The new design is a fail for me. It's very different from the older devices.
1. The text on the 6" is too small. I have a large car and I like the device to be on the screen, not on the dash - further away is better so I'm not refocusing so much when glancing at the device. On my previous GO Premium X, all is good. I could put up with the super-skinny roads in the new map design, but the font, which on most digital devices is the easiest thing to control, is way too small on its highest setting. I have already exhausted all the possibilities of making adjustments to the GO Superior, with the help of TomTom support tickets and it simply isn't possible. Upgrade to 7" - well, that won't fit with the angle of my screen.
2. The 3D view is bad now. I like the 3D view that has long been a staple of the TomTom interface. If I could get on with 2D I'd have switched to google maps long ago.
The 3D view on the GO Premium X is perfect, just as the Go 5000 before it, and all the other TomToms I've had over the last 18 years. But the 3D view on the GO Superior has changed the bird's eye view to a shallower angle, so the top 1/3 of the screen is wasted as blue sky, and things appearing over the horizon are unintelligible. I was delighted to find I could two finger drag on the screen to adjust this angle, but it doesn't hold. I set it how I like it and a few junctions later it's back to 1/3 blue sky again. I'm not driving a Sesna, so WTF use is blue sky to any driver? Maybe some people love it, but I hate it. The promo screenshots and vids don't have this shallow angle. Hmm.
3. The UI has copied the google maps UI design by putting a big blue rectangular blob of information over the map. I know it's a common trend, but it just annoys the hell out of me every time I'm turning and notice a section of the map with details I want, rotate out of sight under the blue blob. Sigh.
4. The lane guidance obliterates map features. I was driving through Oxford the other day, where there is an unusual roundabout with a road through it. Link
The screen changed away from normal, to the lane advice, showing two (three?) blue paths bearing to the left. The roundabout was gone from the display entirely, just two curves. The GO Premium never did that. Elsewhere, in London in particular, saw the same thing several times, a complex multilane roundabout, the display changes to show some blue paths but the roundabout is gone.
5. I saved you traffic! No you didn't. I often use the navigation to let me know about traffic on local runs. I have my preferred beaten path to and from common locations, and I just ignore the turn-by-turn and it recalculates quietly. E.g. There's a spot where I will go straight on at a roundabout, but turn-by-turn always wants me to make a left just before it. I ignore the turn, and TomTom replans to go straight on. All good. Not on the Go Superior. When I ignore that left turn, superior plans for me to turn around at the roundabout, and then immediately bings and pops up a green alternative route, straight on. There's no traffic around, so no reason why. I ignore it and get home, where it proudly tells me how much traffic it saved me today. Someone is massaging the success figures perhaps? Anyway for me the credibility is poor if it's doing stuff like this.
6. I thought the Enhanced Visual Cues would be great, as I drive without sound guidance. And it works well, except it happens at every point where there would be voice guidance, and it removes the map for 0.5 second each time. So, where it would be really, really useful on motorways and duals, it's annoying and obstructive around town. Can you control when it happens? No. The only control is on / off. It got switched off day one.
The single redeeming feature it has, is the advice of subsequent turnings. E.g. shortly after this turning, go straight on at a roundabout. Loved that.
All it needs is a bit more configurability. But without that it's virtually unusable. I gave it 20+ hours of driving. After the first 6 hours, I put the GO Premium on too, but on the far left passenger side so I wasn't biased. Sure enough when Superior introduced doubts (usually lane guidance), I glanced at the Premium and all was crystal clear.
In almost every respect it's inferior to the GO Premium. I might try again in future versions, to see if improvements have been made, but this one is being returned under the UK 14 day rule.
1. The text on the 6" is too small. I have a large car and I like the device to be on the screen, not on the dash - further away is better so I'm not refocusing so much when glancing at the device. On my previous GO Premium X, all is good. I could put up with the super-skinny roads in the new map design, but the font, which on most digital devices is the easiest thing to control, is way too small on its highest setting. I have already exhausted all the possibilities of making adjustments to the GO Superior, with the help of TomTom support tickets and it simply isn't possible. Upgrade to 7" - well, that won't fit with the angle of my screen.
2. The 3D view is bad now. I like the 3D view that has long been a staple of the TomTom interface. If I could get on with 2D I'd have switched to google maps long ago.
The 3D view on the GO Premium X is perfect, just as the Go 5000 before it, and all the other TomToms I've had over the last 18 years. But the 3D view on the GO Superior has changed the bird's eye view to a shallower angle, so the top 1/3 of the screen is wasted as blue sky, and things appearing over the horizon are unintelligible. I was delighted to find I could two finger drag on the screen to adjust this angle, but it doesn't hold. I set it how I like it and a few junctions later it's back to 1/3 blue sky again. I'm not driving a Sesna, so WTF use is blue sky to any driver? Maybe some people love it, but I hate it. The promo screenshots and vids don't have this shallow angle. Hmm.
3. The UI has copied the google maps UI design by putting a big blue rectangular blob of information over the map. I know it's a common trend, but it just annoys the hell out of me every time I'm turning and notice a section of the map with details I want, rotate out of sight under the blue blob. Sigh.
4. The lane guidance obliterates map features. I was driving through Oxford the other day, where there is an unusual roundabout with a road through it. Link
The screen changed away from normal, to the lane advice, showing two (three?) blue paths bearing to the left. The roundabout was gone from the display entirely, just two curves. The GO Premium never did that. Elsewhere, in London in particular, saw the same thing several times, a complex multilane roundabout, the display changes to show some blue paths but the roundabout is gone.
5. I saved you traffic! No you didn't. I often use the navigation to let me know about traffic on local runs. I have my preferred beaten path to and from common locations, and I just ignore the turn-by-turn and it recalculates quietly. E.g. There's a spot where I will go straight on at a roundabout, but turn-by-turn always wants me to make a left just before it. I ignore the turn, and TomTom replans to go straight on. All good. Not on the Go Superior. When I ignore that left turn, superior plans for me to turn around at the roundabout, and then immediately bings and pops up a green alternative route, straight on. There's no traffic around, so no reason why. I ignore it and get home, where it proudly tells me how much traffic it saved me today. Someone is massaging the success figures perhaps? Anyway for me the credibility is poor if it's doing stuff like this.
6. I thought the Enhanced Visual Cues would be great, as I drive without sound guidance. And it works well, except it happens at every point where there would be voice guidance, and it removes the map for 0.5 second each time. So, where it would be really, really useful on motorways and duals, it's annoying and obstructive around town. Can you control when it happens? No. The only control is on / off. It got switched off day one.
The single redeeming feature it has, is the advice of subsequent turnings. E.g. shortly after this turning, go straight on at a roundabout. Loved that.
All it needs is a bit more configurability. But without that it's virtually unusable. I gave it 20+ hours of driving. After the first 6 hours, I put the GO Premium on too, but on the far left passenger side so I wasn't biased. Sure enough when Superior introduced doubts (usually lane guidance), I glanced at the Premium and all was crystal clear.
In almost every respect it's inferior to the GO Premium. I might try again in future versions, to see if improvements have been made, but this one is being returned under the UK 14 day rule.
Last edited:
