TomTom Pro 5150 Review (After 2 weeks use)

[mikewall]

My TomTom Go 1000 came to the end of it's current Live subscription and not being overly happy with it's use in trucks (mainly 26t 6 wheelers) i decided to not renew live but buy a new sat nav more suited for trucks. After much deliberation i opted for the TomTom Pro 5150. Normally £275rrp but i managed to get discount and a case for £250. Take away the £47.50 for live, and saving on my map update service, plus £75 for my old Go 1000 i was happy.

Unboxing i was pleased to find TomTom supply the 5150 with an active mount that uses a mini usb socket and has a 3.5 audio jack socket for better audio (will soon be wired into my car). Documentation is minimal as is the case with everything these days. The unit it self if of the same design as the Go 1000/1005 ect but it's 5" as opposed to 4.3" not a massive size difference but it's enough to make the keyboard easier to use. It does seem to be higher resolution screen or at least better quality. The processor also seems faster as a lot of the lag from my go 1000 seems to of gone. also in the box is a disc for dash mounting. The connection plug/mount is the same as he Go1000/1005.



First use was on my Monday route, Banbury to Southampton, 8 drops. I still had my old nav so had both on the route. When you plan a route your asked what vehicle your using, good choice from car, car with caravan, van, motor home, and truck. I selected truck and your asked some info on the vehicle Weight, Lenth, height, Axle Weight, Hazardous goods. This route was not really a good test as it pretty much straight forwards with 3 deliveries in West Quay the only real difference is the pro avoided East Street, a narrow road with parked cars both sides, Gave me real head ache first week i did this route as most of the expensive large cars seemed to be parker by mr bean!!! On my way back the A34 was closed due to an accident, but i avoided the delay using HD traffic, and the truck spec sat nav. HD reroutes used to be a gamble with my old go 1000! Day one no problems


I knew Tuesday would be more of a test however, 10 drops most of them pubs, starting in newbury ending in bagshot with a few low bridges thrown in, and wokingham two drops one each side of a 12' bridge my truck 12' 10". Well not a problem my go1000 was put to shame. Even took into yately avoiding a 7.5t limit thats only been up a couple of months, and warned my of one of my drops on a unpaved road. A nice touch when you plan a route if you destination is on a dead end road you get a warning after planning so you can judge the road if you want to reverse in without the gamble.



Wednesday Woking area ending in Hillingdon again now issues, other than a little quirk, leaving hillingdon and heading up to the M40 the road has several side roads for access to the houses, the sat nav tries to get you to use these, done it for two weeks now. it's not an issue as you can clearly see you dont need to use them. As they say ENGAGE BRAIN BEFORE ENGAGING SAT NAV

Thursday my last working day has me going to Northampton and Wellingbrough no issues again.

Friday i went for a drive in my car to test a few local issues out, to see what the thing is capable of and try to find fault. I set a route up with some narrow roads, low bridges, sharp bends ect, and took wrong turns to see what happens, and i can say it handled very well, i then chose the car setting and it took me through the shortest route without avoiding and truck hazard.

A few things to note, My go1000 had a limited number of via points you could use on a route, i've set up over 15 on my Pro 5150 this makes route planning better, still not as good as the old itinnery planner on previous untis. The Pro 5150 comes with free lifetime maps (a saving for me again ) and 1 year Live.

A bad point tho if you have a TomTom already you can't add another unit to you account you have to phone them to remove the old unit before you add a new one. Bit of a pain!

This unit is also Work/Webfleet ready if you want to make use of these features.

Sum up Best sat nav i've owned for use with trucks, plenty of options for other vehicles too, It's also the only TomTom i can trust rerouting with HD Traffic, i can honestly say i trust it's routing in this short time. If your looking for a truck sat nav and you got the spare cash you cant go far wrong here!!

I will continue to add to this in review, feel free to contact me for any advice or info.

[M8TJT]

Nice review with some great anecdotal evidence.

Wow, that's the first time for a long time that someone has something nice to say about a TT.

I think that you can overcome the account thingy by using a different email address. This has been a problem for ever but TT seem to refuse to sort it out so that you can have more than one TT registered to your email address. Stupid!

[IanS100]

[AliOnHols]

Brilliant review, thanks.
Possibly worth considering even if you don't drive a truck.
_________________
Garmin Nuvi 2599
Android with CamerAlert, OsmAnd+, Waze & TT Europe.
TomTom GO 730, GO 930, GO 940 & Rider2.
SatMap Active 10 & 20.

[mikewall]

Well I'm over the moon with this nav, I was very disappointed with the go 1000 as it has so much removed from my previous unit go 530! But I can honestly say I trust this unit after trying to catch it out! Ok it's pricey but peace of mind when using it for larger vehicles is worth the cost alone.

For once in a long time tomtom have done good, at a cost but one I can stomach as I'll save in the long term, and possibly break even as I won't have to pay for map updates, and live for this year.

[mikewall]

FYI I googled specs of my 5150 and old 1000, screen resolution is the same normally this would result in a worse image on a bigger screen but it's much better so I'm guessing the screen is better quality. I'll look into this more.

[Privateer]

Hi Mike,

Very nice revive of the TomTom Pro 5150

[mikewall]

I've had no issues adding Poi's from this site, ive added restaurants, hotels ect. My camera sub has expired but I think I have an old batch I'll try it at the weekend and report back but I can't see it not working.

Added Poi's from pgps world
Burger King
MacDonalds
KFC
Nandos
Cafe Rouge
Pizza Hut
Pizza Express
Ask/Zizzi
Travelodge
FYI I'm not a fast food freak most of above are customers

As for speed limits, it still displays 70max for motorways but you can set warnings for you vehicles max speed in the profile set up! Ive set 56mph. Routing tho gives a very accurate arrival times, and I mean very accurate within a couple of minutes normally something that still impresses me! So it's a given this takes into account of truck speed limits.

[mikewall]

FYI I've used a site that converts text to speech for my speed limit warnings, so importing warning sounds works fine too

But could not add vehicle icons, but I couldn't on the go 1000 too. Even tho the option is there on web interface!

We see you’re using an ad-blocker. We’re fine with that and won’t stop you visiting the site.
Have you considered making a donation towards website running costs?.
Or you could disable your ad-blocker for this site. We think you’ll find our adverts are not overbearing!