Tomtom GO 910 Sat Nav / GPS Receiver Review
Babita Wakelin
With more features than a Swiss army knife, the new TomTom Go 910 is a must have accessory in your car. Without sounding like a hysterical teenager after her first kiss, there’s very little not to gush over on this product. If you’ve already got a TomTom you’ll know how easy it is to use, if this is your first time, then you’re in for a treat. What you get with the Go 910 is a fully functioning satellite navigation system sporting a four inch-wide touchscreen, text-to-speech, Bluetooth, and iPod connectivity. Like a finely tuned Ferrari, it takes seconds for the GPS to warm up, and a signal starts filtering through in next to no time. So it’s on. What do you get? Well, to start with the 910 comes pre-loaded with maps of Europe, America and Canada making it ideal for those business trips or family holidays. Finding your destination is child’s play. Using the touchscreen function and chunky buttons you can easily type in where you’re going. The cradle easily fits on to your windscreen – and you can move from car-to-car allowing you to remove it when not using the car, so there’s no temptation for those nasty car thieves. It's a bit of a palaver when first attaching the TomTom to the cradle but you soon get used to it. And once attached, you’ll hardly notice it’s even there. 
Touch Wide Screen
And for all you out there concerned about the map distracting you from your driving, the 910 comes with text-to-speech technology so you’ll have a voice telling you what to do, when to do it, and where – all announced in a selection of 36 languages.
Unlike previous versions the 910’s voice, which comes out from improved speakers, sounds much better, and is easier to understand. However, should you misunderstand, or chose to ignore the voices, the 910 quickly reassess the route and provides new directions when you’ve gone wrong.
The 910’s widescreen (WQVGA, 480x272 pixels) makes reading the map much easier even on the 3D map mode. And the 400 MHZ processor not only refreshes the screen at a high rate but also makes sure visibility is good during the day and not too bright at night. And the backlight sensor and antiglare works a treat.
Bluetooth, great invention, even better when it means you can update your TomTom on the move. There’s a handy Bluetooth function on the 910 which allows you to connect up to your phone or PC to download data. This is really easy to use thanks to the software provided and means you can download new information anywhere in the country, or abroad as long as you’ve got your mobile phone handy.
As with many of these devices, the data can sometimes be outdated and traffic warnings seem to miss out the important factors like the roads you want to go down. But you can manually set your route and bypass the congestion, making sure you’re home in time for Deal or No Deal.
To make sure your experience is as pleasurable as possible, the 910 comes with music too. Thanks to the 20GB hard drive even after the maps there’s still 12GB space to add MP3s. So you can listen to music or audiobooks in your car. The sound quality isn’t bad, but improves dramatically when you hook it to your car speakers. If that’s not enough room for your music collection, by buying yourself a iPod cable, you’ll be able to connect it up to the Go 910 – and be able to use the TomTom’s screen to selection your music.
Yes, yes, before we get the car-safety brigade writing letters of compliant about neglectful driving, the TomTom also comes with a handy remote control that passengers can you to change tracks – leaving the driver to fully concentrate on the road ahead.
There’s a funky function too called the Plus feature – if you add your friends on the system the 910 will let you see each other’s location. This Plus function also allows you to add different voices, so you could have John Cleese barking orders at you in the car (although you pay extra for it, naturally).
Battery life is around four hours, but you’d have to be going on a mammoth journey, off road, to need your sat nav on for all that time.
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Pros + Great selection of languages + Easy to use + text-to-speech function + Extensive map + Moveable |
Cons - Maps might need updating - Not so hot on congestion |
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Overall Rating 
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1/6/2006 at 3:22:50pm
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