Hi,
I have been using a Garmin Nuvi 205, and just recently bought a Tomtom XXL 540 TM. In general I am really liking all the new features in the Tomtom, but there is one very glaring difference that is tough to take, and this is:
Length of time it takes the Tomtom device to calculate a route.
Note - I am not speaking about the time to travel the route, I am speaking about the time it takes just for the unit to figure out how to get from A to B.
The Tomtom performance here is not even in the same ballpark as the old, bottom-of-the-line Nuvi. It's not even close. As a test, I had both units calculate a route from Boston, MA to San Francisco, CA.
Tomtom options: IQ Routes, Depart Now (Saturday afternoon July 10, 2010), Fastest Time, All avoidances set to "Ask me", time measured from last button press before it really starts working, to the time the unit asks me about "Toll Roads found, do you want to avoid them"
Trial 1 (IQ Routes On): 2:25
Trial 2 (IQ Routes Off): 1:31
Nuvi optios: Fastest time, All avoidances disabled: 0:15
As near as I can tell, the route is exactly the same (I didn't check the small city-level details, but certainly the major highways used to cross the country are the same).
Is there any way to speed up the Tomtom performance? Are there options I can deselect to improve the calculation time? I guessed correctly that IQ Routes was an expensive option, are there others?
Is performance better on the higher-end GO models, like the GO 740 Live? Someone with one of those units want to run a check for me?
I really like the Tomtom, but this problem is almost a deal breaker. Consider my example of Boston to San Fran, I kick it off on the 2.5 minute route search, and it says "Oops, toll roads found, want to avoid them?" and I answer yes, and 2.5 minutes later now it asks "how about carpool lanes?" and I again say, "yes avoid those too", and finally, 7.5+ minutes in, I'm ready to start driving. Oops, I got off-route leaving Boston, hang on let me pull off onto the shoulder for 2.5 minutes while it sorts itself out again....bah.
Of course I can help things a bit by remembering to pre-set the TT avoidances to the desired setting before kicking off a route calculation, but I wouldn't have to do that if the TT had 15-second performance like the ancient Garmin. And that won't help me at all if I kick the TT into a recalc by getting off route.
Grumble.
Thanks for all advice. I really don't want to have to return this thing, I like (N-1) of its features.
I have been using a Garmin Nuvi 205, and just recently bought a Tomtom XXL 540 TM. In general I am really liking all the new features in the Tomtom, but there is one very glaring difference that is tough to take, and this is:
Length of time it takes the Tomtom device to calculate a route.
Note - I am not speaking about the time to travel the route, I am speaking about the time it takes just for the unit to figure out how to get from A to B.
The Tomtom performance here is not even in the same ballpark as the old, bottom-of-the-line Nuvi. It's not even close. As a test, I had both units calculate a route from Boston, MA to San Francisco, CA.
Tomtom options: IQ Routes, Depart Now (Saturday afternoon July 10, 2010), Fastest Time, All avoidances set to "Ask me", time measured from last button press before it really starts working, to the time the unit asks me about "Toll Roads found, do you want to avoid them"
Trial 1 (IQ Routes On): 2:25
Trial 2 (IQ Routes Off): 1:31
Nuvi optios: Fastest time, All avoidances disabled: 0:15
As near as I can tell, the route is exactly the same (I didn't check the small city-level details, but certainly the major highways used to cross the country are the same).
Is there any way to speed up the Tomtom performance? Are there options I can deselect to improve the calculation time? I guessed correctly that IQ Routes was an expensive option, are there others?
Is performance better on the higher-end GO models, like the GO 740 Live? Someone with one of those units want to run a check for me?
I really like the Tomtom, but this problem is almost a deal breaker. Consider my example of Boston to San Fran, I kick it off on the 2.5 minute route search, and it says "Oops, toll roads found, want to avoid them?" and I answer yes, and 2.5 minutes later now it asks "how about carpool lanes?" and I again say, "yes avoid those too", and finally, 7.5+ minutes in, I'm ready to start driving. Oops, I got off-route leaving Boston, hang on let me pull off onto the shoulder for 2.5 minutes while it sorts itself out again....bah.
Of course I can help things a bit by remembering to pre-set the TT avoidances to the desired setting before kicking off a route calculation, but I wouldn't have to do that if the TT had 15-second performance like the ancient Garmin. And that won't help me at all if I kick the TT into a recalc by getting off route.
Grumble.
Thanks for all advice. I really don't want to have to return this thing, I like (N-1) of its features.
