Top GPS Guide

TomTom is to sat-navs what Apple is to MP3 players, with the Dutch company being equally protective of its market-leading position. This latest pan-European GPS unit adds a handful of advanced options and slims down its waistline, but at the cost of some more standard features. It’s available now for ￡280, or ￡250 with UK maps only.

Whether you want a simple, out-of-the-box sat nav or a smart, flexible companion for complex journeys, the TomTom One XL Europe or TomTom One XL Regional will fit the bill. It’s not cheap and lacks the flash media functionality of some rivals, but when it comes to pure navigation, TomTom is still the GPS benchmark.

Strengths

From the moment you switch the XL on, it’s obvious that this is a class act. Powering up takes under 30 seconds and the TomTom’s ability to latch on to the weakest signal, even through windows or under trees, is uncanny. If you’re not locked on and navigating within 2 minutes, you’re probably stuck in the Dartford tunnel.

The 109mm (4.3-inch) screen is bright, sharp and colourful. We prefer a slightly more zoomed-out view than the XL provides by default, but manipulating the 3D maps is extremely easy. The intuitive all-touch graphical interface is fast and clear. Search is especially simple, with a comprehensive full-postcode database that recognised all but our trickiest test addresses.

Route calculation (even between European countries) is swift, and route management is excellent — you can review routes as a text list, images of key junctions or a fly-through, and add waypoints or rest stops easily.

Navigation is clearly shown and crisply spoken, with destination road names to help at complex junctions. Re-calculation after missed turns is equally impressive: there’s little of the panicky ‘make a U-turn’ advice common on weaker sat-navs.

Tags: dartford tunnel, dutch company, Gps Navigator, graphical interface, junctions, rivals, road names, route management, uk maps, waypoints

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Posted on September 12th, 2008 by admin
Filed under: Gps Navigator