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TomTom isn't going to be bullied by anyone about its satnav
business and appears to be ebullient mood as it launched a few more
navigation devices to fill out its much-loved (and much thieved) range.
The Go 740 offers a host of extras that turn the features dial up to 11.
The
Go 740 is on the forefront of new connected navigation devices.
Surprisingly, the device is slimmer than previous models (handy to save
glove compartment space) and boasts a new windscreen mount. But even
better, it has an in-built SIM so it can update itself over the
airwaves and let you know what the current traffic situation is like.
The new system is called HD Traffic.
The connection is via the Vodafone GPRS
network, so the connection should be stable enough and proved to be on
our car journey to a famous UK holiday destination. In addition, the
"live" traffic service appears to be more rounded and up-to-date than
previous attempts.
{mospagebreak}Not only does it get information from TrafficMaster
cameras but can retrieve data from other x40 devices on the road to
build up a more complete picture of the traffic situation out there.
The information from other devices comes for GPS data relayed to the
device and cell triangulation data from Vodafone users.
While
travelling to East Anglia, the device immediately alerted us that there
was heavy traffic on the M25 on a Friday afternoon (to be fair anyone
could tell you that, but the fact a non-sentient device with no
awareness of London traffic could tell me that should be something of a
miracle). Initially we thought it was all making up this information
but, it wasn't. It just knew and it's eerie in a kind of
the-machines-are-taking-over kind of way.
{mospagebreak}Another thing to note
is that because of the connectedness of the device you can also use it
to access Google Local Search. This means that you can enter the name
of a hotel, restaurant or shop instead of a postcode and it will guide
you straight there.
It can also provide details of where to find
the cheapest fuel in the area you are driving through, which should
help defray the cost of buying the device over the long term.
The
device is also very good at picking up the location of speed cameras,
thanks to it being able to tap into the Speed Angel database.
The
IQ Routes has also been improved with route planning based on the hour
of travel and not just the week day or weekend. So travelling across
town will be different if you are driving in the middle of the night or
the rush hour.
In use the navigation is perfect, although the
graphics could do with an update to some 21st century graphics
technology. The voice commands are crystal clear and loud. The speech
recognition is another handy tool and worked well in recognising street
names and cities.
{mospagebreak}While the 740 is way out in front of other
navigation devices it does cost more. Not only that, if you want to
keep the connection services for travel updates, etc. then you will
have to shell out an extra £7.99 per month for the privilege on top of
the £260 buying the device.
Rating: 8/10
