720 or 660fm

[gardenshed]

sorry if its been asked before, but i need some advice, after giving up smoking i have and still am saving my pennies and want to buy another pnd. A bit put off by the 720 bad press I have been lookin at the Garmin 660FM as well, and to be honest now need some advice, which is the best?

I have a tomtom and like the menu structure and map presentation whilst driving, is the garmin any better or worse, apparently its bluetooth phone works with none of the noise tt apparently has, has it been sorted? any help appreciated

[DennisN]

I'm an absolute babe in arms to be replying to this, but it so happens I have both the devices you're considering. I've had TomToms since May 2005 and love them - sure, I'm now on to GO720 #6 because I'm picky and need certain functions which have been dodgy on the ones I've had.

I got 720 #6 on Friday from Maplins and Nuvi 660FM from Halfords next door whilst there. Not rich, just had a failed GO710 which Maplins couldn't replace, so I got a 720 (and £55 credit change), then got the previous GO720 refunded and exchanged for a Nuvi 660FM in Halfords.

The Nuvi 660FM comes with two extras not included with the GO720 - A mains charger and the TMC traffic aerial with lifetime free subscription in the UK. Instructions are to run the aerial vertically up the windscreen and as I like the device middle and bottom of screen, I now have a spidery wire up the centre of my windscreen.

First surprise with the 660 was when I went to do POIs - the pgpsw speed cams. I have seen a certain amount of grumble about doing it, so I expected difficulty. It was so easy I couldn't believe it (and WON'T until I've given it a run out tomorrow!!!). It was just as easy as doing the TT OV2 method.

Impressed that the Nuvi seems to have directional cameras - again, this remains to be proven with the pgpsw cameras. I have not yet seen any indication that I can configure the warnings (distance, sound etc).

Impressed that the Nuvi comes with Traffic aerial. Again, just one trip out yesterday, round trip of about 15 miles and it seemed to have a signal all the time. However, it wasn't showing traffic on the driving map like the TT system does - for lack of learning, I'm deducing the only way of seeing traffic problems is by going into a separate screen.

Very unimpressed that it wanted to guide me to sister-in-laws house down country lanes. Coming back, it came the "right" way though.

After the GOs, I don't like the 660 map/navigation screen. The map looks very amateur, although most of that impression is caused by the different colour scheme. It doesn't seem to zoom in and out automatically and doesn't show side street names as well as the GO. My main dislike (beware, I've driven it only once for 15 miles and I still have a few pages of the manual to get through) is the 660 doesn't show the information I've become accustomed to on the GO - very, very bare compared with the GO Status bar. If you want to know how fast you're going (and I do) it's a tap for another trip screen.

The 660 volume is lower than the GO and the voice is much more crackly, but seems to be better implementation of TTS - she gets Caernarvon Road right. Bluetooth hands free works, but with only a small trial, the speaker is crackly. I haven't yet tried the FM side - the handsfree coming through my in-van speakers seems worth having.

As a complete newbie to the 660FM, with a long tradition of TT GOs, I have to recommend you go with the GO720 - you already know how to work it and you already understand and like the map. Finally, just go into the shop and ask to handle them - I consider the different feel in your hand will persuade you the build quality of the GO is better.

I decided to get the Nuvi (replacing the 720) because the nice Halfords young man said it was as good as the TTs and because I thought it was time I had two different devices instead of two similar ones. I hate to say I think I'm regretting it!
_________________
Dennis

If it tastes good - it's fattening.

Two of them are obesiting!!

[philpugh]

Having gone from TT Nav to nuvi 660 (no FM) I will comment on DennisN comments. I have been using the 660 since the start of the year.

The nuvi only has directional camera support for it's own database. The PGPSW database is treated like any other user POI - it's non-directional.

You can alter the warning times for the cameras by using Ash10's wonderful CameraManager s/w (see sticky in this forum). It also works with TT cameras now I believe.

TMC - benefits from external aerial as power levels in UK make any string aerial a poor performer. On nuvi - if following a route; a warning icon pops up on the map page - tapping this gives further information. If not on route; you get a warning pop-up if there are delays on the road you are on. Otherwise you can tap the blue icon on the main page to get a UK wide summary. Further details can be found from here.

Routing: Yep - it can have a tendency to 'back roads' which it seems to think are navigable at 60mph (fat chance on the one I live on).

Mapping: More accurate on the nuvi as compared with TTN 6 V660 maps which still have some bridleways around me as drivable.

Map screen - no I don't have auto zooming - but that's not a problem to me - I like it to stay on the zoom level I set - which is usually very close.

If you are zoomed out then you can get a close picture of the next turning by tapping the bottom right "distance to next turning" area. Very useful if you missed the audio warning.

In-built speaker: Yes- tendency to distort at high vol levels. I plug it into my car radio - making it very good quality. Excellent for use as hands-free unit.

I would certainly buy another nuvi (and I have already bought the wife a 310).
_________________
Phil

[DennisN]

Good on you philpugh for reasoned, experienced comments.

I can now add a days' worth of travel - 250 miles round trip to Hemel Hempstead, with the units side by side.

First I should correct my earlier stuff - there is a third extra in the 660FM box compared to GO720 - a leather carry case.

The Nuvi 660 FM transmitter is fine and I was very pleased that it actually transmits the ringtone from my phone whereas GO720 uses a poor bog standard one of its own. Sound quality therefore is good. Text to Speech is better than GO720, although a little downbeat ( the lady is less vivacious voiced than GO720 - I really mean lower pitched).

TMC aerial worked well for me, although I couldn't see it performing like you do on the TT device, it did seem to be in contact for the whole of the journey. I don't know if I had set it to re-route to avoid any problems, but when the warning triangle appeared, I was already too far into the problem to benefit (M25 congestion pops up from nowhere very quickly, doesn't it).

Routing through 60mph back roads is a black mark against it. I discovered that it does appear to zoom a bit - at least I think so. Not as noticeably as the GO720.

I found the boot up time dreadfully slow and other "speed of use" factors were not good - things like having to tap about 5 or 6 times to redial a phone call. All in all, I found the tapping requirements more onerous than the GO720.

I don't know if I got a fault, but when I came home, I stopped half a mile from home to go into a local shop and when I came back and started up again, the 660 had dropped the route to home, whereas the GO720 picked up where we left off.

Personally, I'm very disappointed with the 660FM, probably because I've become so accustomed to the TomTom GO devices. My main problem is the lack of information to which I have become accustomed, namely the status bar - the only two things the 660FM shows are ETA and next turn, whereas GO720 shows those plus current time, remaining distance and speed. For this reason mostly, I've decided to abandon it and go back to swap it for another GO720 (Halfords have agreed to do so, thank goodness).

I wouldn't want to put anybody off the 660FM - I readily admit my choice is hugely influenced by using TT GOs since May 2005. Maybe old fogies like me are incapable of adjusting once we're stuck in a familiar rut!
_________________
Dennis

If it tastes good - it's fattening.

Two of them are obesiting!!

[gardenshed]

wow guys thanks for the very in depth reports, to be honest i am leaning towards the 720 at the moment, i am not used to the tmc and cannot see its benefit to me at the moment, but i like all the info in one place and easy to use thanks for the feed back

[mikealder]

TMC is handy if you are making long (ish) trips as it can assist in avoiding hold ups. On my 420 mile round trip today it informed me of delays on the A1 (long term road works) so I could elect to miss the A1 all together, its also handy for adverse weather reports, high winds ice etc.

The problem as Phil said earlier is reliable reception, the Garmin unit and the new TomTom RDS receivers both work about the same in terms of reception, both also suffer from poor data at times. The big plus point for TT is the Traffic information is also available via your mobile phones GPRS connection, this is a subscription service and overcomes the reception issues, only the TomTom provide the TMC via GPRS option. Connection of an external aerial is about the same these days for either product, at least you no longer need to open the device and get a soldering iron out!

I have to agree with Dennis though about the user nav screen on the Garmin, it is missing vital information, which the 720 provides from a casual glance at the screen. I don't want to press buttons when driving to find out my speed (I only ever use GPS speed these days in a car), neither do I want to prod buttons to find the Traffic summary. The HMI and intuitive menu system on the TomTom products is a class act which is hard to follow, only Route 66 comes close from what I have tried and found I can get on with, but again that has its own foibles and problems.

No one has mentioned roundabouts as yet on the Garmin, they appear as blobs that become more defined as you approach them on the map, I always think this is like watching a doughnut being cooked, the longer it fries the easier it is to tell the end shape..... enough of this nonsense.

The hands free on my 720 has worked fine from day one - I must have dropped lucky, that said for every person complaining it is rubbish there are probably lots of people that it just works for, its a typical British attitude, shout when it doesn't work but stay in the back ground and say nothing if it does!
I have only had a strange noise from mine on the dash on one occasion, that was with the Ameo mobile in its mount right next to it, the 720 made some strange noises when the Ameo was on the internet (I was parked up at the time - honest), once I gave them some distance apart the issue has never repeated, it sounded similar to the noise you get on a landline when the mobile is about to ring.
That said there must be an issue with the 720 when people are ending up there 4th, 5th and 6th device, all with the same problem, could it be the common denominator is the phone being at fault?

Have a trip to the local store and compare the two units, its a shame non of the major high street retailers (Oh and for DennisN’s benefit I found a LandRover dealer today called “Colliers” which was on the High Street) don't offer a trial service so someone like yourself could "try before buy" for a couple of days - Mike

[DennisN]

Update. I now have two GO720s (and both of them to set up before I go off to Doncaster tomorrow morning!!). That's an interesting question about the phone being the culprit - but we're not all using the same phone AND Tom Tom keep trying to say it's a known problem and they've got a fix in the pipeline.

For Mike's benefit - Did you ever find any Earls on the Main Road?
_________________
Dennis

If it tastes good - it's fattening.

Two of them are obesiting!!

[gardenshed]

i might have to go to dennis's local halfords as they seem to have a pretty good loan service set up there

[DennisN]

Yeah - I reckon I could do with a library card, I'm beginning to lose track. I think I've had 2 or 3 from Handtec, 3 or 4 from Halfords and definitely only one from Maplins, total of 7 of which I am currently in possession of numbers 6 & 7. I've had to put a special Splash screen on each of them (GO720-6 & GO720-7) so that I know which is which - sort of like labelling twins at birth I suppose. And I have a record on the wall by my computer of all the email addresses and passwords I've had to use. For what it's worth, with so many 720s in such a short time, I now have 16 backups of the various ones, compared with only 18 backups of my previous TomTom GOs (700 and 710).
_________________
Dennis

If it tastes good - it's fattening.

Two of them are obesiting!!

[nickn5]

Hmm, thanks all for the interesting 660FM vs TT 720 comparisons - it looks like the 720 will most likely be my new toy at some point then, as I really don't like tapping screens whilst driving any more than absolutely necessary. What I do wonder is: will the TTS pronounce Dutch street names properly when I go to Holland? Anyone tried it yet?

N.

[Andy_P]

Not tried it, and wouldn't know if it got it right anyway!
But if you switch to a Dutch voice, it SHOULD do. If you leave it on an English voice it will definitely make a mess of it.

[nickn5]

Hehe, ok thanks for that! I'll have to learn what 'Make a U-turn as soon as possible' is in Dutch then...

N.

[DennisN]

There is an option in Speech preferences (with computer voice) to "Read aloud foreign street names". I may be naiive, but I'd expect that to cover getting Nieuwenhagerstraat right, particulary as the device is Dutch (via China). I just tried running a demo and she got Nieuwenhagerstraat as near accurate as she does most street names in the UK. She might have prono9unced Maastrichtstraat a little like Ma-astrichtrstra-at, but I'm not sure. Anyway, if you can tell the difference between right and wrong pronunciation, stands to reason you can understand Dutch so, like Andy says, switch to a Dutch voice.
_________________
Dennis

If it tastes good - it's fattening.

Two of them are obesiting!!

[philpugh]

Certainly, whilst in France earlier this year, the 660's English TTS voice did a pretty good job with the street names - much better than I can manage.

C'est la vie!
_________________
Phil

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