I love your exhaustive reviews but I think you've missed a couple of important things about the 720.

The option to move the status bar to the right side of the screen is a big deal to me. This gives more vertical area for the map window. It's far more useful to have greater visibility of what's in front of me instead of what's to the sides. It also makes the 2D view more useful.

You mention the clutter of TomTom's map display. Your screen shots show the worst case scenario of having every option turned on. Turn some things off and it's not so cluttered. The Garmin does still have a cleaner and more attractive display but you pay a price for that. The Garmin doesn't show a graphic for the direction of the upcoming turn and you can't display time to destination. Pick your poison.

You clearly prefer Garmin's more overhead 3D view. I disagree. Garmin's view does get more map area visible. But it does this by distorting the view. The Garmin compresses the map view in a non linear way as it moves further toward the horizon. It's a clever trick to get more on the screen but it's not proportionately correct. TomTom's view is a more accurate representation of what you see looking out your windshield. I think TomTom's view does a better job of showing me where I need to go.

I get the impression you don't really test out the bluetooth handset capabilities of these units. It's an important feature to me and the 720 is the first unit I've tried that had both an acceptable microphone and speaker. I returned a Nuvi 660 and older TomTom Go because the mic and/or speaker were so bad that it made the feature unusable.

Sadly, you're right on about TomTom's poor routing and it's surprisingly bad GPS reception.

When you do reviews, can u write the time it takes to acquire signal from a cold start, vs. a warm, vs. hot start? I think nuvis are notoriously bad. magellan does a really good job.

It's really too bad these latest gps units from Tom Tom, Magellan and even Garmin all have flaws. You would think after several years, these major manufacturers could get it right.

I love my 3 year old alpine in-dash unit. It leaves most of the portable units in the dust with a full array of features.

I'll have a Nuvi 350 (giving it as a gift) tomorrow. I try it out before giving it as a gift to be sure it's reasonably accurate.

STEVE G,

I BOUGHT A GARMIN NUVI 350 THIS PAST CHRISTMAS AND IM VERY HAPPY WITH THIS UNIT. IT DON'T HAVE BLUE TOOTH OR MSN DIRECT THOUGH. I WILL SAY I HAD TO EXCHANGE THE ORIGIONAL UNIT BECAUSE IT STOPPED GETTING SIGNAL FOR SOME REASON? IVE HAD THE NEW ONE SINCE FEB THOUGH AND HAVE HAD NO PROBLEMS. MY ONLY OTHER COMPLAINT IS THAT SOMETIMES IT TAKES A LONG TIME TO BOOT UP AND GET SIGNAL ON A COLD START.(SOMETIMES LIKE 5 MIN)

Thank you for the Excellent review. I have been looking to upgrade my Garmin GPS V. Way outdated i know, but garmin gps's seem to be spot on with performance and that is what i want.

This has been the best review i have found on this GPS so far, THANK YOU!!!!

Fletch,
you mention that the Garmin and Magellan allow you to search across state boundaries, but as far as I can tell, the newer Magellans all require you to enter the city name first when searching for an address. The Garmins I've used will search for a street name within a state if you choose not to enter a city name, but I believe the POI search will go across state boundaries.

You also have to look at the price... u get what u pay for... 720 retails for less than $ 500 whereas the nuvi & the Magellan tested were a lot more expensive... hence would have more improvements.

Iam using the Garmin c330 & have made up my mind to return it... sometimes you pass the turn before it even tells u to make the turn & a few times it even tells u to enter one way streets from the wrong end

I love your review and In many ways is accurate. I had the TOMTOM 300 when it came out and I love it so I decided to buy the tomtom 720. After 2 weeks of using it, I had many problems, mostly the disk on the GPS gets Disk error or files get messes up. The first time, I downloaded a voice when I had the SD memory, and I could not switch back to the computer voice (Susan)eventhough I can see that I have it when I displayed the directory. I called the tech support, after waiting 15 minutes, I expained the problem for 10 minutes, they asked me to hold, there was music for few second and then they hang up. Tried again, waiting 15 minutes for a live person to respond and the nightmare re-occured, 25 miutes nand they hang up. I took the SD memory out and I got back the computer voice!!!. So now I do not know what to use this slot for??
The desk top indicated that there is update, so I updated and after that I lost all my POI. I had a disk error where I could not resolve and I did not want to go through the hastle again with the tech support so I want to where I bought it and I exchanged it since it was under the return time frame.
This time, I want to be very careful with the update and I did not want to crash my disk again, but I was wrong.
I decided I am not going to add any music, sound or any thing else but the gpsfix file that they are bragging about. On September 17, I tried to update that file and I got an error from the TOMTOM server that the secure certificate on their server expired on September 15. Meanwile the download started but got error. The secure certificate got resolved in a later date but I tried to use my GPS after, I lost my North america map and I found myself in Guama. I guest it was a free trip compliment of TomTom :). When I went to the unit to change my map, North america dissappeared from the menu. The desktop software indicated that the map is there but I just could not get to it.
Another disk error or what ever it is.
I went to the restore function since I thought I am smart enough to back up the system before I do any update, the restore took few second to complete successfully but did not restore anything since I still could not get to see the map of where I am and I was still on my vacation in Guama, where ever this guama is.
Since I could not get my money back, I was able to replace it again with a new one and this time I will not, repeat, will not link it to my computer until I am assured that The computer interface does support the Tomtom 720 without destroying my disk.

I would like to see more utility function to the desktop since in reality the 720 is like a small computer. A function that will help me fix such problems without going to their inadequate tech support. It would have been great if I was able to go to a utility screen, format the drive and restore all the files from the backup or a utility that fix the disk drive.

Did anybody experienced what I went through yet, I know the unit is new but I am just concern about doing any upgrade so I do not loose the basic function of a machine that I paid 500.00 for it.

I've had this 720 for almost 2 weeks now.
I bought it towards the end of October,
and it's a real nifty device.
I bought the magellan 4020
and returned it the next day
for the GO 720
(mainly because it
took too long to receive
a satellite signal).

But I just had to comment on this review.
There were a number
of glaring omissions
and the reviewer's
obvious endorsement
of all things Garmin
interfered with providing
a fair and impartial review.

The first thing
that caught my attention...
well actually if you read
the garmin 760 review
he touts himself,
"Already a Garmin nuvi fan, it was with great anticipation..."
But whatever
we all have our favorite products,
that's cool.
(I'm assuming
he's the same author
because he uses the same
'routing engine' comparisons).

But it was the following comment
that first caught my attention,
"TomTom provides a dizzying array of speech options, allowing you to customize exactly how much or little you want to hear announced."

Dizzying?
Almost has
a negative ring to it, no?
Like having lots of options to choose from
is a bad thing or something.
But whatever.
Just an adjective.
Moving on.

"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."

Americans are pretty big on football,
and they might relate better to yards.
However, aside from that
my 720 DOES report
smaller distances in feet...

"TomTom provides four different day color schemes to choose from."

There are actually
7 to choose from.
And you can download
lots more from the web...

And there are actually
3 night colors installed
to choose from (not 4),
again, lot more to download
from the web.

"It would be nice if the power cable connected to the windshield mount rather than the GPS, since you could then leave the car all wired up and ready to dock the GPS without having to fumble around with the cable and plug in the USB/Power cord (such as Garmin's nuvi mounts)."

I couldn't agree more.
Maybe a little "garmin" leaning,
but he's right...

"Compared to other GPS devices, the GO 720's map screen seems cluttered."

Tomtom gives you the choice to
have that info displayed
vertically or horizontally.
It looks much better vertically,
with all the data laid out in a list,
it looks MUCH better.
Also, tomtom gives you the choice
on which data to include on the screen.
Reviewer should have pointed this out.

"The two different mapping providers probably accounts for the difference in the size of the water and distance between streets displayed on the Garmin and TomTom."

Ok, so it's not garmin's fault
that tomtom's map is more detailed...

"Garmin's map consistently displayed more surrounding detail than TomTom's. Notice how the Garmin displays nearby roads and water bodies, while the TomTom makes it look like we're driving on the only road for miles."

Wow.
This is blatantly misleading.
If you look at the two images you'll see
that the tomtom is more zoomed in
than the garmin.
Look at the pics with the railroad track,
you can tell that the tomtom is
a lot more zoomed in than the garmin.
so obviously it won't pick up
surrounding water bodies and roads
because its outside the field of view.

"Garmin's 3D angle is also easier to read than TomTom's, as the angle is less severe and you can see more of a bird's eye view on the Garmin."

To each his own i guess.
I wouldn't necessarily agree with this,
because if you just zoom out a bit,
you'll get more coverage.
Also with the tomtom
it shows the horizon,
which is more realistic than
what the garmin shows...
I actually prefer 2d mode
with direction up.

"A more detailed look at the reception screen reveals that the TomTom GO 720 is tracking fewer satellites than the Garmin nuvi, despite the fact that both units are using the same high-performance SiRF receiver."

8 satellites instead of 9.
This kind of sets up the 720
as being faulty.
Satellite receptions fluctuate a bit.
Depending on my position
I typically get between
7 and 11 satellites...
But another thing the reviewer doesn't point out.
The GO 720 picks up a signal
in under 30 seconds
once its powered up.
I'm not sure the same can be said
with the garmin, i hear it typically
takes longer to hone in on a signal.
But that's based on garmin forums,
not from personal experience.

"Another problem I noticed on the GO 720 is one of the worst cases of "GPS Drift" I've ever experienced. GPS drift is an issue where the GPS will show your position slowly "drifting" back and forth on the map, even if you are standing still in the same position... In its current form this problem is significant and very annoying."

In two weeks of daily use,
i have yet to experience "GPS drift."
With the latest firmware this
problem does not exist.

"Map tracking, or the GPS' ability to match the position information to the map, was also poor on the GO 720. Sometimes the 720 would display my car driving sideways, as shown above, or completely off road, as shown below."

This is something I have not experienced with my 720.
By the way, you said you had the magellan
on this joy ride as well.
Where are those images?

"The GO 720 also exhibited problems handling missed turns, and route re-calculation. When I missed a turn, sometimes the GO 720 would show me driving off into the wilderness for as long as 30 seconds."

I couldn't disagree more.
This is actually the area
I have been most impressed with the tomtom.
As soon as it realizes you're off track,
it recalculates the route very quickly.
Never slow.
The 30 seconds the reviewer describes...
I have yet to experience.

"Well, this looks promising! According to this message, the pairing process was a success, and I'll now have access to hands-free calling and TomTom's PLUS services. Right? Not so fast... Despite the previous message telling me that the wireless data was configured, the GO 720 displays a message saying I'll need to configure the data service before making use of TomTom's PLUS services."

It now seems like you're
out to get tomtom.
What is wrong with you?
The previous message clearly states,
"the following features were FOUND:"
It doesn't say that the
wireless data was CONFIGURED.
Why are you so misleading?

Does anyone notice how he describes this
as some flaw with the tomtom feature?
When in actuality
you're just going through the setup screen
one by one.
Why are you so annoying?

"Bummer - In the end I'm unable to pair my Blackberry 8800 or 8700 to the GO 720, either manually or using any of the pre-configured phones listed on the GPS."

I'm left wondering if you
actually tried connecting with
all the listed options to choose from.
It wasn't until my third attempt (ATT Data)
that I got it configured
(i kept choosing the wrong item).
Though I do hear lots of people
complaining about their phones not working.
I agree it prolly does have
something to do with tomtom's european roots,
since my phone is sony-ericsson.
And I'm not willing to pay for the services anyway.
If you didn't already have a data plan,
you'd have to pay extra for that too.

Additionally there's a receiver
you can get that provides traffic data.
It's the RDS-TMC Traffic Receiver.
It's available for the tomtom,
but it's another feature
our reviewer fails to mention.

"Overall TomTom's cell phone integration is a mixed bag. Once paired with a phone, the features work well and are relatively intuitive to use (although I did notice that the GO 720 was sometimes slow to hang up, and would wait as much as 5 seconds before actually disconnecting the call)."

Another thing I have yet to experience.
I've never had a lag time
hanging up the phone.
When tapping the end call icon from the Tomtom,
the line drops immediately.
Mr. reviewer,
stop misleading your readers...
or maybe to your credit,
at least pick up a new unit with the latest version.
and give us a new review.

"QuickGpsFix downloads current satellite location information to the GO 720 for faster GPS reception (if you haven't used the GPS in more than 24 hours, the GPS satellites will have changed position enough that the GPS needs to re-calculate its current location by tracking each satellite until it has enough to locate, or "fix", its position on the map. This is why the GPS sometimes takes longer to figure out where you are if it's been a while since you last used the GPS. QuickGpsGFix uses the PLUS service to download satellite position information more quickly)."

It would be handy to mention
for those not willing to pay extra
for the wireless data connection,
that the quick fix is free
downloadable from the software
that comes with tomtom.
Plug into your computer and you're good.

"One minor complaint regarding TomTom's MapShare: when enabled, there's no way to see which specific updates were applied. Each time you dock the GO 720 and synchronize via TomTom's HOME application, you re notified when updates have been downloaded and applied, but you cannot see the specific changes that were made."

One minor complaint?
Where is your enthusiasm for such a feature?
"Probably the most touted feature of the GO 720 is the ability to make and share map corrections."
Passive endorsement, at best.
I'm sure you're not
the one touting this feature.

This is by far the
coolest feature with the most promising potential,
but all you can do is focus
on what it doesn't do.
I bet if Garmin was doing this,
you'd be writing about it in all caps.

Let me switch gears
and compare this review
to the garmin 760 for a second:
"One of the benefits of being a large company like Garmin, is that the company does a much better job releasing updated maps annually than most other vendors. For example, Magellan hasn't released updated maps for most of their GPS models in years, and TomTom has only released one update in the past 2.5 years.

He doesn't even mention
that with Tomtom's mapshare,
you actually update your map
when you connect it to your computer.
How often does it update?
After two weeks
it's been updated twice.
But I don't plug it
to my computer every day.
It'll also update
the POI database
almost every time
you connect it to the computer.
Not actually sure
if that's a glitch or not... ?

he goes on:
"Unfortunately, Garmin's map updates aren't free, and typically cost around $65 for updated North American maps. Still, at least the updated maps are available on a regular basis - a claim no other GPS manufacturer can currently make."

Yes, no one except Tomom
with their mapshare.
Does anyone else see how onesided
he is against the tomtom?

"By now you're probably asking how wise an idea it really is to download map corrections from total strangers via TomTom's Map Share service. Thankfully, TomTom allows you to specify how much or little you trust your fellow mankind, and by default will only download map corrections that have been verified by TomTom."

Yes, those unwise people
behind the tomtom veil got lucky.
They included these trustworthy options.
I'm sure the folks at Garmin
pointed it out to them.

"I'd also like to see a feature added to MapShare that notifies users of changes made to your local area. If a map update is applied via TomTom's service that impacts my local driving radius, I'd probably like to review it and make sure it is correct."

Word.
But only if you're getting
unverified updates.

"Home v2.0 is much less cluttered than the previous version, and makes it much easier to see what the program has to offer."

That's it??
That's all you got for the home software?
I mean, this is the one major
vulnerable spot you could have
really honed in on...
Let me give you a hand.
This software is the buggiest
piece of cr*p i think I have on my mac.
Maybe I'm speaking from my first
few days in trying to get it to work.
And maybe it's because it's not optimized
for the mac.
The current version is 2.1
but for the mac it's 1.6.
the software
definitely leaves you wanting more.
It took me a while but i
finally got it to work with my tomtom.
And it's currently batting .800 to .900.
but at least it's working now.
not a total dealbreaker.

"TomTom's GO 720 faired the worst in this test, routing us in such a way that the destination address is actually on the left side of the street."

These are interesting test results.
I'd love to have a bigger sampling
of routing data between the various devices.

So it puts you on the left side of the street.
You'll find that you don't always need
to arrive with the address on your right hand side.

"We would then either have to make an illegal U-turn or go around the block to arrive at 135 Central Park West on our right."

if you get a tomtom,
you'll get pulled over by the police.

If you look at the data that mr reviewer provides,
the tomtom and magellan
come in pretty close to tieing with each other,
one minute difference.
yet he points out
"GO 720 faired the worst..."
technically accurate,
but again misleading.

Routes are one thing, but driving is believing.
Do you have experience
driving these routes?
I recently followed tomtom's route
around town (LA) to the burbank airport,
instead of going how i usually go.
I was surprised to find
a quicker route than how
i've always been going for years...
and let's be honest,
the routing is kind of a mixed bag
for all gps devices,
i hear lots of garmin people
complaining about less than ideal routes.
There is no perfect gps device.
There are some things
the garmin does better
than the tomtom and vice versa.

"Google Maps also chooses the same route as the Garmin nuvi."

Are you sure about that?
because google maps comes in last at
80 miles and 1hr 33min driving time.
Go ahead, check it out for yourself.

"So far Garmin's nuvi is in the lead in our routing battle. However, sometimes a GPS that routes perfectly well in one area can perform terribly in another region. Our first test used a trip that was approximately 80 miles in length and took us from Connecticut to New York City."

Are you relying on
the distance and estimated traveling times
reported by the device to decide the winner?
Or are you familiar with this trip?

"Again Garmin chooses the best route, Magellan chooses the second best route, and TomTom's GO 720 chooses the worst route. While Magellan and Garmin both route us along the 101 highway from San Jose to San Francisco, TomTom's GO 720 instead chooses highway 880 North to 80 West -- an odd choice that adds around 4 miles (6 minutes) to the journey. Even worse, TomTom again has us arriving on the wrong side of the street, with our destination address on the left."

First of all tomtom puts
us at our destination
on the RIGHT side of the street
not the left, as you say.

Secondly,
with bay area traffic,
you're screwed either way.
heading into the city from
the San Jose fry's,
i wouldn't know which way to go.
And it doesn't add 4 miles
to the journey, it adds 2.
Even your data points this out.
Using google maps also shows
a 2 mile difference.

What's wrong with you?

You'd be much better off
taking the 280 west of the 101,
the bay area's best kept secret.
No GPS device would suggest that.
But it's easy to re-route it
on the tomtom using that freeway.

I don't know,
i feel a little suspicious with these
routes you choose.
Maybe garmin does have the best routing
engine, but you're recycling the same
results for the nuvi 760 review.
I hate to doubt your findings
but it's pretty clear where your
loyalties are.
How do we know you're not
cherry picking these results?

"Garmin's maneuvering instructions are also by far the most detailed. It's not shown in the table above, but the angle of Garmin's turn icons actually vary to indicate the upcoming turn's actual angle, a feature not found on either the Maestro or the TomTom GO 720. Garmin wins routing test #2."

Again,
ANOTHER fabrication.

Did you even test
this in the field??

My tomtom has accurately
described the angle of turn
every step of the way.
I can't say for sure all of the time,
because i'm not paying attention totally
to the direction arrows on the 720.
However, on a roundabout even,
it gave the correct direction heading arrow
including the circle around the bout.
Turns that are more
or less than 90 degrees?
Yes, tomtom gives those accurately as well.

"Garmin wins routing test #2."

uh huh...

"Garmin edged out Magellan in all three tests, choosing slightly more efficient routes with more detailed turn instructions and shorter drive times."

when you say
"more detailed turn instructions"
what exactly do you mean?
How MORE turn instructions
does the garmin give than the tomtom?
She tells me to stay in the left lane
and then bear right at the next turn.
She's very good
at pointing out which lanes i need
to be in and when
I'm approaching a turn and so forth...
Stop making me so defensive.
we know you love the garmin,
just try to be fair with this review.

"In all three tests TomTom's ONE XL faired the worst."

Is this a slip?
Did you mean 720?
Or did you test these out with the ONE XL?
I think you would have meant the 720
because that fits your narrative
of the deeply flawed GO 720.
Pardon my defensiveness.

"TomTom's FM transmitter is much better than Garmin's transmitter (nuvi 660 / nuvi 680), which is barely to transmit a clean FM signal even when there's no interference. I've read some other reviews that state the GO 720's transmitter is soft, and that's likely due to the volume being set low on the GPS itself."

Nice.
Something positive when
pitted up against the garmin.

"In a misguided attempt to simplify TomTom's cluttered interface, the GO 720 ships with many critical functions hidden, including the ability to cancel a route."

That was shortlasted.
I don't recall any functions
being hidden when i got my tomtom.
but even if they were so what?
Yes, the hide menu button
is kind of a stupid option.
Just keep it at show all.

"TomTom's idea of hiding infrequently used features isn't a bad one per se, but they have removed essential features needed for basic operation, and should seriously re-think which icons are displayed by default."

I agree with this.
But are you ever going to mention
how the garmin doesn't even
have such customizable features?
Because i know that's
a pretty big complaint in the garmin forums...

"For some odd reason, TomTom ships the GO 720 with the "Show music button in Driving View" option un-checked. If you plan on listening to music while driving, you'll want to check both "Show music button in Driving View" as well as "Automatically switch to Driving View".

You are talking about default settings,
that are easily changed.
Why are you so annoying?
Maybe they'd want
to keep your map view
as clean as possible
when you first break it out.
But really, they're strange peeps at tomtom
with no sense of logic,
who even give you
an option to do with it how you'd like.

Ok,
now we're at the pros
and cons section of the review.
At first glance you'll notice
that there are many more cons
than there are pros...
Let's have a look at some of the cons...

"Manual makes reference to features that the GO 720 doesn't actually have, such as voice recognition (European version has this feature, US version does not (but the manual doesn't explain that))"

really?
A con?
I'd call it a mistake.
But not a con.

"Cluttered user interface"

do you mean, navigation display?
Cause you didn't even show the folks
how much better it looks
with all the information neatly listed.
You can also choose
which
and how many
items you'd like on the display.
Did you ever mention that?

"Slow to accept missed turns: the GO 720 either insisted I make a u-turn, or went nuts and showed me driving off road"

again, this is just wrong.
Misleading.
I have yet to encounter
an experience like this.

"Important functions are hidden by default, and must be manually enabled (for example, the ability to cancel a route)"

why are you listing this under con?
A con should be something
that you cannot change.
all you gotta do is hit the button,
and all your menu items are there.
Mine shipped with all my menu items visible,
as far as i can remember.

"Major GPS Drift when stationary (GPS position "drifts" around in circles)"

NOT true.
Don't listen to him.

"Poor GPS signal reception (as of this writing, using version 7.0.0) compared to other SiRF enabled GPS units"

I'm using 7.020.
And the signal reception is very good.
Never had a problem yet.
Even when going through tunnels,
it approximates my position...

You know it's funny.
Reading the whole review, with all its "faults"
Discussing the GPS reception
is the ONLY time that you mention
which firmware you're using.

I find that a little suspicious.
It wouldn't surprise me if you you knew
about a newer version that fixed the problem,
but decided to report on it anyway
and cover yourself by mentioning
which firmware you noticed the problem on.
or am i just being paranoid?
Stop making me
suspicious of your claims...

"Night" mode only changes the color scheme on the map, not the other menu screens"

Why is this a con, exactly?
Would it be to have
more cons than pros for the lowly tomtom?

I would think that changing
the map color scheme
would be listed under PROS, no?

This is a very cool customizable feature.
You can download and make
your own color schemes for maps.
Something not even mentioned in the review.
I downloaded a map color scheme
someone made to look like google maps.

"Multi-destination (itinerary) route planning is cumbersome"

cumbersome?
have you actually used it?
It's definitely much more
useful than "cumbersome."

"Automatic screen dimming feature is too sensitive. When enabled, the GPS switches in and out of night mode constantly if you drive anything other than a convertible in the California sun"

you have a choice
to turn the automatic night mode feature
on and off,
so when there's dimming
it doesn't automatically
switch you into night mode.
You gotta put all this
in the proper perspective.
Also, you can choose
to have it dim automatically or not.

"Routing engine not as good as Garmin or Magellan"

On paper this may appear to be correct.
But did you do any real world testing?
Are you just going
with the times that the devices list?
Again we need more
and objective data sampling.

"MapShare doesn't let you see which specific roads were updated -- it just tells you that "updates were applied"

This is probably
your most rediculous con.
Laughable really.
Tomtom's most promising feature... and
YOU DON'T EVEN LIST MAPSHARE IN PROS!
definitely not touting this feature.
you refer to it instead in cons...

If it sounds like a hack,
quacks like a hack.
then you my friend,
are a hack.

"Some menus return you to the previous page, others dump you back to the map view for no apparent reason"

I couldn't
agree more with you
on this one.
This drives me crazy.

"Fingerprint prone exterior case"

What exterior case came with yours?
I didn't get a case.
Are you referring to the screen?
Cause my screen does
a pretty good job
of being fingerprint repellent.
Again,
another con that
shouldn't even be listed.

"Conclusion: 65/100"
"I really wanted to love the TomTom GO 720."
I doubt that.

"The GO 720 has excellent text-to-speech that sounds natural, and can announce actual street names instead of generic maneuvers (although for some odd reason this feature is disabled by default)."

What is your obsession and insistence
with pointing something out
that has a feature enabled or disabled
like it's some awful chore
to go in and change the setting yourself?
Again i'm being defensive here...
but this is a reach to keep in line
with your "mo' problems" motif.

"Adding to the frustration, for some inexplicable reason TomTom hides many important features on the GO 720. For example, by default there is no way to cancel a route. In order to cancel a route, you'll first need to enable the hidden menu, and even then it will take 4 screen taps to cancel the route (very annoying when driving)."

Let it go man.
You keep bringing this up.
I know it's the conclusion and all
but really,
you enable the show all menus button
and things are smooth sailing after that.
It ain't a dealbreaker bro.

"The interface feels cluttered, as TomTom's software engineers have packed the GO 720 to the gills with features and options that haven't improved the most basic requirement of getting you from point A to B."

Does anyone get this?

He's actually complaining
that tomtom added so many
features and customizable options.
Are you kidding me??
At least there ARE options.
Garmin gives you far fewer choices.

This tomtom does a fine job
getting me to point a and point b.
No complaints what so ever.
Not yet at least.
Easy to re-route,
block a certain part of your trip
(a nifty feature that, again, no garmin can do),
or simply re-calculate a different route.

Fletch,
Is this fletch?
do you work for Garmin?

"The GO 720 has a long list of great features that just might keep you distracted long enough not to notice that the core functionality of the GPS doesn't work that well. TomTom's routing engine remains poor compared to Garmin or Magellan, and the GO 720 consistently chose the worst route in my testing."

I am very curious about
your findings, and again, would
love to see a bigger data sampling.
It's just that my confidence
in your fairness
is low.

"If TomTom spent as much time on software development as they clearly spent on hardware design, the GO 720 would be a fantastic GPS indeed. Unfortunately the GO 720 still needs work, and I can't quite recommend it just yet."

"The TomTom GO 720 is a beautiful GPS that will impress at first, but disappoints soon after the honeymoon wears off."
I didn't see that coming.

I tell you what.
I've had this thing
for a couple of weeks
and the honeymoon has yet
to wear off.
I actually don't care what gps device i have,
i'm mesmerized with ANYTHING that is gps.
It's the coolest thing since tivo.
The mapshare alone, though, is enough
to keep your stock with the tomtom.
If I had the Garmin
I'd be a happy camper too.
It's just so much more expensive.

So
I wanted to see what kind of
review the Garmin 760 received
because it comes closer
to the feature set that the GO 720 has.

It's pretty interesting
to see what features he touts on the nuvi 760
but fails to mention
on the GO 720 review.

"I was pleasantly surprised to see Garmin has included the ability to input a set of longitude/latitude coordinates as a destination address. I find this more useful than you might think. For example, some destinations don't have an official street address and need to be input as a set of coordinates. Routing to coordinates is also useful for Geocaching."

The GO 720
has this feature,
but nowhere in the review
does he reveal that.

Here he is glowing
about the "where am I" feature
on the garmin 760:

"Garmin's "Where Am I?" feature is a helpful feature that can be used to tell emergency personnel your location, as well as locate nearby services. To view your current location information, tap Settings >Where Am I?, as shown above in figure 102. This is a fantastic feature that provides one-touch access to your current street address (or closest street address), nearest intersection, and exact coordinates."

Again the GO 720
has this feature,
but for some reason
he chooses not to write about it.
And he actually lists it
under Pros for the garmin 760.
Why wouldn't he do the same for the tomtom?
I think you know the answer.

There's another thing I'd add under PROS
for the GO 720.
It's the screen's touch sensitivity.
It's a breeze to tap through all the different screens.

Sorry for the flaming,
I got a little worked up
with some of the findings...
And to your credit,
maybe the newer version
is that much better
than what you had.
All your readers want though, I think,
is a fair review.
When you stack up
some of your arguments
with such blatant garmin favoritism
you're doing us all a disservice.

thanks...

Alfred,

I couldn't agree more with what you have to say. This review is quite inaccurate. I got my Tomtom Go 720 a few days ago and I have been exceptionally pleased with this device. Even the routing is excellent (I compared the routes that it generated for tricky bay area routes with Yahoo!, Google and Mapquest).

I've heard complaints about the handsfree phone option on other forums, but my unit performs exceptionally well.

Above all, this device can be completely configured to suit your likes and dislikes - just take 30-60 minutes to play around with it and you will have configured on of the most usable GPS systems exactly the way you want it instead of having something forced down your throat. And yes, you have saved $200-300 over Garmin.

This review, combined with Will's response, definitely ended my 6-month indecision for my 1st GPS. I'm in for Tomtom.

Thanks for this very thorough review. I do have to point out a slight flaw on page 12 - ROUTING TEST #3.

I think the problem begins with the fact that 1200 Beacon Street is technically in Brookline, MA and not Boston, MA.
The directions from the Maestro won't really get you anywhere because it seems to be doing what happened when I tried to put that into Yahoo. It gives me directions from 998 Beacon Street (I think that's the last address in Boston-proper). However the Holiday Inn is past Carlton St, in order to follow those directions you'd have to make a U-turn and then a second U-turn.

Also a comment on the TomTom directions - for this instance these make the most sense to me and would be the way I would drive there personally. TomTom's directions are also the same as what I got from Mapquest & Google Maps.
I can't speak in general, but In this case I'd rate TomTom first and Garmin second.

This has got to be one of the most one-sided review I have read on any electronic device out there. While I am in the market for a new GPS device myself (upgrading from my old and trusty Garmin Ique 3600), it's obvious that the Garmin fanboy who wrote the review will see any other device out there on the market as inferior.

This is still a thorough and informative review on this device despite the obvious loyalty to Garmin. I'll scour other reviews for a more impartial assessment of the TT720.

I agree with previous poster that tomtom go 720 review by gpsmagazine is very unfair.Tomtom picks up best route than garmin, only if you travel using tomtom route you will come to know the difference.If you choose a toll free route on tomtom from new jersey,iselin to newyork ronkonkoma tomtom reports no route found and if u force to find alternate route it gives u a toll free route of 360 miles and display along with the original route of 80 miles. By this way u know it is not worth taking toll free route and choose the fastest toll route. The same address in garmin will give you a route of 1500 miles and produces an inefficient route.If i travel from nj to ny and have my toll route avoidance ticked garmin gives me 1500 miles route :). I think garmin are paying for reviewers and finally loading the price on end consumers.

I bought a Nuvi 650 lastweek and returned it after 2 days. A very expensive product that its main purpose is too GPS. A Nuvi 660 has GPS, BT, and FM transmitter, but it is well above $550. A TT720 which sells for about $450 has all those features and more.
Just read the product manuals:
TTGo720 - http://www.tomtom.com/support/support.php?ID=3&Language=4

Nuvi660 - http://www8.garmin.com/support/userManual.jsp?market=4&subcategory=41&product=All

The product manuals will tell you what the devices are capable of doing. It is like that the TT720 is for highschool while the Nuvi660 is for grade school. Day and Night. You'll be blown away with the TT720 features.

Actually, I bought a TT720 a couple of days ago for Cdn$350 at www.futureshop.ca (Canada). The sale is still going on until Jan. 3, 2008. http://www.futureshop.ca/search/searchresult.asp?logon=&langid=EN&search=KWS

Mind you, TomTom bought TeleAtlas and I'm probably sure that TomTom will be releasing a new map late next year 2008. TomTom will have a brighter future in the long term since it has its own maps.

Just in case you readers didn't know but the GO 720 does have voice recognition. It's just not included in the menu on the US version. However, there is a way to turn it on in your menus and it works perfectly.

I am really torn between the Garmin Nuvi 680 and the TomTom 720. I REALLY like the specs of the 720 and would like to get one! I actually have the Nuvi680 (It's a present from my wife to me but I had to try it earlybefore it gets wrapped up!!). The Nuvi 680 was $480 from Costco and can be returned for cash or a TomTom.

The 680 is bright and crisp and seems to route perfectly.

I want a GPS that will acquire and hold on to satelites (everything I read says Garmin, especially the 680 with flip out antenna does that very well)(I have read that the tt720 loses signal easliy?).

I travel, so I'd like to be able to enter a distant place, such as an airport or hotel) and use it as a starting point to a customer at a different location. Bascially want to check routes, maps, and time without actually having to be at the starting point. I don't think my Garmin will let me do that. I think the 720 may?

I want to do Bluetooth hands free calling and have the phone address data on the GPS. the 680 does this great. I assume the 720 will also.

Also on hands free ... The Garmin seems OK with the few calls I've made. It's loud enough and clear enough. How about the 720?

The Garmin FM is very weak and probably only good if you're out in the middle of nowhere where there are no FM stations around. I hear mixed comments on the 720 ... ranging from very strong to barely OK. Any real world experience?

I have read many horror stories that scare me to death, about the TT720 losing sat signals, locking up, drifting or jumping around,and some routings that is impossible. I hope people can reassure me that this is not a current problem ... that maybe it was only a problem in TT 720s that had the original firmware.

Thanks very much for sharing your experiences. If anyone has any questions on the Garmin 680 I'd be happy to answer.

Dave,

I bought a TTGo720 and it picks up signals with ease. It does not lose sat signals easily (unless you are in an enclosed area), does not lock, drift, or jump around. Yes, it is not a current problem.
The TT has a louder speaker, better a FM Trans., and the LCDs (bright and crisp)refresh rate of a TT is twice faster than a Nuvi680(making it less jumpy). Unfortunately, TT is only compatible with a few phones (go to there website).
The best bet is to buy both and test it out for yourself since there is no problem in returning them back at Costco.
Check other forums as well (i.e. http://www.gpsreview.net)

I just returned my 680 to Costco, I ran it side by side with the magellan 4250. I loved the magellans split screen feature when making a turn and the on screen display of POIs...bluetooth pairing with my sony w810i was tragic though, kept dropping the link. I preferred the clarity of the display to the Garmin too, the garmin looks cartoony and, at times confusing, where multiple highways meet.

I like MSN on the Garmin; worked great for me, the FM transmitter was ok, it worked, but as others have mentioned, it's weak. I didn't like the lack of POIs onscreen, nor having to go through and set them as a destination. I also missed an onscreen indication of the next turn, distance to turn, time to destination. The Nuvi's predicted arrival time was hilariously optimistic.
Between the 4250 and the 680, routing was about even, both had quirks and I cannot say one was equivically better.
I just picked up a tomtom 920 from costco for 399 (yes, the 920 ) so far I really like it, seems to do everything quite well but I've only had it 3 days so far....

I just picked up a TT720 from Costco as well ($350, quite cheap!), and have been pretty pleased with it on the couple of trips I've taken - I'm using it in the SF Bay Area for now, but it's a gift for my dad in NJ, so when we travel there in a couple of weeks hopefully it'll work as well.

Only issue I've had so far has been the FM transmitter ... can't seem to get it to work reliably; the "test" voice comes up ok over the FM radio when selecting a station, but as soon as you hit DONE to return to the naviation screen, the TT's onboard speaker kicks in again (even though the screen shows that FM is enabled!?)

Thanks for the encouragement on the tt920. I have the NUVI 680 and the TT920 has been on order with Costco since the 4th. I intend to get them both on the 25th and compare them :) I'll let you know what I think. I've compared both in stores and think the Garmin has a better display from all angles. But, that isn't the most important thing because they are both vright.

Whoever wrote the fantastic critique of this review on page 18.... You are the man!
Excellent work.

I have had my TomTom Go720 for a month now and absolutely love it. I do not have any trouble with the FM Transmitter, all I did was turn the volume up on the TT to 100% and everything came over the radio clearly. I also got the Mobilnova Media Center (www.mobilnova.com) on it so I can watch movies on my TomTom. This is not free software, but for 25 euros it is not bad at all and works very well.

I love the display of the TT and being able to dock the status bar vertically is great. The night mode even shows the stars at the top of the display....kind of corny, but still a nice touch.

The bluetooth works excellent with my Motorola RAZR v3.

I see many complaining that TomTom left out the voice recognition in the Go720, but this can be easily enabled and works...I have it on my TT and it does works very well.

"But how do you do it you ask?" well let me tell you.....all you have to do is make a file from notepad or other editor (I just used notepad), place a 1 in the text area and then save it as support_asr.dat and place it in the ASR folder in your TomTom Go 720 and voila you now have voice recognition.

It should be noted that for voice recognition to work, you must have the North America version 7.10 maps. I believe newer units have this but earlier units do not.

I would like to add that I have had my 720 since early September - well past the so-called "honeymoon period." I have only grown to appreciate the features and capabilities more and more. The routing is generally superior to that of my previous unit, a Nuvi 660.

I think it is "interesting" that you complain about the many features that TTx20 have that Garmins don't have. I have had both the 720 and now the 920 and it would take too long to list all of the inconsistencies in your review. However, you missed a HUGE problem with the x20's and that really surprises me, considering how biased you are towards Garmins. You missed the fact that on the Address Street # entry screen, you can only enter NUMBERS. It does not allow entry of alpha-numeric characters. So you can't navigate to, say, 11W234 5th Street. Or 11-234 5th Street. This is an actual problem. Both Garmin and Magellan allow this type of street number entry.

I have recently bought 1 Garmin i5 refurb, 1 Garmin 200, a Magellan 4250 and the 920. Routing on the 920 is just fine. All of these have produced routing errors in my experience, so I think your three examples are of such a small sample size as to be ridiculous in forming an opinion.

In terms of value, the i5 is the best deal on the market @ $99. The 200 form factor is very cool. I think the Maggie is the best looking GPS and shows the direction of POI's as well as distance, and AAA tour book is fantastic, it comes with Traffic Antenna and costs about $249, is a great deal.

The biggest problem with the Garmins, and you miss this as well, is that both the Maggie and the TT give ample warning of upcoming turns. With Garmin you are very likely to miss your turn. How can you not add that in to your "routing engine analysis". If you miss the turn in a Garmin, it can take you 20 - 40 minutes out of your way before you get back on track... what a nice feature that is!

Also, it's too bad you couldn't get TT Traffic working. No cords, no weak signals. MSN is a mess, doesn't work. What a great Garmin feature THAT is. I can create a route on the 920 AND check traffic on that route in my pajamas. I don't need to have a cable plugged into my cigarette lighter and be located near the FM signal. You claim that this is a disadvantage, that you have to have a cell phone handy and within 12' of the TT. Well when was the last time you were traveling with a GPS and didn't have a cell phone? Of course the real key is that you incur data charges unless you have a data plan, which many people have. Of course you don't mention that in order to get these traffic, weather and other services on a Garmin, you need a $100+ cable, the GPS needs to be plugged into the cable, and the cable needs to be plugged into the cigarette lighter. How restrictive is THAT? add to that you need to be within proximity of the FM signal. You conveniently leave that out as you ding the TT.

Oh well to each his own. The real show-stopper for TT is not being able to enter street numbers.

Tomtom Go720 is junk. Mine lasten nine days. Took a free update from Tomtom HOME. It was the last time the unit worked. Took it back to retailer, spent another $100 on top of what I already paid and got a Garmin nuvi 750. Sure, I gave up some of the fluff features, but I got a gpsr that actually works. No regrets.

Hello everybody, my name is Damion, and I'm glad to join your conmunity,
and wish to assit as far as possible.

I have the tomtom720. I been using it for 2 weeks or so now. I am a contractor and drive to multiple job locations each day. This was my first GPS unit so I have no basis for comparison. I have to say in all hostely the reviewer is mostly accurate. I have noticed routing problems and it is quick to "u-turn" me. The provided software is HORRIBLE! I am VERY tech savvy and the software was difficult to use and worked poorly. It is a FULLY loaded GPS with every option imaginable. It does have shortcomings but it's feature selection seems 2nd to none. I don't know if others have had this problem but i've noticed difficulty with saving a current location as a favorite for future reference. All in all a good GPS with some unfortunate flaws. I wish i could have been happier.

Final score

Tom Tom 720 VS a paper map
***10 out of 10***

Tom Tom 720 VS my opinion of what is should be
***7.5 out of 10***

I bought this GPS for my dad, but got to use it myself in my Hometown of Phoenix, AZ and also foreign country of Spain.

Here are some of my points:

~ Route canceling does sux. I still do not know how to do that.

~ POIs yet to let me down, as it finds all i asked for, so far.

` Never noticed that horrible GPS drift.

` Signal seems to be pretty strong, even in the mountains, in the clouds in Spain.

` I had no serious issues pairing Nokia phone with the device. No extra funky service of any kind needed.

` Browsing maps sux. I was not able to do it easily and gave up.

` Interface is super customizable and you can have it as cluttered or not as you wish. That was totally wrong statement to make.

` It takes about 3 to 5 sec for device to figure out that you missed your turn and plot another route.

` Routing engine COULD be better as at times it seems dumb. But i never had any other GPS, so......

` Night feature allows you change color of the map and brightness of the screen. Map templates can be downloaded off net for free if you choose so. Night mode can turn on on its own if you set it so, depending on dusk time, as far as GPS knows about it. What else would you want different between day and night mode? It aint gonna make you coffee, you know.

` Voice to text feature sure as hell CAN be enabled, and i have it working perfectly fine on mine. It works real well too and understands my accent.

If you have any additional questions, email me and i will do my best to answer.

I must chime in that I've got a TomTom One 3rd edition and Garmin Nuvi 200, and it is the Nuvi that is getting returned, not the TomTom. They each have their advantages, and I really like many things about the Nuvi, but as far as superior maps and routing, I've been steered wrong by the Nuvi far more often than the TomTom. Also as for the GPS drift mentioned, I have it severely on the Nuvi and never on the TomTom. I think the maps and graphics on the Nuvi are better looking, but I liked getting more info on one screen with the TomTom.

The biggest problem with the Nuvi is consistently routing me down roads that aren't completed, don't exist yet except on paper, or are one way the other direction. It also proclaims that I've arrived too soon or too late very often. It has more POI, but many are out of date (no longer there), and some are just plain wrong (showing a local resturant in a residential area, instead of the strip mall 6 blocks the other direction for example. I believe this was due to an incorrect but similar street name being used when the POI was created, but on the Nuvi there's no way to correct it.) I don't want to sound like a TomTom fan, because I love the Nuvi's easier to use mounting bracket, longer battery life, and slim design. I also like the automatic night mode, even though it only changes colors and won't dim like the TomTom. The Nuvi "stop" button is quicker to use than the "Cancel Route" menu option on the TomTom. (BTW, you can rearrange the menus on the TomTom to put cancel on the 1st page, along with any other options you prefer. There are 3rd party web sites which can help with this.)

The Nuvi calculator is kinda handy sometimes, but for most things like that I have a PDA. I want a GPS that is just a GPS and does GPS well, or I'd just use my PDA.

TomTom maps are free for the 1st year, but after that, they are more than the Nuvi maps. ($100 at this time, and includes "at a minimum" one year of Map Share access.) That said, the Nuvi update, which lists at around the same price, but can be had for around $70 at amazon, didn't seem to improve anything in my area.

For what it is worth, Google maps have many of the same mistakes. You can even switch to Google's satellite hybrid view and see roads drawn where there are clearly just trees, open land, or rivers. Well, it isn't because the satellite view is out of date, but because the roads still don't exist and won't for years. Try switching to street level view, and you can suddenly see the ones that really exist. The TomTom seems to know about this, but the Nuvi doesn't. Perhaps MapShare is helping there. I can't find any way to correct the maps in the Nuvi, where the TomTom excels in that area.

As for U-Turns, both devices let you specify whether or not to allow u-turns in the route, and both seem to honor that setting correctly. (Although the Nuvi did seem to think there were median cuts on a divided highway in a few places where they didn't exist, but instead had a concrete barrier or deep drainage ditch.

I think it is great that Garmin is trying to get new roads on the maps asap, but to rely on the GPS, I'd rather it took me the longer but sure way around from the beginning, than stubbornly try to get me to go down a road that doesn't exist, and constantly have to hit "Detour" to get a different route, often wandering me all over the place in the process. It once routed me miles down a road that it turns out didn't go all the way to the next road, and detour routed me back to the beginning to get an alternate route. Ironically the alternate route turned out to be the same (but longer) route the TomTom recommended in the first place.

I just returned my Tomtom Go 720 because it performed terribly when we went to Myrtle Beach. It missed almost all the POIs I entered for it to navigate us to. It would say "You have reached your destination" two miles before you actually get there. It was also delayed in giving you warnings when to turn. These are very annoying and could even lead to accidents. Coming back from Myrtle Beach, my brother used his old Garmin 250 in his car. I used my TomTom Go 720 in mine. He arrived at our destination in Virginia 30 minutes ahead and his route was 40 miles shorter than mine even if we used the same setting (fastest route). That was bad routing and overall performance for Tomtom Go 720. My brother said, "But TomTom looks prettier". True, but I want a GPS that takes me to where I want to go and takes me there at the shortest amount of time. Tomtom Go 720 is not that kind of GPS.

I had a Garmin C340 for around eight months and was very happy with it. I liked the way it informed you of up coming turns by text to speech and telling me what side of the road my final destination was on when I got there. I also liked the rerouting voice when I took a short cut that I new about and the Garmin would sound out that "Recalculating" voice like she was mad at me for taking the wrong turn. I used it on some deliveries to L.A. and it got me there every time. Sadly I lent it to my daughter and it was stolen from her suit case at the Airport by some handler. I replaced it with a Garmin C550 and was happy with the addition of the Bluetooth and traffic info. I gave it to my daughter as a gift a couple of weeks ago and started shopping for a new GPS on line and was taken by the good looks of the TomTom 720, I read a few reviews on line about it and decided to get one. I was disappointed with it after just a few hours of using it. The user menu is just to complicated, You have to go through to many menus to get to the one you want. The touch screen was to sensitive, when I was typing a address in on the keyboard it would sometimes for no reason go back to the previous screen and I would have to start all over again. The routes it gave me where not very good either, having me turning on residential roads instead of going one more street up to a main road and turning. Also the voice prompt would notify me to turn something like ten feet from the turn. I put in a address to a bank that I knew the location, (In the parking lot of a major Retail outlet)It informed me that I had reached my destination while I was still on the main road even though I had to make a left turn on a access road to get into the parking lot. Like the review mentioned it doesn't tell you on what side of the road your destination is on. One more thing that was annoying is that it cant pronounce street names very good, I live in southern Calif. which has a lot of Spanish street names, The Tomtom does not even come close to pronouncing them correctly, you have to look at the screen to read what street it wants you to turn on, With its very short warning on upcoming turns to take it was very hard to make a turn in time. After one week with this GPS I got rid of it, and am waiting for my Garmin 660 to arrive in the mail, I much prefer an annoyed "recalculating" voice and a much better mapping program of the Garmin than the Tomtom. Even if the Tomtom looks better.

One last thing I forgot to mention, I could not get the TT720 to play MP3's that where on my SD card, I would open the MP3 player and it could not find them at all. I called the TT customer support line and talked to a rep. (who was very nice) and she explained to me that I had to format the card and make a folder that the MP3's were in. So I did that and still the player could not find the music, I tried doing it three times and gave up.

Could somebody please show me how to get verbal warnings such as SPEED CAMERA ahead or SCHOOL ZONE ahead. All I seem able to get is bells, whistles or gongs as a warning. This is a great device but I wish to hear a voice not a bell.I had a Road angel 6000 that gave verbal instructions,why cant the GO 720?

Very in-depth review but the gpsmagazine reviewer missed alot of key things. The Tom Tom 720 is a much better device than they give it credit for.

Things I want to add.
1. The menu layout is completely user changeable so you don't have a cluttering of numbers and information on the bar. The reviewer doesn't mention that although he criticizes the 720 for having a cluttered info bar. That is simply a factory default setting that anyone can change.
2. The map layout, colors and ease-of-use is much much much better than both Garmin's and Magellan. The company I work for allows us to have private car service home when working late and I've seen and studied just about every brand of GPS in the various Town cars during my 1 hours commute home from NYC to Westchester. So I've gotten a sense of how cities and suburbs/rural areas are displayed on all these GPS units and the Tom Tom brand has the best, cleanest graphics. The reviewer fails to mention that when said and done, quickly understanding the screen graphics during a quick look up from the road during your journey is just as important as anything else.
3. The 720 also allows you to pick alternate routes based on how and when you want to get to your destination. The factory default settings on the 720 will obviously be way off and will have you driving around alot more than you would want to. Which is why I suspect the reviewer detracted from the 720 mapping intelligence when paired alongside the Garmin's Nuvi and Magellan's GPS units. I'm 100% sure he was routing under the factory settings so the 720 gave him longer and incorrect routes. Simple adjustments to your 720 factory settings will allow the unit to pick the best routes based on where you live and drive(whether in a city, near highways, or rural areas)
4. Outside of GPS function the 720 has a myriad of feautures that are on par if not better that Garmin's pricier Nuvi 700 line. In his Nuvi review he praises the Nuvi for having the "Where Am I" feature as if it is a rare and super cool thing. Whiles the 720 has the same features and he fails to praise the 720 for the same proficiencies.

5. The 720 does fail big time in the Battery Life department. The box advertises 4-5 hours. After a full over night charge I only got about 1 hour use before the battery died my first time out with it. After lowering the brightness to 50% I got about 2 hrs max.
I don't like wires across my dash so this was important to me; having the unit work only off its battery for the duration of my round trip commute of 3 to 4 hours max. I soon found out at a few GPS forums that to get about 4 hrs from the 720 you need to lower the brightness to 0% (and even at 0 it is still pretty bright), completely turn off the FM and BlueTooth features, take out any SD Card and turn down the volume and refrain from playing MP3s. Which works but totally elimates all the cool features that made me want to get this 720. At any rate, I went to a local car stereo shop and got a power lead installed behind my dash that goes up thru the windshield area and plugs into the 720 whiles it is mounted on the windshield. This is the best deal since the wire is pretty much hidden and not in front of my dash. I now not only get unlimited battery life whiles driving, but I can have the screen at 100% brightness, Bluetooth, FM and everything else that made me buy the 720 on and working whiles I'm on the road.

I agree with this review. And, after using the tt720 for 15 months in Spain, Europe, I want to add some additional remarks.
1.- The user interface is nice and it's also widely customizable
2.- The TomTom cartography in Spain has many failures. The streets and roads are only partialy updated. The tunnels are erronously interconnected with the streets located above them. Many sand roads are registered as asphalt roads, so some times the tt720 plans the route using sand roads. The most important street/tunnel in Madrid, 'M30', was finished 3 years ago and it's still outdated. For me it has been impossible to set a route of more than 200 Km and not finding any serious error during the route.
3.- I have sent to TT many error about streets and roads, using TomTom Share, and none of them has been incorporated. It seems as if TomTom only provides the corrections when you buy a new map.
4.- The TT720 review doesn't mention the very long time that the TT720 needs to set the GPS signal as valid. If you don't use the QuickGPSFix, it takes up to 10 minutes to get a valid GPS signal. QuickGPSFix enhances very much this time, reducing it to a few seconds. However, I have found that sometimes the QuickGPSFix data is wrong and the TT720 places you to a point that is from 50 or 100 meters away from the correct position, so the TT720 becomes unusable until a new QuickGPSFix data is downloaded.
This is similar to the GPS drift problem described by Fletch and, yes, I have experienced this problem several times, until I decided not to use any more the QuickGPSFix data.
5.- Fletch, it would be interesting to measure in your reviews some more details:
a) The time needed to set the GPS signal as valid.
b) The delay time. TT720 needs about 3 seconds to proccess the GPS signal. So, the TT720 provides the position where you were
3 seconds ago. For me it's a bit long delay, but I know if this delay is similar to other GPS receivers.
c) Does the GPS receiver provide any indications when driving inside long tunnels?. ( TT720 doesn't provide any help )
6.- The voice recognition is a joke.
7.- I think that the bluetooth link provided by TT is not useful while driving. After enjoying a Parrot system for years, the TomTom bluetooth link is another useless toy. It lacks a voice agenda, doesn't have a real button to start the call, etc.

I have had a TT720 for about 5 days now. I have experimented with many of the display and other settings, and have found that you can make the unit work pretty much the way you want.
1. Routing - yep it gets it wrong from time to time, however by simply driving the way you want to, it re-routes witin a few seconds and continues fine. I have found that on fastest, it does it's best to get you on the main roads even if that route is longer and ultimately slower. By changing to 'shortest' it better picks the routes I would more likely drive and they are ultimately quicker as well. It also succeeded every time in getting me to various points over the week-end when I was sleep deprivated and driving in totally unknown suburbs in the middle of night.
2. Configurable - it is possible to put up to 6 items on QuickMenu and one of these is 'Call' so there is quick access to making a call.
3. FM Tranmitter - the signal is definitely strong enough, however the volume is a bit low even with TT volume at 100%. There is an easy fix, by simply turning the radio volume up. The only problem with that is that it is then too loud when I switch to a different channel or go to CD mode. It is only a minor issue, but it would be better if signal volume (amplitude) could be adjusted.
4. Bluetooth - it picked up my Imate SP5 without problem and loaded in the address book. Happy about that. Call volume is a bit low, and reported voice quality is that it is not as good as my bluetooth headset.
5. GPS Receiver - I have noticed the GPS drift once at home while stationary and browsing the map. Too soon to say how bad or frequent this problem is. One thing noted is that when GPS signal lost eg. tunnel screen goes black & white and position does not update until satelites reacquired. That is perfectly understandable however I have read that the 920 has predictive positioning based on location, speed, and last direction to provide updates until satelite signal regained. That would be cool.
6. SD Card - the worst thing about this is that it is totally undocumented in the manual. I have a microSD in a converter that was already formatted. Moved a bunch of MP3's onto it (the Whole Bible on Audio) and had the problem of the TT720 not finding them. The trick was that they had to be in a folder called 'mp3'. Once that was done the TT picked them up. I think there was some other fiddling around as well but can't remember. It was something to do with in the TT HOME software changing the drive from the C to E (SD Card) and then back to C, or something. Anyway it now works perfectly. I have the MP3's playing through the FM, which is a big plus since the car doesn't have a MP3 player, and the GPS instructions going through the TT internal speaker. The MP3's momentarily pauses whenever there is a GPS instruction. It's simply brilliant.

Finally, I will have to try out this voice recognition trick to see how we go. It might not work at all here in Australia, but hey worth a try.

No SD slot for upgradable memory. At what point exactly is that a good thing?

When I am traveling down the interstate and I come upon my exit, my 720 always says exit to the left. The off ramps are on the right. This unit is not as good as my Magellan.

I own tomtom go 720 since one week. Before it I tried for a few weeks tomtom go 630. I decided that go 720 it is a better deal.

I am very pleased with the device and I rate it 5/5.

After I purchased the unit, I connected it to tomtom home and i made the upgrades. It is important to underline that by default home software does not update the map (the one coming with the device is like one year old). I called tomtom service for honoring their latest map guarantee. They were very helpful: I provided to them the proof of purchase and next they allowed me to upgrade the map to the latest version.

After this, go 720 is a high class gps navigation device. Precise maps and navigation, fast, advanced line guidance, IQ routes, bluetooth, bright screen and fm transmiter (note that at this version of OS fm does not send the voice instruction to car stereo).

Tech support told me the go 720 has the same hardware as the new go 730. The go 720 is now a great deal in Canada. With the pack of features go 720 has, it is an excellent choice.