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Out of the box it took us directly to the economy lot at Newark airport. My wife and I bought a GO 930 for our recent trip to Portugal. This is the reason we picked the 930. At $450 the 930 is relatively expensive, but given all its features, the VALUE for the money just can't be beat.
The lane view feature, which shows you in 3-D driver's view how many lanes each exit has, is also great for complex interchanges.Another great feature is the MP3 playback combined with 4GB of INTERNAL memory, plus a SD card expansion slot. This allows you to download your entire MP3 collection on the unit, if you are so inclined, and so doubles as an iPod in your car - with a much better user interface (4.3" screen).Another great feautre is the Bluetooth phone interface, which gives you hands-free calling in your car as well.The unit also has the traffic alert receiver built-in, which means if you want to use this feature you don't have to buy an additional receiver for it.We highly recommend this GPS. It is also nice to be able to download different voices instead of hearing the boring robot voice all the time. - basically a lot of things we would have never found with just a map.The voice commands are excellent and make the screen redundant.
In the end the GO 930 was a great deal because the Europe map sells for $180, so we actually saved money by going top-of-the line instead of something that retails for $200-$300 without the Europe map. We used the unit for 12 days in Portugal and it was able to find for us secluded beaches, B&B's, restaurants, etc. The main difference between the 920 and 930 is the 930 also has the Europe map preloaded. When we landed in Lisbon it worked well again, taking us out of the city (we would have never found our way out with a map) and to our first destination without any hick-ups.
Here is why:The unit works really well. The Europe map is expensive to download and a hassle to install. However, if you don't plan to travel often to Europe, the 920 should be great for you as well.
If I had not known where I was, it would have told me "off route" and I would not have known why I was turning around.The system defaulted to MUTE and each time I turned off the car it went silent. I was testing it in familiar territory. I had to go into the system tools, a cumbersome task, and turn on the speech each time.I returned this product and bought another Garmin with which I am very happy. TomTom 1M00.981 GO 920T Portable GPS Vehicle Navigator with Traffic ReceiverI purchased this product because I wanted to try the new "traffic reporting" feature. I never got there.Twice the Tom Tom told me to go in the wrong direction off the highway.
I was replacing two AAA's once a week.3. Looking for an italian restaurant. Cons:1. Oh, don't forget to choose your destination again. On the way home we picked up a Garmin 750, and had it not been for traffic we could have made it in 7 hours and 45 minutes.11.
9. TomTom refuses to allow or support the 920T. It's very unsafe while driving.7. More times than not you have to unplug the traffic antenna, reboot the tomtom, and as it's rebooting reconnect the traffic antenna. ETA. Better have an iPhone or the Internet, because it does not sort any restaurants. Typing Wal will not work. Speech Recognition no longer works after the newest firmware update.5.
Hope you can do this while driving. Traffic might work. Typing mart will not work. I purchased my 920T in March of 2008, so here is my 6 month 2000 mile review.Pros:1. Not even close. It has the same hardware as the 930 yet the refuse to let the users enable those features found on the 930.As long as you are in the United States please do yourself a favor, and pick up something with Navtec software. Mapshare is a nice, but does it work. With mild to moderate sun light it will be washed out.4.
If you enjoy a leisurely trip in the evening, with no regard for efficiency the 920T is for you.2. If you set it on your shelf, you can watch it magically turn it's self on at random hours during the day. At most you are looking at one hour.2. Battery life on blu tooth remote is just as bad. While driving down the interstate if you are curious where the closest rest area is, I hope you can find a road sign. If you don't have a small pin to trip the reset your out of luck.12.
Acquires the satellites very quick.3. The most important feature of a GPS is to get you where your going as fast as possible. If you are looking for wal-mart good luck. There are many bugs, and mine has locked up 3 times. Even if it does find a POI, there is a good chance you will not arrive within half mile of the location. It's a nice trick but it's short battery life takes care of this.10. Please.
TomTom should consider this to be beta software at best. The menu system was not thought out. On a road trip from Maryland to South Carolina, the 920T weighed in at 11 hours. Battery life is terrible. 8. POI's. If you choose to drive during the day, don't count on seeing the screen.
It doesn't remember.6.
The FM transmitter - in a vehicle with the antenna in the front of the car works well, but if it's in the back of the car you can forget it.2. It is a little quirky at first, but I wouldn't trade it now. I also love the remote control.The only things that I wish worked better were:1. I am really impressed with this GPS. It doesn't recognize my Motorola i880 (Nextel) It will make calls from the phone, but will not update traffic with it or import the phonebook.Overall, I love it. They went out of business so I needed something new. I've used my Dell Axim in the past with Mapopolis. After a friend of mine bought a cheaper Tom Tom, I looked at what was out there, and I wanted the voice commands after I saw it.
I am buying a Garmn Nuvi to replace it. Being touch sensitive, all the banging on the way to the floor sometimes resets the GPS. However, I searched for restaurants, and came up with 5 hits. Garmin gives restaurants from here to the next coast. This Tom Tom just does not meet my needs. I see Best Buy offers to help you load POI's.
I used my Garmin 2620 since 2005, weekly, as I travel extensively. I thought an historical POI, that has been on the map longer than anyone I know has been alive, should have been preloaded as a POI. It stuck maybe 3 times for the duration of my journey. The Tom Tom had to connect to my laptop and download info first. I lost signal more often with the Tom Tom.I couldn't use it straight out of the box. Garmin came preloaded with all kinds of restaurants, shopping, hospitals, government offices, entertainment, and more. I have never ugraded the maps. This Tom Tom was a gift, the idea being newer was better.
Sadly, someone just broke into my car and stole my Garmin 2620. Sometimes, it falls so far away, you can't pick it up without pulling over. It constantly falls off and hits the gear shift before hitting the floor. I don't know what language it was communicating in, Norwegion, I think. I don't have time for all this manual loading.
The Garmin just wanted to know where I wanted to go. Go with a Garmin. I had to call Tom Tom for help setting up. It has good features, it was easier to enter an address, it recovers from route deviations quicker, it doesn't keep shouting "recalculating, recalculating," and the computer doesn't get confused as often. The Garmin came with a bean bag that sits on the dash.It was much easier to see my route layout at a glance while on the road with the Garmin.
My GPS came on Monday, and Tuesday, I was leaving town.That suction cup mount is useles. I searched for an historical POI, got nothing. Well, Amazon had the better price.
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