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TomTom GO 700 reviewed
It's finally here!
July 5, 2005 - A while ago we at MyTomTomGO.com received a brand new TomTom GO 700 for testing. Read all about our findings in our product review!
It was a very long wait. Our patience was tested enormously since the first rumours in February and the official announcement in March. But eventhough some didn't have faith anymore that they would see the 700 in the shops before the holiday season, TomTom did deliver.
Review
A while ago TomTom contacted us and asked if we were interested in reviewing the new TomTom GO 700. And since we didn't have anything better to do ;) we agreed. Two weeks ago we finally received the unit.
This initial review was made by the people of our Dutch affiliate site MijnTomTomGO.nl. Today we from MyTomTomGO.com offer you the translated review, and with it a sneak peek of the GO 700's possibilities. Yes, we know you can already buy the unit in the shops by now, but since quantities are so low at this moment, we think that a lot of people are still eagerly awaiting their unit.
Friday June 17th 2005
17.11 hrs - DHL drops off a package at our offices. A quick inspection of the contents of the box shows us it's the long awaited GO 700. The unit is not shipped in the standard packaging, but what's even worse: it's not charged. This means I'll have to wait a few more hours before I can do some tests...
 
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20.29 hrs - The TomTom 700 is shipped with firmware 5.2 (5244/050522), which is available for all by now from the TomTom site. The OS is version 906, GPS version is 1.21, Boot version is 2.18 and the detailed "Western Europe Map" is version 568.
Now, let's see what's actually in the 700. I connect the unit to my PC by using the supplied USB cable. The harddisk (FAT32) has a capacity of 2.495.594.496 bytes, so about 2,3 GB. 1,38 GB show as used, and 961 MB is still available. POI space anyone?
21.03 hrs - Ok, let's see what this baby can do! Where to go now? Rome! The San Marco Square to be more precise. Inputting the query is as straightforward as with the Classic we've all grown to love. The 700 starts calculating. From our current position (Oegstgeest, South-Holland) the unit analyses more than 280.000 (!) roads. About 22 seconds later we know the result: if we were to leave immediately, we could order a real Italian expresso after 16.06 hours and 1.664 km's of driving.
Ok, one more. The centre of Athens! After 17 seconds of calculating we know that it would take us 29.14 hours to get there, and we'd have to travel 2.920 km. Tempting! Nah, maybe tomorrow.
Saturday June 18th 2005
11.23 hrs - The TomTom GO 700 is the top model from the new GO range. It's equipped with a 400 Mhz CPU, 64 MB of internal RAM and a 2,5 GB harddisk which contains a detailed map of Europe for door to door navigation. So the 700 is a lot more powerful than the Classic. Still, because they use almost identical software, the difference in use is very small.
Still, there are differences. Not in use, but more in specifications. The 300, 500 and 700 all house a Bluetooth chip. And while for the 300 this only means the possibility to connect to the TomTom PLUS services, for the 500 and 700 this also means a handsfree phone kit for your car! This is the option which made a lot of potential buyers very curious, and might also be the reason why they would opt for a 500 or 700 instead of a 300. Time to test it out!
11.58 hrs - My personal mobile phone is the Nokia 8910i. It's equipped with Bluetooth and GPRS support, so that should work. By the way, TomTom has put a list of compatible mobile phones on their website. The funny thing is that the list seems to have been adjusted in the last few days. While I'm sure that my 8910i was on that list a few days ago, now there's no trance of it anymore.
But I'll give it a shot anyway. Let see...
What? No phone found? And my Bluetooth connection IS enabled! Let's try this again... still nothing! Aaargh! Doesn't matter how close I hold the phone to the 700, there's no reaction whatsoever. OK, one final try: let's do the thing that solves many problems with that other OS: rebooting. I turn off my phone, turn it back on again and...
Yes! Connection! Easy as pie. You don't have to set anything up, the GO does it all by itself. I'm very happy to see that my 8910i IS supported after all. Phew...
14.32 hrs - The GO 700 also manages to copy my contacts list from my Nokia. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to be capable to store more than one phone number for each entry, like most modern mobile phones are capable of these days. This isn't a necessity to use the mobile phone function of the GO 700 of course, but it's annoying nonetheless. I hope TomTom will address this issue in the future.
Now, let's make a quick call. I choose "mobile phone" in the main menu and get a menu as show in pic 1 below. When I choose "Call...", screen 2 pops up which gives me a few options for dialing a number. The possibilities are eg. simply dialing the number (pic 3), or selecting the number from my contact list which has been copied from my mobile to the 700.
Ok, selecting number and... then 700 starts to dial. Moments later I hear the voice of my associate Tino from the GO 700! The sound is crystal clear. Of course I also ask Tino how the sound quality is for him. Not too shabby it seems. Or, as Tino puts it: "it sounds like you're standing outside with a bit of rain in the background, but I can hear you just fine!" The weak link here is without a doubt the built-in microphone in the mount of the 700. Only a tiny little hole in the front gives it's presence away. The GO mount also has a connector for an external microphone, which should boost the sound quality quite a bit. Hmmm... it should test that out, but unfortunately, I don't have an external microphone here. Something to keep in mind...
Now, let's try this the other way around: I ask my wife to phone me using the GO 700. And indeed, the sound quality is very good. Much better than I had expected because I can't hear any "rain" in the background. The only thing you have to be aware of is that this test has been done indoors. I'm sure the conditions in a moving vehicle won't be so ideal, but still, the GO carkit should be quite usuable.
The only downside that I have found is that the sound doesn't seem to be full-duplex. In other words: only one can speak at a time. One-way sound. Hmmm... it's do-able, but still a dissapointment.
I check with TomTom. They claim that the phone IS full duplex, but that the so-called "echo-cancellation" cuts off the microphone when the sound of the speaker and your own voice start to mix. TomTom claims this issue can be solved by either using an external microphone, and by placing this microphone further away from the internal speaker of the GO 700, or by lowering the volume of the GO.
Sunday June 19th 2005
18.16 hrs - Today I'll check out the second Bluetooth application of the GO 700: the wireless internet connection to the TomTom PLUS service. This service should enable me to download POI's, traffic-congestion information and new voices straight to my GO. Let's see if the GO is willing to use my Bluetooth connection from the first try today.
Yup, no problem. Everything is configured automagically, so now my GO is ready for PLUS. Let's try it out with some POI's:
Success! The speed camera POI database download to my GO without a problem.
 
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There also seem to be two versions of the GO 700 mount, which is caused because TomTom changed manufacturers a while ago. TomTom assures that both the "old" and the new mounts are of excellent quality.
(You can click the photo's to enlarge them. Note that 'oud'=old and 'nieuw'=new...)
Monday June 20th 2005
8.44 hrs - Tried Traffic today, the new traffic information option built into TomTom PLUS. Remember, you can try Traffic for free for one month; so everybody with either a 300, 500 or 700 can try this. I activate my trial period and start downloading the traffic jam information. Works like a charm. Now to plan a route of which I know will it will use some of the classic roads that are always congested.
Bad luck! It seems this is a particulary calm day on the road, because I can't seem to plan even one route which uses roads that are now clogged. Hmmm... maybe I'll have better luck tonight.
I noticed that downloading the Traffic info hogs the resources of the GO 700 in a very big way. Eg. Planning a route when Traffic is updating it's database is near impossible because the 700 responds VERY slowly to the commands I tap on the screen.
12.15 hrs - Now, let's try the remote control. Probably not THE reason to opt for the GO 700 instead of for the 300 or 500, but still, a very nice bonus. If you want to, you can buy the remote control separately for the 500 anyway. Only the 300 is not compatible.
The remote fits nicely in the palm of my hand, and is pretty intuitive to use. But it's more a gadget than anything else really. Ok, so it offers the possibility for a passenger to change the route if the GO is positioned out of his/her reach, but that's about it really. The only real advantage for the driver is probably in the possibility to quickly adjust the volume of the GO with it.
17.03 hrs - Ok, as promised, let's give Traffic another try. It seems the roads are a bit more saturated than they were this morning, which enabled me to make at least a few screendumps. They show how the GO 700 indicates the traffic-jam info on the screen. Of course you can choose to let the GO calculate an alternative route, around the traffic-jam.
21.17 hrs - Ok, wrapping this review up, I've got a few small comments left. Firstly, it seems to me as if the display is somewhat less sensitive than the display of my Classic was. I've got the impression that I have to press harder before the unit reacts. This is not really a big downside, just a mere observation.
While we're talking about the display qualities, allow me also to mention that the screen of the 700 shows a lot less glare than the screen of the Classic does. The reflection on the screen of the 700 is comparable to the reflection on the Classic that's fitted WITH a Brando screen protector. Nice! This proves that TomTom does listen to it's customers. The same thing goes through my head when I notice that the on/off button on the 700 is sunk a bit deeper into the front cover. This will prevent the unit from turning on by accident when it's stored into the carrying bag. Good stuff!
Also, I'm sure that a lot of phones will be discussed on that very same forum. The compatibility between the GO and those phones that is. Everything went smoothly with my Nokia 8910i, but I would be surprised if this was the same case for every phone. Remember, you can always post about your experiences in the "Bluetooth & mobile phone corner" section of our forum!
Everything considered, I think TomTom has a real winner on their hands with this new GO 700. If I didn't already own a Classic, I would buy this thing immediately, hands-down, no question about it! But reality for me is, like for so many other users, different. Because I DO own a Classic! And then the story changes considerably, because then 800 euro / £ 530 IS a lot of money for a detailed map of Europe which you're probably only going to use once or twice a year and an integrated handsfree car kit. Because navigating isn't any better with the GO 700 than with my Classic. And that's what it's all about when you're buying a GPS unit, no? So, when I think rationally, I cannot really buy this unit. But then again... I want it sooooo much!
So... rationalism or not? I think I'll take this GO 700 for one final spin before I send it back to TomTom. Or not... :D