20-03
April 16, 2009 - 15:31 h
At first glance it looks like little has changed for this new TomTom XL and ONE which became available this week. But looks can be deceiving; a lot more has changed than only the new black-coloured cover for this fifth generation of TomTom's entry level models...IQ Routes
TomTom has equipped both the new XL and ONE IQ Routes edition with (as the name already suggests) their innovative IQ Routes technology. This technology was already available on the more advanced (and expensive!) GO series but now it also becomes within the reach of those who don't want to spend as much money for their navigational device. The new ONE IQ Routes Regional with its 3.5 inch touch screen and maps of UK and ROI sells for £ 149.99. The more expensive unit, the XL IQ Routes Europe, with its 4.3 inch touch screen and maps of 42 European countries is set to sell for £ 199.99.
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The new TomTom XL IQ Routes Edition
With IQ Routes, TomTom doesn't simply use the maximum speed on every road on the route to determine the travel time. The speed is never constantly reached anyway since every route experiences slowdowns of some sort, like busy traffic, traffic lights, roundabouts and speed bumps.
Instead, IQ Routes uses the most efficient route based on the actual driven speeds on roads. For this, TomTom bases the information on statistical data they have received in the past couple of years from the millions of TomTom users worldwide.
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The new TomTom XL IQ Routes Edition
The software calculates several alternative routes to be able to determine the most intelligent and efficient choice. Because of this, its possible that you'll be presented with a different route to your destination, depending if you want to drive there on a Saturday morning 9 am or during the usual Friday afternoon rush hour. Of course, all this new technology demands more from the hardware than the old software did. To make sure everything still runs smoothly, TomTom implemented a faster processor into both the XL and ONE and also doubled the internal RAM memory compared to the previous generation.
In practice all this effort seems to pay off reasonably well. We've noticed that, at several times, different, more efficient routes were picked. Of course you need to realise the option of alternative routes is not always available. But in those cases IQ Routes will still present you with a more accurate arrival time which is still a good improvement by itself.
