TomTom Go 750
In-car GPS
Scott Bartley | Tuesday, February 23 2010TomTom’s Go 750 is one of two, self-proclaimed flagship models in the company’s line up. It costs $599 and sits with the all-singing, all-dancing Go 950 ($849) at the top of the food chain, bringing with it new styling, a fancy new mounting bracket and a refined interface.
We’ll start with the bracket, a source of ongoing amusement here at the PC World bunker. With each new wave of in-car GPS products we often find the biggest innovations seem to manifest themselves in the mounting bracket. Rarely do we find a new generation GPS that sports the same mounting bracket as the previous model. In fact, sometimes we swear the brackets are the thing the representatives from these companies are the most excited about. This time around, TomTom are understandably chuffed with the new Active Dock bracket which includes an integrated power supply, one-handed operation and a super strong suction cap to attach to the windscreen. The upshot of all this is that users can not only slip the GPS unit onto the bracket with one hand (it easily clicks into place) but the actual bracket itself can also be mounted with just one hand. In terms of ease of use, this is almost certainly the best bracket we’ve come across so far.
The Go 750 builds upon the solid feature set of it’s forebears with maps covering the length and breadth of the country and GPS guidance to accurately guide you to your selected destination. A massive set of points of interest is included to make it easy to find local landmarks or even the nearest petrol station. The inclusion of tools such as IQ Routes means the Go 750 can more accurately plot your route using historic traffic data – essentially, it knows which streets get clogged with traffic, and when, and can plot you the fastest (but not necessarily shortest) route around the jams.
The menus themselves have had a slight tweak to make them more intuitive and there’s now a new Frequent Destinations menu so you can select your most commonly visited locations in fewer steps.
Navigation and mapping is as good as ever, being based upon AA subsidiary Geosmart’s maps. Maps can go out of date quickly of course so one of our favourite TomTom features is Latest Map Guarantee that lets new buyers download one free map update at anytime after purchase. It’s a nice gesture for value conscious consumers and has the added bonus of introducing users to the excellent TomTom Home software for your PC. This software is kind of like your TomTom’s window on the world. It can upload navigation data to TomTom (which is where IQ Routes gets its information from), download map corrections, plot routes and, in a light hearted touch, download new voice packs for the turn-by-turn guidance to further personalise your device.
Another nice addition to the upgraded Go 750’s feature set comes by way of upgraded graphics. While the maps look all but identical to previous TomTom models (the actual mapping tends to be identical across the range of devices, only the fancy features differ), TomTom have tweaked the graphics to make them smoother in operation. It’s a noticeable difference when compared side-by-side, but we’re not sure if the real world difference is great enough that we would have noticed otherwise.
Two final features take care of our inner guilt in regards to the environment, and driving safely. Firstly, the Go 750 sports Bluetooth connectivity so you can use the TomTom as a handsfree calling device in accordance with new cellphone laws. Secondly, a new trick called Eco Routes allows drivers to choose routes that, in theory, cause less damage to the environment. What does this mean? Well, if you enter a destination and the TomTom sees two possible routes, it’ll choose the one that is the most fuel-efficient.
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