TomTom One 3rd Edition

This is a nicely sized unit with a decent feature set for its price point. But that's where the honeymoon ends. If you buy one of these (or any Tom Tom from my extensive experience) you had better own a… computer. To maintain the GPS' ability to lock onto satellites without making it halfway to your destination first you have to regularly update the GPS through connection to Tom Tom's server with the Tom Tom Home software. Additionally, the unit is sluggish when informing you of upcoming turns until it's almost too late to make the turn. What really turned me off on this was a recent trip from Ohio to Massachusetts. As I was approaching NJ (about 3/4 of the way across PA) the GPS completely quit on me. It then kicked back in as I was going across the NY Thruway. At that point, rather than directing me to continue straight (I had done the trip before and knew which way to go) the GPS directed me to exit into a side part of New York City at two in the morning! I had the unit replaced by Tom Tom when I got home but the replacement unit was about as unreliable. After several back-and-forths with Tom Tom over this unit they replaced it with a Tom Tom GO 730.

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I bought a refurbished unit. These are covered by a 6 months manufactures warranty (as opposed to 1 yr for factory fresh units). The unit's screen froze after 7 months. I spend about an hour on the phone… with TomTom technical service. They really tried to help (by directing me to use TomTom Home from my own computer to update and replace the unit's application and map files). In end they had me re-format the unit's flash drive. But it was to no avail, it seems the units flash drive has some bad sectors, no amount if re-formatting, file updating and replacement can overcome that defect.

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TomTom is without any doubt the WORSE GPS unit/ Customer service / Warranty service of ANY GPS manufacturer. My first TomTom the on/off switch was so flimsy it would turn the unit on by itself while it… was sitting in the car or on a desk. TomTom finally replaced that one under warranty, but the reconditioned repair they sent runs out of battery power after 45 minutes without being plugged in. When turned off fully charged, the battery will be completely dead within a week WITHOUT the unit being turned on. I called TomTom customer service, and their warranty department tells me they WILL NOT WARRANTY REPLACE a GPS unit that runs at least 30 minutes under battery power. Also, they told me it was normal for their GPS units to run the battery down within a week WHILE TURNED OFF, and will only replace it under warranty if the battery dies completely within 2-3 days while the unit is turned off. To recap, TomTom warranty says a fully charged battery only lasts 30 minutes, and a fully charged battery will die after 2-3 days with the TomTom GPS TURNED OFF. So, if you want to be like me and have a hundred dollar paperweight after purchasing it only 10 months ago, buy this GPS for yourself, or even as a gift! Otherwise, I would avoid this manufacturers products entirely. Arthur Penrose p.s. TomTom customer service, if you are reading this, my case number for the facts in this review is 091006-000350. I would not want anyone to think I was making any of this up.

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Bought this for $82 (re-furbished) vs renting one with the rental car for $50. It's a small screen, but I prefer the small footprint and stashed it a compartment under the rental car radio. Note: It's not… the best at predicting the most optimal routes. I tested it out in my local area, and it failed to find the quickest route from my house in Lafayette, CO to my Mother's in Boulder. It chose 3 other routes, which are longer in time and distance, before I used the choose route via point on map feature, which still was hard to do. It also routed me in a circle in Pacific Heights/Santa Monica CA, but I eventually made it to the airport with time to spare. For the most part, regarding traveling in unknown territory, the Tom Tom got me where I needed to be. Who cares it took a little longer than the locals know how to do. Entering your routes is pretty straightforward if you have worked with GPS devices before. I entered in all the addresses I needed for my trip into my favorites before the trip, found the hotel, wedding, and airport just fine. Though there were some hitches when I first turned it on in California. It still thought I was in front of my house in Colorado. When I chose my route to the hotel, it plotted a route from my house in CO instead of from Avis at LAX airport. I think I got around this by first choosing "clear route", then it reset to california, and I re-entered the hotel route. It did this a couple more times, in cali and when I returned to colorado. So some jinki-ness with it. Computer illiterate people, might get pretty bent out of shape with this as you have to outsmart the computer(gps) to get it to do the right thing. Also beware Tom Tom really wants to make more money off you selling you newer maps, voices, etc. And as other reviewers have noted, you won't get the guaranteed newest map with this device as it is an older re-furbished model and won't qualify for the 30-Day purchase window they require. It is like $50+ to upgrade to newer maps. But really, how many people really need the newest most accurate maps? Unless they are traveling to a newly built neighborhood/development. Anyway, I'm glad I bought it at the re-furbished discount price, mostly because of the price. Refurbished device worked well enough. No regrets. It served it's purpose. One more vacation and the investment is paid off.

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I bought my gps about a month ago. I haven't had any "big" problems and I'm actually amazingly happy with how it functions. When you get it, be mindful that your map versions are going to be about 3-4… editions out of date. But I used map-share to upload corrections and that is working out just fine. I was a little hesitant because I was nervous it was a refurbished product, but I'm really happy with the product and it wasn't a bad buy for the price. I would recommend this gps to anyone who needs help with directions. Buy it, you'll love it. I do.

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