Still waiting for TomTom to LearnLearn

I'll give TomTom a lot of credit; their product is very easy to use, more intuitive than most portable gps units, is lightning-fast on recalculations and satellite acquisition, and has a bright screen with plenty of data available at a glance.

I just bought a TomTom ONE XL-S for a trip to the Philadelphia area. The "-S" indicates that this unit is capable of text-to-speech, which was a welcomed addition, although I'm not sure it was worth the extra $100 demanded for the feature. I'd hoped that TomTom had improved upon their ONE product, as I'd used one this past summer, and was impressed with many of the features, but sorely disappointed with others.

I've read reviews to the effect that the TomTom units aren't able to find many addresses, and I didn't have a problem. I did compare this unit to a Garmin 680, and out of 3 address searches, the Garmin was unable to find two of them. Pretty disappointing, considering that the Garmin is a $800 unit. The TomTom was always able to locate the address I entered.

As far as the screen goes, the wide screen is a huge improvement over the ordinary ONE, I'd say that's worth the difference in cost between a ONE and an XL. More information is visible on the screen (ETA, Time of Day, Miles to Final, Time to Final, etc.), and the entry of text is much easier on the larger screen. The Garmin also had a wide screen, but only had room for two data points, the miles to the next turn, and I believe the time of day. Pretty weak, but then, this isn't a review on the Garmin.

Some reviewers commented that you can't plan a multi-stop route on the TomTom, but I do have that feature on this one.

The text to speech is a nice touch when you come to a 5 way intersection, and are unsure of the exact street, or you're hauling down a highway and don't care to look for the next exit name on the screen. It has its faults, it did call the "Walt Whitman Bridge" the "West Whitman Branch" (it comes up as "W Whitman Br" on the screen), but I'd be willing to accept that shortcoming, if it were the only one, or the remaining were minor.

Where TomTom really needs to listen to its owners is in the POI area. It has a POI category for "Ice Rinks", but none for "Home Improvement" or "Hardware" stores. Really! It has a category for "Shop" and "Shopping Centers", that's it. A search for "The Home Depot" came up empty, as did one for "Lowe's". If this were a Garmin unit, I'd be able to pull up the phone number for any POI to call ahead for seating at a restaurant, business hours of a retailer, or check room availability at a hotel. Nothing more than a point on the map is given for any POI. For this reason alone, I'll be returning my TomTom. I could wait for an update, but considering the rate at which prices fall, I'll hold out until they get it right.

The windshield mount is just as weak as everyone claims. Luckily, it doesn't have far to fall in my vehicle when it breaks loose, but if it were mounted high on the windshield of a van, it would be much more comforting to see a lever-activated suction mount included with the package. Hey, charge us another $15 for a better mount, we'll pay it!

It would have been nice to be able to pan an active map in 2D mode to look ahead, or look for a POI that might be within a reasonable range, but you have to dig deep into the configuration menus to view maps in a pannable mode.

A minor gripe is that the unit doesn't switch to night colors when it's dark out, or vice versa. It did seem to give louder instructions as the noise level of the vehicle rose, which the Garmin did not do.

The traffic feature would have been nice, as well as handsfree bluetooth, but the bluetooth is only there for the Traffic Data, and the Traffic feature only works with a handful of phones (see their web site for a list). Of course, neither my wife's nor my brand new phones were on the list. I can't say that the bluetooth would be a deal-breaker, but it would be a nice feature.

I would still recommend this unit over the Garmin. I have an older Garmin unit that I'll continue to squint at until TomTom improves on their POI's. If Garmin had free map updates like TomTom, I'd be picking up a Garmin. Asking people to plunk down $75-150 for annual updates is criminal. For the money, the TomTom XL-S can't be beat, but then there's a special deal going on at this time of year (called GiveGive) where you get $100 bucks off any TomTom. At $300 it's a great deal, at $400, we'll I'd seriously consider the other options out there. I don't doubt that you can find one of these babies for near $300 online.