TomTomGo 300

[Jagmandave]

Anyone buy one of these little portable GPS units?
My wife and I are going down to Eureka Springs, Ar this weekend for my birthday and we've been discussing buying one of these for a couple of years. In fact, we would have preferred our new Audi wagon had a factory installed one when we bought it, but it didn't so we're looking at these portable units. Plusses include being able to take it from car to car, all the maps are preloaded, it has a 3D viewpoint as well as "birds eye" and so on. Minuses are that it has to be mounted on the dash somewhere so you can see it (which might make it vulnerable to theft) and also gets it into direct sunlight, making the screen harder to see, and the screen is only about 3.5 inches across. It also is a touchscreen device, the only button on it is used to turn it on. It comes with a carrying case and built in battery, so you can use it if you're hiking, etc. Anyone have any experience with this one or others?

Another one that seems to be new on the market is made by Lowrance (who make mostly marine units before this, I think - at least that's where I knew the name from) which has a 5 inch screen and a 20 gig harddrive (play's MP3's too!), but it's special order only so far, so I haven't been able to see/touch one.

I've also looked at local maker Garmin's units too, since they are the big dog in portable GPS.............

So c'mon TBN'ers, what's he good word on these little units?

 

[Jagmandave]

Hmmmmm, 63 views and no replies....no one uses portable GPS units here I guess.

FWIW, the TomTomGo 300 got mixed reviews this weekend, there were errors in the pre-loaded data base, none really serious, but odd and sometimes annoying - for example when it asked us to exit, then wanted us to get right back on the same road, same direction. Another time it led us straight to our destination (or so it claimed), except it took us 8 miles south on the hiway instead of 8 miles north -that was annoying! On the plus side, it did lead us right to our Motel on one of the backroads around Beaver lake........

I think I'm going to order the Lowrance unit and run it for a few days for comparison. Could be these things are just too new, and I might have to wait a bit yet for the technology to catch up..........

 

[Moon]

Hey Jagmandave;
I use a portable GPS, but not for directions. I use it for accurate speed readings. Boats are notorious for not giving an accurate reading on the speedo. Since buying it I've also used it to verify my cars speedo's, and I'll have it track the paths we travel once in awhile. I have a Magellan. They sell add on maps for larger cities for it, but I've never used that option. I never mounted it anywhere in the cars. It is readable sitting on the seat beside me ....or the wife is reading it telling me I'm going to fast ... /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

I think they're neat, but I like gadget stuff like that.

 

[TonyV]

Hi Jag. Whenever I set out to purchase electronic devices...computer stuff, cameras, PDA's, etc......I go to the CNET site to check on editor and user reviews. This is an excellant site for this purpose. Heres the link...just do a search on GPS on the home page:

CNET

I noticed that the TomTom unit got an 8.6 rating (out of 10) by the site editors, and a 7.3 rating on average from 112 folks that submitted reviews. Personally, I tend to put a little more credance in the user ratings, but you have to read the actual reviews to really see where they're coming from.

On another note, Eureka Springs is a beautiful, beautiful town. Looks like it was just cut right out of the mountains. A few years back, we travelled down to Branson, were somewhat disappointed in it, and so took off for Eureka Springs on someone's suggestion. It was by far, the best part of our foray into that neck of the woods. I would definately go back again.

Good luck in your search for the perfect GPS, and have a good time in AK!!

...Tony

 

[Jagmandave]

Did the Cnet thing, I also spend a bit of time there before buyin anything electronic..............

Portable GPS unit, I bought one this weekend and wonder if anyone else has one - cause I think I'm going to take mine back. It actually works pretty well, got us to the cabin deep in the Ozarks by Beaver Lake this weekend, but not without some annoyances. Like, asking us to exit the highway, then return right back on the same road going the same direction. Like telling us to ""Turn left in 300 yards, where there was no road, and no reason to turn in going to our destination. Like, taking us faithfully turn for turn to our destination - which wasn't there! Turns out it tooks us 8 miles south on hiway 21 when we needed to go 8 miles north!
It also doesn't believe my office exists, even tho it's been here for over 8 years, and the road it's on has been here for over 10, it insists the address is not valid.

The screen is only 3.5 inches across and a little hard to see in bright sunlight, but it does have lots of interesting features, like the vioce directions that get louder with ambient or road noise (then scares the **** out of you when you haven't heard anything for a couple of hours and it suddenly announces a turn off ahead.) Everything is done thru the touch screen, which I did not have a problem with, even with my fat fingers. Some of the options tho are limiting, for example, when scrolling thru the menus looking for an attraction, is it under museums, or parks or?

I'm sure as I used it I would find it more intuitive, and it wasn't bad as it is, but taking me 16 miles out of my way pissed me off. If we hadn't had a paper map, we never would have found the place we were trying to reach. So, why not just use a paper map? That's what I ususally do, but my wife get's turned around easily, and I thought this might ease her frustrations when trying to navigate around town.

The local Cabella's has the new Lowrance I-500, which comes with a 20 Gig hardrive, 10 gig of which is devoted to storage of MP3's! I'm going to look at it tonite, and see if I can learn more.

Anyone else have one of these GPS units? If so what's your experience been?

 

[slowrev]

My uncle got a nice little unit like you want, a Garmin I believe. Knowing him I know it was not too expensive. His had velcro mounts that he stuck on top of the steering column. I will email him tonight and ask him the model number, price, etc. He used it extensively this summer and was impressed. Said he only hit a glitch or two in the database in the baltimore area where he was visiting.

Ben

 

[Jagmandave]

Since Garmin is a local KC manufacturer I considered them first, but I'd really like a larger screen, that's why I'm going to look at the Lowrance, it has a 5" screen instead of 3.5"
We also considerd a Cobra, which has a 7" screen, but they've been discontinued, so I'm kinda glad we didn't go that way.........