Amazon.com Product Description -- 10/02/08 The GO 920 and it's sibling, the 920T, are TomTom's new flagshipportable GPS navigators, replacing the GO 910. The GO 920T comes bundled with TomTom's RDS-TMC traffic receiver and a one-year subscription to the Clear Channel traffic service, which allows users to receive real-time traffic information. The traffic receiver is sold as a separate accessory for the GO 920. 
The icon-driven menu system makes using TomTom's snap.
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Emergency menu gives you fast direct access to emergency numbers and direction to the nearest assistance. |  Voice instructions are available in over 30 languages (complete list below) ($33.99). You can even record directions in your own voice, download specialty voices free at TomTom's website, or purchase celebrity voices. Listen to sample clips.
Free download samples
Celebrity voice samples
- Dennis Hopper
- Curt Schilling
- Gary Busey
Or record your own directions in your own voice.
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The 4.3-inch (diagonal) 3D driving view offers a clear picture of the road and maneuvers ahead (actual size). |
The first big difference you'll notice is that the 920s are much thinner than the 910. TomTom introduced this slim form factor with last year's ONE. With the release of the top-of-the-line 920s, TomTom now offers a full range of units in the new form factor (see a feature comparison for all of TomTom's GO and ONE devices ($33.99)). When you turn it on, you'll also notice the increased performance and features the 920s packs into their slimmer form.
What's New -- Enhanced Positioning Technology
TomTom’s new Enhanced Positioning Technology uses movement and gravity sensors to calculate drivers’ positions when GPS signals are unavailable. This helps the device continue to navigate to its destination, even when there may not be a direct line-of-sight connection to a satellite (for example, when driving in a city with tall buildings, underpasses or bridges).
What's New -- Voice Prompted Address Entry
Voice prompted address entry gives users the option to speak the address to which they want to drive. Users can simply speak the city, street name and address number they would like to travel to, and the device will automatically calculate the route.
MapShare lets you add your own map corrections and POIs, then share them with the entire TomTom user community via the TomTom HOME website | What's New -- Map Share
The GO 920 includes TomTom's innovative new Map Share technology. Map Share enables users to make easy changes to the map and to share map corrections with other TomTom customers so that users always have the most up-to-date maps available.
Widescreen View and FM Transmitter
See more. Hear more. The GO 920 offers a 4.3-inch, extra-wide, touch-screen LCD display that features anti-glare technology for easy viewing even in direct sunlight. Realistic and clear visual instructions are provided with high-quality 3D graphics, while spoken instructions tell you where you need to go in your own language. As an added convenience, text-to-speech functionality provides you with actual street names. The built-in FM Transmitter to play music and navigation instructions over the car stereo.
Hands-Free Calling
In more and more places, it is becoming illegal to use cell phones while driving without a hands-free kit. The GO 920's Bluetooth capability, microphone and speaker lets match it to any bluetooth-capable phone to make hands-free mobile phone calls.
Maps
The GO 920 comes come preinstalled with complete maps of the United States, Canada and Europe on 4 GB of internal memory. The GO 920 range has the most complete set of pre-installed maps available in TomTom’s entire portfolio.
Remote control
The TomTom GO 920 range comes with an improved Bluetooth remote control. The remote control enables drivers to operate the device safely from anywhere in the car without having to reach over to the device.
Help When You Need It
Extensive safety features including ‘Help Me’ menu, to give drivers direct access to emergency services and roadside assistance;
Fun Extras to Personalize Your TomTom
Record your own driving instructions. View documents, exchange positions via SMS and Bluetooth wireless technology and select a favorite car icon on the screen.
Full range of accessories to match the design and finish of the new GO range, including a leather carry case, a soft touch carry case, iPod cable and a home charger. TomTom HOME
HOME is TomTom’s free software that enables TomTom users to future proof and personalize their devices. Via easy desktop access, any TomTom customer can update maps, download the latest application, celebrity voices and more. TomTom HOME allows TomTom customers to
• Update their TomTom device with TomTom’s latest software and services automatically and for free
• Easily buy and install the latest maps and European safety cameras
• Download celebrity and character voices
• Pre-plan trip itineraries
• Receive free traffic alerts on their computers What's in the Box
TomTom Go 920 GPS portable navigation device, suction mount, car charger, USB 2.0 data cable, and installation CD with connection software and manual.
Supported Languages
The user interface/application comes in the following languages:
| | Catalan | Latvian | | Czech | Lithuanian | | Danish | Norwegian | | Dutch | Polish | | Estonian | Portuguese | | Finnish | Slovakian | | Flemish | Spanish | | French | Swedish | | German | Turkish | | Hungarian | UK English | | Italian | US English | | | Spoken navigation instructions come in the following languages: | | Australian | Japanese | | Brazilian Portuguese | Latin American Spanish | | Bulgarian | Latvian | | Catalan | Lithuanian | | Chinese Mandarin | Malaysian | | Chinese Cantonese | Norwegian | | Croatian | Polish | | Czech | Portuguese | | Danish | Romanian | | Dutch | Russian | | Estonian | Serbian | | Finnish | Slovenian | | Flemish | Spanish | | French | Swedish | | German | Thai | | Greek | Turkish | | Hungarian | UK English | | Italian | US English | |
About TomTom
TomTom NV is the world’s largest navigation solution provider, developing products with an emphasis on innovation, quality, ease of use and value. TomTom's products include all-in-one navigation devices which enable customers to navigate right out of the box; including the award-winning TomTom GO family, the TomTom ONE range and the TomTom RIDER (for motorcycles). TomTom also provides navigation software products which integrate with third party devices; the TomTom NAVIGATOR software for PDA’s and smartphones. TomTom WORK combines industry leading communication and smart navigation technology with leading edge tracking and tracing expertise. TomTom’s products are sold through a network of leading retailers in 25 countries and online. TomTom was founded in 1991 in Amsterdam and has offices in Europe, North America and Asia Pacific.
Compare Features of TomTom Models
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 GPS Comparisons - Edited 10/5/2008 |
| Review Date: January 16, 2008 |
| Reviewer: Amazonian, Around the World |
Edited 10/5/2008
I've had a chance to use the 920 for about 6 months of heavy use and here's an update to my prior review:
1) Mapshare really works. It's great to get updates from users all over the country. What a great idea.
2) Map updates have refined the product over time. I got the 920 when it came with the original 920 maps. Mine had the 1 year map guarantee, so I have now gotten about 3-4 map upgrades (I forget the exact #) and with each update the maps have improved. The application has also improved. The latest 920 app and maps include Lane Assist and Intelligent Routing which come standard on the 930.
Lane assist is like Reality View on Navigons. You get a very nice highway view with clearly delineated flashing lanes that tell you which lanes to stay in. So, if you are on a 5 lane highway and you should stay in any of the 3 left lanes, Lane Assist will clearly show you that.
I have not had a chance to compare the IQ Routes to non-IQ routes as I just figured out how to turn IQ routes off in order to do the comparison yesterday; but the new routes have served me very well in terms of minimizing time. IQ Routes take traffic data from different times and days that are accumulated in a data base and use that to predict the best route. This isn't very intuitive to me, since I would think that the Traffic function would do that better; but maybe this works best for situations where there are no traffic sensors or you can't access the Traffic features.
3) Cell Phone Traffic. Let's you connect the TT920 to your cell phone (mine is Sprint) and downloads traffic in near realtime. I have noticed lately, with the latest mapset, that it is predicting delays, when in fact there aren't any; but don't know if that's because the traffic conditions are changing and there were delays. It is certainly possible because I find that this occurs in construction zones. It might also be a function of IQ routes. I need to investigate this further now that I can turn IQ routes off.
Biggest complaints:
Because of the primitive data entry interface described below, I have found the need to use my cellphone's GPS function to locate POI's and addresses, and then use the TT for routing on many occassions. This is so absolutely ridiculous for such an expensive and premium device in other ways. It's really a shame that TT can't / won't address these issues.
1) You need to know the something about your POI before you can search for it, so you need to enter the city, or the route first. You can't just search for Grand Canyon; you need to know it's in Arizona.
2) Brain dead address entry. This is where Magellan and Garmin are worlds ahead of TomTom. There are millions of address of the form ##A### such as 12W234 and these can't be entered into a TomTom. You won't be able to navigate to these locations; you'll need to know a cross street, perhaps, but how would you know that? Why can't they fix this?
3) Need to know a City to enter an address. Again, an absolutely dumb idea. In suburban areas, a street can pass through multiple communities. Needing to know the City to enter an address makes no sense. Both Magellan and Garmin figured that out years ago.
So, while TT has evolved in many positive ways, it is still very primitive in the way it handles some basic navigation data entry.
Edited 2/14/2008 TT Home reported a new European Map available for the TT920. So, in the process of downloading this I have some interesting observations.
1) A distinct TT advantage, and one I really hadn't thought much about since my 920 is only a few months old, is that Map Updates are downloadable. With Garmin you have to order a DVD. For my i5 it took weeks for the DVD to arrive.
2) But even more interesting than that is that the new Euro maps would not fit on my TT920. It said I needed to delete 110MB to free up enough space, but I didn't have 110MB of stuff to delete. So, now I thought I had a real problem. What I found out is that there is a feature in the TT920 that neither my Garmin 360 or Magellan 4250 have.
Specifically, I put in a blank 8GB SDHC card into the TT. I selected removable drive from TThome. I then downloaded the update to the TT DOWNLOAD folder on the HDD of my PC.
I then formatted the 8GB card to 4GB while it was inside the TT. I then went to Files on My Computer and ADDED the new Euro Map to the 4GB SD card. I copied the contents of the 4GB SD card to my HDD. I then removed the SD card from the TT and reformatted it to 8GB on my PC. I then copied the the contents on my HDD that I copied from the 4GB card to the 8GB card and inserted the 8GB card into the TT
3) At this point, TT920 recognizes Guam, North America and Western and Central Europe.
4) The real impact here is that I can hold 10GB of maps between the internal and removable flash. This is great news. On my Garmin 360, for example, if the North America maps exceed 2 GB, then you have to split the installation of Upper Canada and Lower 48 US. You can't just switch between them, you have to reload the maps. On the i5, I can drag and drop upper and lower maps, but again, can't have both on at the same time.
5) So, the SD cards on the two Garmins I have really serve no purpose for mapping and navigation, whereas on TT the SD card can be an extension of the internal memory. What a great design.
As you are probably aware, with the release of the 2008 maps, Many Garmin units ran short of internal memory to handle the larger maps, requiring the splitting of Upper and Lower north america. This is far less likely to happen on TT920's. SD cards on the Magellan are for backup only and custom POI's.
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Edited 2/9/2008 The i5 refurb is now $99. The Nuvi 360 is going for $249. Prices are dropping and this is very good!
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edited 2/7/08
Well, there is a serious problem with the TTx20's. This may be enough to take them off of your short list. I am debating what to do here. The situation has to do with address numbers. TT does fine with an address in the form of, say, nnn street address. Like 414 Janes Street. What it can't handle is any street number that has something OTHER THAN A NUMBER in it, like 55N123 Anystreet, Anytown, CO. There is no way to enter 55N123, because all you can enter are NUMBERS, not the letter "N". Now this might not be so bad, but I'd guess there are millions of addresses that either have a special character, like a hyphen "-" or a letter N, S, E, W, embedded in the street number.
Both the Garmins and Magellans referenced above, can handle the forms of address numbers that have alpha+numeric combinations. Others who have reported this to TomTom say that the problem is known, but there is no indication as to when or even if TT plans on fixing it.
So, if the TT920 didn't have that nifty Bluetooth Traffic feature, I would go with the Garmin i3... or the Magellan 4250. I can buy 4 i3's or 1.6 4250's for the price of 1 TT920. I should note that the TT720 has the same feature, but I got the TT920 for just about the same price as a TT720. The price has now gone up $90 on the 920 in the last 30 days.
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ORIGINAL REVIEW
During a recent illness I think I read nearly every review of the most popular GPS's on the market. I also have had the chance to use
Garmin i5, 200, 360, 550, 680.
Magellan 4050, 4250
TomTom 720, 920
Navigon 2100t
I bought the i5 for my daughter, the 200 for my mother, and the 920 for me. Different markets, different needs.
After reading all reviews and using these products I have concluded that there is a cult-like following for GPS's. There's the Garmin, TOMTOM and Magellan Cults. Probably the Mio, Sony, HP and other cults that I am not following as well. They will banter and chatter on the relative merits and demerits of the various technologies. In the end, the following summarizes my analysis of the comments and products. Note that for the most part when you look at the distribution of Positive and Negative comments, there is almost always a plurality of positive comments for all units. I attribute some of this to the Cult-Status of GPS's
1) They **all** produce goofy routes at times, but overall work about the same. If you had the choice of either having any one of these or not having anything, I'd take any of them. One needs to acquaint ones self with the manual in order to get all of the value out of the products. They all do some things in arcane ways, at times, so it may not be obvious how to make it do what you want it to do. Even the easy to learn Nuvi's have some cryptic functionality.
2) None of the maps are 100% accurate, but all are pretty good. I don't see a big difference between products based on Navteq and TeleAtlas maps, considering all the chatter that is written about Navteq being better than TeleAtlas. There are probably differences in maps, algorithms, routing engines, etc. that all play a part in determining the optimal route, but they all do pretty good on average and badly at times.
3) The best value for a basic GPS is the GARMIN i3 which can be had for $100 refurbed with 1 yr Garmin warranty. The i5 is about $130, also a great deal. If you have expensive nails (ladies) it's nice because it has a touch wheel instead of touch screen. It also runs on 2-AA batteries... slick.
4) For simplicity, the Garmin 200 series is great. Rechargeable, Garmin Lock, nice form factor, fits in pocket or purse. Handy when leaving car with a valet.
5) I really like the Garmin 360, nice form factor. Not sure if it's much better as a GPS than the 200 series, didn't do a side by side, but has SIRFIII and other features that the 2XX don't have.
6) For me, the TT720/920 offers a very nice feature, Bluetooth Traffic. I can establish my route without having to be anywhere near the site. Don't have to be near a highway with TMC FM Traffic. With TMC FM traffic, you must be near the FM transmitter in order to receive the traffic signal. Otherwise your GPS is no more intelligent, traffic wise, than a GPS without traffic at all. And by the time you get the signal and get stuck in traffic, it may be too late to realize that you should have left earlier. Since the TomTom Traffic is via bluetooth, there are no cables to buy or plug in. I can check the traffic in LA from NY. Therefore, I know what my current travel time will be and can adjust the time I need to leave accordingly. I can't do that on ANY other unit that I tried. Note: I couldn't get MSN traffic (680) to work in my area, and TMC traffic (Navigon) is pretty spotty as well. I should add that TTx20 also has TMC FM Traffic available as an extra cost option.
7) POI's are important, the more the better, and there is a BIG variation in the POI libraries of the different brands. Magellan's AAA tour book is very cool! You can pick a location and from the Tour Book, plan your sightseeing adventures, and then figure out how to get to them. Many of the tour book sites don't exist in other GPS's POI data bases. Also the 4250 comes with TMC Traffic cable, so there's no extra cost for that and the annual subscription is only $40. It also has route optimization. So this is a very nice unit and worthy of consideration, IMHO
8) TomTom has integrated with Google Maps. You can find a POI in Google Maps, save it as a Favorite in TTx20 and then convert the favorite to a POI. Basically put together your own Tour Book. It's nice, but it's extra work.
9) All of them let you import POI's from some sort of spreadsheet or comma delimited file that you create, but you need the Latitude and Longitude of the location to do that... big pain. But there is 3rd party software to do that.
10) There are a lot of 3rd Party POI lists that you can download and import in for all units.
11) Contrary to many reviews, all 3 companies have very good tech support. Like anything you have to be patient with people on the other end of the phone, and describing a GPS problem to someone can be hard. Also, some support people are sharper than others. I saw no major differences. Although I have been a Garmin customer longer than anything else, several years, and have always gotten very good support from them.
12) With Garmin, make sure you have the latest maps. All of the units I mentioned above qualified for the new 2008 maps, at the time, for no additional charge, although they didn't all ship with them. So upgrade if necessary.
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TomTom 920 Go: a GPS with European, USA and Canada maps
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| Review Date: December 24, 2007 |
| Reviewer: G. Vallee, tn, USA |
Let's back to the primary question: why should i buy the TomTom 920 Go GPS? Personally i do not really care about the MP3 player, the bluetooth features and all the fancy features all current GPS provides (if i want such features, i buy specific devices which provide an high quality for a given features, e.g., a real MP3 player). So i bought the device for one major features: THE MAPS! With the TomTom 920, if you travel in Europe, in the US or in Canada like i do, no need to buy extra maps, everything is included. And i check the accuracy of US, Canada and French maps, this is pretty good.
After that, i also had the opportunity to check few other features:
- Connection with the cell phone via bluetooth: it works just fine with my cell phone.
- MP3 player: works just fine too, the integrated speakers are not that good but who is expecting something else in a so small device? Moreover you can plug the device to your car music system if you have an input for MP3 player.
- Voice recognition to enter your destination: kind of useless, the input typing directly the address is so efficient that i do not see the interest of such a feature. Moreover, i do not enter addresses while driving (too dangerous), i always plan my trips in advance so it is not a problem to type addresses.
- capability to personalize the voice that gives you the directions: kind of fun. :-)
Therefore at the end, if you are looking for a GPS device with a maximum of maps (i.e., a real GPS device), this choice is i think the best choice currently available. Other features are fun but not that useful. If you do not need those maps, buy a cheaper device that will work as fine as this one. |
The 920 rocks in Europe!!
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| Review Date: May 7, 2008 |
| Reviewer: Where Waldo?, Detroit, MI |
The 920 arrived the day before my daughter flew to Europe. I downloaded the latest European info immediately. She had no time to study the instructions but the software is so intuitive that it wasn't necessary.
This unit was quick to recalculate when she missed a turn. In Paris she and a friend rented bikes or walked and the unit recalculated routes for any mode of ground transpo. She even kept the cab drivers honest to and from DeGaulle airport!!
In Germany the 920 even alerted her to photo speed traps. Every ramp and every turn was correctly previewed visually and with voice directions.
When I finally got the 920 back from her, I was just as impressed. If you travel, this is the unit for you!!
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Excellent Buy
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| Review Date: May 17, 2008 |
| Reviewer: M. Johnson, |
Pro's: Excellent GPS I've logged over 20k miles with it so far, and it has never failed me on a destination. Very accurate maps and positioning, knows which lane of the freeway I'm in for certain areas. MapShare is a godsend, and TomTom is the only company that has it. My office never shows up on the right place for any mapping system (Garmin, Mapquest, Google maps) except TomTom, and it's because of the MapSharing. My Favorite thing is that you can customize nearly every aspect of the GPS.
Cons: Occasionally has problems telling the difference between express lanes and regular freeway, but it will still tell you the right way to go, just label them wrong once or twice. FM tuner is nearly useless on a road trip, all FM tuners have to be weak to meet FCC guidelines, and if you are traveling, the dead band FM frequencies change, and you need to constantly adjust the tuner, however, most newer vehicles have a line in port, and that works perfectly!
P.S.: The biggest complaint I have seen about TomTom over Garmin (The two leaders in the field) is that TomTom menus are hard to navigate. Yes, if you are using the menus for the first time while you are driving, or if you never progressed past a 6th grade education, you might have trouble with them. TomTom offers a lot of options, and their menus have a lot of options. When you get it, take a look at the menu structure once while You're sitting at home, and you will never struggle on the road. My mother, the most technologically inept person I know, picked it up and figured it out in 10 minutes. The accuracy of the maps and positioning, along with the other features make TomTom better by far in my book. |
TomTom GO 920
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| Review Date: March 6, 2008 |
| Reviewer: Douglas Schiebel, Port Ludlow, WA, USA |
I purchased this GPS unit in anticipation of taking a European vacation, in that it includes mapping of all of Western Europe including Hungary, in addition to complete coverage of North America. Not many other GPS devices, if any, offer such comprehensive mapping without having to buy supplementary chips. Apart from entering itinerary info for my forthcoming European trip, I have not yet had a chance to test out its accuracy and performance overseas. I have, however, given it a trial within the US, with extremely satisfactory results. The unit is easy to program and to read, with an amazing number of special features and user options.
Spoken directions can be dialed in a number of languages, with a number of different voice styles available among American English alone. The POI catalogue is exhaustive. User preferences can be set for every imaginable variable. The unit can be enabled to receive traffic advisories and it can be made to play music, audiobooks and to display photographs. Bluetooth-enabled phone calls are possible. In sum, it is a consummately well-engineered device. My previous GPS experience was with a factory-installed dashboard unit from Chrysler's Navigation Technologies Corporation. The Tom Tom GO 920 is vastly superior in virtually every respect. Detachable from the car, it can guide you even when you are on foot in a strange city.
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