Article by Maft

A couple of weeks ago TomTom USA announced a new TomTom One for the US Market. Speculation was rife about a European launch and pricing. Yesterday we were at TomTom's head office in Amsterdam and we walked away with a TomTom One New Edition for Europe. This comes in 2 flavors: Western Europe or Regional. The European Edition is priced at €399 (about £270) and the Regional Edition €299 (about £199). These should be available in the stores from September 2006.

As we have only had the TomTom One NE for a few hours the following is not an in depth review, but a first look.

Overview

The portfolio of TomTom Personal Navigation products has been updated this year with the announcement of the GO X10 range. This has now been updated and completed with the announcement of the TomTom One New Edition and Navigator 6 the latest Mobile Phone and PDA software release at the IFA trade show in Berlin.

The TomTom One is an entry level system which is hitting the market at around £199 and rounding out the range of navigation offerings from TomTom. The core of the new One is the renowned SiRFStarIII GPS chipset with a 266MHz CPU and 32Mb of memory. This powers a 3.5 inch TFT LCD touch screen display with 64k colours.

The run through...

The first thing you will notice about the TomTom One New Edition is it's size. It is barely larger than the screen size. It has dimensions of 96mm by 82 mm. It is just 25mm (one inch thick) allowing it to be slipped into a pocket or handbag with ease.

Not only is it small but it is light as well weighing in at a miniscule 174 grams. It is not going to pull your trousers down when placed in the pocket.

It retains the new TomTom range design features with a sculptured top and clear TomTom branding at the bottom. The colour and build materials are similar as well, giving a unit with a good quality feel to it.

The TomTom One NE is supplied with a pre-installed SD card with applications and maps on it, a windscreen holder, a car power adapter, all you need to get you going. Indeed my unit was already charged so I was able to switch it on straight from the box and play with it in Amsterdam Airport whilst waiting for my delayed plane.

All you do is slip the SD card in the slot on the base of the unit and switch it on. If you are outside it will get a fix in a few minutes (can take up to 15 mins the first time) and then you can start navigating. It is as easy as that...

The TomTom One New Edition is a Plug-and-Play device that can be used on your way home from the store where you bought it.

Looking at the base of the TomTom One you can see the memory-card slot, a small hole to reset the device, and the USB power and data transmission socket. You can also see the molded grooves for the mount holder.

The power is supplied through a straight cigar lighter to USB power adapter. When I say straight I mean that the connector to the TomTom One is straight and protrudes about an inch below the GPS. this can make it difficult to position in the car.

You can also see the Bluetooth certification logo to the right. As with other TomTom devices you can use Bluetooth to communicate with a mobile phone and access online services provided by TomTom.

The software in the provides facilities for data transmission and reception, but not voice calls. This means that you cannot use the TomTom One NE as a handsfree carkit.

If you have a car with a coated windscreen it can be impossible to obtain a clear view of the sky to receive the signal from the GPS satellites. If there is a block between the TomTom One and the satellites then the devices will not be able to determine where you are and consequently will be unable to navigate. The picture to the left shows the socket for an external antenna which can be positioned away from the coating with a clear view of the sky.

The External antenna is a chargeable option.

The top right of the TomTom One is the location for the power button. This needs to be held for a second or so to switch the One on and off. This is a good feature as an accidental knock in your pocket will not switch the PND on.

On the right hand side of the One is the attachment point for a lanyard or wrist cord. This is where the double D is. The wrist strap is an optional extra.

Just to the left of the power button is a small hole. I an not entirely sure what functionality this hides. I would expect it to be for a microphone, but as there is no handsfree function it remains unclear...

Moving to the rear of the TomTom One NE you can see the top of the mount groove with a small raised portion to lock the One into the mount.

Above the grooves you can see the holes for the speaker. Interestingly these are arranged in an oval shape. Implying the same shape of speaker. (I have not had a chance to remove the cover and investigate yet.) Rough visual examination implies that the speaker is roughly the same size as that of the new GO X10 range. It produces a clear sound which is audible at motorway speeds over both road noise and the Rolling Stones blaring out on my car stereo. At full volume it can produce a little distortion of the spoken directions.

The TomTom One sports a SiRFStarIII chipset. It is not clear which version of the chipset has ben used, but in the short test I did it proved to have a very sensitive and strong signal, pulling 11 satellites in the pouring rain.

The TomTom One also has an internal battery which according to TomTom will last for up to 2 hours. Not very long, but enough to get you back to your car.

One thing noticeable by its absence is a socket for an external audio device. This prevents it being wired into amplified implementations.

The shot to the right shows the mount grooves from a different angle.

Whilst on the subject of the mount and TomTom one holder is yet another new and revolutionary design.

The mount fixes to the windscreen using a rubber suction cup. The vacuum between the cup and holder is created when you push the cup into the screen. This splays the segments over the plastic cup creating a secure and rigid base for the mount.

There is a short linkage am terminating in a ball joint. This is rubberised providing a high friction surface. This is then connected to the mount with a socket.

Removing the mount is simply a matter of pulling the tag, which releases the vacuum.

In use I found this mount did not droop nor did it suffer from vibration. For the short 50 mile test drive I found the mounting system to be one of the best screen mounts I have used so far. However this was only a short test with no serious adverse conditions.

First Impressions in the Car

As mentioned above the mount is quite revolutionary and fits well to both the windscreen and the TomTom One. The whole setup was impressively stable with no noticeable vibration.

The software is the same as the GO x10 software supporting all the features we have come to expect from TomTom. This includes full 7 digit postcode support in the UK, automatic route re-calculation, POI support, including custom POIs (Speed Cameras), TomTom plus, etc.

Interestingly the mapping data is different depending which Edition you purchase. If you have the European Edition then you will have maps sourced from NavTeq, the Region Editions have Teleatlas data.

Having the Bluetooth connection to your mobile phone means that you can pair the two and access the TomTom plus services for additional content including additional voices, more maps, or more interestingly some of the dynamic services such as Traffic information, Weather and TomTom Buddies.

Managing all the additional features of the TomTom One NE has been simplified with the inclusion of TomTom Home. Home allows you to install new software, voices, POIs etc all controlled by a familiar windows based application.

The following is the official Press Release from TomTom:

A small, dare I say sexy?, SatNav system running TomTom Navigator software with a sub £200 price tag just has to be a winner. TomTom appear to have launched another sure fire winner here.

When I got home I showed it to my wife (who has a strange aversion to GPS in her car) and she suddenly became interested. The size was one of the appealing factors to her. She sees it a a device she can just drop into her handbag when she leaves the car. Now if Mrs B likes it then it must be destined to be a big success...

References

Mike Barrett

www.Pocketgpsworld.com