Figure 28: Setting the Language Preference

Before you can use the GO 720, a few initial settings need to be configured. The first time the GO 720 is powered on, you are presented with a brief start-up wizard that begins by asking your preferred language.

TomTom shows its European roots with support for 23 languages.

Figure 29: Confirming the Language Selection

The GO 720 asks you to confirm your language selection before continuing.

Figure 30: TomTom Welcome Screen

Once the language has been set, the TomTom tells you that it needs to set a few more preferences before it's ready to begin navigating.

Figure 31: Right-handed or left-handed operation

Good news for lefties -- The GO 720 allows you to configure the device for either right-handed or left-handed use.

Figure 32: Setting the Unit of Measure

Depending on your local region, you may want to see distances in Miles or Kilometers.

One minor TomTom annoyance: when set to Miles, the GO 720 reports smaller distances in yards instead of feet. Makes sense for Canada, but feet would be better here in the US.

Figure 33: Clock Display Preference

The time can be displayed using any of the three options shown above. The default setting is 6:00 pm.

Figure 34: Setting the Current Time

The time can be manually set using the up and down arrows, or automatically retrieved via the GPS satellite signal.

Figure 35: Selecting A Voice

The GO 720 ships with a variety of male and female voices. Computer generated voices can announce actual street names using text-to-speech technology, Actual human voices that have been recorded can only announce generic maneuvers, such as "Turn left in half a mile".

The default voice selection is "Susan", for US English. Susan is a computer generated voice that will speak actual street names when announcing turn maneuvers. Notice that computer generated voices say "Computer" in the upper right area of the voice selection screen, as shown above.

Most users will want to make use of the text-to-speech feature of the GO 720, and should choose a computer voice rather than a human recorded voice.

Figure 36: Computer vs. Human Voices

If you choose a computer voice (and you should), the TomTom notifies you that the voice might not sound as perfect as a human recorded voice, but in exchange the GPS will speak actual street names.

Figure 37: Speech Preferences

TomTom provides a dizzying array of speech options, allowing you to customize exactly how much or little you want to hear announced.

the "Read foreign street names out loud" option is curious, and TomTom's documentation makes no mention of it (or any of the other settings on this page). I noticed no difference when driving with this option checked or unchecked, but I suspect this setting is more relevant in Europe, where you might want to suppress street name announcements when driving through a foreign country.

Figure 38: Speech Preference, Page 2

Yet more speech preferences that can be set on the GO 720. It's slightly confusing have both negative and positive options on the same page (i.e. DO read aloud warnings, Disable early warning instructions), as a checkbox enables one option, but disables another. To avoid confusion, TomTom might consider re-wording this page so that all checkboxes are enabling speech options (for example, re-word "Disable early warning instructions" to say "Read aloud early warning instructions").

Figure 39: Selecting a Day Color Scheme

The TomTom GO 720 has a built-in light sensor that can automatically switch the GPS between "day" and "night" color modes. Day color schemes are bright and designed to be seen during daylight conditions, while night color schemes use darker colors and are designed to be easy on the eyes when driving at night.

TomTom provides four different day color schemes to choose from.

Figure 40: Selecting a Night Color Scheme

TomTom provides four different night color schemes to choose from. The blue scheme (top left) is chosen by default.

Figure 41: Would You Like to Set Your 'Home' Address?

Next the GO 720 asks if you want to input your home address. The 'Home" address is a special saved address in your address book that makes it easy to route back to your designated home address with just a few taps on the screen.

More on entering the 'Home' address later in the review.

Figure 42: Would You Like A Brief Tour?

Now that all the start-up preferences have been set, the GO 720 asks if you want a brief tour on using the GPS and an overview of the features. If you're new to TomTom's GPS products, it's probably a good idea to take the tour (it only takes a few minutes).