530S worth 70 bucks?

[wlepse]

I was in Target the other day and found several TT 530S' on closeout for 70 bucks so I picked one up figuring it would be a good replacement for my V2 TTOne. But I am having trouble finding much info on it. It seems it was realeased the same time as the 540S which was more feature rich for only 20 bucks so I am guessing that is the route most people went with. Obviously having TTS, IQ routes and updated maps will be a huge improvement over my One but wonder if there are better deals out there. Also from what little I could find some were speculating that the storage size was small so to add POI's you need to remove voices etc. Any input would be appreciated.

 

[dhn]

I doubt any custom poi sets would require the removal of a voice, pois aren't that large.

That said, it probably wouldn't hurt to delete any voices you won't use but keep a computer voice.

 

[Aiken Drum]

I was in Target the other day and found several TT 530S' on closeout for 70 bucks so I picked one up figuring it would be a good replacement for my V2 TTOne. But I am having trouble finding much info on it. It seems it was realeased the same time as the 540S which was more feature rich for only 20 bucks so I am guessing that is the route most people went with. Obviously having TTS, IQ routes and updated maps will be a huge improvement over my One but wonder if there are better deals out there. Also from what little I could find some were speculating that the storage size was small so to add POI's you need to remove voices etc. Any input would be appreciated.

Lotsa info here in the downloadable file.....
https://www.tomtomforums.com/general-tomtom-discussion/21826-tomtom-model-feature-reference.html

Considering it's a 5" screen with the same internal hardware as most of the other 5" screen models, I would say you done good. Plus you can add your own custom menu.

 

[wlepse]

Thanks for the links...if it is basically the same guts as the 540 would you suspect issues relating to those units would carry over to this one too? I noticed the sticky at the top of the forum for 540 problems....I guess that will be a good place to start.

 

[canderson]

Thanks for the links...if it is basically the same guts as the 540 would you suspect issues relating to those units would carry over to this one too? I noticed the sticky at the top of the forum for 540 problems....I guess that will be a good place to start.

No - the 540 problems were unique to the firmware on a specific batch of 540 units. Your 530 should not see any of those issues.

 

[wlepse]

This may be a stupid question, but according to that spreadsheet there was only one 530 model and it was the S. So I assume any thread referencing the 530 would be the same as this unit right? What does the S stand for? I know the M and T not sure on the S.

 

[dhn]

'S' normally signifies a text-to-speech model

 

[wlepse]

Can you change the status bar to be vertical vs horizontal?

 

[wlepse]

Well so far I am a little dissapointed with the 530S compared to my TT One. Having the updated maps and larger screen are nice but here are a few issues I am concerned with:
1) My original unit seems a bit faster at calculating a route. I think it may be due to the IQ routes but still would have expected the newer unit to be just as quick. Just concerned what this might mean on a long trip if you miss a turn and it has to recalculate.
2) No matter what I do the car icon will not change, it gives me a pop up message saying it was changed but nothing happens.
3) I had read reviews mentioning this but they seemed old so I hoped TT fixed it, but sure enough any road that has a zero in it is announced as WEST!
4) Last..so far I do question some of the routes. As I mentioned in another thread I am not sure why the unit picks a different route than TT's web routing service.

Any suggestions on how I might be able to tweak this thing?

 

[dhn]

For situation 3, see the info in this thread:
https://www.tomtomforums.com/tomtom-voices/18323-number-enunciation.html

For #2, the car icon only can be seen in 3D, not 2D view. If you ARE in 3D and it doesn't change, try running the Clear Flash tool found here:
Clear Flash tool

Run it 3 times.

 

[wlepse]

Perfect! I just modified that file. As for the icon I think I may have had it in 2D mode at the time so I'll test that again in 3D mode later. As for the routing differences I just tested it this morning and now it matches the website so I think I am trusting it more. As for calculation times I guess I will have to wait and see.

 

[wlepse]

In case anyone has the same concerns...this morning I set up a route that was 700+ miles and intentionally drove in a different location to see how quickly it would recalculate. Overall I think it did pretty well. There was one strange time period where it appeared as if it wasn't doing anything but quickly rerouted me again. So overall I think it is OK, worst case I might have to pull over for 30 seconds (in downtown area) to let it catch up so I am not already past where it wants me to turn.

 

[makaiguy]

Subjective judgement:

My TT XXL 530 M (same as 530 S with lifetime map updates) recalculates when I deviate from its suggested route at least as quickly as the built-in navigator that came with my 2007 Honda.

 

[wlepse]

Yeah like I said earlier I was just surprised that my old TT One was calculating faster. I figured the new unit was getting somewhat bogged down by the IQ routes but honestly I would have thought with processing power and memory getting so cheap in the last few years this new unit would have blown away my old one. I think I read this unit has a 266MHz processor....many new phones are 1GHz.

 

[mvl]

Most of the non-IQroutes Tomtom ONEs were actually 400mhz processors.

Remember, XXLs currently sell for under $100 with no subsidy. All those cellphones with 1ghz chips sell for at least $300 (if not $700) when you don't sign a contract.

Tomtom couldn't keep the price low if it ran a faster CPU.

 

[wlepse]

Most of the non-IQroutes Tomtom ONEs were actually 400mhz processors.

Remember, XXLs currently sell for under $100 with no subsidy. All those cellphones with 1ghz chips sell for at least $300 (if not $700) when you don't sign a contract.

Tomtom couldn't keep the price low if it ran a faster CPU.

Can't say I buy that logic...I understand that cell phones are subsidized by a contract but if I could buy my original One several years ago for under $100 and it had a faster processor why wouldn't it be at least as fast today?

 

[Andy_P]

It's definitely the IQ Routing that slows the calculations down considerably.

Try switching it off on the new model and the speed that you were seeing on the old ONE will reappear, (probably faster).

 

[wlepse]

WOW heads up for anyone looking for a new unit....Target just dropped the price from 70 to 35 bucks! I picked up another unit figuring someone in the family can use it and I am going to go back and see if they will credit me since I have the receipt. I didn't see any in Wayne NJ and I got the last one I saw at Riverdale NJ....So happy hunting.