Car Navigation System - Fixed Monitor - 16:9 Monitor - without Traffic Message Channel, with Traffic Message Channel - with Touchscreen - without Voice Control, with Voice Control more
The new TomTom Go 520 features a new elegant slim design with high quality finish, making it fit perfectly in any car or shirt pocket. The large 4.3 inch touch screen has TomTom's... more
case, you have complete peace of mind that you are providing the ultimate in protection for your investment. You can transport your TomTom 720 with ease.
720, 730, 920, 930 Mobile Navigation stays firmly in place in your car with the Carcomm CMPC-167 Mobile Holder. It supports connection to car kits and charges the phone's battery when placed in the holder.
device in an attractive; streamlined package. The Vent Mount promotes reliability along with style and ease. Our New Gomadic Auto Vent Holder is also the only mount on the market with a lifetime warranty and keeps you in touch on even the longest road trip. Here are just some of the highlights of this holder.
leather case, (2) Well padded with additional protection for the screen, (3) Durable premium leather with lifetime warranty, (4) Hand stitched made to last, (5) Integrated belt loop and lanyard bracket, (6) Magnetic closure, (7) Suitable for: Tomtom Go 520 / 720
different way - no problem! With the Alternative Mount Kit you can position your TomTom wherever it feels most comfortable, (2) Enables you to attach your TomTom One V2 / Tomtom One XL / Tomtom Go 520 / 720 in many different ways, (3) A suction pad to fix it to the windscreen (goose neck holder), (4) An adhesive cup to attach it to your dashboard, (5) A swivel mount that can be attached anywhere, (6) A ventilation clip to attach it to your car vent, (7) Compatibility: Tomtom One V2 / Tomtom One XL / Tomtom Go 520 / 720
Car Navigation System - Fixed Monitor - 16:9 Monitor - with Traffic Message Channel, without Traffic Message Channel - with Touchscreen - with Voice Control
A review by Great_reviewer07 on TomTom GO 520 January 17th, 2009
Author's product rating:
Reliability
Excellent
Ease of Use
Very Easy
Look & Feel
Excellent
Battery life
Satisfactory
Value for Money
Good
Advantages:
Great customisation features, big clear screen, easy to use
Disadvantages:
Battery life, no wall charger included
Recommend to potential buyers:
yes
Full review
I bought this sat nav just over a year ago, I got it from Halfords for £199.99 which yes is very expensive but I had always wanted one of these & had been told that they were very good, better than all the other sat nav makes. They were right & I'm still glad I bought it. I've noticed recently that the prices haven't really changed much, I've just looked this up at play.com & it will cost you £219.99 which is outrageous considering I bought this over a year ago for £20 less. I would normally expect them to be about £120 now. However when purchased from play.com it does come with a £10 iTunes voucher & an iPod cable. So considering the prices of those it would probably cost you around the £200 mark if bought on it's own. I think it's strange to include an iPod voucher & cable with a sat nav but I'm not here to review the voucher & cable I'm here to review the actual sat nav!
Anyway, back to business. I was very excited to get this home to set it up & also used to CD-ROM that came with it, however this is not absolutely necessary. The disc is mainly for downloading things like new voices like Michael Caine or John Cleese which although are nice accessories they're not mandatory & at £5 per voice download I think a lot of people will be avoiding them. The disc can also be used for downloading new map versions, these will indicate all new shops & speed cameras.
One of the things that really stood out for me about this sat nav is that you don't necessarily have to have it in the car with you, you can take it on foot. I have never seen anyone walking around town following directions from their sat nav but it's a nice thing to have there in case you really need it & also I believe you can attach headphones to it so not to attract attention to yourself with the spoken instructions!
This versions of the TomTom includes the latest maps of the UK & Ireland. You can get some TomTom's which have maps of Europe in them, but as I'm not planning on road trip around Europe anytime soon I went for the UK & Ireland version. Another big factor on choosing this one was the fact that the Europe edition was £80 more expensive at the time & after checking just now I noticed they haven't changed in price as I presumed they would have done either.
The TomTom Go 520 has a 4.3" touch screen, this is bigger than a lot of the competition brands of sat nav & one more reason I went for the TomTom. The touch screen is very easy to use & extremely responsive. You don't need one of those special pens like I've seen with other sat navs, you can simply do this with your fingers & is a lot easier for it. The screen is extremely clear & the layout is very simple & easy to master. When you turn on the sat nav for the first time it will ask you if you would like an introduction to all the features, I tend to skip these kinds of things & I prefer to just get to grips with it myself. It will ask you to input your address, this is not essential but is good to have it stored as if you have used to get somewhere you can simply click on home & it will give you directions to your front door… simple!
A nice feature included with this sat nav is the Bluetooth connectivity. You can connect it to your phone when you are one the move & will work as a speaker phone, displaying all calls & incoming texts up on the screen & of course you can either use your phone or the sat nav screen to answer incoming calls. It will even read out texts for you, this is optional though, you can either decide for it to inform you that you have a text & ask if you would like to read aloud or it can be read automatically. I prefer to choose at the time whether to have them read aloud or not as you never know who's going to be in the car with you at the time! The Bluetooth device on the sat nav is extremely easy to set up, my only problem with it is that it can take a while to connect to your phone. My TomTom sometimes stops at 40% for about 20 seconds or so then connects up within about a minute or so or sometimes when it stops at 40% it says connection failed, try again? Which can be very frustrating.
A great feature with this sat nav is the voice recognition it comes with, this is especially great if you are driving at the time of operating this & saves you from taking your eyes off the road. It recognises your voice with great precision although it is a good tip to have the radio off & windows shut to avoid interference. You will need to speak quite slowly & clearly when using this device but that goes without saying!
This device stores in all your previous destinations for ease of use. You can find them by simply pressing the screen when you are on the map screen this will then take you to the main menu where you will see the options; Navigate to, find alternative, help me, mobile phone & change preferences. There are more options if you click the arrow on the right of the screen but to find your previous destination you simply press navigate to & then recent destination. You then simply scroll down the list to find the one you're looking for.
Inputting address couldn't be more simple. You click on the screen when you're viewing the map, press navigate to then press address. On this screen you have options like city centre, spoke address, postcode, crossing or intersection or street & house number. I mainly use the street & house number feature & occasionally the postcode feature. The spoken address is good but of course not everyone's cup of tea & some people will prefer to do it the old fashioned way.
I love the fact that if you have a memory card with your phone you can put it in your sat nav & you can view photos, videos & listen to music, this is extremely easy to do & you will find the memory card adapter at the bottom of the device next to the charging port.
The customisation of this sat nav is brilliant & I was very impressed when I first came across it as I didn't know it was included. There are lots of things you can change to match your preference. To do this you simply click on the screen when on the map, press change preferences & there you can change everything from the colour of the map (you can also have night colours to make it more visible in the night, this also stops it reflecting on the windscreen so much which is a great feature, you can show points of interest like petrol stations, garages, restaurants. You can change the voice preferences or you can turn off the sound altogether. I would only recommend this if you have someone in the car with you to tell you the directions as it can be a pain & also extremely dangerous to keep taking your eyes off the road to look at the device. One of my favourite customisable feature is that you can change your symbol that shows where you are, you can have arrows, motorbikes & lots of different cars which is a great touch.
The battery life isn't that great. I like to use it without the cable plugged into my cigarette lighter although I always have it with me just in case. The battery will only hold out for about 2 hours, which I suppose isn't bad but if you're on a long journey isn't great either & you will have to pull over to put in the cable to charge it unless of course there's someone else in the car to do that for you.
Another thing that bugged me a little bit about this device is that it doesn't come with a wall charger, it comes with the usb adapter which charges it & of course the car charger but I had to go back to Halfords on the same day to buy a wall charger for it which set me back another £20 which is extremely expensive just for a charger.
Overall I think this sat nav is excellent, the features are great. The spoken instructions are very easy to follow, the maps are very clear & the address input is extremely easy to do whichever way you choose to do it the only thing that brings this down a little but in my estimation is the battery life, although as long as you always have the cable with you, you will not have a problem & this is only a problem on very long journeys anyway.
Advantages: Easy to use, better than an A-Z Disadvantages: Bit expensive, battery is not great
...getting my brand spanking new TomTom 520 I thought I'd say a few words about how wonderful it is!
The TomTom brand of satellite navigation is probably the most popular satellite navigation system around. This is not to say it is the best one, merely the most popular. Within the TomTom range there are numerous models and the price ranges from about £130 - £400. Obviously the more you pay then the more features you will get. These may include things ... ...next to you!
The TomTom I got costs around £180 and only has the UK and Ireland maps so if you were to want to use it abroad then you would need to either buy a different model or buy the maps from the shop although I'm not sure how much it would cost. It does obviously have other features which I will come onto a bit later on. Inside the box is the TomTom, a car charger, installation CD, manual, cradle and window mount to stick it onto your car ...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Advantages: Bigger, Slimmer, All round better! Disadvantages: None
This a fabulous tool to have on the road. The ease of use and added features make it one of the best gps systems i have found on the market. In my line of work it is essential that I arrive at various locations throughout the country, and as well as instant point of interest access i also require the ability to pre-plan all of my journeys. This device can supply all of my needs and many more. The larger screen makes the typing in of locations and ... ...practically design your own screen layout with the information you require on a daily basis makes using the Tom Tom Go520 so much easier. That fact that this model is also much slimmer that all of the previous models means that it can be used hand held when out of the vehicle. Get yourself one today! ...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Advantages: High-Definition like screen, easy to use, loads of fun extras, slim. quality built Disadvantages: Battery-life, Music edition speakers
I own the TomTOM GO 520 Music edition which is the exactly the same as the normal go 520 but with added mp3 playback and ipod connectivity. it allows you to connect your ipod and control it completely through the TOMTOM's touchs screen which seems very impressive to your passengers but not as impressive practically because the speakers on the go 520 are pretty useless compared to the regular car stereo, its a bit like trying to listen to music played ... ...very attractive at night. The TomTom is also extremely slim but it has a "weight" to it so it feels like a well-built, quality item and not likely to disintegrate if you accidently drop it getting out of the car. the slimness plays havoc on the battery life though averaging only 2.5 - 3 hours on a full charge dropping down to 1.5 hours if the bluetooth and music compatibilities are used.
Overall the TOMTOM Go 520 is a great sat-nav and deserves ...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Advantages: Easy to use, large screen Disadvantages: Traffic alerts, recognition of speed limits
The TomTom Go 520 has a good size screen and is very easy to use. Its packed with features and my favourite is the bluetooth connection to your mobile, even allowing the extraction of numbers contained within your phone book (its handy to note you can duplicate your phone book onto the TomTom, meaning a back up of your phone contacts). When making a call the sound quality is pretty good. The navigation is easy to use and I have had no problem with ... ...safety cameras and also alerts you if you are breaking the speed limit, however this feature is also the only drawback I have found. Occasionally it will get the speed limit you are in wrong (the other day I was on a dual carriage and it instead the speed limit was 30m.p.h.). It comes with an RDS reciever for traffic alerts, although to date this has mainly notified me when I am already in the traffic jam. Overall a great navigating and hands free ...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Reliability
Ease of Use
Look & Feel
Battery life
Value for Money
helpful
04.12.2007
Quick review of TomTom GO 520 Review ofTomTom GO 520by
antutt
Bought from Maplin this week. Got a demo in store before buying. Quite pleased overall, good entry level machine which definately suits average user ie day trips, visits, light work use etc. 1 Gb Hd, Blue tooth,4.3 inch screen,Touchscreen. Though these features are just gimmicks. Basically you want it to "speak" instructions to you, re route you in event of wrong turn, power off cigarette lighter, mount on window, it does all this. There are two models above this one but they are only worth it if you want MP3 playback,Fm transmitter etc. These features are not integral to a GPS unit, just bells and whistles.
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Advantages: Speech Recognition, Hands Free, FREE TRAFFIC Subscription & more .... Disadvantages: Just 1 Year Guarantee
...I love to travel alot on Holidays and if I am holidaying in UK , I mostly go in my Car. Till date I used to take a print out of directions from maps.google.co.uk and hand it over to my travel mate(read Date !!! )
And many a times we would lose directions either by my carelessness or my mate's !!! I used to think that GPS device is too expensive and I can buy 4 air tickets to Europe on Ryan for the same price !!! But WISDOM prevailed a month ago and I bought a new TomTom online though I did a lot of research in various stores and discussed with friends having navman or Garmin or Tomtom already !! Its a one time investment and I dont mind spending 235 GBP if it saves my time and Petrol while driving !!! I dont have to drive extra miles or look for the first left when lost !!! So here are the features :
1. It is one of the latest...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Advantages: Excellent navigation Disadvantages: Poor Points of Interest, manual needs printing from CD.
...TomTom520T
I am pleased with the ease of use and find setting up an itinerary a useful feature giving you more control of the route taken. The clarity of instructions, particularly when reading street names, is excellent. It is also useful to be able to add locations, as a friend lives in a relatively new housing development which was not listed.
However the "Points of Interest" feature is extremely limited. I live in the West Midlands, close to Dudley and despite having a zoo at Dudley the POI tells me the nearest zoo is at Chester 61miles away. Similarly, if I ask it for the nearest swimming pool I am directed to The Grand Hotel in Dublin 182miles away. The nearest library is given as 90miles away and the nearest police, dentist, doctor and pharmacy are all 175 miles away in Ireland. These are just a few examples of TomTom520T...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Advantages: Bluetooth, voice recognition Disadvantages: No case provided with it
...I've just bought a Tomtom Go520 after somehow managing to lose my Garmin somewhere in Manchester (grrrrr!) and up to now I'm fairly pleased with it. I loved my Garmin but was swayed by the 'gadgets' that the 520 has........bluetooth, voice recognition etc. However, there are several downsides that I have found so far. Firstly it doesn't appear to recognise all addresses......my friend lives in a house that is about 10 years old and although it can find the street it won't provide any house numbers which could be a pain if whoever you are visiting lives on a very long road! If you want street names and text messages read to you there are only a couple of voices to choose from and they have to be male or female computer voices, The rest won't read anything to you. The voice recognition is a bit hit and miss. You have to speak very slowly...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
The new TomTom Go 520 features a new elegant slim design with high quality finish, making it fit perfectly in any car or shirt pocket. The large 4.3 inch touch screen has TomTom's renowned easy-to-use and intuitive user interface with 3D graphics including building footprints that ensures drivers have an even better overview of their surroundings.
Connections
Connector Type: Antenna
Environmental parameters
Min Operating Temperature: -10 °C
Max Operating Temperature: 55 °C
Miscellaneous
Included Accessories: Car power adapter, windshield holder, SD Card, docking station
06.12.2007
04.01.2008
