Review : TomTom Go 500

[MarkE]

When I changed cars, I needed a new speed (sorry, safety) camera warning box and a new Bluetooth handsfree kit as I left my Origin b2 and Parrot handsfree kit in the Leon when I sold the car.

I was always happy with the Origin b2 but in the last couple of months it had started to stuggle to connect properly to its mounting bracket and it would therefore randomly lose the GPS signal.

My Parrot CK3000 had worked ok with the Ericsson T68 I had at the time but it lost some its functionality when I changed to a K700i. Apart from this, I had never managed to get the microphone positioned in a way that gave a clear sound to the person at the other end of a call.

The TomTom GO 500 sits in the middle of its range and adds Bluetooth handsfree over the 300 model. The 700 further adds Europe-wide mapping and a remote control. I paid £430 but there are probably better online deals available.

OK, so I wanted a GPS speed-camera box and a handsfree kit so I bought a satnav box? I know, but whilst the GO is primarily a satnav unit, it offers much more. I'll cover the main functions :


1) General / Fitting

The unit itself is 115 x 92 x 58mm in size (According to TomTom) and is fitted with a 3.5" touchscreen LCD. The screen is clear and bright, and the virtual buttons it displays are always "chunky" and easy to hit. The general layout of the menus is clear and easy to navigate and the box itself seems very well-built and solid. A soft case is supplied for storing the unit out of the car.

There is an optional night mode (accessible within two taps of the main screen) which changes the colour set to dark blues to reduce screen glare.

The optional (standard on the 700) remote control would seem to be pretty unnecessary, unless you have really short arms or are extremely lazy.

The GO is supplied with a suction mount onto which the dock can be fixed and rotated to suit. This didn't work. Even the manual suggests removing it from the windscreen on cold nights. I ditched the suction mount, removed the non-slip pad from the bottom of the dock and stuck the whole thing to the dash with some 3M VHB double-sided tape. It's rock-solid and you don't have to worry about knocking the thing off the windscreen when you tap it.

The GO can run on its own internal batteries or via the cigarette lighter and (supplied) power lead. A full wiring loom is available to hard-wire the unit to your car. In this case, the GO will use the car speakers for audio output and will mute the HU when necessary. It can also switch to night-mode automatically when you turn on the headlights (great, unless you drive a Volvo...)


2) Sat Nav

It does what it says on the tin. Road-level mapping of the UK, stored on an SD card . SD cards for other countries are available if you're travelling abroad, or the GO 700 covers the whole of Europe, using a 2.5" HDD in place of the SD card.

The GO is touchscreen so no fiddly joysticks for control. Simply tap the map to enter the menu and tap "Navigate To." You can enter a town, road name and number or a 6-digit postcode. Alternatively, you can navigate to a Point Of Interest (petrol station, restaurant etc.) and the GO will list POIs by distance from your current location.

By default, the GO will pick the fastest route from point to point but you can specify the shortest route or a route avoiding motorways instead. Once the route is calculated you can view it in text form or in overview map form, or simply tap "Done" to return to the main map screen.

The map display is in 3D by default and can be zoomed at will, although the default zoom setting seems fine. At the bottom of the screen, the GO displays an icon depicting the next instruction and a distance to that point, your current speed, the distance to your destination, the current time and the estimated arrival time. Tapping the screen in this area repeats the last voice command.

Voice prompts are clear and concise. There are two English voices available by default (male and female) with more available for download.

Re-routing (should you miss a junction or decide to ignore the instructions) is quick and automatic. There are also options for advanced routing, whereby you can specify that you wish to go from A to C via B, should you desire.


3) Bluetooth Handsfree

The supplied docking base contains a microphone and the GO uses its own internal speaker. Once paired with the phone, your phonebook is downloaded to the GO and you can make calls by selecting the required name from a list on the screen, rather than by using the phone. Alternatively, the touchscreen can display a keypad so that you can enter the number manually. The unit also stores phone numbers for POIs so if you want to ring McDonalds and tell them you're on your way then you can.

If you're following a route during a call then the voice commands are muted but the unit makes a small beep to alert you to an instruction, which is then displayed on the screen, so you're not left to get lost while you finish your call.

So far, I'm very happy with the handsfree performance as I expected it to be the weakest part of the box. Sound quality is fine at both ends of a call and everything seems to connect as it should. The only connection issue has been with my phone (SE K700i) which sometimes turns off its Bluetooth function when I leave the car and sometimes doesn't.


4) Speed Camera Location

The GO doesn't offer this out of the box but it is available as one of the subscription-only addons from TomTom (along with live traffic information and auto-rerouting to avoid holdups.) However, the database at Pocket GPS World offers the files necessary to add the functionality to the GO.

Download the file, connect the GO to your PC via the supplied USB cable and Windows XP mounts the SD in the GO as a drive. Simply copy the files to the right place and they are added as a separate category of POI in the database. Then set the rules for audible notification of these POIs (you can also do this for restaurants, petrol stations, etc. if you really want) and you have a working speed camera location warning. Unlike a "proper" GPS camera detector, the warning will be given solely based on proximity and regardless of direction of travel but it works well enough and seems to be accurate as long as you keep the database up-to-date.


Summary

So, then, for the price of a new bluetooth handsfree kit and GPS speed camera box, TomTom also offer a fully-featured Sat-Nav unit. I'm more than happy to have everything in one neat box and do away with a load of addtional cables

Jack of All Trades? Seems so. Master of None? Far from it. TomTom's satnav software is top-notch and the bluetooth support is vastly improved on my old Parrot CK3000 unit, so this is more than a satnav box with some extra stuff tacked on at the last minute. The speed camera support as I'm currently running it is basic but I'm going to subscribe to TomTom's service to see exactly what they offer. Full report on this will follow. In the meantime, let me know if you have any questions that haven't been answered.

[Bob]

This is very helpful and I am sure many will benefit from your review. I had been considering such a device for some time but have been undecided. This certainly gives me a lot of help in deciding.

Thanks

Bob

[Hi Flyer437]

Be interested to know how the subscription service works out. I used the traffic info during the initial month's free trial with limited success; seems to be a common problem with all sat navs as the downloaded info can't always keep pace with the changing road conditions.
V happy with my 500 - especially as I got it for £320 in Novemeber during an Argos price mix-up!

[Aardvark S60]

Excellent and accurate review, I bought a GO 500 earlier this year.

NB - Available from Halfords Online for only £350.00p - a big saving.