TomTom GO 920T

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http://reviews.cnet.co.uk/handhelds/0,39030065,49295278,00.htm

Reviewed 29 January 2008

Reviewed by Brett James

TomTom has ripped out the internal hard drive for the 920T and replaced this with 4GB of internal storage, with an optional SD card slot. This is a sure sign that having listened to criticism from its earlier GO 910, its focus is laying heavily on the navigation experience.

You can pick up the GO 920T for around £400 online.

Strengths
Having lost the internal hard drive, the 920T is now easier to transport. It weighs in at 220g and its 109mm (4.3-inch) screen featuring a higher 480x272-pixel resolution to ensure the icons and text remain sharp and clear.

TomTom's interface also remains as good as ever, ensuring quick navigation and fast access through the menu options. Entering destinations is quick via the handy Qwerty keyboard option, but you can also speak your destination, with the option of having the device read back the results. The accuracy was impressive -- even from a driving position -- as it could recognise the majority of destinations we requested.

Text-to-speech is evident throughout the device, with the voice being able to read back tips, weather forecast, traffic information and road names.

Linking up your 920T to a GPRS-enabled mobile phone allows you to access the Plus services (subscription/data charges apply), some of which include the buddy service for finding other TomTom users, safety camera updates and weather forecasts.

You can also utilise the free Map Corrections utility for making amendments to the internal maps or for downloading fixes made by others.

To cut down on costs you can connect your TomTom to your PC and use the TomTom Home software to access the same services, backup your device and also gain vital updates.

We found the TomTom could pick up our location pretty quickly -- even indoors -- but utilising the QuickGPS utility gave us an instant location fix the next time we turned on the device.

Voice directions were spoken clearly and its text-to- speech for pronouncing road names was accurate and useful for navigating around complex junctions or roundabouts.

The supplied safety camera database was spot-on and you even have the option to add your own text-to-speech warnings. You still get multimedia functions thrown in, including an iPod control utility, MP3 player, document reader and picture viewer.

Weaknesses
The TMC/FM receiver with no subscription fees could pick up local as well as major traffic problems and voice directions could be piped through to our cars internal speakers. But careful placement of the receiver is paramount, as we found it intermittently tried to re-scan for stations and the interference from our cars speakers was more noticeable.

Setting up the device to a compatible Bluetooth phone can be time consuming and it had problems recognising the newer HTC devices, so having to manually setup a connection is required.

Though the screen was superb, its map detail was still basic in nature, with street names not appearing as frequently for our liking, though with such accurate text-to-speech you won’t need to look at the maps as much.

Conclusion
Some may feel the lack of an internal hard drive is a step backwards for the 920T, but we feel it is a positive move to bring the focus back on the navigational experience -- especially as you have the useful voice recognition and text-to-speech functions to aid with driving. Granted the available utilities may be overkill for some, but for those who want an all-in-one solution for navigation, it's ideal.

Edited by Jason Jenkins
Additional editing by Shannon Doubleday