I have been using my tomtom 720 for like 2 months by now. So here is what i think is good and bad.
- The map -I have the latest map version(7.15v) and i feel the 720 has a pretty detailed map (atleast in my area- Chicago). There are some recent developments which obviously has not been updated in their maps, but which i hope will be added as they roll out with new maps.
- Routing - If you choose in the preferences to ask every time which type of route to plan, it will always ask about the options for routing like fastest, shortest, avoid highways, bicycle route, walking routes and limited speed. If you choose the fastest route, it will come with a route that it thinks is the fastest. Now here is the thing - sometimes, the fastest route might get you at a place 1 minute earlier than an alternate route which might cut short the distance by 5 miles. So you have to be careful here. Once you put in the fastest route, tap on the bottom right corner and go to find alternative - then choose fastest route again - now it will come with the route that is 1 min longer, but 5 miles shorter! And the good thing is, you can compare how much time you loose and how much distance you cut short in that screen itself - It will say the original route was this miles long and this minutes duration in that screen itself!!! So, before accusing the machine of bad routing , put a little thought into the widely customizable routing engine it has and use some of your brain!
Walking routes are handy as they also use oneways to reach you at a place through walking - cool! Also, you can customize your route by viewing the details of the route in text or block by block or whole map and then choose which road to avoid, which road to go through by just tapping on those roads!
All these that i have talked about also brings in light about one bad thing about tomtom - It is more user friendly for a little tech inclined person. For a grand pa or grandma, i think garmin would be best. But it is not to say that the basic routing techniques can be used by anyone not very tech inclined.
- Poi database - lots and lots. Initially, I was not impressed by the number of poi in tomtom 720. But now I actually use the bigger tomtom poi database that does not come standard with 720;) If you do a little research in the net, you will get it;). I have never came across a shop or place that is not in the tomtom list so far. The smallest little shop that i thought might not be in tomtom came up in the poi database. that really surprised me. Well, anyway, you can download so many pois for free from so many places. But, i have not yet used any pois other than the tomtom official ones! But I should say that the ones that come standard with tomtom 720 is not much at all!
- Blue tooth- very very handy. It downloads all your contacts from the phone! It shows all your contacts on the screen and you can call straight from the gps. The audio clarity - better than my blue tooth headphones!
- FM transmitter - poor. The loudness has been recently increased after firmware update to 7.481. But the signal is weak. I think it has something to do with the power cable. When i move it around, it changes. If i disconnect the cable, you will still get it. But it is very unpredictable. In general, 90% of the time, i have had good signals. When I'm in downtown it goes down to 50%. The audio quality is horrible. When it is clear, it is clear; but I think the device mix down stereo tracks to mono and then transmits it as stereo. Hence the fm receiver will say that it is receiving stereo signal, but the actual output will be a dull mono which greatly degrades the audio quality of a song when you hear it through the fm transmitter. I would think, the audio quality should be much better with the cables connected to your car audio. But my car audio does not have a line in jack. You might think that a gps does not have to be a master of all trades, but hey, almost all the gps gives you these kind of features at this money. So why not get it all when you pay this much. It is so convenient to have all the songs in the gps itself rather can carry something else for that purpose (I use an 8 GB Sandisk Extreme 3 card in addition to the 2GB inbuilt memory)
- 3rd party apps - lots and lots. That is one reason why i choose the tomtom. I already have a small calculator, a flashlight tool, a mileage calculator with detailed graphical views, an event logger(tracks your gps anywhere you go and keeps that info in the sd card), a video player - So many thanks to the developers. I dont think any other gps has this many 3rd party apps.
- Mapshare technology- It is a very useful concept. You see a small error in the map - you mark that location for correction - once you get the time, correct the error - save it - share it with all the other tomtoms! At this point, I have 16,000 errors mapshare corrections! Whoa - so many errors on the map? They may not be huge errors, it might be something like a poi is 100m away from its actual location or something like a road has been blocked for traffic or something like that. But useful, anyway. No other gps has this . But Dash is coming out with some revolutionary ideas.
- Traffic - Never used this feature( I dont have a data plan with my cell phone, nor do i have an rds-tmc receiver). I dont know how updated or how useful this feature is.
- Value for money - I would say it is a good value."
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