TomTom Navigator 5 System Review
September 15th, 2009
TomTom Navigator 5 System Review from SuperSchtroumpf. FLEXIBLE AND THOROUGH, This is my first GPS product; it is installed on my Acer N35. I don’t have a lot to compare to, but I can nonetheless say that this product has met or exceeded most of my expectations. I am told that as TomTom is a more popular brand, you will have a bit more support, a bit more coverage, and a bit more compatiblity. I should also add that I purchased Tomtom Navigator 5 EUROPE (as I live in France).
On another note, if you purchase a PDA/GPS in France, you have to be careful about the maps. Here, the PDA only comes with France/Monacco, so you need to purchase from Tomtom or another provider each map separately. The better way to do Europe is to purchase the PDA without maps/software and buy Tomtom Navigator 5. Buying all countries at once is much cheaper than one at a time.
Pros:
Excellent 3D rendering of where you are and where you are going, that puts you virtually where you are. If you are facing a lake, it will put the lake on the top of your screen. You to move about 5 feet or so and maybe 5-10 seconds for the system to orient.
2D map is fine.
There is also a nice night color map with blues, grays, and blacks.
Options to select by limited speed, bike, foot, etc.
Some amazing coverage such as each footpath on the city park.
Europe maps are very extensive, from the UK to Poland (though only about 17% of the latter).
I think that if it loses the signal, it assumes you are on track and keeps calculating and moving based on last direction and speed (great, for example, if you are going under a tunnel).
Voice commands are fine, nothing special but quick and to the point. Commands are in many languages that you can select from (even American and UK English).
Cons:
Does not have every address (does not have my work address which is a big building on a major street)
Install is frustrating. I had to reboot my computer and PPC several times, and worst of all I kept getting a “insufficient space in temporary folder” error (or something like that). I checked the Tomtom site, no help. I had to search around the net and found out that I needed to delete a setup folder on my temporary PC drive via the “RUN” command in the Start menu.
The Tomtom commands are a bit difficult, because they sound a lot alike.
No altitude readings (as far as I can see).
Don’t let vendors fool you about the size of the memory cards you need. France, for example, requires a 512 MB card (it is about 350 MB).
I havent figured out if I can copy the maps to my SD card via my SD reader. Thus, via my PPC, it takes over an hour to copy maps to the card.
Selecting which GPS device you have is not clearcut. It took some guessing and experimenting on my part to get the built-in device recognized.
Still, as I said, over half of my problems were install related. Doubtlessly, once I have figured out all of the commands and after I am over my install gripes, I will be very pleased. This works great with the Acer N35.
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