Some flaws, but a good value overall

Note: This is a review of the US version of the Tomtom ONE 3rd edition

Like many other people this holiday season, I picked up a cheap GPS. I was attracted to the Tomtom ONE's low price and brand name. At the time, there weren't many reviews out, since it seems Tomtom released the 3rd edition very recently, so I bought on a leap of faith.

The other reviewers do a good job of summarizing the Tomtom ONE's features, so I won't go into much detail here. The questions I'll address are: 1) is the routing any good and 2) how well does it work.

Routing
Tomtom uses TeleAtlas maps for its GPS devices, and many people consider them inferior to the Navteq maps in the US. In my experience driving in the suburbs of Philadelphia and in New Jersey, the maps are pretty accurate; it's never led me the wrong way on a one-way street or had me make an illegal turn.

The routing performance is just so-so. Comparing its directions to Mapquest or Google Maps, the Tomtom tends to prefer highways, even if they will take longer. It will get you where you need to go, but not in the fastest way possible.

Re-routing
When missing a turn, the Tomtom calculates a new route pretty quickly; on a 100 mile trip, it calculated a new route in anywhere from 5-10 seconds. Sometimes this was not fast enough, since you can drive a city block in about 10 seconds. It also is slightly better at a Garmin I tried (C230) at calculating a new route and not making you turn around (the Garmin would tend to make you turn around instead of calculating a new route from where you were).

How well does it work?
Aside from pure routing performance, there are several other areas to consider -- interface speed, point of interest database, how/when turn instructions are given, and overall ease of use.

Interface "speed"
What I'm referring to here is whether there is any lag when switching screens or entering information. The Tomtom ONE has a very responsive interface; nearly everything is instantaneous with the exception of searching for points of interest where it may take a few seconds to generate a full list of places.

Point of interest database
It has several million points of interest, but it was missing some big ones (no Ikea), as well as places built in the past 6 months. The Tomtom ONE has a feature that allows for you to add POIs and make map corrections, though I have not tried this yet.

Direction announcement and display
the Tomtom ONE displays the next maneuver (turn left, right, go straight, etc) and distance in the lower left corner. On the upper right, on the highway it displays the current road, but when you get close to the exit, it switches to display the exit number and name of the exit. You can also configure it to always display the name of the next turn on the bottom of the screen. Generally audio announcements are made with ample time (one announcement at 2 miles on the highway, then another at 1 and 0.5 miles). It also tries to announce the next maneuver after the current one, for example ("Take the exit right then turn left").

However, there are a few problems. In the city, sometimes it will say to turn too soon (a block early), which necessitates looking at the screen to check on the distance and street name. Also, sometimes the announcement of the next maneuver is confusing, for example, it will say to "Turn right, then turn left" when the left turn is not the immediate next left, but the 2nd or 3rd left. Some of this would be alleviated if the unit had text-to-speech so it would say the street names, but this does not have that ability.

As an aside, the speech has some UK mannerisms, like calling the highway a "motorway".

The voices are clear and the volume is acceptable, though there is some distortion at the highest volume.

Ease of use
The Tomtom is very easy to use; entering an address or searching for a point of interest are intuitive. The main screen has all the information you need and is customizable. I think it takes a few too many presses to view the list of directions (from the main screen, it takes 3 presses to see the list of directions, whereas it's accessible with one press on the Garmin). The screen is pretty bright, though it washes out on very sunny days. I've also never lost the GPS signal except in a parking garage or a tunnel.

Overall impression
I think for the price I paid (~$105 after discounts), it is a very good deal. Routing performance has been decent so far, re-routing is fast, the maps are accurate in my area, and it's easy to use. That being said, the competition in the GPS arena is intense; I'm not even sure if I would purchase this if it was $150.