Good value for money

Instead of buying an updated map for my aged Garmin at $100 plus, I figured it was a better decision to just to buy a new GPS unit which can be used for our new car as a dedicated unit. I liked my Garmin, but decided to try a Tom-Tom One because (1) it was one of the cheapest GPS I could find, and (2) it had decent user reviews.
As soon as it was delivered, I ripped the box open, plugged it in, and turned it on. My immediate disappointment was that it did not even have my home address location despite the neighborhood is almost 4 years old. Not only that, it did not even have my office location right. I began to regret buying a product based on its price. I tried finding a post office and a restaurant nearby, and again disappointed because they were not found where the map showed. It was obvious that the Tom Tom unit came with an miserably outdated map.
Fortunately, the instruction manual showed that I was allowed one free map update within 30 days of purchasing. Relieved, I connected the unit to the computer and downloaded the updated map which took long 30-40 minutes. Once updated, my street magically showed up along with the new grocery store in the neighborhood. Great. I began to drive around to test the unit, and here are my findings.
The map is not completely updated as it failed to correctly take me to my office address. I know the building is at least several years old. Apart from inaccurate map points here and there, I like the map display concept although it is not as crisp as Garmin’s. The map is pixilated in comparison to Garmin, but I like how the route is highlighted over the base map, instead of Garmin’s “replaced” red route showing the way. For example, I want Interstate Highways always shown Red regardless of where my route immediately next to the highway is taking me and Tom Tom does this.
The menu is not as easy to follow and it needs some getting used to, especially if you are used to a Garmin’s simple logic. For example, once the route destination is reached, there seemed to have no way of stopping navigation. I discovered later that I just needed to touch the screen to display the menu and scroll over to the next screen to find the clear the route button which is a 4-step process. However, the more I use it, the more useful features it had. For example, I can select the map to display gas stations and rest stops anytime there is one. Or select any of the items from the list such as restaurants, shops, golf courses, theaters, etc. It could clutter the map, so I just selected gas station and rest stops. Points of Interest should have category, but it does not. Therefore, restaurant list simply shows all nearby restaurants without allowing me to choose “Chinese” or “Italian.”
Its voice instruction is very clear, and it has an option to increase or decrease volume based on the car speed, but I wish there is an option to turn off auto zooming of the map. The idea is to zoom in as car approaches next turn. Even if I manually zoom out, it zooms right back in several seconds later. Garmin does that too, but it only zooms back in when the next turn approaches as opposed to Tom Tom’s immediate auto zoom in. It shows the street name of the next turn on top of the screen if it is a major road, but not if you are on a secondary road turning to another secondary road. Thus, there are lots of inconsistencies depending on where you are at the time. For example, the display shows the current speed, and speed limit on some roads. If driving 6 mph over the speed limit, the display changes to red, and one alert beep when going 10 mph over the speed limit. I thought it was neat, but it only happened on the stretch of sections where speed limit is programmed to be displayed. Again, inconsistencies.
If there are four things that I would like to have in the unit, those are (1) options to turn off auto zooming feature (2) option to turn off auto re-routing calculation. If I miss a turn, I do not want it to change the highlighted route until I tell it to, (3) auto dimming at night like Garmin does, (4) Identifying my destination is on the right or left side when arriving… unlike Garmin, it just says “arriving at your destination.” So, here it is… it would get 5-stars from me if it can change the above four things.
Having said that, I will have to get my wife a Garmin unit because of Garmin’s simplicity. Like Garmin, Tom Tom has pro’s and con’s, and its main fault is at user friendliness, in relative terms of course.