Most helpful client reviews
52 of 53 humans found the following review helpful.
Excellent Personal Navigation Device
By R. Abraham
I purchased this to replace my 2-year-old TomTom XL 340S, principally because I wanted lifetime map updates which were not available when I purchased my XL. I hooked both units up in my car and drove around for an hour to compare them. A couple evident divergences are that the VIA units are somewhat thinner and lighter than the XL series, and the VIAs have a somewhat better screen, altho frankly I could scarcely tell the difference. Diagonal lines are a little less jaggy on the VIA if you look closely, but the increased solution does not make much difference. The font size is somewhat dissimilar as well. The font for the current street is a little larger on the VIA, but the font for the next street to turn onto is more or less smaller, which you may see in the screen effigy on this site. The street name is green and white and meant to look like a highway sign. The fonts were perfectly fine on my XL, and they are fine on the VIA as well. One thing that they changed, and I think this is new for the VIA line, is that when you are approaching your destination it will tell you if it's on the right or the left. With former generation TomToms you could see which side of the street your destination was on by looking at the screen, but it didn't announce it audibly. It's a slight improvement, but not a huge deal in my opinion.
As far as navigation, the two units were beauteous similar when giving directions. I noticed that in galore places the Lane Guidance screen would kick in on the XL while it did not on the VIA. I think they have tweaked the software a little after realizing that there were times when Lane Guidance was coming on when it wasn't in truth needed. Also, I noticed at one exit that the XL said to exit and "go straight on," (although the screen showed a left turn with an arrow) when in fact it ought to have said exit and turn left. The XL got it wrong, the VIA got it right. Again, that was in all probability just the result of improvements that have been made to the software in the last two years. Also, the XL would say "take the exit toward Erie, PA" (spoken as "pa" as in "papa"), whereas the VIA just said take the exit toward Erie, and didn't mention the state. It's kind of pointless to say the state in that instance, so just saying a city and leaving it at that is fine.
And now for the best feature. The reason I would not consider any other brand of PND right now is because TomTom is the only brand with the splendid EasyPort Mount. I only use my PND when I travel by air and then rent a vehicle. In my opinion, having the mount built-in to the unit is great. It is much more comfortable to pack and carry than it would other than as supposed or expected be if the mount was a seperate piece of hardware. I've had no difficultnesses with the EasyPort Mounts on both of my TomToms. They work great!
I didn't want the traffic or Bluetooth options, so I went with the "M" rather of the "TM" and the 1405 rather of the 1435.
Overall this is a outstanding PND. I highly commend it to anybody who takes along a PND for use in rental cars. The EasyPort Mount is splendid and makes for a compact and easy to transport device, and TomTom is the only company that offers it.
12 of 12 humans found the following review helpful.
Compared to Garmin Nuvi
By Aaron C. Brown
I don't have much to add to the overall evaluations of the other reviewers but I do have a heap of views comparing this to the more costly versions on the market.
11 of 11 humans found the following review helpful.
Improvements, and some room for more!
By Bradley Olin
I had a TomTom before and while I liked it, I had more complaints than positive things to say. This time around I feel differently.
See all 57 client reviews...
