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TomTom ONE 140 (IQ Routes Edition)

In-car GPS

By Jeska Innes / Tuesday, September 29 2009



Some gadgets have a lot of responsibility. A GPS unit is a prime example. After all, they’re in charge of important tasks like finding the way home. PC World got its hands on one of the newest entry-level additions to the market, TomTom’s ONE 140. With a 3.5-inch touch screen and a super-compact body, it’s the smallest of the company’s units, but it packs a lot of punch.

The 140 is actually equipped with many of the features more expensive models in the line-up boast. For example, it reads street names (text-to-speech technology), can be upgraded with downloadable maps, calculates destination arrival times, and has red light and speed camera warnings. It also has a nice ‘EasyPort’ mount, which makes it, er, easy to mount. Best of all is its ‘IQ Routes’ feature, which calculates the most efficient route to a destination based on the day of the week and time of day. The information is based on two years’ of data collection by TomTom from its New Zealand users. It may sound like witchcraft, but it seems to work.

Navigating to the airport in time for a Monday morning flight seemed the perfect test for the 140. Especially since we weren’t the ones on the plane. Our nervous passenger wasn’t happy when the 140 directed us to get off the motorway and cut through suburbia. “It’s lost. Get back on the motorway”, he raged as we zipped through the streets. Hang on, we were zipping – considering the time of day there was minimal traffic. To his credit, said passenger apologised when we arrived at the International terminal two minutes shy of the initially proposed arrival time.

There was one occasion on our journey where the unit lumped mass instructions together at once, instructing six different moves in quick-fire succession. We were momentarily flustered (we never did purchase MegaMemory), but the GPS responded quickly and had us back on course straight away. All in all, the 140 has excellent features and is a helpful little tool. Its compactness means you can use it in the car and on foot should you wish (without a fat pocket), which is always a nice option to have.