TomTom ONE XL > Reviews (2)

We have had this sat nav for over 3 years now. I'm not the most technical person but I will try my hardest in giving you my opinion on it!

*Price and Availability*

As we have had ours so long it has now been updated and there is a newer version available. However, I remember we paid £179.99 for our edition and the updated version (Tom Tom XL Live) is available for £147.99 (Halfords website) or there is one which also has maps for Europe which is selling for £165.99.

For this tiny price difference I think if we were to buy a new one we would probably go for the Europe edition now as you get a lot more map for your money!

*What comes in the box?*

In the box you will find:
The Tom Tom (4.3" touchscreen)
A 12v power cable
A USB cable
User manual

*Getting started*

To get started it was actually very simple. We actually got this Tom Tom for my Dad to use in his work van (though he hardly ever uses it so I have adopted it as my own!) and even he managed with getting it started and he's certainly not the most technical of people!

To start using the Tom Tom you simply turn it on, it was all set up and ready to go. This was great for us as it was his Christmas present so it meant we could all have a quick muck about with it before lunch.

*Programming in a journey*

To program in a journey you simply turn it on, tap the screen, then select Navigate to. You then have a number of options for example you can pick home (where it will send you to your programmed in home address), favourite (which is an address you often go to), address (where you can either type in street and town or postcode), recent destination (somewhere you have recently used the Tom Tom to visit) or point of interest (where you can select something you need to find eg. petrol station, shop, cash machine etc).

The Tom Tom will then programme in the route, show you the journey on a map of the UK (to give you a rough idea of the route you will be taking) and once you click done it will go to a map view of the road you are currently on (as shown in the picture dooyoo have got).

*Travelling on your journey*

The Tom Tom will show the road you are travelling on, I find this great for roads I have not been on before as it shows if there are any bends and it also shows what is around you, for example if there is a petrol station down a side road it will show you.

Using the Tom Tom, you always have a rough idea of how long the journey is going to take, how far away it is and what time you should arrive. These are all shown on the bottom of the screen.

The Tom Tom can either be set to silent or you can select a voice which tells you directions. For example, it will tell you to take the first exit on a roundabout in 200 yards. It also shows a little diagram of this in the bottom left hand corner which I find really useful and it will colour your route green on the screen (you can see this on the picture above).

Another thing you can set the Tom Tom to do is display your speed. I find this great for journeys I am not familiar with as it will also tell you the speed limit.

It will tell you the speed you are going and then the limit for example 35/40. If you go over the speed limit it will light up red. I think this is a great help as you cant always have your eyes on the speedo and if you are glancing at the sat nav for instructions you can kill two birds with one stone.

The Tom Tom will also display where you are and nearby roads. This is helpful if you have your radio set to traffic reports as you can avoid jams. Another helpful tool is that you can select your route but also ask it to avoid a particular place, I use this option often as I live around 3 miles away from a very busy dual carriageway which gets jam packed in the summer - therefore, I like to avoid it when I can.

I usually find using the Tom Tom pretty stress free, however there are times when we would like to chuck it out of the window. For example, occasionally it will say turn right when the road actually just bears right. Or it will take a while to catch up with what you are doing and where you are. For example yesterday I was sat right at the junction but it was still saying I had 20 yds to travel.

The Tom Tom is useful on a journey, it helps plan out the way to go and tells you exactly when to turn off etc. When you reach your destination, it will tell you though if you use just a postcode you often end up not in exactly the right place!

*Additional Features*

You can also plan a route ahead of going for example to see how long it will take. Using this option you can type in start and finish points so you dont have to wait until the day of travel.

You can also change the preferences for example you can change the language or you can change the voice used. We really like this feature and often mess about with it, we sometimes have an Irish man or an Australian but we usually stick to 'Jane' the English woman, so much so that even the kids call the Tom Tom Jane now - they were most horrified when we got in the car the other day and it was a mans voice!

You can also change the colours of the maps, in addition to this there is also a night colour option which I find great because the day time colours are just too bright for me when it is dark outside.

Another great thing is the speed camera detector. Now please note it only detects fixed cameras so there is no escaping the mobile ones but it is still a handy feature to have if you are travelling on a route you dont know!

*Updating*

Obviously roads are changing all the time, most of the time our Tom Tom is ok but other times it will get all confused telling us we are driving through a field and saying we need to turn right on a dual carriageway etc!

To remedy this issue you can update them (thats what the USB cable is for) however we are yet to do ours! I think its about time we did though as it has been 3 years. I think this costs around £10.

*Summary*

We find our Tom Tom very useful. We actually have two, I have this version and my partner has the original Tom Tom One with the smaller screen. In effect, they are exactly the same just with a different screen size!

It finds addresses easily and has helped us get to numerous places that we would have never found without it! It is better to type in house number, street and town if you are looking for a particular address but often we find just the postcode is sufficient if we are going somewhere in general or going to an attraction as then we can follow the brown signs.

The only issue we have with ours is it being a bit outdated and a bit slow now but I am sure if we update it then this will be remedied.

I think the Tom Tom is great value for money and it has proved to be invaluable for us. We have had both Tom Tom's for over 3 years and not once has either gone wrong and my partner uses his on a daily basis.

It is simple to use and very straightforward, recommended for all.