Wednesday, January 17, 2007
Better Than DougDoug? TomTom Navigator 6 Reviewed
Posted by Doug Raeburn in "SOFTWARE" @ 09:00 AM
TomTom Plus Services
Figure 23: Up-to-date traffic information at your fingertips. Click on the graphic for a zoomed view.
TomTom offer a number of what they call Plus services. This requires a wireless connection for your device, so services that you're likely to use while traveling (such as traffic information) are most suitable for a Pocket PC phone, where a wireless data connection can be used almost anywhere.
Services offered include:
Services like Buddies are free. Other services like Traffic require a subscription (currently € 39.95 per year). Voices range from free to $12.95 per voice set and include some celebrities such as Dennis Hopper, Burt Reynolds and Mr. T. (Note to TomTom... perhaps some more contemporary celebrities would be a good idea). Map prices vary depending on the size and complexity of the map. Some smaller maps can be downloaded, but larger maps such as the US and Canada are sent on DVD.
TTN6 comes with a free 30-day trial for the traffic service. Since I have a standard Pocket PC rather than a Pocket PC phone, I wasn't able to get much out of it. I could set up a route and connect via WiFi before I left home to get a current traffic update, but changes that occur during the trip wouldn't be available. However, these services can be very useful for folks with equipment that can take advantage of them.
Actual Use – My Impressions
TTN6 is very responsive. It starts up in around 5 seconds, as opposed to the 20 or so seconds that OCN5 takes. Once started, operation within the program is very speedy. Menus pop up instantly. Initial routes are calculated quickly… for example, a 90 mile route took about 5 seconds. Route recalculation is virtually instantaneous. As stated above, TTN6 can be easily controlled using your fingers in place of a stylus.
TTN6 is also completely VGA compliant. As a result, the maps are extraordinarily detailed and sharp. There are also a number of compatible QVGA devices... check the linked sites at the beginning of the review for details.
I have a number of "standard" known routes that I used for testing navigation programs. I consider the known routes to be the most efficient to each of these destinations. TTN6 aced the "known routes" test… it came up with what I considered the best route every single time.
I must admit that I have an ulterior motive in writing this review. I’ve been using On Course Navigator for the past couple of years. It’s a version of the European product Navigon for North America. It was recently announced that Navigon will no longer be the basis for future versions of On Course Navigator, which will probably be continued using another major navigation product as its foundation. Rather than waiting, however, I’m actively looking for a replacement.
So how does TTN6 compare to OCN5 overall? Very well indeed. Most operations are considerably faster with TTN6 than with OCN5. While OCN5 would require periodic soft resets, TTN6 has been rock solid during testing. And TTN6 has a far wider range of configuration options.
I initially tested and used OCN5 with my Loox 720, which has 128 MB of RAM, rather than the 64 MB of RAM that is common with Pocket PCs. A friend with an iPAQ 2215 decided to buy OCN5 based on my recommendation, only to find that he’d get memory allocation errors fairly frequently. Then when I went from my Loox 720 to a Loox N560 (with 64 MB of RAM), I started having the same problem. So going into the test of TTN6, I was concerned that it too might have memory problems. Well, my concerns were unfounded… no memory problems were encountered.
Conclusions
It’s been a while since I’ve reviewed navigation programs, so I’m not completely up to speed regarding the latest and greatest from the major publishers of such programs. But I can compare TTN6 to the latest version of OCN5/Navigon. I definitely prefer TTN6 for its speed, excellent routing, stability, superior memory management and flexibility. So I think it’s safe to say that TomTom is better than OCN5, and much better than DougDoug as a navigation tool.
