TomTom GO 930T 4.3-Inch Widescreen Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator with Traffic Receiver by TomTom
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Digital camera reviews of TomTom GO 930T 4.3-Inch Widescreen Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator with Traffic Receiver
Digital camera Review: Go with Garmin or Magellan
Summary: 1 Stars
Purchased GO 930 Jun 09. Could not get traffic to work with coupled B/T device--tech support said my device is not configured for the traffic subscription--there's a flaw in there product sales that allows non-930T owners to purchase 930t-unique s/w. No refund for a subscription I cannot use. A month later, device failed. First, preference for "volume on" kept randomly turning on and off while driving. Then in the middle of DC, it stopped speaking street names. Spent 3 hours with tech support this morn. First call told me to renew my maps--I did at a cost of $100. Still no joy. There is a known s/w problem with the device; sometimes it will just go into looping mode when re-loading s/w. After rebooting and reloading tech support gave up. Device under warranty but I have to be present for UPS to pick it up, and here for UPS to rtn it after a 2-4 week delay. They would not refund the cost of the maps their tech support reported I needed. Shafted on all accounts. I have an advanced Garmin which I did not like as much as TomTom because it speaks only the first street name it has--and when "Route 1," is also "Main Street," "95N," and "295N," and all it tells you is "Route 1", you are in trouble. But at least it works.Digital camera Review: Good GPS but...
Summary: 4 Stars
This GPS is user friendly and comes with a few additions that are quite nice and useful. I regret that the GPS does not come automatically with the speed cameras from Europe. Despite the fact that it comes with US/Canada and Europe maps, only the speed cameras from the US (I don't know about Canada yet) are loaded into the GPS.
I was quite surprised by the look of the product when it arrived. The box had been damaged and opened and it looked more like a refurbished product instead of a new GPS. It works great but it was quite surprising and not up to the standard that Amazon is used to.
Digital camera Review: Good when it works...
Summary: 1 Stars
I first tried to buy the 930 on the TomTom website but accidentally bought the 920T as I was looking for the T function (I've since discovered that the T part is pretty useless in the US, but the extended traffic over Bluetooth and your cell phone's GPRS is worthwhile). I called support before opening the box and they gave me an RMA number to return the box at my own cost which I did. That was several months ago and have not heard a word about the 920T or a penny about it ever since.
After receiving the RMA for the 920T, I bought the 930 at the local Best Buy (Should've waited for confirmation about the 920T first). Initially, it would constantly reboot and would always direct me to the HOV lanes regardless of whether or not I told it to avoid HOV lanes.
I discovered that if you connect it to your laptop and run a chkdsk (Windows) or a repair disk (MacOS) on it regularly, it would stop rebooting.
A recent update from TomTom fixed the constantly trying to redirect me to the HOV lanes problems but now the POI icons are difficult to recognize as they shrunk the graphics so they could round off the corners and now, once you've selected "avoid Toll Roads", it won't ask again for quite some time even if you select recalculate route. This is a problem because I like to know how many minutes the toll roads will save before deciding whether or not to use it. Before the update, you could just use recalculate route to get it to prompt on the toll roads again so you could compare the route with and without the toll roads quickly but now there doesn't seem to be an easy or quick way to do it.
The latest update also changed the routing behaviour to preferring the freeways almost religiously. I had purchased this unit for the IQ routes feature and it had been working acceptably with the traffic updates via GPRS to route me on several shortcuts but after the last update, it tends to plop me into horrendous traffic jams on the freeways rather than the shortcuts.
Prior to the most recent update, the voice instructions would come over the FM transmitter through your car stereo but now it would only come over the TT930's internal speaker (probably a good thing as the FM transmitter would be subject to interference depending on where you were). It would've been nice to have the option of the instructions being on both the transmitter and the internal speaker. Also, after the update, the FM transmitter doesn't always stay on but obviously shuts off after a few moments of silence (they probably thought they were extending the battery life). The net effect is that you get static until you start the Jukebox and during the speaker phone calls, you get static over the car speakers after a few moments of the call.
Hopefully, they will fix some of this nonsense in the next release but clearly they don't have a good beta test program.
The latest update also broke the "Operate my Go" feature from the TomTom Home application on the laptop and there appears to be no fixes pending.
The real killer is that while using the unit on a trip to Canada, about halfway through my trip, it just stopped receiving GPS signals at all. Now it just waits for a valid GPS signal and never gets one period regardless of where I am, how long I wait or how often I update the Quick GPS fix data. It wouldn't even route without a valid GPS signal so it was completely useless. At least if it routed then it could still be useful in the same way that Google maps is useful but no, it just sits there waiting for a signal.
TomTom's support is only available during the work day so I'll have to place the call from my office which had poor GPS reception to begin with so we'll have to see if it's even possible to get this problem addressed. It'll also be interesting if the RMA process is more than the black hole that it has been with the 920T. It will also be interesting to see if they will transfer my traffic and redlight subscriptions to a replacement unit.
I don't mind the product not being perfect and having it's peculiar nuances in usage but I do expect it to work for more than a few months. Now it's just a 4GB MP3 player.
As an mp3 player, it would be better if they still sold the iPod cable which they've mysteriously taken off their website.
Digital camera Review: Great GPS with voice input for addresses, cool design, nice features
Summary: 3 Stars
What I like most about this GPS is that I can speak the address I want to go to instead of typing in the address. The screen is very crisp and it has so many features. I have seen the advanced lane guidance and and it looks great and makes it very clear which lane you should stay in if there is a split in the highway. I have never had any trouble finding a satellite quickly and the traffic receiver is just a bonus feature that comes in handy in busy areas. There is handsfree calling and the GPS itself just looks slick. The price on this one versus an equivalent Garmin one with US/Canada/Europe is almost $100 less and this one is top of the line. Major problem is that it cannot take me to the exact location I need to go once in awhile. It takes me to a nearby location, which isn't always good enough.Digital camera Review: Great routing, POIs not where they are suppose to be, great info
Summary: 4 Stars
I have owned a number of GPSs over the years. I went with Navigon a while back, from Garmin and found them much better. This TomTom 930 is great in many ways. A problem in others.
First, I find the routing is much better on the 930 than the Nuvi 765 or Navigon 7200. The IQ routes seem to work well. And the start-up is the fastest of the three with Navigon coming in last. Traffic on the 930 is great, at least where I was. Much better than the other two. Estimated time of arrival is right on.
Complaints... I have had some hardware issues.... volume went poof, unit wouldn't get past red X which indicated hardware issues (had to reformat drive). The menu system is too cumbersome. They need a back arrow when navigating the menus. If you miss the one you want you have to start all over to get to that screen. POIs are not where they are suppose to be. And many are missing. Garmin has a much easier interface. That being said, I prefer the routing of the TomTom and that is after all what you want a GPS for. Instructions are clear and plentiful. The mount needs work, but it stays on, though you have no ability to move the unit once it is on the windshield.
And I love the quick menu button. And as Navigon does, the 930 keeps you going in tunnels and underground.
I am looking forward to the 740/940 Live when it becomes available. I think that will resolve some issues. In the meantime, the reality view and lane assist are very useful and so is the traffic info. Very nice unit and routing.