Should I Upgrade My TomTom Now?

[zengshengliu]

I want to upgrade my tomtom to a newer one.
Currently I have a GO 740 Live. Its still working very well.
The only problem is it is very slow on planning long trips and sometimes it will restart randomly (and voice break up on long trip)
So I am considering a GO M 2535 Live, but my question is, should I upgrade it now? Or should I wait for the next new device from TomTom? (Since they haven't have a new devices for a while, I assume there is a new one soon) Also, will I be able to transfer my current subscription of Live services to the new devices if I decided to upgrade now? (still have 5 months left)

 

[Andy_P]

If your Go740 is still working well, I would hang on to it!
Be aware of the LONG list of features you will lose if you change model for any of the newer ones.

Features removed or crippled on recent models:

Ever since the NAV3 models (Go1000/Via etc.)
POI 'search radius' introduced. POIs further than 50 miles cannot be found or searched for.
HD Traffic incident radius reduced
Itinerary Planning dropped (replaced by far inferior 3-4 waypoints)
Screen grab feature dropped
Picture viewer dropped
Bluetooth File Transfer dropped
Limited speed planning option dropped
Fewer options for distance/time display on "Show instructions/Show route as text" ('Distance to instruction'+ 'Distance since departure' have gone)
"Show route as images" dropped
Read aloud texts dropped
Read aloud Help-me dropped
Keyboard with numbers dropped (GOx40/x5050 used to have best of both, so you had numerals there only when you needed them most, eg for postcode entry)
Display of upper/lower case letters on keyboard dropped
Lists now in larger font so you only get five choices per screen.
That now means you can only select the very top item rather than the top two, unless you expand down to show the full list.
Re-arrangement or customisation of menus dropped
Fuel-prices dropped in UK
Backups not possible.
Addresses on POIs dropped in US - never had them in Europe
"Destination on left/right" announcement dropped (some models)
Male TTS voice dropped in UK- now no choice at all
Google Search maybe to be dropped? - It happened!
Variable speed feature of route demo dropped
"Send to TomTom" from Google Maps etc. dropped
More room taken up by traffic bar, but icons less easy to see.
Fonts used for 'now' and 'next' road are now SMALLER than old models.
"Turn off map display above a certain speed" dropped

Later in NAV3:

User-setting for warning distance when approaching speed cameras dropped
Waypoints reduced from 4 to 3 maximum
Google Search replaced by TT Local Search

 

[zengshengliu]

Features removed or crippled on recent models:

Ever since the NAV3 models (Go1000/Via etc.)
POI 'search radius' introduced. POIs further than 50 miles cannot be found or searched for.
Itinerary Planning dropped (replaced by far inferior 3-4 waypoints)
Picture viewer dropped
Bluetooth File Transfer dropped
Limited speed planning option dropped
Fewer options for distance/time display on "Show instructions/Show route as text" ('Distance to instruction'+ 'Distance since departure' have gone)
Read aloud texts dropped
Read aloud Help-me dropped
Display of upper/lower case letters on keyboard dropped
Lists now in larger font so you only get five choices per screen.
That now means you can only select the very top item rather than the top two, unless you expand down to show the full list.
Re-arrangement or customisation of menus dropped
Fuel-prices dropped in UK
Keyboard with numbers dropped (GOx40/x5050 used to have best of both, so you had numerals there only when you needed them most, eg for postcode entry)
Male TTS voice dropped in UK- now no choice at all
Google Search maybe to be dropped? - It happened!
Variable speed feature of route demo dropped
"Send to TomTom" from Google Maps etc. dropped
Fonts used for 'now' and 'next' road are now SMALLER than old models.
"Turn off map display above a certain speed" dropped
<--------------------------------Does Not Apply to 740-------------------------------->
"Destination on left/right" announcement dropped (some models)

I am ok with those

HD Traffic incident radius reduced

So do you know the radius now? Its probably not that important as the radius "move" as you move

Screen grab feature dropped

You mean screen capture? I only use it once or twice so its ok

"Show route as images" dropped

Whyyyyyyy? (voice in my head: Because its TomTom lol)

Backups not possible.

Wait so you can't make a backup using the disc drive method?

Addresses on POIs dropped in US - never had them in Europe

Its not that important, but sometimes it is useful

More room taken up by traffic bar, but icons less easy to see.

Do you have a screenshot of that?

Later in NAV3:

User-setting for warning distance when approaching speed cameras dropped
Waypoints reduced from 4 to 3 maximum
Google Search replaced by TT Local Search

I updated my 740 so now it uses TT search also
I have a radar detector with speed camera warning so that option is optional

 

[canderson]

Currently I have a GO 740 Live. Its still working very well.
The only problem is it is very slow on planning long trips and sometimes it will restart randomly (and voice break up on long trip)

Are you using the currently available version of firmware? While it does indeed take a bit longer to plan for long trips (the newer models have some 'pre-planned' routing for long and 'obvious' segments), the 740 is hard to beat. Might be nice to try to work through why you're seeing random reboots. My 740 hasn't done that for a long time, and certainly not on the recent release of firmware.

The 740 Live is a great unit, and while you'll note below that I have a number of them that I use and test, the 740 is still far and away my favorite of the entire bunch when it comes to features. I just wish it had one of those nice, big screens like the new ones.

 

[zengshengliu]

Random reboot happens only when "words break up" happen. It seems like words break up happen most offen when the unit is doing multiple things at the same time (ALG image, instruction, navigation). It usually happen on long trip, where the "break up" time (words break up, meaning the time between one word and the next word) will become longer and longer (The longest I see is 30 second) then the unit will reboot and the trip I planned is gone and the location shown on the unit become my home address, and it takes a minutes or 2 before it find the signal.
Current firmware: 9.465.1074274.1

 

[Andy_P]

HD Traffic incident radius reduced

So do you know the radius now? Its probably not that important as the radius "move" as you move

It's going up and down dynamically. There has been loads of discussion about it on the UK TomTom forums such as Pocket GPSWorld, if you want to look deeper.
In the UK, we often need to make an EARLY decision about what major road to take, and having serious incidents further up the road ignored can be a major pain.

Screen grab feature dropped

You mean screen capture? I only use it once or twice so its ok

Yes that's what I meant

Backups not possible.

Wait so you can't make a backup using the disc drive method?

That's right, all the new models that use "MyTomTom" instead of TomTom "Home" arre sen by a PC or Mac as a mini-webserver rather than a disk drive.

More room taken up by traffic bar, but icons less easy to see.

Do you have a screenshot of that?

Not of the same incidents, I'm afraid. But here's the Traffic bar on NAV2 and NAV3 models

 

[zengshengliu]

I see what you meant by the traffic bar, larger, but smaller font(3 min)
So if you have to backup using MyTomTom, is the backup contain "enough" data so that you can fully restore the unit if something goes wrong?

 

[Andy_P]

There is no "full backup as such in MyTomTom.
What you CAN do is this:

1. Maps can be deleted off the device but they remain "stored" on your account at TomTom, so they can be re-downloaded again if you need them (It's worked for me so far, but would you trust that to ALWAYS work? Plus you need a fast internet connection wherever you might need to do it)

2. the software can be restored using an "emergency recovery process" (see the instructions in our "articles" section)

3. Your Favourites, POIs, warning sounds, Car icons, voices (not TTS) and splash screen images, can all be saved back to your computer using the "Add community content" screen of MyTomTom (the same screen you use to add them to the TomTom in the first place).
The only problem is that it is a really "clanky" interface and you have to copy the files one-by-one.

 

[canderson]

Ref item #1:
If MyTomTom is configured to cache all 'large' items, all but the tiniest maps will reside on the PC, ready to reinstall on the unit, and it won't be necessary to take the time to download them again.

Ref item #3:
The only good news is apart from a browser problem some have reported, the rest of us can restore items to the unit (or add new ones) by selecting them in bulk and sending them all at once. Still a pain to have to copy them to the computer one by one to begin with, though. That said, it's quite rare that I modify my custom POI lists on the device. Anything new is already coming from the PC. The one that is an exception is the "Favorites" POI (handled as a POI now, unlike the older models) that I do find myself backing up to PC from time to time.

@Andy
What's the status of sending a *.zip of POI data to the unit these days?

 

[Andy_P]

Ref item #1:
If MyTomTom is configured to cache all 'large' items, all but the tiniest maps will reside on the PC, ready to reinstall on the unit, and it won't be necessary to take the time to download them again.

Thanks, I'd forgotten that (I tend to clear the cashe quite often for reasons you'll understand....

What's the status of sending a *.zip of POI data to the unit these days?

It was still working last time I tried it.
In fact I just tried it again and it's definitely working fine.

 

[zengshengliu]

I see.
I guess I will wait until my current live subscription ends before I do anything
(Maybe) TomTom will come out with a new "better" unit at that time
(Better means bring back features that people want)

 

[mvl]

The biggest advantages of MyTomtom LIVE devices are:
- says whether destination is on the right/left
- 5" screen
- route planning (especially through NYC) is at least 10x faster
- software is a bit more stable (crashes less)


I still have POI addresses, so I'm not sure why Andy is saying they were dropped.


Personally I have upgraded to Android for daily use. The key advantages are:
- when I'm not in the car, I don't have to walk around with a PND (taking it out so it won't be stolen) and a phone in my pocket.
- UI is lightning fast, no real lags anywhere. All items respond within 1 second of tapping
- HD traffic connection is instantaneous (eg: 5 sec or so)

Android still has lots of features missing vs PNDs, but the key feature (routing with IQroutes and HD traffic) is present, and the hardware is much more convenient for daily use.

 

[Andy_P]

I still have POI addresses, so I'm not sure why Andy is saying they were dropped.

That's what I must have been told by US owners while I was compiling the list and asking for suggestions.

Any idea what else they might have meant?

 

[canderson]

If you go to 'info' for a POI that comes with the maps, wasn't there at one time a lack of 'info' there due to reduction in the overall size of the included POI set? Something about hitting the wall on 4GB units in Europe or somesuch?

 

[Andy_P]

That sounds like it... I've never used that info button once!

 

[mvl]

POI addresses were removed from older HOME2-based GO devices, as maps had to adhere to an unnecessary 2GB non-SD-card limit.

There was never a removal on MyTomtom devices, as all the USA devices had double the onboard memory (4GB).

 

[zengshengliu]

So I got an offer email from tomtom saying the live service is $42 for an year (compare to $60 originally).
My current subscription ends at september 3, which brings up the question. Do you think I should take the offer now? Or should I wait and hope that the new device will be released before my current live service end?

 

[dhn]

My betting is that a new device will not be released in the US by that date. But, bottom line, who knows for sure ......... except TomTom.

 

[canderson]

Or perhaps not even TomTom!

 

[zengshengliu]

TomTom: Time to bring out the random number generator