- Average user rating: 3.5 stars out of 6 reviews Back to product review
- My rating: 0 stars
Full user review
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1 out of 1 people found this review helpful
3.5 stars
"Mid-level GPS at entry-level price"
Pros: Wide screen, route/waypoint planning, customization, EasyPort mount, Mapshare, online community.
Cons: No sd card slot for adding new maps.
Summary: TomTom is the Hyundai of GPS manufacturers packing more features for the dollar into every unit. For the same price or less than a comparable unit from Garmin you get important features such as route planning with up to 48 waypoints - which is very important for planning in advance. The other thing that TomTom has above the competition is TomTom Home and the on-line support community for their products. There are some very good 3rd party freeware tools that allow you to do all your trip planning in Google Maps and then move the files to your TomTom directly. That's a big plus from my perspective. TomTom Mapshare is also quite slick, permitting you to make mapping corrections on the fly, then upload them to the internet --- and likewise download corrections from other users. It is a pretty good idea that tags onto social networking in a bit different way than usual. I like it and have already corrected a couple of street names with ease.
On the downside, I still can't quite figure out why TomTom did away with the SD card slot that was on the predecessor unit XL. To add maps of other countries such as the UK or Europe, you have to back up your unit, then install the new map in its place and then do the backup and reintsall all over again when you want to revert back to your original maps. Not a big issue of you don't travel outside of North America, but for us, who travel to see family in the UK it will be a bit of an inconvenience -- but one I decided to live with given the EasyPort mount which is far superior to the other standard mounts on TomTom XL models.
My wife was able to set up the unit while we were driving back from Maine to Ottawa, Canada. It took all of 15 minutes, and when she made an entry mistake, she simply went into the preferences menu and corrected her errors.
Overall it's an excellent unit - and now that TomTom has purchased TeleAtlas - they own the map vendor who supplied them with their mainstay of their product line. It will be interesting to see where these devices go in the future, but for the moment, if you are looking for an entry level priced unit with more than basic navigation, then look consider the 330s.
Where to buy
TomTom XL 330:
$106.95 - $207.20
| store | price | in stock? | rating |
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$159.99 | Yes |
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$179.99 | Yes |
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$159.99 | Yes |
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$149.99 | Yes |
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Amazon.com Marketplace
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$169.00 | Yes |
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