TomTom One or Garmin Nuvi 300

[markjohnson]

Hi,

Just bought a TomTom One. While I like it the dealer gave some incorrect info about its features and is willing to swap it for the Garmin Nuvi 300 (plus the difference in price).

It's proving a little hard to find if this is a wise decision in general. I'm also posting this in the Garmin section. Any help welcome. I'm used to the Kenwood 3200 and the RoadPilot Micro in my other car. I intend dumping the RoadPilot Micro in a few months when I only have one car again and using the Nuvi instead hence the importance of camera alerts etc.

Firstly, I guess it is mainly speed cameras that is making me change. The TomTom only alerts once when you come in range and disregards your current speed. I understand that the Nuvi can be set to alert only if you are exceeding the limit and will continue to alert until your speed drops. Most of the info I've read applies to the i3 though.

Can the Nuvi be set to guidance but without voice guidance but still get the camera warnings? I often use guidance on familar routes for ETA etc but don't need/want the voice other than camera alerts. The TomTom can't do this out of the box but I've downloaded a silent voice which achieves it.

I assume the Nuvi doesn't vary its volume according to speed whereas the TomTom does.

The TomTom routing doesn't seem great and seems to like minor roads even with fastest route selected. I think the Nuvi is better in this respect?

Nuvi uses Navtec which seem to be regarded as improved over TeleAtlas?

TomTom can be set to always display the speed (although quite small text) whereas the Nuvi only displays it when no route is set or on the trip page. This correct?

Kind regards,

Mark

[xtraseller]

Having the benefit of using reguarly a Tom Tom 300 since it's launch, and more recently Nuvi, I would say overall the Nuvi is a better system, however either one is a good solution

I prefer the size and screen of the Nuvi, and it's ease of operation (imho better even than the TomTom)

Of course, there are other benefits including the MP3 player, Audio Books feature, and the Speed Alert options

I believe the routing to be better on the Garmin, but this is obviously a personal choice

But a major deciding factor for me was getting back to Navteq mapping after a few years on TeleAtlas, which I have never been happy with the accuracy of (particularly data entry spellings, etc. making it difficult to find some locations)

Add to this the fact that the Nuvi comes with v8 mapping - very recent - if I was starting afresh today, there would be no choice. The Nuvi.

However, the TomTom's voice options and speaker volume, are better as is the smoothness of the 3D scroll

I beleive you cannot turn off the voice, without turning off the (audible) alerts too. There are currently no downloadable voices for the Nuvi, although these may come in time. The display is not customisable on the Nuvi, so when routing you have ETA and Distance to Turn visable, with no option for speed

[adamf]

yep nuvi 8)

[Eldar]

I agree - nuvi seems like a better option

[drummer]

Personally I prefer TomTom. I had the nuvi for a couple of weeks but I didn't like the inability to customize routes on it.

With TomTom you can avoid any road on the route and have multiple waypoints. With the nuvi you can have only one waypoint and can only avoid the section of road in front of you.

Other things I like on the TomTom over the nuvi:
Smooth scrolling
Lots of add-on voices
Automatic zooming of the map
Road are more detailed which helps to judge approacing bends.
Better user interface.

The nuvi seemed better for:
faster routing
size
screen quality

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