- 6-Inch Touch Screen - Navigation on the Big Screen
- Lifetime Traffic & Map Updates - Outsmart traffic and road changes
- TomTom Roadside Assistance - Reliable roadside assistance you can trust, 24/7
- Advanced Lane Guidance - Highlights the correct lane
- TomTom Maps of US, Canada & Mexico
setup was simple on a windows pc, you will need to download the "support application" so your pc can recognize the device first, then just connect via usb and follow the directions. you get a free firmware and a map update. After that, you will need to submit a registration code for follow-on (4 per year) map updates. the download itself was large and took me ~1 hour, but as my first tomtom it may be faster for others who know what to do. the update process itself when compared to the magellan was a breeze. the magellan is known for a really poor update process and often results in people bricking their units (just read the reviews). I found the tomtom update is much more flexible and forgiving.
I took away 1 star due to a few feature gaps vs my old 1470. first, the unit it a bit slower response wise than my magellan. for example when you type in an address or select a feature, there's a notable delay. second is due to how the tomtom presents town/city names in a search, which is a bit tedious. the magellan sorts the results based upon your current location. For example if you are in Boston MA and type in "CA", you see Cambridge MA at the top of the list. The tomtom just gives you an alphabetic listing of all towns/cities in the US that matches what you typed, so "CA" will give you every city/town that starts with CA. you have to type in a lot more characters as well as scroll down to find the town and state in the list. third, I was unable to find a full users guide online. it could be that it's so new they don't have one, or they believe one is not needed. all i know is I cant find it easily and this 1605 has a lot of features that a newbee like me would appreciate one being offered. forth, the traffic feature does not work if the unit is on battery alone (e.g. must use the supplied travel cord that has the traffic dongle). fifth, my old 1470 would provide a audible reminder "ding" at the point of making a turn, which i miss.
The unit has an attached suction mount, which you can rotate to be a window or dash mount as the screen will rotate itself. includes usb cable, car charger with built in traffic link, adhesive mount disk (for permanent mounts), code for lifetime maps and a startup guide. No AC wall charger which seems to be the new norm, but you can pickup a cheap converter elsewhere. no idea if you can charge it via the usb cable to your PC, did not try.
In the end I know there's no such thing as a perfect GPS, but so far I like what I see and would recommend this unit. the few gaps vs. my old magellan are small compared to the accuracy and performance which are more important.
Buy TomTom VIA 1605TM 6-Inch GPS Navigator Now
I bought it 3 weeks back from Costco have driven over 2500 miles since then during holidays from Chicago to Ny and St Louis. Hence feel I am in a decent position now to provide feedback.Usability Initially it was a challenge as I was using Garmin earlier hence was not used to Tom Tom interface now I sort of like it. Typically like Zip code search, also good is it gives a zoomed out route picture before starting any route which is helpful specifically in long routes.
One -ve point is when you start the unit sometimes it is sluggish i.e. if you press a button on a screen it takes time to respond.
Accuracy/Navigation Found the unit pretty accurate it can guide you pretty much out of a parking space as well. It identifies any route changes very quickly. Also finds satallite pretty quickly and easily. I was suprised when it was helping me to drive out of a covered parking garage in St. Louis. Never got any issue with maps in 2500 miles I have driven except at an exit in St Louis though I havent updated my map yet after purchase so assume Tom Tom should have taken care of it. I didn't loose satellite anywhere even when driving under covered road in cities.
Traffic I will give it 3.5 points couple of times it has helped. Though sometimes I was driving in city highway with heavy traffic and it had no clue about it. Not sure if this is a problem with service/refresh rate. I though like the reroute options it paints the alternate route in blue color (rather then red color of current route) helps to take decision very quickly. Also I guess since this is not Tom Tom HD Traffic thats why refresh rates are lower. Though I like that it gives traffic updates not just of highways but of city roads as well. After Independence day Fireworks celebration I was exiting out of a very busy route it drove me out from there to a much better route in minutes. Further I like how it paints the busy road with white color and an animations of slow moving object.
Other features I like:
Dashboard Mount it is excellent improvement over Garmin mount. Lock mechanism of suction cup is excellent.
Switch between 2D and 3D is easy
Speed Limit indicator
Lane Assist is great though wish if they can add more of lane assist. This was not available at all junctions.
Like POI host of options available
Dislike -
On long routes if next turn is over 20 miles specially on highways it shows a 1/4 inch blue horizontal bar on upper part of the screen (mimic blue sky I guess) it was better if it would have shown map only in entire screen.
Why I will buy this model.
Accuracy/Navigation Does what it is meant to do pretty accurately
6" Screen
Dashboard Mount.
Found no quirks
Read Best Reviews of TomTom VIA 1605TM 6-Inch GPS Navigator Here
I've owned a Tomtom GO730 for many years and felt it was time to move to a more state of the art unit. The old unit, which was my first, did the job but had several flaws.1. It would erase my favorites whenever it updated maps.
2. It had a dim screen
3. It's connection to the power source would disconnect due to loosening with time.
4. You had to flip thru a zillion screens to get to a particular feature that you wished to change.
Also, the unit cost me almost $300, and that's not including the cost of a case for the unit (another $35), a case to hold the unit and supplies ($35), a connection gizmo to the windshield ($65),yearly maps ($45/yr), and yearly traffic ($65/yr)
I had planned to buy a Garmin this time since I had heard such good things about it. But recently, I heard that Garmin's products aren't as good as they used to be and that Tomtom was improving.
The Garmin product I planned to buy cost about $350 and had a 5" screen (max for Garmin). This Tomtom unit which just came out, is half the price, with a 6" screen, and many desirable features...(no MP3 or Phone though)
1. It has a built in suction cup to connect to the windshield that works flawlessly. Don't need to buy one. It also adjusts to connecting to windshield or dashboard (The screen flips..a cool feature)
2. Maps are free for life.
3. Traffic is free for life and built into the power supply (no need for additional wires)
4. Screen is bright.
5. Favorites don't erase with map updates.
I've used it many times now and it works flawlessly. I'm very pleased.
Also, while it won't transfer all of the various voices that I had on the old Tomtom, it does transfer the ones u paid for, which is nice. IMHO, this is a great buy.
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Having just used this 6" baby for two weeks driving all over LA, it blows away my new May 2012 Costco Garmin & November 2011 5" Magellan. Magellan's maps sucked. Example: Henderson, NV 2nd largest city in Nevada, not listed. Utah: 2-National Parks not listed. Nearly got into Mexico at Tijuana~wrong turn. Garmin's newest at Costco~voice command. Slow, and lots of wrong turns. Not to mention long routes. This baby gave me linked traffic cameras and re-routed me in LA at rush hour, saving me 45-minutes. Its screen blows away the small 5", the font is huge~Like 24-font bright yellow turn arrows. Love the Australian guys cues, like "Keep left" and you can see the bigger arrows of all the lanes so you don't have to get over. It also has huge speed signs and your speed so I don't ever look at the speedometer anymore and set the cruise control by the Tom Tom's screen. Super safety feature. Yes, it is a little slow, but the newest May 2012 Garmin at Costco was slower, with wrong turns, over a dozen times on my May trip to Long Beach, CA., it sucked. Granted it was not as bad as the Magellan, its maps were trash. The only thing better would be a 7" screen. I mounted it with a piece of tie wire for $2 from Home Depot, to my tweeter grill in left dash corner in my Nissan Altima, great for driving. You never have to take your eyes off the road. Buy it~for high traffic cities with traffic cameras, it even has ticket alerts. You can set up to 6 different tones to alert you of money saving traffic ticket cameras coming ahead. That alone saved me triple this babies cost. Better screen, better alerts, cop radar & ticket camera alerts~ BLOWS THE COMPETITION AWAY!
I always preferred TomTom over Garmin. I owned the Tomtom ONE and the GO 730, both excellent units with much better software than the Garmins...
However the VIA, well, at least the 1605 is SOOOOOO sluggish, when you need to type an address it can take you almost a minute, switching between screens is slow.
screen refresh is slow, POI is slow, switching between day and night (should be automatic) does not always work :-/
All in all, they cut costs with a crummy CPU/GPU, returning to Costco ASAP.
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