03-07
November 2, 2005 - 09:32 h
It's here: our review sample of the TomTom ONE has arrived, and so I can begin the testing of TomTom's newest Personal Navigation Device. Is the ONE a better TomTom GO? Or does cheap(er) equal bad here?We have a lot of questions to which we would like to have a reply. Does the battery really only last for 2 hours? Is the screen quality at least as good at the GO's screen? How superior is GPS reception with the new SiRF Star III chipset? How does the GO mount to a car's windshield? Read it all here in yourNAV's TT ONE review!
In the box
The orange box arrives. Eagerly I open it. It contains everything one may expect when purchasing a navigational system. Well, almost everything... The first thing that drew my attention was of course the ONE unit itself, which is neatly packaged and viewable through a hole in the center of the box.Also very present in the box is the sucker that is used to mount the TomTom ONE to the windshield of a car. There's also an in-car charger for use with the 12 volt cigarette lighter socket, a USB cable, an SD card with the newest detailed UK maps, a booklet which features the available accessories for the ONE, and a CD with the manual.
The ONE fits excellently in the palm of your hand
The TomTom ONE has a very nice shape. It fits excellently in the palm of a grown (wo)man's hand and feels pretty sturdy. The plastic cover is coloured black, except on the top, where it's anthracite coloured. On the top, there's also a little led, which lights up when the unit is charging, and the TomTom logo with the two hands. This logo is also imprinted on the back of the unit, where you'll also find the speaker, the external antenna connector, and the connection for attachment to the TomTom ONE's mount. On the bottom of the TomTom ONE there's the SD card slot, the connection for the USB cable, and a headphone connectionOn/off
In short, my desk was pretty cluttered with parts. So I quickly unpacked the SD card and inserted it into the ONE. I switched the TomTom ONE on with the on/off button (which is located on the top of the unit), and immediately I was greeted by the well-known TomTom drum roll. The first thing I noticed is the beautiful screen, which is very clear, and fitted with an anti-reflection layer.After the TomTom ONE has been switched on for the first time, the user is asked to enter a few settings. More in particular the language setting, the home address, and the Bluetooth settings if the user wishes to use Bluetooth. All very simple and very straightforward. Installing my Sony Ericsson with the ONE goes very swiftly, and thirty seconds later the ONE is connected to the internet. I can use that connection later on to download traffic information, the weather forecast, and downloading software, maps and other PLUS services. Included with the ONE is a one month free and unlimited subscription to the Traffic services.
After settings these initial settings, I can actually start using the ONE. The first thing I notice is how incredibly fast the ONE finds a GPS fix, even indoors (!). The 20-channel receiver based on the SiRF Star III-chipset delivers excellent work. I enter a random destination and the ONE quickly calculates the route. Very nice. But to test the unit a bit more thorough, I'm going to have to use it in it's natural habitat. So, off to the car I go...
Mounting
Easy as pie. That is the saying that comes to mind when I mount the ONE for the first time into the car. The ONE's mount has two hinges : one vertical and one horizontal. After a bit of measuring I fit the sucker to the windshield. After that I slide the ONE into the mount's holder and that's that! Underneath the heat-reflecting windshield of my French car I immediately have a fix of 7 satellites, all at full strength. An external antenna is hardly necessary with fixes like that!Because the battery of our ONE is almost flat, I need to connect the unit to the cigarette power socket. And this is where I notice the first negative point of the ONE. The power connector is located on the bottom of the unit, which means that I cannot let the unit rest on the dashboard whilst driving and charging at the same time. I prefer to mount my GO that way because when the unit is resting on the dash, it isn't so susceptible to vibrations. So it seems this is not (always) possible with the ONE. Shame...
The unit's voice gives me the first directions. The volume of the voice is fine. On full 100% volume I can easily hear the voice above the sound of the headunit playing. The headunit isn't playing particularly quiet either. The sound quality however, could have been a bit better. It sounds a bit tinny if you will. Despite that, the unit is easily understandable and the commands are very clear.
Screen
In comparison to the GO, the first thing I notice if the quality of the screen of the ONE, more in particular the anti-reflection coat this screen has. The touch-screen responds very quickly and can be easily read. I also like the styling of the unit. It fits a lot better in my hands than the GO.One week later...
I've been using the ONE for a week now, and I must say that I'm pretty impressed by this new TomTom product. Most of the time, the unit did an excellent job, but at one particular moment, there was a problem: the unit locked up completely and I had to do a paperclip reset before it came back to life. After that, it functioned normally again. I haven't been able to repeat the problem so far, but I do keep it in mind. If I find the reason why the ONE locked up on me, I'll make sure to update you all.Battery
Of course I was curious about the capacity of the battery. According to TomTom's official specifications, the battery of the ONE should last about two hours. This seems a bit modest to me, because our test example surpassed that specification easily. The battery lasted for 3 hours and 35 minutes before giving up. That should be enough for most road trips, even with a few traffic jams included. And I didn't only navigate during the battery test, but also used the Bluetooth connection for Traffic and downloading the weather forecast. Not bad, not bad at all...
Sound quality
In the first part of the review, I briefly mentioned the sound quality of the ONE. This is an important aspect of a navigational unit because the commands have to be loud and clear in order to be of any use to the user. Don't worry, the maximum volume of the ONE is surely loud enough to hear the commands. The sound quality is not on par with the GO's sound quality, but it's easy to get used to. Especially when the volume is lowered to +/- 75%, then the sound immediately sounds a lot less tinny and better. Same as with the GO, the volume can be set by tapping 'change preferences' and 'volume preferences'. In that section it's also possible to choose if the ONE should adapt it's volume depending on the speed at which the car travels. At higher speeds, the volume goes up, and vice versa.Headphones
The TomTom ONE offers the possibility of using headphones. For this there's a headphones connector on the bottom of the unit (see photo to the left). When I used this option, it took a bit of getting used to. The sound quality is very good, but it also makes the voice 'omni-present'. So much even that it might influence the user's attention to the road. Because of this, I think that this option might be hazardous to the road safety, so I cannot really recommend it. Especially if there haven't been any voice commands for a while, the sudden voice in your ear can be quite startling. Same applies to sound signals for POI's or traffic jams.
Voices
The ONE contains more than 60 different voices, speaking a total of 40 different languages. English, Dutch, Portugese and even Chinese is no problem for the ONE. Nice if you want to do a crash course in Romanian road commands, but besides that pretty useless for the average user. The main reason for having all these different languages shipped with the product is because that way TomTom only needs to develop one version of the software for all the ONE's in the world.GPS fix
Al said, one of the first things I noticed when I started using the ONE was how fast it found a GPS fix, and how solid this fix was. After one week of use I'm fully convinced: the new SiRF Star Chipset that the ONE uses is one impressive piece of hardware and definitely a step up from the receiver that the GO uses. Even indoors, getting fixes is a snap. And once the ONE gets a fix, it's almost impossible to loose it.A heat-reflecting windshield, high buildings in narrow streets, trees hanging over the road, bad weather, ...it all doesn't matter to the TomTom ONE. There's only one word for it's satellite reception: excellent. I constantly had a fix with at least 8 satellites, but most of the time more than that. Therefore I believe that, although there is such a thing as an external antenna for the ONE, it probably won't be a huge commercial success. There simply is no need for it. At all!
TomTom PLUS
By means of Bluetooth and a mobile phone, it's possible to use TomTom's PLUS services. And I did! Things I tried were actual traffic info, the weather forecast for each random location on the map, downloading and installing safety camera POI's, loading new voices and colour schemes for the maps.Software version 5.41 is guaranteed to work with all the mobile phones posted here to the right. So if you have any problems with connecting any of these phones to your ONE, you can contact TomTom support and ask for their help in solving your problem.
Installation
In the first part of this review, I wrote that the initial installation of my mobile phone went swift, simply and without error. In the past week I've tried about every PLUS service there was, and they were all technically perfect. All worked without a hitch. The colour schemes enable you to really personalize your ONE. The traffic info and the safety camera warnings are very handy to have. Highly recommended!Free
Of course I'm kicking in an open door when I mention that the speed camera POI's can be found in other places than on the TomTom site. Even more, in many of these cases, these POI files come free as well. After downloading the safety cameras that TomTom supplies, honesty dictates that I have to mention that I did notice that some of these camera's are marked in the wrong place, are missing or are showing the wrong maximum speed limit. In short, the information isn't 100% correct.The traffic info is a lot better. Actual traffic incidents are accurately and immediately shown on the map. This is shown by means of little icon on the sides of the navigation screen. After tapping this info bar, detailed info about the traffic jam or other incidents can be requested. Per traffic jam it can be determined if the user want to avoid it or not. If this is the case, an alternative route is calculated. If desired, this can also be set with a standard setting. During this review I was very satisfied with the correctness and the completeness of the data provided. I was a lot less thrilled about the amount of traffic jams on the roads. But to this, even TomTom has no answer...
