Purchasing goof up - now question...

[jared1843]

I purchased the Garmin 200w earlier this week and have yet to take delivery of it. On Tuesday of this week I went to Best Buy and purchased the TOMTOM ONE XL-s.

Before I take one of these back, can someone please tell me if one is really better than the other for the same price???

 

[mcaswell]

Hello. I bought an XL-S a week ago, but I was disappointed with how it was calculating ETAs on some highways (see my thread on this topic). I decided to try a Garmin Nuvi 350, and return the one that I didn't like.

I've used the Nuvi for a few days, and its now back in the box, most likely to be returned. I should point out that I am no TomTom fanboy (no offense to TomTom fanboys!)... the GPS this one is replacing is, in fact, a Garmin, and it's worked fine for me for the past couple of years.

(I assume the 350 and the 200W are similar enough to make these comments valid in your case.)

Things I like about the Nuvi:
1) ETAs are more accurate. I don't care if it's off by a few, or even several minutes (depending on the length of the trip)... it's unreasonable to expect absolute accuracy. But the TomTom drastically overestimates ETAs on certain routes.

2) Routing is a little better. As I mentioned in that other thread, the TomTom gave me a slightly wonky route to my office, while the Garmin picks the better route. But in most cases, the route the TomTom chooses is fine.

3) Autozoom feature is better. When I'm on the Interstate, I like to keep the map zoomed out so that I get more of an "overview" of the route and what's ahead. But the TomTom annoyingly zooms back in after several seconds. The Garmin, on the other hand, stays zoomed out until a turn approaches, at which time it zooms in. TomTom could easily fix this by adding some options for controlling autozoom.

4) When in normal driving mode (not navigating a route), it shows you the names of each upcoming cross street. Maybe the TomTom does this, but I haven't figured out how.

5) Automatically switches day/night mode.


Things I like about the TomTom
1) To me, the maps look better. The Nuvi's map display looks kinda cartoony, with a gaudy fluorescent purple line indicating the route. I wasn't too fond of the TomTom's default map colors, but that's the great thing about the TomTom... I was able to change them to my satisfaction. Don't like the Garmin colors? Tough.

2) QWERTY keyboard option. I can enter information much quicker than with the ABCD keyboard.

3) Itenerary planning. I'm a wedding photographer, and this feature is very useful... I can enter the destinations for that day (bride's house, church, reception venue, then back home) before leaving.

4) Information shown on map screen is customizable, and can be placed on the side to save valuable vertical space. With the Garmin, again, if you don't like the 2 pieces of information it shows on the map screen, tough.

5) UI seems quicker and more efficient. The "Done" button (in menus/preferences) instantly takes you back to the map in most cases. With the Garmin, if you're deep into menus, you have to hit the "Back" button a bunch of times to get back to the map screen. And overall, I just find that I get things done a lot faster on the TomTom.

6) You can make certain corrections on the map yourself, and automatically download corrections that have been made by other users (can be restricted to only corrections that have been verified by TomTom if you prefer).

7) Computer voice (required for speaking street names) sounds more natural / less computer-like than the Garmin.

8) Customizable menus. Not officially a "feature", but with the freeware app TT Menu Designer, you can customize the TomTom's menus. Maybe it's just me, but it really irritates me to have a device's menus cluttered with things I never use (Traffic, Weather, etc.). I just don't like seeing all that stuff. With TT Menu Designer, I can get rid of those things, and can also rearrange the menus in a manner that works better for me.


So, after balancing all these things, I decided that I will almost certainly keep the TomTom and return the Nuvi. I'm not thrilled with how poorly the TomTom calculates ETAs, but given all the other wonderful things about this GPS, I'm willing to set that issue aside for now (with the hopes that it will be fixed in a future update).

--Michael

 

[jared1843]

update

Thanks very much for the detailed reply. I think what bothers me most about the TOMTOM is not having an auto-on/off function like the Garmin does. I'm the kind of person that will leave the GPS in my jeep at all times and expect it to be on when i'm driving even if i'm not specifically using it (gadget freak)...

I was talking to a friend that has a garmin handheld device and he says that he can use the software it came with to put in a route with multiple route changes in it. Do you think the 200w would do this?

 

[Boyd]

Hey Jared. You need the 700 series Garmin GPS to do route planning in Mapsource. And Garmin does not provide the software or maps when you buy one of the 700 series units, just the pre-loaded ones. However people on other forums have reported that if you call Garmin tech support and complain, they will send you the MapSource DVD. Regardless, that's a more expensive unit than the 200w.

I've used a Nuvi 650 for about 600 months, and I liked it. But Michael's post really nails most points IMO. I now prefer the TomTom for those same reasons. The one thing I really miss on the Garmin is the ability to use Topo maps though, but that's something which most people don't want.

If you want to do route planning on your TomTom, see this: http://houghi.org/tomtom/

 

[jared1843]

Hmmm

Thanks Boyd. The itinerary plan converter looks pretty easy to use. I'll be sure to use it if I keep the TOMTOM. Looks like UPS won't be getting me my 200w until Monday, but when I do get it i'll run them side by side for a few days to see how I like each. Route planning isn't really a deal breaker for me, but the feature is nice. I can at least give the 200w one "via" point between start and destination, so maybe that will be sufficient.

I still expect to be pleased with the auto on/off feature of the garmin compared to the TT.

 

[zerimar]

if you call Garmin tech support and complain, they will send you the MapSource DVD.

I used to own a Garmin and DVD maps are always free and delivered to you. The expense comes as soon you want a map to be activated. One nice thing about Garmin is that they have a "grace period" system, meaning that if you bought a unit or map today and in a short period of time (say 2 weeks to 1 month) a new map version comes out, you are entitled to a free upgrade.

 

[jared1843]

Waypoints

Can someone tell me what Waypoints are for? and why they are different from routes??

EDIT: Nevermind....

 

[Boyd]

I used to own a Garmin and DVD maps are always free and delivered to you. The expense comes as soon you want a map to be activated.

There are two issues here. For GPS'es which have pre-installed maps (which are just about all of them now) you can upgrade the maps on your unit for some finite period of time (maybe 6 months? not sure). But if you want to do route planning on your PC, that's a different issue which requires a different type of map which can also be installed on the PC. That's a separate product from the map files which replace the entire contents of the GPS'es internal storage.

A few years ago when Garmin introduced the Streetpilot 2610 they included the Mapsource program with maps which you could install on both the PC and GPS unit. They allowed you to do route planning in advance on your PC, and since compact flash cards were expensive and relatively small then, you could load the GPS with only the map segments required for your trip.

Then Garmin introduced the 2620 which had an internal hard drive and pre-installed maps for the whole country. While the hardware was identical to the 2610, Garmin did NOT provide MapSource or maps which you could install on your PC. A number of people complained to Garmin support, and based on reports I've read over the years, they would send you the version for your PC if you had a 2620 were enough of a pest.

But then they introduced the Nuvi's which were not really intended to work with Mapsource because they couldn't save or load routes, so not much use for Mapsource. But the Nuvi 700 series once again can load/save routes, and people are reporting they complained to Garmin about the lack of the MapSource disks and got free copies.

The Nuvi 200w doesn't support loading or saving routes, so even if you could get a free copy of Mapsource from Garmin, the only thing you could do with it would be transfering waypoints from the GPS.

Your mileage may vary, but that's a quick Garmin history lesson

 

[SpiritX]

3) Autozoom feature is better. When I'm on the Interstate, I like to keep the map zoomed out so that I get more of an "overview" of the route and what's ahead. But the TomTom annoyingly zooms back in after several seconds. The Garmin, on the other hand, stays zoomed out until a turn approaches, at which time it zooms in. TomTom could easily fix this by adding some options for controlling autozoom.l

I have to respectfully disagree with you on this - and STRONGLY!

Auto-zoom is AWFUL on the TT One series! When you zoom out, it zooms right back in to an unusable level at freeway speeds. You can't keep it zoomed out.

In fact, if I don't find a fix for this awful feature, I'm soon going to return my TomTom, as this is a deal-breaker. If I zoom out, I don't want it zooming in right away, against my will.

2) Routing is a little better. As I mentioned in that other thread, the TomTom gave me a slightly wonky route to my office, while the Garmin picks the better route. But in most cases, the route the TomTom chooses is fine.l

I don't know what it was before but I found the One, when I went around a bypass to avoid a city, constantly telling me to turn on EVERY exit to take a side street straight through the city! Also I found that many times it took me through residential streets at 25mph instead of staying on secondary 45mph roads.

But I could live with this. The auto-zoom, I cannot.

 

[zengshengliu]

I have to respectfully disagree with you on this - and STRONGLY!

Auto-zoom is AWFUL on the TT One series! When you zoom out, it zooms right back in to an unusable level at freeway speeds. You can't keep it zoomed out.

In fact, if I don't find a fix for this awful feature, I'm soon going to return my TomTom, as this is a deal-breaker. If I zoom out, I don't want it zooming in right away, against my will.

Please read the post more carefully, mcaswell said the autozoom in Nuvi is better than the one in TomTom