Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Okay the first thing I would like to clear up is regarding other reviews of this product are basically hog wash. By that, no one really has a clue on what they are talking about even if they gave it 5 stars. No offence to anyone I just live an die testing technology prouducts. Ok since we got that out of the way I would like to point out if I was provided the opportunity this would have been 4.5 stars not 5; I will explain in a moment. My Background: - I have been providing Level 2-3 desktop and server support for the greater part of 8 years. -Have owned/used three GPS units - two of which I will discuss today. THE REAL REVIEW: Overall the Tom Tom ONE Portable is an extremely nice unit with a few minor flaws. I will answer the most important question first. Is the unit reliable? The answer to that is clearly yes! Is the "Home" Software good? The answer is yes if downloaded from the site but NOT from the CD; it has been known to cause issues. You should contact Tom Tom to find out if the software is being worked on before downloading your copy. Download the .exe file not the Zip file. The .exe is faster and less likely a hacker could have messed with it. Otherwise, there are no issues despite what some say. Either they used the CD, which was a mistake, or they did something incorrect. WILL THE UNIT BREAK? Like anything if mistreated then yes. The unit is not to be tossed or flung like a pillow, kept in extreme hot or cold temperatures like your car over night, etc. In addition just as any GPS nothing is perfect even Gamin. Heck, I had a Quest 2 die on me once and take forever to recalculate; that does not mean it is a bad unit in general just because one unit of millions had an issue. ACTUAL USE: The tracking of the unit is actually dead on accurate. The unit performs a recalculation exceptionally fast should you miss a turn or went the wrong way. A minor flaw I have discovered is if there is a dead end the unit becomes frazzled and tells you to make a left or right when you can't. Simply turn around and you will be pointed in the correct direction again. THE GOOD: - 2-year warrantee! -Will get you where you want to go no doubt. -Provides you graphic images of the amount of time until your next turn, and the total trip left on the same screen. -Zero chance of missing your turn as the unit clearly states over and over there is a turn coming up in X number of feet, yards, etc. -Extremely clear to understand voices. Actually, 99% of them are very very good. If I spoke other languages those would be great too. -Excellent screen resolution, brightness, and map detail. THE BAD: - Does not announce street names which would be nice. However, with the number of times the unit tells you a turn is coming up + the visual of the street or highway such as I-95 North you really cannot go wrong. It will actually say take the highway going north. - The suck son cup: This is a major negative although I guess we only have ourselves to blame for this. Apparently, there were too many complaints that the unit was slipping off the cup. Well, Tom Tom now made the dam thing so tight that it is nearly impossible to take off. I would say you need to remove the base 40-50 times until the unit becomes loose enough to remove with ease. When attempting to remove, DO NOT have the unit over a table. Too much force is needed to remove; you run the risk of hitting the unit on the table. - Navigating around the screen will take some getting used to. The device is user friendly but there is a learning curve compared to others. NUVI 350 vs. TOM TOM ONE: -Tom Tom has a much nicer voice selection clearer and louder for people hard of hearing. Both can increase and decrease the volume. - Colors on screen: Tom Tom displays a richer deeper color. - Both display heavily detailed maps. The Nuvi does allow you to reduce or add more details to the map; Tom Tom does not but the amount is actually just right. - Nuvi 350 does have Text to Speech Tom Tom does not. Text to speech is the announcing of the street names. A very nice feature but the Tom Tom unit makes up for this by telling you a turn is coming up a lot more than the Nuvi. I used both at the same time on the same route to compare. Every single time the Tom Tom One alerted me first there was a turn or an exit coming up. It also alerted when it was time to get off the exit. Either one gave me plenty of time, the Tom Tom was just faster to the draw. - Nuvi 350 has a far superior user interface there really is no comparison. The Tom Tom is not bad it is just more difficult to find what you want. For example if you are looking for Borders Books, you need to go through several menus to locate the screen where you are able to look. Categories are not clearly broken down, etc. On a positive note, once you become used to the device there is nothing to worry about; you will soon start to get a handle on things. -Tracking is about the same. I did find the maps used on the Tom Tom will get you to your location a little faster when using the same route type such as fastest but we are talking about a 2 min difference; hardly worth worrying about. Auto recalculate is faster on the Tom Tom but the Nuvi is also not slow just the Tom Tom is much faster. However, the Nuvi allows the unit to let you manually recalculate much easier where in the Tom Tom you rather need to search through a few screens to obtain your option. In the end, you cannot go wrong with either. The Tom Tom being less pricy is a big bonus but the fact that you need to struggle with the windshield cup is a rather large nascence and navigating around the unit is less user friendly. On the other hand if you are hard of hearing or would like to hear a really pleasing easy to understand voice then the Tom Tom One is for you; Gamin really needs to work in that area with all their units. Australian Karen is honestly the best you are going to get.