Tomtom announces availability of 140/340/740in USA

[mvl]

Best Buy has been frustrating. I've been trying to check out the x40s, which are now in stock at most Best Buys, but none of the stores have them on display.

I was able to chat up with a tech that said that management told them they couldn't display the x40s until the 720s sold out. I checked most store inventories, and no one in my area is out of stock on a 720 yet. At $330 at Best Buy vs $150 at newegg, I think it'll be a while until that happens.

I also checked out the US retailers on tomtom's web site. None of the other brick & mortar official retailers have any x40s on their website yet.

Edit: April 12 and still no display models at Best Buy. I can see, locked behind the glass, boxes of the new series of tomtoms: 140, 340, 630, 740. The 630 was formerly a Radio Shack-only model and now Best Buy has it. No one else in my area has a 740 in stores yet. The closest is Radio Shack, which is showing the 740 as a web-only out-of-stock item.

 

[mvl]

My Best Buy finally displayed 140's and 340's.

I checked them out, and both the TTS and non-TTS models are 64mb. This makes it unlikely that IQ will be ever retrofitted to the older ONE/XL models that are 32mb.

Also, the TTS versions have Loquendo (Susan) voices, not Vocalizer (Samantha) voices. So it appears Vocalizer is being removed from the entire product line.

Another interesting point is that they use a new "USA_Canada_and_Mexico_P" map version 825. This geography isn't in the Tomtom map store, so it's probably something that they won't release from an upgrade perspective until the next map release.

 

[theparson]

Best Buy has the 140S on sale this week for $169.99. This is a fantastic bargain!

 

[mvl]

My local Best Buy just displayed the 740 model. I was in a rush, so I didn't get to check it out much.

So far, I noticed the following things:
- Preloaded with application 8.312 - a specific USA version of Navcore per this link. It's possible that 8.312 will have problems with Operate My GO, just like 8.014 does with the ONE/XL models.
- They moved back to the x10-style activemount from the USB port. There is no direct USB input jack on the bottom of the tomtom. This may be a good thing, since I'm noticing some posts on this forum about USB jacks going bad on older models. I've never seen a bad activedock connection post.
- The SD slot is an microSD slot, per www.tomtom.com/7957
- There is a SIM slot on the back, but I couldn't access it since the Best Buy alarm adapter covered the slot
- It is pre-loaded with the North_America_2GB map, version 825. This means the 140/340 have better maps than the 740. The USA_Canada_and_Mexico_P map on the 140/340 has the full GO 9x0 POI set, and it has major roads of Mexico included. I suspect the USA_Canada_and_Mexico_P map has the cspeech files eliminated, to allow the addtional data to fit on 2GB. cspeech (speech recognition data) is not needed on the 140/340 since they have no microphone

When I have additional time, I'll try out some traffic scenarios later to see how the Live traffic works.

 

[gatorguy]

I'm a little disappointed in the number of roads showing flow data compared to MSN. Most major roads in Tampa are showing traffic speed data, no so much with TT Traffic. Same in Orlando. The number of in-route traffic incidents reported has so far been a bit better on the TomTom, but not much. As far as incidents being reported accurately, too early to tell for sure, but TT didn't report a fairly major slowdown on I-4 in the Disney area that MSN was reporting. But MSN showed only a one minute delay and I'd put it closer to five, very slow traffic for about a mile, maybe two. Gawkers. . .

Anyway, I often check traffic in both Tampa and Orlando even with no destination set, just to see any areas to avoid around me. So far, in extremely limited use, the traffic detail levels are much higher on MSN, but the TT might be more accurate when it does report an issue. There's a lot of grey (no traffic info) areas even on 1-4 in Orlando/Kissimmee and surrounding tollroads. But it's still early and haven't had a chance to test properly. Much easier to check for traffic with MSN if no route set, and with bolder lines, easier to see.

 

[mvl]

Spent more time with the 740 (and a 730 right next to it) at Best Buy. Not too much else to note:
- Physical shape is like the 730, but a bit rounder. Case is black.
- Played with the menus, there is very little difference between 730 and 740 other than icon pictures. I noticed an "airplane mode" preference on the 740 that presumably shuts off the GPRS modem.
- Looked at the speech recognition. Most of the "Navigate to" options can be spoken, and most of the "quick menu" items can be spoken. Not much more. The number of commands is overstated, they list multiple ways of saying the same command.
- Couldn't try the traffic. The tomtom complained about "traffic not available for your country" and gave me no data, possibly because the tomtom had no GPS reception since being installed as a demo (still showed midtown manhattan as its location). The Best Buy is on the first floor of an office tower, so no GPS brand/model had reception.

 

[mvl]

I'm a little disappointed in the number of roads showing flow data compared to MSN.

This is surprising. Traffic on msn.com has far fewer flow reports than trafficast (yahoo.com).

Perhaps, to save GPRS data fees, Tomtom is only broadcasting situations where the traffic is different from the predictable IQroutes data? If I look at HD traffic on routes.tomtom.com, there also appears to be very few roads covered in Europe, and I know they have more data than they're showing.

Can you see if the road coverage on the 740 ever changes dynamically? And if it ever includes small sidestreet flow reports?