Tomtom GO 720 GPS

Tom Tom Go 720

Posted Nov 12, 2007 - This is my first GPS system, although I have seen and been in cars with others who have built-ins and portables, and am fairly knowledgable about the devices in general. On the whole, it is a pretty decent unit, and I find most of the positive comments put forward by the reviewers here to be correct, however I have several major issues with this product,which taken together, cause me to feel that if I had it to do over, I would buy a comparable Garmin instead. My main beef is the battery life, which is advertised as 5 hours. In actuality, I have not had it last more than 45 minutes, at most, sometimes less. This is a major disappointment and a huge variance from Tom Tom's claim. Additionally, as others here have noted, the screen does washout under strong sunlight. As well, although the voice giving directions is plenty loud, the same can not be said of the volume when using it as a bluetooth phone. The only way I can hear someone on the other end of the phone line when the car is moving is to hold it up next to my ear, which negates the whole purpose of the bluetooth feature. I might as well just use my Jawbone earpiece or just hold the phone itself up to my ear. I also would prefer an external volume control Now to the Tom Tom customer service. Well, honestly, it is almost non-existant. Unless the issue you have can be answered by the FAQ's or other website help, you can forget any relevant help from Tom Tom. I think this is another pretty big issue, because as all non-computer-whiz technology users know, these devices and the problems with them that crop up can be pretty difficult to deal with, and with un-co-operative or non-existant user support, the usefulness of the devices can be seriously compromised. Additionally, although the protective carrying case for my model is listed as an accessory on their website, it has never been available for purchase, and I have not found one anywhere else to buy. (Garmin and some other manufacturers include a fitted case with their products.)

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Great Hardware - But You Cannot Install Additional Maps

Posted Oct 31, 2007 - It is important to note that TomTom has NOT yet released additional Maps for the 720. So, if you plan to purchase your 720 and download Maps from TomTom (or elsewhere) for your trip to Europe, you are out of luck. Be aware that TomTom has been promising that they would update their website to resolve this issue since early September. Before you buy, be aware that you cannot install additional maps on to your 720 at this time.

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Useful Device

Posted Jan 24, 2008 - I've used this device for some time and never had a problem with it. It is always accurate and gets me where I need to go. I found the maps to be up to date and there are tons of POIs which I use frequently. This device acquires a satellite signal quicker than any other GPS I've used. The most unique feature has to be the FM transmitter which allows you to play the audio directions from the device through your car speakers. Very cool! I would definitely recommend this device to a friend.

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Major Upgrade

Posted Oct 6, 2007 - I really have to say, as a previous tomtom one user, this is a major upgrade on that. Love the wider screen, love the extra space for music, and ive already used the mapshare feature a few times, and it works great. Wonderful product.

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One of the best full featured 4.3" Car GPS for the money. Tons of cool features.

Posted Nov 8, 2007 - I was about to buy the Mio c520 (also with wide 4.3" lcd) when I saw this TomTom Go 720T. After reading the specs and reviews and playing with it at the store, I was immediately hooked! It costs about $150 more than the Mio ($300 vs $450 on sale). But I can justify - and wouldn't mind the extra cost with the cool features. I mention one of the cons was that the voice command feature is not enabled on the USA version. I saw on the Tomtom website that the european version of the 720, there is a voice command feature where one can speak the distination, adress, etc. I really hope that this is updated later via the firmware update. I can live without this feature, but knowing that this is available is a small strike against it. Also a con is it's missing some popular POI's namely Starbucks. I think other reviewers here said the same. You can add your own Starbucks POI's on the 720 but it would be manual. There maybe a way later through Mapshare but that was a bit of a surprise to me. However, it does have many other POI's like banks, McDonald's, etc. In fact, their logo/icons show up in the GPS screen. The main thing I liked was this GPS is updatable, editable, and correctable with their "Mapshare" technology. It lets you do INCREMENTAL (and selectable) updates. You can also update the maps yourself if there is a new street or if a street is clised, for example. You can hookup this GPS to your pc (via usb cradle included) and via TomTom's website, you can download map updates and POI updates back to the GPS. You can also upload YOUR own corrections to their website and other's can download your info. Most of the info is verified by TomTom so you can select only those updates that they verified to make sure it's accurate. This is one (maybe only) GPS that has this feature. In my 1 month of use, I found the Go 720 to be very accurate and a nice "companion." I like the information on the screen next to the map itself - the next street or exit, distance and time to destination, your speed. This can be either be put horizontally across the bottom or vertically to the right. You have the option of automatically changing the screen colors to "night mode" when it gets dark. Also you have the option of automatically adjusting the volume if the noise level is loud inside the car. I personally liked these features. I also liked the text to speech. So this will say the street names and distance. It tells you the next street BEFORE your next turn or exit. So you have time to react and look for the street. Other things I liked are: - 5 hour battery life - so it's also portable (though I have not used it that long, but I'll take Tomtom's claim) - easy to use menu navigation - very fast route re-calculations & fix on to satellites - preview of the route. The GPS will show you and "drive through" the selected route to see what streets & highways you will be driving on. - the 4.3" screen - easy to read and sharp in daytime or nightime driving. - text to speech - says street names - selectable voices - you can also purchase celebrity voices like John Cleese's from their website - Bluetooth with my cell phone - HELP ME button - in an emergency, tells you closest hospital or police station. Also gives your current GPS (lat & long coordinates) location and cross streets. Things I wasn't too crazy about: - no external dial for volume control but it can be accessed by pressing a couple of onscreen buttons. Features available but do not or have not yet used. I plan to use these in the future just to see how it works. To me these are not important anyway. - traffic updates via tomtom plus service using your bluetooth connection to your phone with web access - MP3 player - Photo viewer - FM transmitter for MP3 music or GPS voice - Document reader - let's you save a text document (like grocery or to do lists) or HTML docs and read from screen Wow! this is THE GPS that I've been waiting for! This is my first GPS and I'll be happy with it for awhile! Over time, the Mapshare feature will "future proof" this GPS for a long time. Of course, every year there will be other GPS units that will have more features, bigger screen, lower price, etc but right now, this TomTom Go 720 is one of the best ones out there for the money!

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Excellent GPS!

Posted Aug 25, 2007 - Ive used this for a week and compared to my Nuvi 660, I find it better at giving instructions early and repeats it to make sure you made the right turn. Also if you miss your turn, it auto recalculates faster than any other GPS I have used, no hourglass and waiting if you have tried the Magellan. This device has way more options than any GPS I have seen. Map share is a plus to get up to date maps instantly online. It has the ability for you to make corrections to map errors. A huge advantage over competing GPS systems! Only a matter of time, this GPS will have the most complete and accurate maps. If your missing points of interests, you can manually add them in. Someone noted that it was missing some POIs, which is true (starbucks), but it still finds WAY more POIs than my Garmin Nuvi 660, plus their are GPS forums where you can add the missing POIs to your device. It also comes with a docking station for your PC. You can make changes, add maps, POIs, and also operate your tomtom 720 from your PC! It makes adding addresses and POIs faster and easier! The updated Tele Atlas maps are just as good and on par with the Navteq maps used on other GPS'. This is by far the best GPS Ive owned and would definitely recommend it!

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TomTom 720

Posted Aug 23, 2007 - Extremely fast at rerouting, acquiring satellites, and scrolling through maps. This simply blows away my garmin 360 when it comes to speed. I placed both side by side to see how well they perform. I find the Tomtom better at navigation than the garmin, it gives better early warning when coming up to a turn and slightly better instructions. My garmin has the bad habit of telling me to turn when Im at the turn already, causing me to hit the brakes hard and turn fast! This has also been a complaint from other garmin users. Garmin requires you keep an eye on the screen, so you dont miss your turn. The Tomtom allows you to keep your eyes on the road. Huge safety advantage for TomTom. Now for the bad, TomTom has deleted some Points of Interest from the database! Starbucks Coffee is in the POIs databae on the older TomTom One, it is no longer listed in the new database. Why did Tomtom delete an American Icon know worldwide?? Does that mean that they may have deleted other POIs? This is a step backwards for TomTom. The POI search feature is not as great as Garmin. Navigating through the screen is not too hard once you get used to it. Garmins are way easier to use and navigate through, but also has less features to deal with. Overall the Tomtom is a solid buy and would recommend it. I own both garmin and tomtom. I like the tomtom because its better at giving driving directions and has tons of features. I like the garmin for its ease of use, less complicated and better graphics.

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Tomtom GO 720 GPS

Posted Oct 7, 2007 - I've been a previous user of Tomtom GPS units & they were always bulky in design. Slimming down the 720 really made a difference in the look & feel of the unit. Good battery life. I'm disappointed because you still can not alpha search POI's . You can only do it by going thru menus & searching by categories. It also doesn't save the address of your favorites.

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New GO 720!

Posted Aug 6, 2007 - This is a great device with several new features. Obviously the Map Share feature is revolutionary and will change the way GPS devices are made form here on out. I also think the "Help Me" feature was a great idea and allows you to find important information quickly in emergency situations. TomTom extended the battery life and the 720 can hold a charge for up to 5 hours which is a huge improvement on other models. I really like the built in FM transmitter which make it a lot easier to play MP3s through your TomTom. Another great addition is how you can move the information bar from the bottom of the screen to the side. I think it makes it much easier to view your routes. In all, I think the 720 is a great new device from TomTom.

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Tom Tom 720 Map Issues

Posted Sep 18, 2007 - This unit is a decent unit. It was released prematurely though. The North America map is a mess. A lot of points of interest are in the wrong locations some with wrong addresses others just placed wrong on the map. Street House #'s not even close to where they should be in many cases. I have to look up the address of the place I'm going on the internet before I plug it into the Tom Tom fearing winding up in the completely wrong place. In the USA model, they removed the voice recognition feature that the European model has. Europeans can speak to the Tom Tom and tell it the address of the place they want to go instead of typing it into the unit. If you want to use the traffic services they charge you extra for a subscription which requires you to have a blue tooth enabled cell phone with internet service and Data transfer must be enabled on the phone. This means all verizon customers can't use this service. There is a receiver that you can buy without a subscription that picks up a signal from local radio stations, but that too is not available in the USA. Why they can't send a signal to the unit from the satalite is beyond me. Features that are supposed to be available are not. Such as gas prices. You are supposed to be able to get a subscription in the USA that will tell you the gas prices of the gas stations in the USA, but when you try to activate it, you get a message saying that there are no subscriptions available. Needless to say no one will take the unit back, and customer support is very poor. Not willing to help you out at all with defective units.

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Just another GPS

Posted Oct 16, 2007 - On first look, this unit is great. It has every imaginable feature at a price much less than its competitor Garmin. On second look, you get what you pay for. It does the basic GPS functions and it does its share of bad routes just like Garmin. Sometimes its better sometimes worse. Its a draw there. I wouldn't favor one over the other. The screen animations are more high def on Garmin but the animation is smoother on the 720. But the real weakness here is that the 720 screen washes out in bright sunlight, something that my Garmin never did. The 720 has all these neat Bluetooth features supposedly. You can connect your phone and the 720 becomes a speaker phone and you can get traffic updates, weather updates and map updates if you connect the phone for data. I had no problem connecting my very exotic Blackberry curve for voice to the 720. The only problem is the speaker phone makes you sound like a mouse - useless! Getting the phone to connect for data was another story. I couldn't do it and Tomtom's answer to that was a shrug and we can't test with every phone make and model. So in reality, there is only a very limited number of phones and carriers that will work with this. at&t and blackberry is not a supported combination. So, no weather updates, traffic updates, map updates or unit updates. Another paid for but useless feature. The worst for me though is the Favorites and POIs. The unit only supports a very small number of favorites, 48 I believe. After that, you must store a favorite as a POI. I could work with that except Tomtom does not store the complete address with either. So for example, if you add the favorite "Tomtom Store", you can never access the entire address even if you navigate to it. As a work around, I am forced to store favorites and POIs as "111 GPS Avenue, Navigator Town, CA - Tomtom Store". It is long, wordy and very messy. If you store the same favorite as "Tomtom Store - 111 GPS Avenue, Navigator Town, CA", it shows up on the list as "111 Tomtom Store - GPS Avenue, Navigator Town, CA". This for me is the real deal breaker. I am right on the edge of returning it. So all in all, its a GPS. Looks good on paper, very ordinary in reality. It will do what you need it to do most of the time, no better or worse than any other brand. *****UPDATE***** After using this unit for about 2 months, I have downgraded my rating. This unit is very very bad at finding an address on a street. It may get you to the street but the actual location is another story. This weekend I was travelling in a state I am not familiar with. I entered the address of a shopping mall. The 720 brought me to a dead end on a residential street and told me I reached my destination. The mall was nowhere in sight and I had no idea where I was. Luckily, I had my old Garmin 350 along as well and I set it up and entered the exact same address. It found the mall no problem. This is not the first time I have had a similar experience with the 720 but this was the worst. It is just too unreliable to trust.

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TomTom 720 GPS

Posted Feb 4, 2008 - I have used this unit on the west coast and the east coast. It acquired it's (new) location much faster than prior GPS's I have used. Normal startup in same location was very fast. The address sequence is different (State, City, Street, House number). You can change the display from street ##### to ##### street, but the entry order stays the same. I am already adjusting my internal process to get use to it. I have found several areas of the map that is wrong (turn down one way street, streets were moved 10 years ago, etc). It has a method of reporting these errors, I need to not be in a hurry next time and try out the error report. Users can upload corrections to TomTom for us to download. Bottom line - Excellent unit. Bluetooth capability - Very small selection of phones. My phone is not included e.g. only 2 LG phones are supported.

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This TomTom is a Go-Go!

Posted Feb 26, 2008 - I join the pro-GO 720 reviews, and find the unit to be very good at what it does. Was affordable and the mount is very good despite other's experiences. Also find support to be very good and my experience with them as been a positive in all respects. The MapShare ability is great and so far very accurate. Easily paired with my Motorola V3 and have found it altogether a joy. Does much more than just get me from here to there, and I heartily recommend this product. Hasn't steered me wrong even once.

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TomTom Go720 excellent

Posted Nov 5, 2007 - This is the first GPS we've ever owned. I researched for many hours and this one was billed as the "flagship", "top-of-the-line", etc., etc. from TomTom. Supposedly much better than competing products from better-known competitors. I don't have previous experience to compare with, but from my observations of friends' car-mounted GPS systems, this blows them away in terms of ease of use, readability, simplicity, accuracy, etc. I've not yet experienced tany of the little glitches I've seen while a passenger in others' cars (such as the GPS missing the turn and endlessly telling you to "go back", the GPS being slow or failing to acquire (or reacquire) the satellite, etc.). I'm not yet using all the other fetures (MP3, Bluetooth, etc.) but the basic navigation and speaking is top-notch. Very happy with this product!

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Tom Tom 720

Posted Aug 25, 2007 - Overall for the money its the best gps system on the market. The unit has bells and whistles that you would not expect for the price. According to Tom Tom certain phones that are gps ready will not sync with the Tom Tom 720 such as my treo 650.

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