TomTom XXL 540S 5-Inch Widescreen Portable GPS Navigator
Monday, February 8th, 2010 at
6:48 am
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User Reviews
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| TomTom XXL 540S 5-Inch Widescreen Portable GPS Navigator |
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| Manufacturer: TomTom |
| Customer Rating: |
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| List Price: $199.95 |
| Sale Price: Too low to display |
| Availibility: Usually ships in 24 hours |
 Free Shipping Available |
| Buy Now |
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- TomTom GPS navigation with a five-inch, full-color, TFT LCD widescreen touch display
- Preloaded maps of U.S., Canada & Mexico with TomTom Map Share, Advanced Lane Guidance and 7 Million POIs
- IQ Routes Technology gives you the fastest route every time by using actual average speeds of travel on your route to calculate your trip
- With TomTom Map Share technology, you can instantly modify street names, street direction, POIs, road speeds, and turn restrictions on your own device
- Award-winning Fold and Go EasyPort mount, folds flat against the device, making it easy for users to transport
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 You'll have no trouble seeing this one! |
| Review Date: December 3, 2009 |
| Reviewer: C. D. Hess, Rochester, NY |
I have owned several GPS units, including models from Garmin and Navman. I upgraded to this model from the TomTom 140S. This model has twice the screen size. The screen is brighter, and the sound is louder and fuller. I cannot recommend it highly enough. Routing is excellent. The Points of Interest database is huge. Advanced lane guidance is very helpful. The large screen makes data input easier. Like all TomToms, you can configure it to your liking.
The only negative is that battery life is reduced because of the larger, brighter screen. |
First opinion of this device is great
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| Review Date: May 17, 2010 |
| Reviewer: yogi, Canada |
I just bought it two days back. I was kind of skeptical with the map updates and activation code not working, after reading through so many reviews related with update failure etc.
So I started with a full explorer backup of the device at windows level. It took about 45 minutes. Then I took another backup using Home software. That was another 45 minutes.
Then I deleted unwanted voices to free up some space. It probably removed some 30-40MB of space. There was close to 400MB free after this step.
Then I entered the activation code for lifetime free map updates using the Home software. It worked fine (at least it did not give me any errors).
Then it detected that there is new versions of map available for download. I downloaded the new maps, which took another 20 minutes or so, and took further 30 minutes to update the device.
The downloaded size of new maps was about 1.7GB, whereas the previous versions of maps occupied 1.43GB. Now my device has close to 60MB free out of the 1.9GB memory it has. I think if I would not have deleted unwanted voices, I would have come close to filling up all the space.
I also downloaded the GPSquickfix.
For the safety camera, when I had entered Canada as the home country, it did not show any information available to download. But after I switched it to US (from within HOME software), then it showed the data for US-Canada safety cameras, and I was able to download them.
So overall, I did not face any issues earlier reviewers of TomTom XL/XXL series had mentioned.
Regarding performance, I was pretty impressed with the speed it took to acquire satellite signal. I have a four year old HP-IPaq GPS (which runs TomTom software), and this new one is much faster than the HP one.
Now before I made this purchase, I had bought Garmin 755T last week. I did not like it for one main reason that it did not have up to date maps of my area (especially it didn't show my home even after 7 years it is on TomTom maps). I updated the maps to latest, and still didn't show my home street. Contacting the customer support for Garmin was a pain, with 30-40 min. of wait every time I tried to call them. It was a breeze to contact TomTom support. First time I was connected instantly, and every time after that, it took only few minutes to get connected. Finally, I did not like the colour schemes and sounds which came with Garmin. May be that is my personal preference. But Garmin is not too much customizable, pretty basic stuff you can configure. So it went back within few days.
Hope this review will be useful to you all. |
Tomtom vs. Garmin
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| Review Date: January 23, 2010 |
| Reviewer: OZ, New Jersey USA |
Tomtom 540s feedback.
I have 2 portable GPS units Garmin 265WT and Tomtom XXL 540s (Garmin nüvi 265W/265WT 4.3-Inch Widescreen Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator with Traffic). Pros and cons bellow show advantages and disadvantages after using both gps solutions.
Tomtom does better than Garmin:
1. Nice big 5" screen.
2. Lots of customization available. I found nice color combination using my.tomtom service that I like.
3. IQ Routes allow to avoid local congested streets with lot's of traffic lights. Navigation decisions are way better with this option.
4. Map share is very helpful. I was able to fix wrong left turn in no time.
5. GPS receiver is very sensitive. It locks on satelights inside my house (Garmin can't)
6. Customizable POI allows me to keep all favorites organized by categories. Also, alerts when approaching POI are useful. Warn me when I approach safety and speeding cameras.
7. The best detour options available. Allows you to avoid road block, part of the road, etc. Garmin has useless one detour option that sends you on different and usually much longer path.
Tomtom needs to improve:
1. Where is free traffic updates that Garmin offers? This is very important missing function.
2. Default color selection looks like cartoon and make unit feels old. However, you can customize it to your likening.
3. POI are not organized as well as on Garmin (Navteq) GPS. Restaurants are not organized in categories (Japanies, American, French, Berger etc)
4. Lots of POI with many small shops, but big stores like Lowes are missing. ** See Update **
5. Tomtom still doesn't know what side of the road your destination is located. Software using Navteq maps know it for many years already.
6. Garmin knows almost all local road speed limit. Tomtom knows only highways.
7. This fancy easy-port-mount was a pain to use until I loose 2 screws to let it turn easier. The unit just separated from the mount every time I wanted to adjust it's position or needed to mount it in the car. It almost fell couple of times. The problem disappeared after adjustment. You can find 2 screws under rubber peaces on the mount it-self.
Update 02-22-2010 -
1. New map v8.45 has way better list of POI. So far I was able to find almost all big or small POI in my area.
2. Tomtom works great and offers really good routes - very satisfied with my purchase.
3. I'm waiting for lifetime map and traffic - hopefully they will be offered for reasonable amount.
4. Would be nice if this unit had SD-Card slot. Not a deal breaker, but would be helpful. It has only 2GB of memory so map is taking almost all of it.
Update 05-20-2010 -
GPS works great, but plastic disc that you glue to the car dashboard is junk. GPS keeps fallen down after couple of hours. GPS holds fine for many days if I attach it directly to the windshield (making sure that windshield is clean). |
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Tagged with: 540s • 5inch • asin • navigator • portable • ReviewAZON • tomtom • widescreen
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