Experience with TomTom 600

[sixhundred]

Following my two yearly upgrade cycle I have now bought the new 600 device. It's been in use just a week or so.

As a navigation unit my opinion is it's very good. I'm deliberately not directly comparing it to my current 1005. The route planning is very fast and the integration to my phone for traffic updates is seamless and virtually instantaneous. Lifetime maps are welcome.

I started a list of comparison between the 600 and my 1005. However in some respects it's unfair. They are two totally different units with very different software. The user interface has been rewritten (for the better) and at the end of the day the 600 does it’s job really well.

As mentioned in various other posts there is a lot “missing” from the 600. But that’s when you compare it to TomTom’s other high end existing devices. If people need all the bells and whistles which make up the difference then find the TomTom device which fits the bill. I’d hope TomTom will update the 600 with new software which fills some of the gaps over time. Some of the biggies like hands free calling I suspect will never be added but I never used it so no loss.

If I’d bought the 600 as a first TomTom device I’d be very happy with it. The only concrete criticism I can muster is it offers less functionality than the 1005. However in my day to day use the 600 has everything I need.

It’s a very good device. Finding niggles is always possible but I can’t find any major faults. However I can easily say that the huge screen and phone integration are excellent. The maps and speed of the unit are also very good. I’m still getting to use to the unit however will be keeping it and selling my 1005.

[technik]

I would have thought a 6 inch satnav stuck to the windscreen is illegal, as it would certainly fail an MOT, and must obstruct a lot of the drivers view.

This is the reason I use Brodit mounts, as I don't like anything stuck on the windscreen.
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GO 620, Tomtom Android EU,
Garmin 2548LMT-D; 2599LMT-D

[xtraseller]

I agree that for a to b navigation with good traffic, the new units are superb - although the "missing" features need to come soon to make it a more rounded unit, and silence the critics

Perhaps, for me anyway most importantly, they need to get their map update cycle in sync

[technik]

[Anita]

[Andy_P]

[sixhundred]

[M8TJT]

Before the days of satnavs, I had a magnetic compass suction mounted in the centre of the windscreen just above the dash. The MoT examiner had always removed it when I got my car back.

[Andy_P]

Thief!


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"Settling in nicely" ;-)

[portman]

[Andy_P]

That reminds me of the old US warship in fog versus Lighthouse story.
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"Settling in nicely" ;-)

[sixhundred]

Random notes from using the device for the last week or two.

Can't stream music to the car Bluetooth at same time as connected to device, nor connect to any other Bluetooth device simultaneously

Blue tooth connection is instant. I timed it from when I enabled Bluetooth on the phone and it was 9 seconds to connect, download and display the traffic.

Route demo is fixed speed. Too slow!

Can't edit "my places" names. This is a real shame and means places have to be deleted and re-saved with the new name.

Notification of a faster route makes a sound however the message just appears in the right bar. It needs to be more obvious.

The 2d view doesn't automatically scale as you get closer to the destination. It stays at a fixed height. It would be nice to have an option to scale down as you get closer. Again, this is what the 1005 does and I used it extensively.

The user interface is much better for options and the like.

The on screen buttons should be bigger. It's a fiddle to hit them with accuracy with an outstretched arm.

I now understand why tapping anywhere on the map doesn't go to options - instead it hides the right hand bar and lets you scroll around the map and zoom. Actually quite a nice feature. Then when you stop touching the screen it returns to navigation mode. Different but actually quite useful.

TT really want you to scroll around the map to select places to navigate to. No option to immediately ask for a Favourite to navigate to. In practice this is ok for "my places" close to where you are and on the current map view - just tap it and click the steering wheel. For places off the current view you have to scroll across before selecting the place. The unit is just about fast enough for this. The other way is via the "my places" option.

Petrol stations have been added back in. Hurrah. So far my experience is they are very accurate. This is a real bonus (although it was something devices had before, was removed and is now back!

No battery indicator on the map screen. The device shows messages when the battery is low however it would be great to have an option of seeing the battery indicator in map view. Instead it's shown on the options screens.

Instant start-up time. The device goes to sleep and pressing the on/off button wakes it up in under 1 second. This is an excellent improvement.

So far the use of my mobile data and phone battery appears negligible. I leave Bluetooth on all the time and haven't noticed any additional battery drain. I've kept an eye on data use and it's no higher than normal. Still keeping a close eye on this. I use the device for 3-4 hours a day so would expect to see a difference if it was downloading lots of data.

The right hand bar appears to show the next 30 miles of traffic. The little symbols alternate between type of incident and time delay. As you get really close the bar changes to a distance count down to the actual incident. Seems to work well.

The traffic horizon seems to be longer. For example when I'm 90 miles from London the map view shows the traffic in town. Difficult to tell if the routing takes it into account. I believe it only factors in the next 50 miles. Will need to do more research before understanding this.

[dhn]

A minor app update, 13.012, was released for Nav4 devices today.
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David

[sixhundred]

The data usage seems ok. This morning the TomTom downloaded 873Kb in a 2 hour period.

Rounded up to 500Kb an hour on a 1Gb monthly allowance I'd have to drive for approx 2000 hours to use my allowance. That would be more than 60 hours every day. Therefore no worries!


(Correction to previous post and I can connect multiple devices at the same time via Bluetooth. So can download traffic to TomTom and stream music to in car radio.)

[Andy_P]

Going back to sixhundred's original post...

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