TomTom 720 at Radioshack for $169.99?!?!

[sageuvagony]

Ok, earlier this month there was a deal for a refurbished 720 for 179.99 which I thought was a crazy deal. Oct 14th was the last day it would be running till. I missed the date and got upset but happened to check today and now it's at $169.99!!!

I really want to buy this but the only thing holding me back is that it's an older model, and I'm afraid if I buy it, TomTom will soon discontinue everything for it. I love my ONE XL. I just hate the fact that a product with much less features might be under support longer because it is newer (or is it?)

It's like if I went and bought a 910 right now, I get lots of crazy features but no support. When did the 720 come out? And from what I heard, it seemed as if they almost didn't release 810 maps for the 720.

I'm thinking of returning my 1 month old XL and getting the 720. Should I?

I paid $134.99 + 24.99 for 3 year replacement warranty for the ONE XL.

Ohh and my ONE XL is also refurbished and has worked out GREAT!

Here's the link to the 720

http://www.radioshack.com/product/i...omtom+720&origkw=tomtom+720&parentPage=search

 

[Gilbert]

Ok, earlier this month there was a deal for a refurbished 720 for 179.99 which I thought was a crazy deal. Oct 14th was the last day it would be running till. I missed the date and got upset but happened to check today and now it's at $169.99!!!

I really want to buy this but the only thing holding me back is that it's an older model, and I'm afraid if I buy it, TomTom will soon discontinue everything for it. I love my ONE XL. I just hate the fact that a product with much less features might be under support longer because it is newer (or is it?)

It's like if I went and bought a 910 right now, I get lots of crazy features but no support. When did the 720 come out? And from what I heard, it seemed as if they almost didn't release 810 maps for the 720.

I'm thinking of returning my 1 month old XL and getting the 720. Should I?

I paid $134.99 + 24.99 for 3 year replacement warranty for the ONE XL.

Ohh and my ONE XL is also refurbished and has worked out GREAT!

I'd say go for it. Hardware wise, it is equivalent to the new 730 in that it has the same Samsung integrated chipset, memory and cpu speed. For a difference of 35$ you will be getting the better hw plus tts, more detailed map, speech recognition, and multimedia capability. You could be disappointed in the latter two but fairly sure you will appreciate the other features.

All electronics is doomed to obsolescence at a pace which is hard to foresee as development is unpredictable. Larger memory and faster cpus are things you know will come and render your unit obsolete whatever your model. At that price, you can't make too big a mistake...

 

[sageuvagony]

I'd say go for it. Hardware wise, it is equivalent to the new 730 in that it has the same Samsung integrated chipset, memory and cpu speed. For a difference of 35$ you will be getting the better hw plus tts, more detailed map, speech recognition, and multimedia capability. You could be disappointed in the latter two but fairly sure you will appreciate the other features.

All electronics is doomed to obsolescence at a pace which is hard to foresee as development is unpredictable. Larger memory and faster cpus are things you know will come and render your unit obsolete whatever your model. At that price, you can't make too big a mistake...

Thanks for the advice. I'm gonna go for it. At that price it's hard to pass up.

 

[Ricochet]

I purchased one of these 720 refurbs from Radio Shack, a few weeks ago. It's been great, so far.

The unit came with NavCore7 & the "North_America_2GB" map (version 710), plus a 30 day map guarantee. TomTomHome upgraded the NavCore first to 7.25 or 7.45, then to 8.010. A couple of calls to TT tech support & a fax later, gave me the latest NA 820 map, which enabled ALG & IQ Routing.

I can also report that it handles a 16GB SD Card. All in all, a very good purchase!

R?

 

[sageuvagony]

Well I finally did it. I posted my ONE XL on ebay. I'll be ordering my 720 on Monday. The thing that hurts me most is that my refubished ONE XL has a 2 year replacement warranty vs the refurbished 720 which only has a 6 month warranty. I guess I'll just have to be extra careful with it eh?

 

[GAW]

Are you sure about the 6 months - the refurb I got from Tiger GPS had a one year warranty (plus the map guarantee)?

Check in the "licenses" folder in the 720 to see what the term is. TomTom will probably use the one on the unit to determine the term rather then the vendor's.

 

[dhn]

You may want to read this thread on refurbs from the British forum:
http://www.pocketgpsworld.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=71267

 

[GAW]

It looks like UK folks get to deal with bait-and-switch retailers like a few I mentioned in previous posts. They hook you with the low advertised price, and then tell you things that are not true to try to get you to move to a "qualified' device.

It looks like one of the posters on that link fell for it.

 

[sageuvagony]

It looks like UK folks get to deal with bait-and-switch retailers like a few I mentioned in previous posts. They hook you with the low advertised price, and then tell you things that are not true to try to get you to move to a "qualified' device.

It looks like one of the posters on that link fell for it.

My ONE XL is a refub and I would NEVER be able to tell it was a refurb unless someone told me. It's like brand new and has worked perfectly, which is why I will trust the 720. I'm also found a few others that went for the same deal through Radio Shack and can confirm that it's all good. They even get LMG.

My refurb ONE XL also came with LMG. And as far as warranty, according to Radio Shack there is only a 6 month warranty offered, but on some forums people claim that that has been changed to 1 year. I don't understand why Radio Shack would show a wrong warranty on the website. Their site lists:

Manufacturer Parts Warranty
6 month

Manufacturer Labor Warranty
6 month


Ohh and forgot to mention they have free shipping until the 31st too

 

[dude5]

yeah I'm probably going to put my 330S up on ebay.

The TomTom 720 features more detailed 2GB maps and as already pointed out you can turn it into the 730 with a simple map update which is free thanks to the 30 day map guarantee.

 

[sageuvagony]

I keep reading on the features of the 720 and they make me drool. I have a question about the FM transmitter though. From how I read it, it seems that you can load MP3's on to the device, and then listen to them through your car's stereo? Would I have to set my radio to a certain station for it to pick up my 720's signal? And are you able to change the station on the 720 to what your radio will be tuned to?

I have an FM transmitter that you can hook up to ANYTHING with a headphone jack, then on the FM transmitter you choose ANY station you want, then you tune your radio to that station, and then the radio picks it up. Does the 720 work the same way? And is the 720 able to read out directions through your car's stereo as well?

This is the FM transmitter I have. If the 720 does this as well, I will never need this transmitter again, and will never have to make MP3 cd's ever again either! WOOOOOOOO!!!!

http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProductPage.process?Product_Id=166893

 

[GAW]

I believe you set the station you want to use on the device,as they will vary from place to place.

 

[Ricochet]

I keep reading on the features of the 720 and they make me drool. I have a question about the FM transmitter though. From how I read it, it seems that you can load MP3's on to the device, and then listen to them through your car's stereo? Would I have to set my radio to a certain station for it to pick up my 720's signal? And are you able to change the station on the 720 to what your radio will be tuned to?

The Jukebox in a 720 allows you to store & switch between 2 user-defined FM frequencies. I have mine set to 88.3 & 87.9, which are fairly quiet between my work & home, but I change these freqs whenever I need to.

I have an FM transmitter that you can hook up to ANYTHING with a headphone jack, then on the FM transmitter you choose ANY station you want, then you tune your radio to that station, and then the radio picks it up. Does the 720 work the same way? And is the 720 able to read out directions through your car's stereo as well?

This is the FM transmitter I have. If the 720 does this as well, I will never need this transmitter again, and will never have to make MP3 cd's ever again either! WOOOOOOOO!!!!

Don't throw away your other FM transmitter, just yet... I have an FM Transmitter/recharger for my IPod, which produces far superior sound quality to the TomTom. TT's playback is okay, but sometimes lacks "depth" or fails to bring out background instruments as well as the IPod does.

Another thing I've found is that while the iPod's FM transmitter is hardly ever drowned out by nearby radio towers or static sources, the TomTom's frequently suffers from this--probably due to low-power limitations or something (which is why I have to switch between two freq's...). You can also shut off the FM transmitter for playback through the unit's rear speaker, which I don't recommend for anything but audio-books.

And while I'm thinking about it, make sure you disable your other FM transmitter when using the TomTom's. Mine gets annoyed when I forget & mistakenly run both on the same freq. This sometimes requires a TT reboot to get it to transmit FM again.


IIRC, directions, alerts, & phone conversations still come out of the TT unit, but it halts playback during such instances. This can be a bit jarring if you're the type who painstakingly enters in lots of speed-limit data and then overly relies on cruise-control:

...music..music..mus {pause} SLOW DOWN! {resume} ic..music..music...

But other than all that, the transmitter works pretty well. It auto-starts & reports its status in a textbox, when you power the unit on. You can add its icon to the quickmenu, if desired. And it plays music.

R?

 

[sageuvagony]

What do I do when I sell the device? How can I detach the device from my HOME account? Will the buyer have any issues? The 2 year warranty contract is fully refundable/transferable which is not a problem, but just wondering about the device itself when the buyer decides to register it in the HOME software. Will he/she simply just have to call customer service to be able to register his device to his HOME account?

 

[Ricochet]

What do I do when I sell the device? How can I detach the device from my HOME account? Will the buyer have any issues? The 2 year warranty contract is fully refundable/transferable which is not a problem, but just wondering about the device itself when the buyer decides to register it in the HOME software. Will he/she simply just have to call customer service to be able to register his device to his HOME account?

As I understand it, you're allowed to switch the email addy you registered with Home, once (or maybe it's: you're allowed to reassign a device to a new addy, once), after that you'll need to contact customer service.

Probably better to call them first as they'll be able to remove your old TT from that email address, which will greatly help your potential buyer.

 

[Buddharay]

yeah I'm probably going to put my 330S up on ebay.

The TomTom 720 features more detailed 2GB maps and as already pointed out you can turn it into the 730 with a simple map update which is free thanks to the 30 day map guarantee.

I'd recommend double-checking with Radio Shack what that warranty covers. The Radio Shack warranty may cover defective parts, etc., but the refurbished units can sometimes have different coverage under TomTom (i.e. Map Guarantee, etc.)

Whether you're thinking about the 330s, the 730 or the 720, the safest bet is to call Radio Shack and then call TomTom to confirm that everyone is on the same page.

Radio Shack's #: 800-843-7422

TomTom's #: 866-486-6866

Hope this helps!

 

[sageuvagony]

I'd recommend double-checking with Radio Shack what that warranty covers. The Radio Shack warranty may cover defective parts, etc., but the refurbished units can sometimes have different coverage under TomTom (i.e. Map Guarantee, etc.)

Whether you're thinking about the 330s, the 730 or the 720, the safest bet is to call Radio Shack and then call TomTom to confirm that everyone is on the same page.

Radio Shack's #: 800-843-7422

TomTom's #: 866-486-6866

Hope this helps!

It's already been said that Radio Shack and the like that offer refurbished products include latest map guarantee. The ONE XL I just sold also is a refurb and came with LMG.