I bought the TomTom XXL 540S a couple weeks ago. This gps could be the big brother to the TomTom XL 340S. This gps navigation just gets the bigger as well as brighter 5″ screen.
I have very blended feelings about the gps. There are many things that I prefer about this, but additionally, there are so numerous small information and functions which can be lacking about it that TomTom either didn’t work on or made a decision to exclude. These little items that are lacking drive myself absolutely crazy at times and I have no idea if I could stand these or not necessarily. I may well consider returning this gps navigation and getting either a Garmin or even Magellan rather. I have no idea yet. I really hope TomTom starts addressing some of these issues.
Some associated with my benefits vs downsides are below that we hope can help others who want to decide on the gps.
Pros:
IQ Avenues (TomTom makes use of historical pace data for roads good time associated with day as well as day with the week, so which it can provide you with the best possible route)
Huge 5″ Screen, which is obvious.
Really loud presenter. (Alternative in Amount Preferences in order to link the volume to your cars speed if you want)
Satellite tv acquition is actually fast (under 10 sec for me). Shows usually around 9 satellites.
Map Color may be changed.
Can transform the color with the car mark in animations mode
Car Day/Night function changes the brightness as well as color.
Power to prepare the route together with any Depart and Destination coordinates.
Shows the current street your on at the end of the screen as well as the next street to show on inside the top right corner.
Sophisticated Lane Guidance traveling is shown really properly. Shows an arrow with all the lane you’ll want to be in and also sometimes exhibits a animations sign for your exit. It is actually nice as well as big plus it stays on the screen lengthy enough being viewed so that its clear to see where you have to go.
Position bar may be customized to the method that you like this. It may be displayed both horizontally or even vertically. Can show the remaining time, remaining length, current time, arrival time, your speed as well as the speed limit, distance for your next switch, compass, ect.
TTS (textual content to talk) instructions are very helpful in telling you where to show and also preparing you for your next turn as well. For instance it’s going to say something like “After 1 qurter distance turn right”. Then while you get closer to the street it’s going to say “Turn right Main St. Then take the second left”
Cons:
- POI (Tourist attractions) Map Screen exhibits the POI title, street as well as cross street, phone, city, and express. But this gives SIMPLY NO street handles! So you don’t know the address or even what side with the street the POI is actually on, unless a person call the area beforehand and request. All you receive is the checkered flag shown during the street with TomTom saying “you reach your last destination”. On the Go product the POI Map Screen includes a “Details” button that shows the road address, zip code, and food cuisine type for example. Why TomTom made a decision to remove this with this model I don’t know.
- No AutoZoom enable/disable alternative (like on the run model). You may manually focus in or on the map, but about 5 sec later AutoZoom will start working and consider you right back to what TomTom wants you to see. Its extremely frustrating because I enjoy zoom inside and out sometimes so that I can see more map detail, but TomTom won’t permit me to for any longer then about 5 sec. When I turn on the gps navigation the focus level that TomTom provides picked is so bad that most all of the street describes around myself have completely vanished from the screen. All that i see are a bunch of street brands just boating on the map without any streets being shown.
- Doesn’t speak which side with the street your destination is actually on. (Should you enter the street address for any destination however it does show just a little arrow on the map pointing to the left or right hand side with the street when you’re approaching your destination. Along having a little checkered flag privately of the road your vacation spot is on.)
- Alter Preferences screen is 6 webpages deep and only has the button in order to advance foward to another page. There is not any back button. So should you say accidently go at night screen you wished to be on you have to then media the foward button 5 a lot more times in order to get back to that site.
- No simple way to get into the View as Text turn databases display from the main screen.
- View as Text route guidelines, the textual content and arrows for that turn list is simply way in order to small. Also there is no Auto Scroll operate. To view the following page associated with new forthcoming turns you have to scroll straight down the list manually your self.
- POI Map Screen inside Night function shows the cross street text inside black, which is very difficult to see unless you receive very near to the screen.
- animations mode during the day the roadmaps background settings isn’t consistent over the whole screen. There tend to be noticable lines over the screen to see the different brightness levels. Towards the bottom of the map its the brightest after which as a person pan the screen this gets slightly darker.
- Can not enter the road name untill once you’ve entered town. Its poor news once you learn the street but unsure with the city. You can search for that street in a city in your area or near the city that you entered (if it absolutely was incorrect).
- TTS (textual content to talk) associated with multiword street names seems sometimes garbled.
- TTS pronounces some words as well as streets pretty poorly.
- Can not change along with of the car symbol inside 2D function.
- Can not search dining places by cuisine type.
- No MicroSD storage device slot for expansion. Room is actually pretty restricted with simply 2GB associated with internal display memory. After removing all of the voices with the exception of computer words Susan as well as removing most of the car icons. I nevertheless only have 105mb associated with space free of charge remaining.
- Simply supports HARDWARE 1. 1 transfers. So when you install roadmaps or executing backups its very slow.
Miscellaneous data: gps chipset on mine was a GL2 BCM4750 (International Locate two), The CPU speed is actually 266MHZ. 64MB associated with RAM. Continue reading this post »