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Amsterdam-based GPS manufacturer TomTom has recently suffered financial setbacks, reporting a steep drop in year-over-year profits for the first quarter of 2008. Swiftly falling prices in the GPS market and new competition in the form of navigation-enabled cellphones have apparently proven formidable challenges.
The good news is that the quality of TomTom's products hasn't been affected by the company's misfortunes. Indeed, the Go 920, which can do pretty much anything one would imagine a high-end GPS reasonably ought to do — plus a few things more — sits at the head of its class.
Better still — and thanks to the stiff competition mentioned above — it's far less expensive than you'd expect. TomTom still lists the Go 920 at $650 on its website, but Canadian electronics stores were selling it for just over $400 at the time of this writing. And, as you're about to read, $400 is a steal for the sort of functionality that this top-of-the-line GPS delivers.
COMPUTER: TAKE ME TO...
It may be relatively inexpensive, but the Go 920 is a luxury navigation system, make no mistake. It's got an uncommonly sturdy feel, thanks to its solid metal frame (no squeaky plastic joints), and comes with all sorts of classy extras.
Like an FM-transmitter, used to stream music from the device — which has a surprisingly polished MP3 and audio book player application, as well as a picture viewer — to your car's stereo.
And a hands-free car kit that uses built-in Bluetooth hardware to connect the Go 920 with your cellphone.
And a remote control to provide passengers seated anywhere in the vehicle the ability to select destinations and create itineraries.
But these are just handy features that tend to come with many high-end GPS devices. TomTom's navigator really starts to impress once you take into consideration some of its less common features, such as Voice Command. Just bark out the address of your destination and the Go 920 will plot a course. You still have to press a couple of buttons to get into address entry mode, but it does reduce hands-on time to just a few seconds — less than the time spent at a single stop light. And the voice recognition software is surprisingly accurate; during tests, it made only two mistakes interpreting my verbal instructions.
Another of the Go 920's innovative perks is its Enhanced Positioning System, which uses built-in accelerometers to track the unit's position when out of satellite range (like, say, when you're in a tunnel or in the shadow of a mountain). When the signal disappears, the motion sensors track your speed and direction, keeping a surprisingly accurate bead on where you are until a satellite link can be re-established. It's seamless, kicking in automatically and without disruption when necessary.
I've only tested one other GPS unit with a similar system — Sony's nav-u NV-U83T — and it worked about as well as the Go 920. Expect to see more GPS manufacturers incorporating this highly useful feature in future navigation devices.
FIND YOUR WAY AROUND EUROPE ... FOR FREE
Critiquing the basic navigation capabilities of GPS devices is almost pointless these days. I recently had five units on hand at the same time and took the opportunity to enter a variety of identical destinations into each device. They consistently came up with nearly indistinguishable routes.
The Go 920 was part of that test group, so I can't say it's any better than others at plotting faster routes. Still, it does come with some nifty software designed to make your journeys simpler and safer.
I felt a little more secure while travelling with TomTom's GPS thanks to a Help Me mode that quickly calls up the fastest walking and driving routes to a variety of important locations, including hospitals, police stations, pharmacies, veterinarians, and dentists.
I also appreciated the device's surprisingly comprehensive roadside first aid guide that provides assistance on how to assess and treat common car accident injuries, such as broken bones and lacerations.
Other preloaded software includes a tourist guide that provides data on the sort of accommodations you're likely to find in a variety of countries, as well as local bank hours and shopping tips. It also has about six million points of interest for North America, and provides a variety of ways in which to sort them.
But the most valuable bit of bonus software has to be the Go 920's maps of Europe. This is the first GPS device I've evaluated that came preloaded with a map for an area other than North America. Buying additional maps can set GPS users back hundreds of dollars, so this is a real value to consumers who plan to travel overseas.
Makes a good argument for a dedicated GPS In a world in which mapping functionality can be found on almost any portable device, from phones to PDAs to MP3 players, TomTom's Go 920 makes a strong argument for a dedicated navigation gadget.
Upgrade to the Go 920T to get the RDS-TMC traffic receiver and a one-year subscription to a traffic monitoring service (or buy it separately as an add-on for roughly the difference in price between the two; around $100), and you've got a digital travelling pal that does everything except tell you where the potholes are.
It's going to be very hard for me to go back to my GoogleMaps printouts.
