TomTom GO 740 Live 4.3-Inch Widescreen Portable Live Internet Connected GPS Navigator Review
September 29th, 2009
TomTom GO 740 Live 4.3-Inch Widescreen Portable Live Internet Connected GPS Navigator Review from Rob B Rob B. Closer Than When We Started, GPS’s owned: Garmin StreetPilot III, Garmin 760, Dash Express, Navigon 7200T, TomTom GO 730, TomTom GO 740.
Summary first: Now if I could only cross-breed my Navigon 7200T with the TomTom GO 740.
My early and as yet incomplete impression is the TomTom GO 740 connected services are about on par with the original connected GPS, the Dash Express, which came out a year ago and withered on the vine 8-months later. TomTom does not offer the ability to integrate 3rd-party applications, which was a fantastic selling point for the Dash. The 3rd-party apps were better than the embedded ones. Anyway, enough about Dash, but I’m not going to be able to get away from the Navigon 7200T.
TomTom’s connected search uses Google, and comes out of the box with all the standard TomTom GO series features. I like the way they’ve implemented the gas price display as it doesn’t force you to look through an entire list, but just shows the cheapest along your route. You can still get a list if you want it. It’s one of those, “less-is-more” things. It is a tad slow when downloading the data, so if you’re in a hurried situation, it might be frustrating.
TomTom’s autozoom (it was this way in my TomTom GO 730, too), bugs me to no end. Even at 70mph, it zooms too close to be useful, displaying only about a minute’s worth of the road ahead, and little detail (e.g. upcoming roads) while in a route. Disabling autozoom and zooming out just a little completed eliminates all detail: It is blank, except for the road you’re traveling. The Navigon displays up to 3 minutes of road ahead at that speed, and provides a reasonable amount of detail without being cluttered.
As of this early writing, I’ve yet to test the traffic services as I do not live near a major city, even though heavy traffic is not limited to those areas!
Unless you must have a connected GPS, go with the Navigon 7200T. Besides being $150 cheaper at this writing, it has free traffic for life and the autozoom is better. TT’s IQ Routing is better than Navigon’s routing, but not by much. Lane-assist is better on the Navigon, offering lane advice in complex interstate interchanges even if you’re staying on the same interstate; the TomTom offers lane assist only if you’re changing interstates.
There were no issues with brightness of the GO 740′s display, from cloudless day to moonless night, and the adjustment range should be enough for any driving condition.
I really wish I could just build my own GPS, or that Navigon would come out with a connected GPS built on the 7200T.
Lastly, if you think this word picture doesn’t match a 4-star rating, realize that I am leaving out much of what made TomTom a threat to Garmin. TomTom has a lot of things right and I’d only be regurgitating all the positive things you could read on the GO730 and GO720 reviews.
To check price or purchase TomTom GO 740 Live 4.3-Inch Widescreen Portable Live Internet Connected GPS Navigator.
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Posted in TomTom | Tags: Autozoom, Bugs, Early Writing, Express, Garmin Streetpilot Iii, Gas Price, Google, Gps Garmin, Gps Navigator, Gps Review, Inch Widescreen, Navigon, Party Applications, Party Apps, Portable Gps, Search Google, Series Features, Tomtom Go, Traf, Traffic Services
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