3. Unboxing

The GO 910 ships in a square, stylishly designed box. It's clear even from the packaging that TomTom is a company focused on branding and good design.

Here we see everything that comes in the box with the TomTom GO 910:

• TomTom GO 910
• Remote Control
• Carry Case
• Home Dock
• Car Charger
• Windshield Mount
• External Microphone
• Audio Cable
• Documentation Pack
• Product Code Card

The first thing you see when opening up the TomTom GO 910 is the main unit itself. The GP 910 ships with a protective plastic adhesive on the 4" wide-format color touch screen. Another thing you notice right away is the 910's considerable weight. The GO 910's tips the scales at a hefty 3/4 of a pound, due largely to the 910's internal 20GB hard drive. Ultimately, the 910's weight lead to problems with keeping the unit securely attached to the windshield mount -- more on that later in the review.

AC Adapter for charging indoors, and the included Home Dock. I was happy to see that TomTom included the AC adapter, and didn't make me purchase the adapter separately.

Carry case. To store your TomTom GO when it's not in your vehicle. The case is made of a cushioned neoprene material designed to soften any impacts on the 910 while in the case. It also protects the screen from getting scratched up. The carry case has a key ring sewn into the corner. At .75 lbs, I'd be hard pressed to lug the 910 around as a key chain. Still, the protective carrying case is a good idea, and I'm pleased TomTom included it for free.

External microphone. To optimize the quality of your voice when you use your GO for hands-free calling. In my testing, callers couldn't notice any difference in voice quality between the GO 910's built-in internal microphone and the external microphone, shown above. I'm not sure if this means the internal microphone is already very good, or if the external microphone is poor quality, but either way it may not be worth wiring up the external mic, given the already decent quality of the internal microphone.

Windscreen dock. To attach your TomTom to your windscreen. The GO 910's mount is an interesting design: you press the mount against the windshield, and then rotate the locking disc at the base of the mount until it locks into place. Then you must rotate it a little more until it clicks into a second locked position. Once connected to the AC adapter, the mount provides power to the GO 910, which is nice because you can quickly dock and undock the unit without having to disconnect any wires. The windshield mount is a ball and socket style joint that allows the unit to be articulated into almost any viewing angle.

This mount looked good at first glance. Unfortunately, the windshield mount turned out to be the 910’s biggest problem. The mount failed to hold the GO 910 firmly in place, and would slowly droop downward while driving until the GPS was almost facing the floor. Finally, after just 2 weeks of occasional use, the windshield mount broke altogether into two pieces.

When I first contacted TomTom's support, they denied any knowledge of an issue with the mount, and offered to send me a replacement mount. Several months later, however, TomTom finally confirmed that the original mount that shipped with the GO 910 was indeed problematic, and they have since updated the design and offer a free replacement to anyone with the original mount. The new mount is better than the original, but is still prone to drooping and/or breaking, and is the achilles heel of the GO 910. There's little more distracting or frustrating than driving on the highway only to have your new $700 GPS suddenly snap off the windshield and fall to the ground.

Home dock. For connecting the GO 910 to your pc or Mac and charging your GO in the convenience of your house or hotel. Comes with docking, USB cable and home charger. The Home dock connects to your computer, and allows you to use TomTom's Home software suite. Home is used to update the software installed on the GO 910, as well as upload music, plan trips, and download GPS position information so the unit is ready to navigate next time you need it.

Documentation pack. Contains quick start guide, accessory leaflet and cd.

Remote control. So you can operate your TomTom GO from anywhere in the car. I never used the remote control. Not once (except to test it for this review). I've never seen another GPS unit that uses a remote control, and I found it unnecessary.

Holster and batteries for the remote control. The holster also includes a strip of double-sided tape, so you can mount the holster in the car and store the remote.

Product code card. For registration of your unit online at www.tomtom.com.

Audio cable. Those of you fortunate enough to have a car with audio input (mini plug), the GO 910 includes such a cable for connecting the unit to your car's stereo system. Navigation prompts and music can then be piped through your car's speakers. Unfortunately, my car does not have audio input plugs, so I was unable to test this.

Car charger. 12-24V cigarette lighter adapter. Nothing too complex here. The 12v adapter has an in-line fuse just in case.