I have been using TomTom Car Navigation products for several years now. This is my 4th unit. The last unit I possessed was the 'TomTom GO 740 Live'. So I was excited about the newest offering from this company. Having used this product for a few days, here's my 2 cents.. (please remember, this is being reviewed in relation to other TomTom products. I am not comparing this to units from other manufacturers)
The Good..
** This unit is sleeker and better looking than any of the previous models.
** The 5" screen makes a world of difference compared to the 4.3" inches on most other models. So if you can, opt for the 2505 and not the 2405.
** The screen is brighter than other models. Seems to hold well in bright sunlight.
** Very crisp and pleasing visuals. The text and graphics are sharper and more responsive.
** Extremely quick planning and re-planning of routes - that's the new Turbo Routing feature. Works pretty well.
** The car dock is very innovative. Sturdier and better mechanics. The magnetic process needs a little getting used to, especially when undocking.
** The automatic time zone setting for the Clock is a nice feature.
** Comes with Lifetime Map updates and Traffic.
The Bad...
** There is no docking station! You need to plug the USB cable manually for syncing/charging with the PC.
** For Traffic updates, the unit needs to be plugged into the car charger since the RDS-TMC Traffic Receiver is integrated into the car charging cable.
** No LIVE services. So if you need Google service or latest gas prices, you are out of luck.
** No memory card slot. So if you run over the 4GB limit, better start deleting stuff.
** No FM transmitter. No option to play voice through the the radio.
** No music player.
** No compass option.
** Comes preloaded with only 1 English 'Computer' voice - 'Stephanie'. No options to download Voices!! Seriously, TomTom??!! (Update: TomTom says more will be available soon. No timeline yet).
The Ugly..
** As others have documented, no customization is possible - yet. Cannot update/download Voices, POIs, Maps, Color Schemes etc. You live with what comes pre-loaded. No timeline on when options would be available.
And a couple of irritants:
** The 'next street name' that displays at the top right hand corner is too small to read relative to everything else on the screen.
** When making a phone call using the unit's bluetooth, the call status bar at the top blocks the 'next street name'. And you can't get rid of that status bar until you hang up. That's pretty dumb.
In short, this is not quite a step up from the 740 as I had expected. The focus here seems to have been on the style, not much on the substance. Having used this for a couple of weeks now, I've grown to like it. Extremely efficient and accurate. If you're looking for a product that can accurately and efficiently get you from Point A to Point B, this is the one for you.
This seems like a product that was rushed into the US market without the proper support structure behind it. This is the US version of the TomTom 'Go LIVE 1005' launched recently in Europe. The customer service reps know very little about this product. There are no User Manuals online yet. The PC sync to the web-based MyTomTom is an utter joke.
Bottom line, if I had to do it all over again, I'd stick with the 740 until TomTom gets its act together on this one.
TomTom GO 2505TM 5-Inch Portable Bluetooth GPS Navigator with Lifetime Traffic & MapsWith the 2505TM, TomTom has built the best vehicle navigator I've ever used. It's shortcomings apply mostly when you or a passenger would like to be the navigator yourself and use the GPS as a tool to do so.
COMPARED TO THE TomTom XL SERIES:
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The last GPS I tried was a TomTom XXL 540TM. I had three problems with the interface on it that I hoped would be fixed in TomTom's latest and greatest.
First, the 540TM didn't list enough street names when displaying the map. The TomTom GO 2505TM is substantially better in this regard. Everything about the display on this unit is fantastic, it's clear and very bright. The graphics appear to be better anti-aliased and look quite polished.
Second, points of interest are still poorly organized and displayed. Restaurants aren't organized by cuisine, and the screen does not update distances while driving around. In a city, there might be hundreds of restaurant choices within a few miles, but they might not all be nearby by the time one finishes reading them all. I much prefer how Garmin displays the distance and direction each POI is in while the list displays, it's much more informative.
Third, I could not drag the map to look up ahead while the unit was navigating. My wife likes to do this while I drive; she'll manually look for alternate routes or shopping centers. To browse a map in the TomTom, one has to click into an entirely different mode, then click through another set of prompts to get the map centered on the car's current location. From there the maps will still not update the car's location as it moves along, meaning the user sees a static map with a "this is where you used to be" marker. I'm sorry to say this has not been fixed in the 2505TM and it's inexcusably bad. This GPS is not a tool for exploring the surrounding area on the go.
There are many other improvements to TomTom's latest and greatest that I will discuss in the other sections.
ROUTING:
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Routing (and re-routing) was drastically faster than the 540TM. It's actually closer to Google Maps speed than a traditional GPS, which is quite a leap over TomTom's previously slower-than-average routing. You'll have your first instruction before being out of the driveway. It seemed accurate, but I never really had a problem with routing on the previous unit either. I did notice the unit picking different routes depending on the direction I was traveling or the time of day, which means the IQ routes really works. (On the roads I knew, I agreed with its choices.) The unit picked up a GPS signal inside my home in seconds, pretty impressive.
TRAFFIC:
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Traffic reporting is excellent, informative, and non-intrusive when the GPS has a signal. I found it to be impressively up-to-date, so much so that the backups I saw in real life matched up exactly with the markings on the map. Traffic data is through Clear Channel, the preferred provider in most areas, although coverage isn't nearly what Clear Channel advertises. There are no advertisements unlike Garmin's Navteq traffic service (Garmin sells an ad-free subscription to Clear Channel traffic for $60). Unfortunately I find I only had a signal in metro areas. Traveling north of Baltimore, the GPS was routing me around a huge back-up after the toll on I-95. However, once outside of Baltimore, the unit announced it found a faster route going directly up I-95. I thought the traffic had cleared, but what had really happened was the GPS forgot it was there. I ended up sitting in an hour-long backup. I should have known; TomTom does have a clear display showing whether it has a traffic data connection or not, and it additionally gives an option to keep or dismiss any route changes based on traffic (or lack thereof).
VOICE COMMANDS / BLUETOOTH:
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The voice recognition understood what I was saying, but it only does basic commands with no on-screen tips as to what can be said. The voice commands must be memorized and, as best as I can tell, the available commands weren't comprehensive enough that I'd actually use them very often. It's much quicker and easier to tap through the menus.
The unit would not connect to my cell phone via bluetooth, but my cell phone is several years old. I've actually never tried using the bluetooth on it before, but I was nonetheless disappointed that I wasn't finally able to. The TomTom would only get as far as finding the phone, but it couldn't do the handshaking to register the device. I like the option to call any point of interest with a button press and wish I could have tested this!
QUALITY:
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The sound/speaker quality was very clear, and the voice is an improvement over previous TomToms. It might not be louder (and needn't be), but it's definitely clearer at full volume. Pronunciations of street names still isn't perfect is nonetheless the best that I've heard. I like that TomTom reads all names for a street when multiple aliases exist. Additionally, lane guidance and listings of sequential turns work very well. There is no annoying "route recalculating" warning nor does the voice get overly repetitious as with some other GPS units I've tried.
Sadly the manual says that voice commands are disabled if one of TomTom's celebrity voices is loaded. Too bad, I like the Yoda voice which I had on the 540TM. "In 100 yards, turn right, you will." I wish TomTom could kick over to a computer voice for the things Yoda doesn't know how to say so that entire parts of the GPS aren't disabled. Although...
The TomTom Home software has been dropped in favor of a browser-based web updater. I don't see how how to buy or manage new voices or maps on this model, at least not at this time. What a shame! When checking for updates online, the device came up as a TomTom GO 1005, the European equivalent. Perhaps TomTom rushed this model out the door?
The unit feels solid overall and looks sleek. The magnetic mount is brilliant and had me wishing everyone built their mounts this way. I like to yank the GPS out of the cradle, and it's very quick and easy to do with the magnetic mount. It's a huge improvement over TomTom's old design! The power button is a little flimsy feeling and has to be held down for about two full seconds before the unit turns on.
CONCLUSION:
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All-in-all, it's a good unit, but it's not what I'm looking for. It's the best GPS I've ever used for taking a driver from A to B with clear directions, but it's a poor tool for a human navigator to use to explore the surrounding area while on the move. While I sincerely believe TomTom has the best routing and spoken instruction of any GPS, it simply doesn't feel like a navigation tool. I'm going to return it and hope the new Garmin 2360LMT does not have the same issues.
UPDATE: COMPARED TO THE GARMIN 3790T
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I tried the Garmin 3790t, and while the Garmin improves in a few areas (better POI organization, easy map scrolling, usable voice command), the TomTom is at LEAST a generation better in finding accurate routes, displaying traffic information, and communicating with the driver. On a 500 mile stretch of I-85, the TomTom would announce it as such (while still reminding me which lane to stay in) while the Garmin continued to tell my of non-existent "turns" onto the road I was already on throughout the entire journey. Little is more irritating than being told by the GPS to change lanes for an upcoming "turn" when the actual instruction is merely to continue straight.
Garmin's lane guidance with the newest firmware (as of 12/5/2010) would only blink on the screen for a fraction of the second. It was useless.
GPS accuracy on the 3790t seemed to be lousy. It took a while to get a lock on the satellites, unlike the TomTom. Then, it would sometimes get confused about which road I was on, necessitating a route recalculation. Unfortunately route recalculations can take a minute or longer on the Garmin instead of seconds on the TomTom. As such, TomTom doesn't even need to announce a "route recalculating" message since it's rerouted in the time it would take to say it.
Take for example, Baltimore. Garmin tried to have me exit on an imaginary road after the tunnel. When I "missed" my turn, it could not recaluclate my route in time to tell me to take I-295. Luckily, I knew the turn, but unfortunately, Garmin later discovered traffic on that route. Even though the backup was lengthy, it did not warn me verbally of the congestion nor did it offer an alternate route. I've done this in the TomTom and it has done stellar here.
I was ready to throw the Garmin out the window after a long trip. I can't believe what a disappointment it was. While the 3790t has a higher-resolution screen than the TomTom 2505, the colors and information on the TomTom make for a better presentation- especially the timeline-style traffic display. I can't emphasize enough how much better TomTom's traffic implementation is than Garmin. Plus, the TomTom's larger screen makes for easier key entries. In practice TomTom's display is much nicer than Garmin's.
Garmin's traffic receiver cannot be plugged in while the GPS is being handheld, either. Another win for TomTom, even though map browsing (what my wife tends to handhold the GPS for) is a chore on the TomTom.
Like the TomTom, the Garmin would not connect to my phone using bluetooth. Both would see it but get no farther. I guess my phone is too old.
TomTom's computer voices sound better. The magnetic mount is much nicer.
Without a doubt, even with TomTom's inconveniences I listed earlier, it's a better GPS. Maybe Garmin's newer, but lower-end GPS's (the 2300 series) will do better. - Bluetooth - Portable Vehicle Gps - Large Screen - Tomtom'
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