos to the 20 GB hard drive. All worked very well. Then I finally got around to reading the manual.
In fact the only bug I encountered was in the Home software itself, which at one point generated one of those annoying “memory can’t be read” error messages that are fairly common in Windows. I submitted a tech support request to TomTom, and although they haven’t resolved the issue yet, they did reply to my email within minutes, letting me know they are working on it.
All in all, I’m very happy with my purchase. I’m planning a trip to Europe in the near future. I’m anxious to test the maps. Maybe I’ll even let my 910 speak German to me.Updated
A follup-up posting:
Reporting from Germany…well I arrived in Germany nearly a week ago, so I’ve had the opportunity to give my 910 a test using the European maps. In a word: outstanding!
The only glitch I had was in initial satellite acquisiton time, going from one side of the earth to the other. It took nearly 20 minutes for my 910 to find itself. Of course, in fairness, I’d come from California in the US, had switched maps and was on the Autobahn, traveling at a pretty good clip, while my 910 was trying to discover where it was.
Once it locked in, it hasn’t let me down once. And I’m in a small town called Bad Homburg, north of Frankfurt. The list of POIs, even here, is pretty impressive.
The initial connection problems I had with the first unit’s base do not exist on this one. The GPS “clicks” firmly into place and is even smart enough to turn itself on and off as I start and shut down the little Mercedes A-Class car that Avis rented me.
Mein TomTom 910 GPS freut mich sehr!!!Updated
A follup-up posting:
Reporting from Germany…well I arrived in Germany nearly a week ago, so I’ve had the opportunity to give my 910 a test using the European maps. In a word: outstanding!
The only glitch I had was in initial satellite acquisiton time, going from one side of the earth to the other. It took nearly 20 minutes for my 910 to find itself. Of course, in fairness, I’d come from California in the US, had switched maps and was on the Autobahn, traveling at a pretty good clip, while my 910 was trying to discover where it was.
Once it locked in, it hasn’t let me down once. And I’m in a small town called Bad Homburg, north of Frankfurt. The list of POIs, even here, is pretty impressive.
The initial connection problems I had with the first unit’s base do not exist on this one. The GPS “clicks” firmly into place and is even smart enough to turn itself on and off as I start and shut down the little Mercedes A-Class car that Avis rented me.
Mein TomTom 910 GPS freut mich sehr!!! -
"Great product"
on by prozziPros What can I say, it does everythig it says it would
Cons I couldn't connect it to my computer so I have to exchange it
Summary This product is great, picked it up at Best Buy on April 17. Worked right away, I have no idea how the previous guy says he couldn't find the language when the first thing is does is ask you what language you want to pick. I was using it in less than 10 minutes, the suction mount is great and the 910 clicks in a snap, to get it out you push the middle button and comes right off. As for navigation it works great, I put my home address in and took me home with no issues. I set up bluetooth with my phone and it works great, it transfered my phonebook to the 910 and I could make calls in no time. So everything worked as advertised as the unit goes, my only issue I couldn't get it set up with my computer and have to exchange it, my computer wouldn't recognize it and tried 2 other computers and the same thing. So I am really happy with this product for the features it has and how easy it is to use.
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"A "Fair" review"
on by jonhoffmPros Screen is both readable and responsive. TTS works well. tomtom traffic feature is surpisingly useful
Cons mounting mechanism. POI database. Lacking FM transmitter
Summary I purchased the 910 at BestBuy on 5/9/06. I am not a GPS guru, however, I had purchased my wife a Garmin StreetPilot i3 late last year for just over $300. I was very impressed with the i3 and decided to get a GPS for my car as well. I wanted a larger screen and easier interface than the i3 and also desired traffic info as well since I commute in a large metro area. After looking around, I decided on the tomtom 910 due to its bluetooth capabilities, the tomtom traffic feature, the PC software (more about that later), and the ipod interface possibility.
I will list my opinions in order of strength (most strongest pros/cons first) -
CON - the docking mechanism, which is used both on the auto mount and home dock seems needlessly counter-intuitive and fragile. This sentiment is echoed by the writer of mytomtomgo.com. I share his concern for the long-term wear of this mechanism. I also found it interesting that the CNet editor in the video clearly has trouble with the dock and has to support it with her hand.
PRO - The directions using the TTS are very good. The street names are clear and accurate - I believe this is a definite help while navigating. It is nice not to have to look at the device for the street name if you are not familiar with where you are at.
CON - The POI database is surprisingly weak IMO. The i3 will display the address and phone number of a POI when selected. This is very useful in the case of restaurants and very important in the case of auto repair shops. The only way I have found to get a phone number of a POI is to go into the mobile phone menu and go through the motions of calling the POI through that menu. I have configured my phone for bluetooth connection, however, I am not sure if you could even get the phone number if you do not have a phone configured for the unit. Also, I have not found a way to display the street address of the POI. tomtom customer support confirmed that there is not a way to display this information. I have found the addresses which I have entered to be a bit off. Both my home and office were a half to a whole block off. If this is also true with POIs, not having the street address accessible could be a bit of a hassle.
PRO - The tomtom traffic feature has been surprisingly solid. The information appears up-to-date, the on-screen interface is intuitive and the speed of the download is good.
PRO/CON - The PC software has features both good and bad, the software is useful for backup and restore of the unit in the event of a problem and can also manage itineraries, voices and the like. There is one major UI flaw in the software which has sent numerous 910 owners to call support - when you go to use the software for itinerary planning, a graphic representation of the unit indicates that you need to switch the unit on. The software is asking you to click the graphic on button (not the device's - which has to be on already to get to this point). I and many others called support thinking that the unit was not being recognized - anyway, I am sure they will clarify this in future releases.
My biggest disappointment was that the software did not allow for a import of pc-based contact info into the POI database (i.e., an Outlook contact list). This would have been a great feature - tomtom never stated that it would do this, it was a bad expectation on my part.
PRO - tomtom support has been very responsive to questions. They even emailed a software update which I installed on the unit. This is where I appreciated being able to backup the unit prior to copying operating system files onto the unit.
CON - the lack of an FM transmitter is suprising. With the features of the unit - mp3 player, ipod support (via an additional accessory) and handsfree phone support, it would have seemed to be a no-brainer to add an FM transmitter. Needless to say, a hard-wired aux connection is better, but if you are using the unit in rental cars, or in a car without an aux in connection, an FM connection would be very nice.
Overall -
I like the device in spite of its shortcomings. My biggest concern is the POI data. It seems to be a good performer, however, I would recommend potential buyers to comparison shop and be clear on what you need before jumping into a rather expensive unit. I find the core navigation capability on par with the i3, but not really better. I myself am considering downgrading, but hesitate to lose the traffic feature I have come to value.Updated
CORRECTION - I have since learned that the phone numbers for POIs are visible in the browse map screen along with the POI name. This is quite convenient.
I have also learned a few things regarding POI databases since my original post. Apparently, the only fields in tomtom (and perhaps other POI databases) is a description (which presumably includes the category, name and other info), the latitude and longitude. Therefore, it is evident that the actual street address information is not included on the tomtom currently - only the lat and long cordinates. Knowing this, I now understand why there is no method of displaying the address info.
ADDITIONAL COMMENTS - I neglected to mention the quality of the color screen in my initial posting. I find the screen to be easily readable and bright - One of the best GPS screen I have seen.
After more time using the mount, I now find that the unit drops (gradually tilts down) if the unit is not resting on the dashboard - this is not too critical since it is more stable on the dash anyway.
I still experience some GPS drift with a weak signal at a stop. Occasionally, the unit will think that I am making a u-turn or going off-road until the unit re-establishes a better lock or I start moving again. It seems that part of this problem is due to my car's windshield since I have had a much stronger signal in every other car I have had the unit in. -
"Can't turn your TomTom back on? Read this!"
on by nrogersumichPros incredibly intuitive, has clear graphics, reasonable reception in Manhattan (no GPS is great with tall buildings)
Cons Can't turn it on!? Or can I...
Summary It's not dead, just do a soft reset! Use a pin and hold the soft reset button for 5-10 seconds (the reset is not on the face, but in the hole at back where the unit connects to the base; opposite side of the gold circle, up just a little from the green strip). Apparently the battery shuts down if it's overcharged, so if you charge it for more than a few hours it might not turn back on again. Reset it and you'll be on the road again!
TomTom GO 910 user reviews
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Quick Specifications
- Destination Automotive
- Audible assistance Navigation instructions
- Maps included USA Canada Europe
- Mfr estimated battery life 4 hour(s)
- Weight 12 oz
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