Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)There are alot of reviews out there for navigation units with comparisons between units made by different manufacturers, most stating that one is better than the other, which I found to be of no use since I almost never had the unit they were comparing to. So I have written this review as a review of the TomTom 730 rather than a comparison.
(please note this is the FACTORY REFURBISHED moel of the 730)
The 730 was well packed, and had a little bit of charge right out of the box. It includes all of the accessories and most of the literature that a new model does, including the windshield mount, dash disk, car charger, instruction manual and CD. There were no cosmetic blemishes on the unit I got. Refurbished units come with a shorter warranty, but the price difference more than makes up for lost warranty time.
The unit did arrive with an old map and firmware revision. After installing TomTom Home and creating a profile, the software asked me if I wanted to update the unit, and installed the most recent 'North American Maps' pack (includes USA and Canada) and 8.30 firmware. The download and installation process took a whopping 1.5 hours to download and install over a wireless broadband connection. Choosing to accept Mapshare, an additional 11386 corrections were added. I did not have to enter any update codes or call TomTom to get the latest map update. Other maps were listed as available at additional cost, but they were for other countries that I did not need.
After updating the unit, I took the 730 on a few trips to see how well it works. I travel roughly 1000 miles a week for business and pleasure, all over Maryland, DC and Northern Virginia. I have had several Nav units over the last two months trying to find the right one for me, and I am impressed with this unit. There are some problems with the unit, which are a result of the limitation of Nav units in general, rather than specific to the 730. An example: Whitehurst and Canal st in DC run literally on top of each other. Where they start you have a choice to go up or down, whereas the 730 tells you to go straight. Both choices are straight, and reagrdless of which you pick, the 730 continues to navigate as if you were heading down Whitehurst.
The 'IQ Routing' feature is absolutely the most useful feature of the unit. Anyone who lives in the DC metro area(or any other huge population dense area)knows that certain roads simply aren't passable during certain times of the day. I have used this feature extensively, and although there is room for improvement, it has found me several new, faster ways to get to common destinations. This nav unit is also the only one I have tested that correctly finds the fastest way to my home from the interstate.
Advanced Lane Guidance is a nice feature, during my travels I see it about twice a day. It works well, but the image for the I270/495 lanes divide on the inner loop shows the wrong number of lanes leading off to the spur. Other lane divides are accurate, why not this one?
The voice recognition navigation aspect works okay, it does a good job of recognizing what city and/or street that I said, but the whole system is a bit akward since it is a combination of screen presses and voice prompts. Still, it works well if you are patient with it and learn its qwerks.
The bluetooth function does not work with my phone (I have a really lousy phone)so I cannot comment on that, the FM transmitter works well if you can find a free frequency. Playing music from the TomTom was neat, and navigation prompts do come through the music when they occur.
TomTom Home and the community support it provides is awesome. Other than Mapshare (which is awesome in and of itself) there are differnt icons, voice prompts(which you can record yourself with the 730), display screen, map colors, and other customizable features that help you personalize and enhance the unit.
In summary, I believe I have found the right unit for me. The is the best navigation device I have used yet, and at the refurbished price it is well worth purchasing. I hope you found this review helpful.
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TomTom GO 730 REFURB Portable Navigator with Bluetooth. The TomTom GO 730 portable navigator offers you peace of mind when you're traveling with its powerful, yet easy-to-use features. You can use its 4.3" widescreen touch display to access detailed maps of the U.S. and Canada, and to explore over 5 million points of interest. The text-to-speech voice prompts announce actual road names at turns, giving you more helpful information when driving through unfamiliar areas. Refurbished.
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