The Budding Navigator

Just recently, I got myself a new GPS unit. Of course my girlfriend got pretty jealous and wanted one of her own. Seeing as how she knows little about electronics and essentially told me to choose and buy the unit for her, I used essentially the same criteria to purchase hers that I did when purchasing mine. Having gotten a 4.3" screen in mine and knowing how much better that is than the 3.5" screens in other units I had to do the same for her. Another feature I really like on mine is the extensive points-of-interest list. I know this is now more-or-less ubiquitous on all GPS units, but its always a good idea to check just how many POIs are installed.

The TomTom Go 720 has the above features and a few features that really distinguish it from the ever more homogenous crowd. One of the features is called Map Share and allows for user updates to the map as well as the downloading of fellow user updates and TomTom approved updates. These might include a new pizza store or the closing of a road due to long term construction. Another of the new options is the Help Me option which allows the user to locate the nearest emergency services. To augment the Help Me feature, a press of the Where Am I button will give you your exact location so that it might be transmitted to those trying to find and help you.

The driving directions from the unit have always been fantastic. It allows us go navigate around certain areas and allows the choice of quickest or shortest routes as well as avoidance of tolls. If only there were a feature that could tell us how to increase MPG or lower the price of gas, this would be the greatest invention ever!

Part of the reason for this units cost is the Bluetooth integration. Using her funny looking wireless head piece my girlfriend can make and receive phone calls using her GPS as an onscreen display. The interface is very easy to use and she now receives every phone call through the device. I suppose her ability to screen callers before she answers would account for our less frequent phone calls, but I do have to admit that it makes this driving while talking thing much safer.

The Bluetooth can also be paired with the cell phone to access real time traffic information. We have used this feature fairly sparingly because it does use cell minutes to dial up to this service. It is nice to know though, that If need be, we have it and we can use it.

The 720 is very aesthetically pleasing with slim profile and sharp color scheme. The black and gray colors should complement any car interior and make less of the "I am a dork" statement.

The screen on the unit is very bright and clear. The maps look fantastic and can be read just as easily in bright sunlight as they can in the night. The brightness of the screen can be adjusted for those who aren't happy with it right out of the box and the map can be set to a different color scheme as well as to night mode. The keyboard on the screen is easy to use as far as color size but still sticks to the strange alphabetical order used on most other devices. It would seem to me that if the QWERTY system is better for computer keyboards than alphabetical order and we are all used to that layout, then why make all these GPS units with an alphabetical keyboard. Notwithstanding the layout, the keyboard is easy to use and I have yet to get annoyed by pressing more than one letter with my one fat finger.

The only other common use for the onscreen menus, which is really not so common for everyone else, is adjusting the volume. There are no external buttons to do this. One must navigate through the menus to find the keys to raise or lower the volume. As this is something of a requirement when shifting from quiet country roads to the noisy highway, this is a bit of an annoyance. As such, I generally have the unit too loud one the roads and too quiet on the highway. Luckily, her car has enough sound proofing that this little feature doesn't make use impossibly annoying.

Of course, as all of these devices get more complicated and are forced to compete with each other more, they add more useless features. This one comes with a music player, iPod compatibility, picture viewer, and some other features I have never used. I have never really used any of the above listed features because her car has a radio, iPod connectivity built in, and we have never found a reason to view slideshows while driving.

Battery life on this unit is more than adequate. I have yet to have it die on me - mostly due to the included car charger. I have walked around with it a few times and I found that got about found a half hours of life out of the battery with the screen set to factory brightness.

Over all this is a great unit. It has all the frills that everyone else includes (ranging from nice to completely frivolous) as well as some really innovative new features that no one else has. It is because of these new features that I think this was a really good choice of GPS units and will keep us happy for some time to come.