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November 4, 2009
Comments for TomTom ONE 140 S Review
Verdict: Good Things Come In Small Packages
TomTom's ONE 140 S manages to bring an impressive suite of high-end features to this small, powerful, and affordable GPS navigator. Advanced Lane Guidance, text-to-speech, daily updates of fuel prices, and multi-destination routing are just a few of the features found on this sophisticated device.
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MSN & Garmin 785!!!!!
So, what is the routing like? You generally compare to Garmin and Magellan.
Hmm?
"Can't sort a list of multiple destinations by distance"
&
"Cannot "optimize" a multi-destination trip (have the GPS sort an itinerary of addresses by distance)"
Is it just me, or isn't this the same issue? ;)
And as you write, the interface is very much up to personal preference. For example, I find TomTom's graphics to be the most map-like among TomTom, Garmin & Navigon. While I think Garmin on the other hand has a very "cartoonish" look.
Otherwise, thanks for an, as usual, in depth and well written review!
Sorting by distance and route optimization are two different things entirely. Sorting multiple destinations by distance from your current location is unlikely to give you the fastest (optimized) travel. Case in point: Assume one destination is 5 miles North of you. Another is 3 miles south and still another 6 miles South. Simply sorting them would give you a route that drove you 3 miles South, then 8 miles North, then 14 miles South, not very efficient. A very simplified example, but you should get the point.
But would you ever want to sort a list of multiple destinations by distance from your current position?
I assumed the point was sorting by total distance, which would be the same as optimizing the route.
I do so all the time. If I have a list of 6 customers to see today, plus work at the shop to finish, I want my travel to be "optimized": The fastest computed route to visit all the required stops in the most efficient order.
Yes, exactly, but would you ever want the feature you described, simply sorting a multi-destination route by distance from your current location? (Instead of optimizing it)
If not, the negative point "Can't sort a list of multiple destinations by distance" is (still) invalid.
It's mentioned because there are devices that claim to optimize (such as some of the Magellan's), but are simply sorting. I agree, it's not the way I would like it to work, but some users seem satisfied with sorting.
how good do you think of the routing.
And how well does iq routes work compared to garmin reciever. Do people make map corrections?
Without the IQ Routes feature enabled, I'd say the routing is not as good as Garmin's, and about on par with Magellan's. With IQ routes enabled, it's usually just as good as Garmin, sometimes better (but about equal on the whole)
This is the first GPS I have used, and I love it! I did not read a single word of the directions, and by my 3rd or 4th use I was an expert. Very "intuitive" to use, and I have no major complaints about it's layout, menu, etc.
My only complaint (but this may be the same with other GPS's also...I don't know) is that it does not work in the city! When driving in downtown Boston, the link gets interrupted by the tall buildings, and the display bounces all over the place.
I highly recommend this GPS!
Hmmm... that's actually not a good thing, for a modern GPS unit. I've used a 3 year old Magellan Crossover in downtown Boston, and the only place I lost signal was in the tunnel. Anyone know what brand of receiver TomTom is using these days?
My TomTom One 125 also loses the GPS signal when I'm near tall buildings in Boston. Nice GPS overall, but I wished it had a better GPS chip. I'm thinking of buying a low-end Garmin so that I can use on my Boston trips.
It's a real nice unit, but there are a few bugs! I found that you cannot update it with Tomtom Home since there is not enough memory onboard for the update. I tried to and got an error, then found at another forum (GPSReviews) that this is pretty much universal. However, routing is fantastic and very quick - it picks better routes than either my Magellan 4700 or Garmin 755t. The ability to fix map errors is a real plus. The maps are a little cartoony but certainly adequate for navigating. I love the lane guidance - it's better than either Garmin or Magellan. All in all a really excellent little unit that suffers from too little memory.
I didn't have a problem updating the GO 140's internal software via TomTom HOME. If you have a lot of voices or pictures stored on it, however, you might need to remove them before updating.
The 140s is going for $99 at Amazon. the lowest price I've seen yet. The next lowest price from a known retailer is $158 at Walmart.
Based on Fletch's review and the $99 price, I had to get one. With routing features that higher end Garmins no longer have, I don't think you can go very wrong. We'll see and I'll post my impressions in the future.
Now here's why I think Garmin still reigns king, despite their arrogance and taking away key routing features on the nuvi, or slowly re-incorporating them as "new" for a price
From the "Not getting off on the right foot" department:
I went on TomTom's site to download the manual for the 140s to get a better look at the features. I chose "United States" as my location. Anyway, they only have a generic "TomTom One" manual for it, nothing specific to the 140s. But, what's even worse is that the only English version of the pdf file was in "UK English". No "American English" choice. What I've always hated about TomTom, that obviously still seems to exist, is their unwillingness to cater even the slightest to the US market. Not even a bone. Are they that ignorant to ignore this market so blatantly? No wonder they've fallen from grace and Garmin has become so mighty. Even TomtTom's distances are in "yards" instead of "feet" as we are accustomed to here. And has anyone told them that we call then "highways" and not "motorways" in Brooklyn and Des Moines?
It makes me wonder if it's just an anti-American sentiment happening over there at their European headquarters? Or is it just cool to show their European brethren that they thumb their noses at us? Who knows? I just can't find any other reasons why they'd ignore such a powerful market unless they're just plain suicidal over there.
Anyway, at $99 it seems a steal, even if I'll have to deal with yards and motorways! Ugh....
Fletch, a small request. I don't think I'm alone in saying that I prefer to use your reviews and extremely detailed information (including pictures) as a reference over most manufacturer's manuals.
Other times, it's just for great reading purposes, as no one reviews a product with such passion and great detail as you. What I'd love to see is a "print" option where your entire review shows up on one page for printing purposes. It'll also make it easier to read the entire article without going back and forth trying to find or reference key points.
Just a suggestion that might be useful to your readers if it can be easily accomplished by you.
Thanks RobGPS - appreciate the support. I've actually added a "Printable Version" link to the bottom of every review. Scroll to the bottom of any page, and you'll see a link that says "Printable Version". Click it and you'll see a printer-friendly version of the entire review.
It sounds like it's not visible enough. I'll look into adding a button to the top of the review as well. Thanks for the suggestion!
How in the world did I miss it ("Printable Version") all this time??!! Maybe it's due to my haste to get to the meat and bones of your reviews, plus there's such high anticipation in getting right to it, like a kid in a candy store!
I don't think any change is needed; it's staring us right in the face, for cryin' out loud. Anyway, thanks and enjoy your Thanksgiving.
I have a Nav740 and the only good feature is something called "Dashboard View". Are there any inexpensive GPSs that offer this feature?
It's a lot less distracting than viewing a map while driving