First and foremost I have been a Garmin user for more than 5 years. I had many Garmin GPS devices. I currently own a NUVI 760 with MSN Direct.
I have used the TOMTOM 930 for 2 months and I now I DON'T use the NUVI. All GPS devices have CONS but the PRO's outweigh the features that the 930 provides. I live in Chicago and the TOMTOM routing engine is equal to the NUVI 760 plus I can avoid streets on my route. I own a ATT Tilt phone and it works perfectly with the 930 especially the traffic. The traffic is updated every 2 minutes and it works everywhere you have a cell phone signal. The MSN direct does NOT have reception in the Chicago suburbs so I don't have access to traffic in the Chicago suburbs.
The IQroutes makes the TOMTOM more accurate than the NUVI. With the NUVI it keeps changing the arrival time. The TOMTOM arrival time is more accurate from the beginning of the trip. Mind you that no GPS device will give you the perfect route but the 930 has similar routes as the NUVI. The actual travel time data from your trips is stored and uploaded to the TOMTOM server, this option will make IQ Routes more accurate because the 930 is collecting travel times from all the 930 users and constantly updating the travel times.
The HOME program was not buggy on my computer as stated in the review but I love the ability to correct street names, blocked streets, etc. The HOME program also gives me the ability to customize the 930 with POI, colors, voices, and sounds.
For all the Garmin users that read this review I would give the 930 a spin. It has made a believer out of me and I love the 930 for all the innovative features that the Garmin never had.

I have tons of mounts made for Garmin Nuvis and StreetPilots. I also have one built into my car (a mounting ball that you typically find on mounts made for Garmin devices).

Is there any way to mount the TomTom GO 930 on a Garmin ball?

Hi Fletch!

Your routing engine comparison is absolutely awesome! What a concept...and I'm surprised no else has yet done any type of comparison like what you did. Outstanding!

I'm also loving my 930. I'm working now to make a 'dash top' mounting for mine, rather than the suction cup. I've purchased an extra rapid charger station and am going to hack the USB to only use the DC+-, splice in the voltage regulator from the cigarette lighter cable and affix it to the dash above my audio system.

I know the 930 is new, but I'm trying to find a way to have an external video source go into the 930. I have a backup camera on my 07 Maxima and I'd love to use the 930 screen rather than adding another screen in the dash. Anyone have any ideas?

Does the 930 have an attention tone or "ding" alerting you of a spoken direction coming up?

This was yet ANOTHER important feature Garmin took away after the 3xx and 6xx series and may sway me to go TomTom (for other reasons as well) if it's an included feature.

RobGPS:
The 3xx and 6xx series of Garmin's nuvi line had the tone. I don't know about the TomTom. I don't think so for he TomTom.

The TomTom GO 930 does not have an attention tone or "chime" when approaching an upcoming turn.

Fletch, thanks. That's too bad. I've missed many a turn without that attention tone on the nuvi 260. On my SP 2820 I rarely miss a turn, as it alerts me that an instruction is forthcoming. It's especially useful when on the highway, windows are down, radio is on, or you're just plain zoning out, etc.

Stefan, I think you misread my post. I did say that Garmin took the attention tone away *after* the 3xx and 6xx series.

Another nice review, Fletch, but with all the usual flaws you always include when comparing routing engines. Are you EVER going to learn that just because the Garmin Nuvi projects a shorter arrival time doesn't mean it's a better route? Look again at your "three mile" route comparison. Both the Magellan and the Tom Tom returned a 2.8 mile route compared with the longer Nuvi route, yet you claim that the Garmin still returned the best route? How much time could possibly be saved in only three miles? I realize that the shortest route isn't always the best or fastest (one of the reasons I've always found Magellan's "most use of freeways" to be an unbeatable routing choice) but with only three miles it would seem that shortest is probably best most of the time...

I understand that this may sound like a rant but I honestly don't intend for it to come across that way. It's just that for years now I've had numerous people tell me how great their Tom Tom units route, and with all the pros the 930 seems to have I still find it astounding that you can be so blatantly biased in favor of the Nuvis... My past comments have sometimes given the impression that I was biased toward the Magellans (even though I've been the happy owner of both Magellan AND Garmin products, but I've at least had an open mind in terms of evaluating many different brands recently for their pros and cons. Others have pointed out that routing engine performance seems to vary in different locations, so maybe Garmin just doesn't know how to route well in the midwest compared to some competitors.

Still, it would seem that many other brands do a LOT better in real life than your comparison routes would suggest. The first comment in this thread (ironically enough from somebody else who lives near me in the Chicago suburbs) certainly would seem to indicate so, especially since it comes from somebody who has extensive real world experience with a high end Nuvi...

I guess what I'm getting at is that you ought to seriously re-examine the methodology you're using to compare routing engines because it seems to be consistently flawed. Either that or you're so completely biased toward the Garmin Nuvis that you are incapable of seeing what seems so obvious to many of us who read the reviews. Again, I'm not trying to slam you here - I happen to think your do an excellent job overall in your reviews, but in this one area it seems you consistently fall short in your evaluations.

One other thing that would be great would be revisiting products that have been reviewed in the past. For example, I just spent two weeks on the road with a Navigon 7100 after installing a major firmware (and map) update. There is a lot of good to report, as well as some bad. I would encourage you to take the eval unit you reviewed over the winter and install the updates - then re-evaluate.

I am currently torn between going with a top of the line Nuvi or the Tom Tom 930. Based on both of your reviews, as well as some of the great comments by others I'm torn as to which way to go. I can't help but think that the Mapshare info would result in an increasingly more accurate 930 as time went by, but the Nuvi is also tempting, if the recent firmware updates have solved the routing problem I experienced with the 660 in this area.

Regards,

According description on manufacturer website TomTom’s Traffic receiver is not working in the USA. It works for Europe only. Is it correct?

Thanks,
Mikhail

I agree with Steve B. As a scientist, I find your routine engine test pathetic. If I create a new routing engine that claims that you can get from New York to Los Angeles in 5 minutes, covering only 2 miles, does that make it the best routing engine? No, it does not; it makes it a piece of junk. The Nuvi 660 of my dad once told me to take a 4 mile detour while I was 500 yards from home. The Garmin engine may or may not be better than that of Tomtom, but your test is useless.

May I ask you to stop your marketing speech? Thank you.

I just want to echo what others are saying about these routing engine comparisons.

What you're comparing is each company's software algorithm for determining how long it's going to take to traverse the route the unit picks, NOT how long it will actually take in real life. These are predictive simulation engines, not actual dead on travel times that you can use to make these sort of judgments about which unit has the best routing.

What you would actually need to do to gauge routing quality (especially with a feature like IQ routes involved) is do a whole bunch of tests over time where you look at the predicted time of a arrival, then actually drive the route and compare the actual time to the predicted. Over time this would add up to an accurate measure of how close the predictions are.

Loading routes into 3 units and looking at the predicted arrival times and then saying the earliest one "won" is meaningless.

Here's wherre that would be very difficult to actually test: The nuvi's gradually become mor and more accurate in their travel estimates by using stored personal driving habits ("learning")to adjust YOUR travel times/routing. The time you show to travel from downtown Chicago to Memphis, and the time I show will absolutely be different if we've used our devices for more than a few weeks. Out of the box nuvi estimates will change to reflect whether you tend to follow the posted speeds or exceed them on the 7 (6?) different road classifications tracked by the nuvis. Not so for the TT930, as estimates are tied to the map and will not change until the map is purchased anew. Mapshare updates have no effect.

Something that I really thought should be mentioned is that for all intents, the 930 is simply a 920 with IQRoutes via Navcore8 software changes. Really nothing more. A few users will find the occasional Static Interchange Images. Most will seldom ever seee them, others never will. Yes, they are that sparse. Updated/additional images or IQRoutes data will only be available by purchasing a NEW map at $130 a pop. So your 930 purchased for $499 will cost you a minimum of $629 to get the features actually trumpeted by TomTom.And that assumes the next map update has significant addditions. To say that my 930 is a disappointment is an understatement. Only real-life improvement was IQRoutes, which simply creates nearly the same routes as my 760 always has, but which is an improvement over the 920. There are still times where my 760 will calculate a more accurate travel time, specifically on longer interstate/freeway drives. On local and shorter drives, the TT may be more accurate, but not always and not by much. For a $200 premium over the 7x0's street price, it's just not worth it, unless you're one of the small percentage that actually would use EU maps in addition to NA. My advice? Buy a 920, update to Navcore8, them simply "mislead" TomTom and buy the version 8 maps while they're on sale for $99. You'll effectively have a 930 for about $400. At the end of the day, the 930 is simply a software-enhanced 920.

Have to agree with Marko about your routing comparison Fletch. If you're not actually driving the routes, who's to say which one is better or more accurate?
I know that Mio products' routing engine tends to favor right hand turns because they historically don't take as long. Thus, you might end up on the opposite side of the street as a seemingly more direct route.
Maybe you should do a road test for all the marbles one of these days, trying the various routes you always "test."

I can state unequivically that my nuvi will compute a more accurate travel time estimate on primarily interstate drives than my 930. On a 282 mile trip to Savannah Ga, my nuvi was within 4 minutes of the original computed time, with a 6 minute rest stop, so in the end it was 2 minutes fast. TomTom was conservative by by 23 minutes. Still very good, but my nuvi "understands" I tend to drive a bit faster than the average driver.

I'm a courier and do about 20 stops a day . the stops are mostly local and range from 1 mile to 5o miles.

I used both garmin and magellan roadmate 1412 and this is what I have found with respect to routing.

the roadmate and nuvi gave the same route 75% of the time . the reaiming 25% the garmin would give me a route designed to get my stop on the right . roadmate would just take the fastest route.

since having your stop on right doesn't matter 95% of the time it just seemed like a waste of gas. I think garmin should get rid of stop on the right artifact in an otherwise great routing engine.

I should add that over 300 miles the garmin was the clear winner. roadmate is a total crapshoot for longer routes. but for local , roadmate was nearly flawless and its the one I use for my job.

also, the garmin is really a better gps in all other respects. (except price and features)

ps. please garmin , bag the stop on the right , and just find the shortest route.

can anyone give me an example of when you would need to have your stop on the right?

as a courier doing 20 stops a day I have never encounter this need.

never matters in suburbs or on one way streets in downtown dallas ? so when does it matter ?

I just don't get this and fletch trumpets it in every review. lol!

UPS does the same thing. Sets up their routes for stops on the right. Guess they think it saves time and/or money for them. But what would they know.

Say, Nate,

Quick question for you ... do you ever come across routes where there are two possible expressways that are almost the same in distance but the one YOU would choose has clear advantages (though slightly longer) than the one the Garmin Nuvi chooses? If so, compare the Nuvi and Magellan on THAT route and purposely take the longer choice to see how long the Nuvi attempts to route you back to the other choice. By the way - make sure the Magellan is set to "most use of freeways."

I have found that this single routing choice has proven more useful (and better) than the alternatives provided by Garmin, Navigon, Tom Tom, V3, Holux, and several other GPS companies. I recently requested that Navigon add this routing choice to it's menu because it is so powerful in creating the best overall routes, as well as allowing the GPS to quickly correct when you purposely veer away from the unit's first choice." For the record, the Nuvi660 tried for FORTY miles to send me back to its "first choice interstate." That would have added at least an hour and a half or more to my trip home - the Magellan (actually several different models) quickly adapted to my chosen route within two miles and I continued happily along.

With regard to your comment about Garmins overall quality compared to the Magellan, I wholeheartedly agree with you. Just the same, how well a unit navigates is the single most important reason to purchase it versus all the other features it may offer.

Regards,

In answer to nate's question regardin why anyone would want the destination to be on the right. Uhh...pretty much the entire world, or at least all countries where you drive on the right side of the road...

fletch, In answer to nate's question regarding why anyone would want the destination to be on the right. Uhh...pretty much the entire world, or at least all countries where you drive on the right side of the road...

my response : well if the entire world drives on the right , or most of us , then it should be no problem to give me a 1 specific example of when it would be better to go all the way around the block or even add a mile or 2 to the route just so the final stop is on the right !

I only ask for 1 example ?

warren , as far as ups , they drive trucks full of packages in heavy city traffic all day. so making as many rights as possible saves time because they don't get stuck at lights. or waiting for oncoming traffic to clear. the final stop being on the right has nothing to do with saving gas and time!

cmon warren ! think about it!

anyway, the nuvi and magellan take the same routes until the end when garmin will go all the way around the block or sometimes even 1 or 2 out of the way to achieve 1 right turn !

the fact that the final stop is on the right is insignificant for gas saving or time . ( especially after you go 1 or 2 miles out of the way to achieve it)

trust me man ! people like to debate this but as a courier who has used both I know what I'm talking about.

the fact is , I'm the only one here who knows because I'm the only one who uses both roadmate and nuvi every day as a courier.

love your reviews fletch , and as I pointed out , garmin is better gps in just about every way , but concerning local routing you just don't understand what I do .

in fairness , I should also add that I would rather use nuvi then roadmate on the job due to the way nuvi displays the map. the map rendering on nuvi is so good I can drive around all day and not miss a single turn.

And that's with the text to speech turned off!!

nuvi's map display is that good!

I usually miss a turn or two with roadmate. I'm not saying roadmate display sucks or anything , just not as good as nuvi.

I use roadmate because as a courier I need the muti stop route function and "most use of freeways" to save time and gas.
"route exclusion" rarely comes in handy but its nice to have if you have alot of construction going on.

the muti destination routing on the nuvi 750 does a good job of ordering up stops , but I found the software very hard to use.

for example , you have to put in the first and last stop before you can add others.

duh! obviously you gotta know where all the stops are to know which stop is closest and farthest. for me , this sort of defeats the purpose of a router if you gotta know where all the stops are anyway.

why not just give the option to optimize by "least distance" or "round trip "? that would make more sense!

( roadmate goes by least distance )

the other annoyance was that it would start routing to the next stop before you got to the first one. This was usually caused by minor final destination mapping errors.

roadmate ask " resume trip?"

Calm down. It doesn't matter.

Nate, your Magellan is not optimizing your route like the 7x0's do. It is simply sorting, closest to farthest. On multiple stops it's not likely the most efficient way to do your routing.

Nate - you're probably right for much of the world. But if you drive in major metro areas, like New York City for example, the avenues are so wide that it's important to arrive on the same side of the street as your destination. Otherwise you'll end up having to make an illegal U-Turn or go around the block anyway.

On this point I agree with Fletch ... arriving on the right IS a plus, especially when it doesn't add significantly to the trip time. Consider this - if you DO wind up on the "wrong" side of the street the time it takes to turn around and "actually" arrive at the destination will not be reflected in the time the GPS took to get you there ... but should be. This is one of the few things about the Tom Tom routing engine that seems consistently flawed compared to Magellan and Garmin. I DO like the fact that the Garmin predicts ahead of time which side the destination will be on , which other brands don't seem to do. Once the destination was reached I found that my old Magellan Roadmate 700/760 announced the arrival side almost all of the time, while the Navigon 7100 does it slightly less often. The Nuvi has the edge in this respect.

It's these nuances that make deciding which brand to stick with so hard! I always enjoyed the routing engine and navigation of the Magellan, loved the overall quality and features of the Garmin Nuvi, like the implementation of the Tom Tom's "user map update" feature, and appreciate the way Navigon seems more proactive than some other companies to actively issuing firmware and map upgrades than the other playes (as well as offering lifetime traffic with no additional yearly charges. Decisions, decisions - hehe!

Regards,

NateS said "warren , as far as ups , they drive trucks full of packages in heavy city traffic all day. so making as many rights as possible saves time because they don't get stuck at lights. or waiting for oncoming traffic to clear. the final stop being on the right has nothing to do with saving gas and time!"

Nate, you pretty much agree with me from what I see in your post. You agree UPS makes as many rights as possible to save time. Only the last part didn't make sense as you then state it doesn't save time.

nate

"then it should be no problem to give me a 1 specific example of when it would be better to go all the way around the block or even add a mile or 2 to the route just so the final stop is on the right !"

You are missing the point about arriving on the right side or making more rights than lefts was intended for.
It is all about safety and avoiding accidents folks!
I remember AT&T use to ask their drivers to make more rights than lefts, why? 75% of accidents happens during left-hand turns hitting on coming traffic or pedestrians.

As far as the advantage of arriving on the right side than the left, think about this one too, one would have to run across the street probably jay-walk to your destination! And again, it is not as safe as if you arrive at your destination on the same side.

Does this explanation make any sense to you?

I find it a big plus as to arriving on the right and taking more right turns but I would agree that if you chose to take more chances to save fuel and time, than Magellan, Garmin should consider a feature to turn off the arriving on right side and making more rights than left.

In my younger days, I used to work for a company MDS Mail Delivery Service and I had a delivery route that had more than 50-70 stops in a day in San Francisco, Oakland, my deliver included delivering to banks after hours to drop off mail, opening doors to companies after hours to deliver payroll checks. The first day I worked, it took me more than 12 hours to finish the route with no lunch and I was wondering how is it possible to complete this route in 8 hours that was allocated to me, and still have time for lunch break. Well, I figured out that you don't stop for stop signs, drive down one way street the wrong way, you double park, you speed and break all the laws and that was the only way I had time to have lunch and finish my route in 8 hours. I wish I only had 20 routes to complete a day nate, I probably could have done it in 3 hours. ;)

Been there, done that and it is up to you as to how you wish to play the game.

OK, here is the bad think about Garmin and Tom Tom.

I have Garmin Nuvi 660 for almost 2 years and probably from overheating my battery went down. I call Garmin help support, spent on the line an hour just waiting for technician, and was told that the battery is not replaceable and flat rate to fix it is $250. I decided not to do it and currently my unit is not useable even if connected to DC. Also after I updated for a new map, the unit slow down and I was always behind. Not enough favorites POI and being not able to edit routes on a computer. I also missed an option to drive only on tollways.

I’ve never used Tom Tom but I just spoke with technician and asked him about go930. The battery is not replaceable! He said that if this would happen I would have to replace for a new unit.

You, my friend are very bias in my opinion! All Garmin products are lesser devices, the comment in this review " the nuvi 660 display is less confusing is poop!, the tomtom view is a lot easier to read period! Every single way you can think of, the tomtom is easier for the human mind to interpret. If you prefer a garmin to tomtom your just in denial. The tomtom 930 is far better than any garmin product. And just so fellow readers are aware I have owned and tested over 20 high end units.

If by intuitive, you mean a red X thru a TomTom preference option means it's active, then yep, I guess it's real intuitive. I also wish I could get a dollar for every time a poster has asked how to cancel a route. The interface could be much improved on the TTx20's IMO

Yet again TomTom is let down by not being able to automatically planning itinery...

That is adding in several stops and then TomTom planning the best route between then.

Till TomTom take a look at this issue, I see no benefits of the 930 over the 720.

Help required with changing speed limits on the go 930. I have changed a street from 80km/hr to 30 km/hr but the unit still picks the same route. I have enabled and disabled iq routes but it makes no difference in this case. Map corrections is set to strict (which I think means it will accept corrections verified by tomtom as well as my own corrections). Is the unit not recognizing my changes?

Thanks!