opinions and advice

[gez]

I and probably a few other people who don,t have sat nav but want one and not sure which one suits would value your opinion on which is better suited for what purpose. As someone who has never used one all the tech jargon is hard to follow , so could you please in simple terms say which one you have,what does it do i.e sat nav/cameras/order a pizza etc, what a resonanable price is new and seconed hand and if you have to pay to either use it or download the latest updates. thanks for your coments im sure as usual they will be helpful to alot of people

 

[Bluemotion]

TomTom have a too big of a restriction on the tomtom Standalone devices

i advise a PDA with a gps ariel (they look very nice now)
or a pda and a gps module

 

[rock]

Go for a PDA version rather than a stand alone one.

 

[gez]

pda

Go for a PDA version rather than a stand alone one.

whats the difference , and whats the benifits of a pda against something like garman i3 . when i go into shop they just blow me away with all techie stuff lol, it makes me wanna slap the salesman who seems more interested in selling the extended warranty

 

[rock]

whats the difference , and whats the benifits of a pda against something like garman i3 . when i go into shop they just blow me away with all techie stuff lol, it makes me wanna slap the salesman who seems more interested in selling the extended warranty

On my XDA IIi, I have added the speed camera's and various points of interests (POI).

 

[Tech Babe]

So what sort of pda should we be looking for

 

[rock]

So what sort of pda should we be looking for

Here is one and its pretty good for the money:

http://www.expansys.com/product.asp?code=126746&tab=0

It has a built in GPS receiver with its own navigation software and if you want you can install TomTom on it and use the built in GPS receiver with that too.

 

[gez]

looks a good one, thanks for your imput

 

[linzi]

but can you get live traffic and stuff on it tho

 

[amackay]

PDA vs Standalone

Unless you are buying the TomTom 910 I would recommend the PDA option. I have just recently upgraded to the 910 and with T-Mobile Web n Walk its a perfect combo for traffic updates on the move and hands free calling.

 

[majestyk]

Totally disagree -- if you are not a technofreak, get a stand-alone as they are less fussy.

If you are a professional driver, get a decent Tom Tom with a touch screen to make entering addresses easy. (But don't expect it to know clever cabbie-style short cuts through London)
If you are an ordinary bloke who doesn't want to get lost lost, the Garmin i3 will get you there and cost only £130 or so.

They are all good, providing you accept that they will not necessarily recommend the best route possible. As far as I know they will all give speed camera alerts (with a lot of fiddling to load the database) and only the oldest won't find addresses by postcode.

Go for it!

 

[allroad]

just a note guys tom tom does not work in ireland

 

[ibbyibz]

thanks for the info allroad, i never knew that but now i do

 

[c9679]

I would recommend a PDA version or if you have a smart mobile phone like 6630, 6680, N70... then try TomTom Mobile.

I preffer the PDA version just because you can do more with the PDA the TomTom all in ones are too expensive for my liking, for the same price you can get a half decent PDA or a smart phone or a PDA Smartphone, lol then download TomTom and just add a GPS receiver...

Whats a GPS Receiver
The GPS Receiver is what gets the signal from the satalites to triangulate your position, it can then plot this on the maps and track where you. There are other devices which sometimes are advertised as sat nav that dont use GPS receivers and dont have one built in these are basically just glorified road maps, which you have to tell where you are and they just give you directions, true sat nav tracks where you are and plots the route from your current location to your destination... Some PDAs or other units have GPS receivers built in like Toys R US do a cheap one, but these use cheap navigation software which often doesnt get updated. With a normal PDA and TomTom you can use a Bluetooth GPS Receiver usually about £50.

TomTom
I would recommend tomtom as opposed to others as I have found this to be the best user interface, I built a full carputer for my car which ran a laptop from a front touch screen, the sat nav that I had which was about 1 gig in size was absolutely rubbish compared to the simple tomtom running on my phone...
TomTom has great support with hundreds of sites to solve any problems and the extras you can download for it, the maps are usually more upto date than other software I have tried... Just the whole thing is just generally really easy to use with a clean 3D mapping system.

TomTom has a POI (Points of Interest) Database system where you can add your own POI such as a database of Camera locations, or locations of major shops like Asda... Its the best all round package in my opinion

If you are a professional driver I would recommend the all in one unit because you can leave this in your car otherwise if your only using it for everyday journeys and occasional outings then the PDA or Phone version, gives you the same options but in a device you can use for other purposes...

 

[gez]

keep it coming guys,all this info is very helpful to anyone who hasn,t got satnav yet. good posts have been made 10 outta 10

 

[gez]

ok,after reading the excellent posts i have decided to go for the garman i3. all i want is uk maps and speed cameras so seems the best and easiest. can someone point me to the place where i can get one for about £130.
many many thanks for all your input ,as usual it's been top drawer. 1st class etc.

 

[gez]

ok im going to bid on garvin i3 on ebay fully loaded,thanks everbody for you input ,was as expected top quality stuff. many thanks

 

[Dutcho]

Which one's can you change the voices on ? I like that idea

 

[gez]

nearly there now ooooooooooooooooo
GOT IT comes with latest software and built in speed cams was done on 12/07 and its 2 months old. hurry up postman lol

 

[sniper214]

you can change voices on the tom tom one,i know cos i've done it lol