TomTom GO 730 and GO 930 GPS - new traffic intelligence

In the hotly contested portable navigation device market, TomTom has announced its latest products, the GO 730 and GO 930, boasting two notable new features: IQ Routes traffic-informed routing and Advanced Lane Guidance with realistic views for major intersections. Both new features will be in the GO 730 and GO 930 models, on sale late April.

IQ Routes functionality draws on historical speed profiles of over 6.2 billion miles of roads driven by TomTom users. Devices already in service capture the data and then it is made available about four times a year when TomTom releases its regular map updates. By understanding the traffic patterns due to rush-hour congestion, traffic lights, rotaries, and other factors, this new feature reportedly enables the devices to provide a more appropriate route for the specific day and time, and subsequently give a more accurate prediction for time to destination.

Advanced Lane Guidance changes the map view to a relatively realistic depiction of highway junctions with lane-specific visual directions on a static image. Navigon offers a similar feature called "Reality View." In our testing, we found this to be helpful when navigating confusing highway intersections. (See Navigon 5100 first look and video.)

TomTom GO 730 and TomTom GO 930
The new personal navigation devices (PNDs) introduce a sleek, black design and new features to the company's GPS lineup. The two units appear quite similar, with few differences. The 730 includes maps for the United States and Canada, with 2 gigs internal memory. The 930 adds European maps and has 4 gigs memory, plus it has a unique dead-reckoning technology to maintain navigation even in tunnels and among skyscrapers. Otherwise, the models are quite similar.

Common to the GO 730 and GO 930:

• 4.3-inch screen
• Voice address input
• Spoken street names
• Bluetooth
• "Help me" direct access to emergency services
• FM transmitter

—Jeff Bartlett

For more information on portable GPS navigation systems, see our Ratings and buying advice and watch our video guide. Discuss GPS devices in the forums. 

Comments

[Thomas]

The most important spec of any device is its price (or projected price).

What good is the best toy in the world if you can`t afford it?

Or are you assuming that we have unlimited funds out here?

[Jeff Bartlett]

I know, this is a bit of a tease. No pricing information was released, and given the volatility of this segment, I'm hesitant to guess. Certainly, these models will not be in the entry-level, <$250 category. The technology sounds quite exciting, and we are looking forward to putting them to the test.

[John Combes]

I am a longtime Garmin user and recently tested the TomTom 930 for friend and found it to be very clumsy and not user friendly...eg. when I programmed it to go to a certain destination I purposely passed the turn and the unit would not tell me to take an alternate route to get to my destination (it did indicate this change on the screen but compared to a Garmin which corrects you immediately with 'recalculating verbally',this feature allows you to drive without looking at the unit and having to read the change, also when I contacted customer service at TomTom the assistant had to consult with another person for the answer (which was annoying showing that their people are not well trained...I have never had a Garmin customer service have to confer with another on any problem due to the fact they are all very well informed on all issues with their products....for the money there is no way I would consider any other product other then a Garmin......

[David Lerner]

According the the press I've read, the TomTom 930 won't ship until April 29, 2008, so it certainly appears that the above criticism is bogus and is in fact disinformation. I am a long-term TomTom user, and frankly mine works so well (even when I miss a turn and it finds a new route in a few seconds) that I've never even though of trying a Garmin! And in four years of TomTom use in the USA, Europe and even Australia, I've never had to phone tech support for any reason. Full disclosure - we tried to sell TomToms in our computer store a few years ago, we learned that selling GPS wasn't our thing. I think we only ended up selling them to employees. They like them too.

[canadaman]

I am the owner of the 920 and when i discovered out the upcoming 930, I called the support to see if there will have an update available for 920 so that it can have the 2 newly features. The answers were: no!!! sigh....

Reasons: maps different, application different so 930 and 920 will only share some common points: EPT, the number 9, the brand and the size. Maps totally different. again, sigh

However, I don't know if these two features will be really available in Canada....

[Rachel]

Not too pleased here! I have been a huge Tomtom supporter ever since I purchased the 910 a couple of years ago--I just bought the newly released 930 after owning a 910 and it doesn't match up to my older version.

I was really disappointed with the screen brightness even after changing it 100%. You cannot see the screen very well. If you plan on driving with the Tomtom attached to your windshield while the sun is out, don't depend being able to see the screen. I am going to try exchanging it to see if it is unique to just the unit I happened to get.

Also, the text to speech option is not working consistently. It will sometimes blurt out the street name after I have made the turn.

I waited for this unit so I could have the "newest" technology especially with the feature of the "Advanced Lane Guidance" and I am not impressed. I live in Dallas (lots of highways) and I have yet to see that feature (which is turned on) actually work or appear on my screen. I was told by Tomtom that it just depends of the area as to whether or not it will work. My opinion on that is, if that won't work in a huge Metropolitan area like Dallas, where will it work?

Not to mention that my Blackberry Curve with bluetooth is NOT compatible with any of Tomtom Plus Services (i.e. weather, traffic, fuel prices, etc.), except to make calls which is touch and go.

I have contacted Tomtom about my issues and they said that they could not assist me since it is such new technology and they are waiting for more feedback to come in so they can come up with troubleshooting ideas.

BOTTOM LINE: I am not ready to give up on Tomtom and will try exchanging my unit for another 930 tonight. Sorry for the lengthy comment but I know how important it is to get good solid advice before purchasing, hope this helps!

[Gary zeune]

I bought a TomTom 920T about 3 weeks ago. It was rated 3rd behind two Garmin units but it has speak input of street address. Normally it's $650 or more. I got mine at Circuit City for $400 and Best Buy has them for $400 this week.

Overall it's great. I keyed in an address to a garage sale on Sat. I got to the neighborhood and a bunch of house had stuff out so I made many changes in my route to the inputted address. Every time I changed direction TT instantly recalculated the route. However, Monday I drove through downtown Columbus Ohio on my way to Dayton to speak at a conference. At one point I-670 has an East and West exit. TT simply said "Take Interstate 670". No east or west. If I'd been in a strange city I would have been horribly confused. Later in the trip I had to exit from I-70 west to I-75 South. TT said "Take I-75 South to the left". Problem is I75 exits to the right. And has for 30 years. I could understand an occasional in error in a dense neighborhood or new street. But there's no excuse for major errors on 20 year old interstates. That said I'll keep it and love it.

[Shirley Chen]

I bought a TomTom 930 and I absolutely love it. Everyone keeps talking about Garmin, but I've owned a few Garmins and must say they are the most overrated products out. The TomTom I own is half of the price of any similar Garmin. I've heard some people say Garmin maps are more accurate, my Garmin Nuvi 350 had many map errors in Northern California where I live. TomTom is the ONLY brand that offers free map updates everyday of the year with their MAPSHARE feature, for Garmin I had to pay $80 at the end of the year for a map update. Also TomTom's IQ routing is revolutionary because it uses historical data to update routes, which nobody else can say.My Garmin Nuvi 350 always took me on roads that had tremendous amounts of traffic, and now the TomTom I have actually corrects that. Also, I have children, and the fun things I can do to customize my TomTom like: free car icons, map colors, and the ability to record my own voice for turn by turn directions is a hit! I plan on traveling to Europe in another month and this TomTom will be coming with me because of the preloaded maps of 35 European countries. I rate the TomTom 930 5/5 stars, it's definitely the best gps out; I forgot to mention it's only $499!

[roger]

May 6 2008

TomTom has begun the sales of new 7.20 and 8.05 maps for all their devices. These new maps are based on the 2008.1 release by Tele Atlas.

TomTom offers new maps for downloadToday, TomTom started to offer new map material for all their navigational units. The company has released maps under version number 8.05 for GO x30 owners and 7.20 for the owners of all other devices. The mapping material for both is based on the January release (2008.1) of map supplier Tele Atlas.

As with the previous update, the mapping material is only for sale as a direct download from TomTom’s servers, so these maps will not be available on DVD, CD or SD in any (online) shops. The download of such large files can sometimes take a very long time, but once complete, installation of the new maps should be very simple via TomTom’s free desktop application HOME.

8.05-maps
The map update for the recently released GO x30 series can be used as a replacement of the 8.00 map version shipped with the unit. Of course, this new map also supports all the new NavCore 8 functionality such as IQ Routes and Advanced Lane Guidance.
With their aptly-named ‘Latest map guarantee’, TomTom offers a free update to the latest maps available, if new maps get released within 30 days of the purchase of your device. Since the GO x30 model has only been made available very recently, we can imagine every x30 owner will be entitled to this free upgrade.

[Mike]

Just bought a 930 for a business trip to CA. Flew into LA and and then on to San Diego. The Nav portion performed flawlessly. Good thing too - I had never been to CA. Window suction mount kept coming loose - annoying. I also can not figure out how to cancel a route once nav is initiated. Not sure when I need to update the maps either since it's brand new - message to customer support - no response. I had some erratic screen behavior making the unit useless. Customer support useless. I think the issue has something to do with the case I've been using and getting debris around the peripherial of the screen. Avoiding case and ran paper under the edges to hopefully clean it out? So far so good... We'll see. Overall, however, I love this unit. Very accurate navigation and easy to use (for me).

[tenaciousD1975]

This is important!

If you bought a 930T and you get a message that reads, "RDS-TMC Cannot Be Used In Combination With This Map," it's most likely because you have a European receiver. You need to tell the TomTom support this and have them send you the American model.

I spent HOURS trying to work with TomTom and fiddling it with myself before one of the support team figured it out. Not to throw TomTom's whole customer support under the bus, but I spent over two hours on hold one time and an hour and a half the other. They told me to download different maps and do a "flash reboot" or something. None of that worked.

Finally, an Army trained TomTom tech support named John used some quick thinking and had me switch to the Europe maps. Sure enough, the error message didn't show up and the upper right hand of the screen showed an arrow going over a car symbol as it was trying to pick up a signal. He sent me over to a special support team (another hour and a half on hold later!!) and they sent me a waybill via email for me to Fedex the EU receiver for the American one.

A pretty frustrating experience overall, but I must say that I love the 930 anyway. I've learned to "trust the TomTom." Obviously, you always need to be mindful that some of the maps may not match reality, but this one's pretty good. Make sure that you get the updated, 1900mb map. The one I was sent had like 1700mb.

I hope this helps the GPS community in some way. If you're thinking of buying the 930 and have some questions for a regular Joe using this new model, don't hesitate to contact me.

Best,

-D