TomTom GO 600 Portable Vehicle GPS Review

Pro's

  • Fantastic 6-inch Pinch&Zoom Display
  • Conventional Address Entry
  • Ability To Prepare and Save Trip Plans With Stops in Advance
  • Bluetooth and Voice Command
  • Free Lifetime Map Updates 

Con's

  • Need's Mobile Phone Connection For Traffic
  • Very Few Instuctions
  • POI's Need To Be Entered As Searches
TomTom Go600 Car GPS Review

Editor's Rating: 

TomTom GO 600

The TomTom GO 600 is part of the TomTom range of GPS units for your car and comes as standard with a six inch pinch-&-zoom, glass touchscreen, a fantastic easy-to-use menu, and turn-by-turn directions that guide you using 3D-Maps that outline what the buildings are really like.  Overall we like the TomTom GO, however we do think the Garmin's models are probably better made and come with more useful features that you can use.  The TomTom is a great model, however we don't like the fact that you have to connect your GPS unit to your mobile telephone just get a traffic report.  Getting it is a probably, especially if you're anything like us and often forget the car charger which means no traffic.  You cannot use the traffic without a charger as the batter life on all the latest smartphones is simply not good enough and a few hours of internet access for the traffic and good bye your battery!

The TomTom GO 600 comes with a 6-inch pinch-and-zoom touch screen that uses real glass to help you the user both view your gps unit and enter your destination into your gps unit.  Once you're ready to drive, switch on your TomTom Car GPS unit by pressing the on-off switch on the back of the uni.  The first thing you notice is how quickly the unit powers up and finds satellites  and therefore find your destination.  The second is probably how clear an detailed the maps are especially when you start noticing the 3-D buildings along your route.

TomTom Go600

Customer Reviews

Ready to move, press the navigation app from the super easy to use navigation menu and enter your destination using the full QWERTY keyboard meaning that you can enter your destination using the full address or just the zip code.  The keyboard has also been designed to use TomTom's quick entrance systems which means that your possible options are reduced with each letter you type therefore making your destination typing faster, however did does have the opposite effect if your destination is not in the database.  Once you have typed in your destination, the gps unit quickly finds the quickest way to get you to your destination.  As mentioned above, if you have plugged your gps unit into your mobile telephone and therefore have taken advantage of the traffic situation around you then your gps device will also take into account any traffic alerts along your route and either make you aware of these of take a different route depending on the seriousness of the traffic jam.  Again, all this only happens if your TomTom car gps unit is plugged into your smartphone, if not then your gps unit calculates a route based on your destination.

Turn-by-Turn direction are provide both on screen and through the speaker system, whilst there is also a navigation bar situated to one side of your map that shows essential traffic and travel information at a glance.  The directions work very well and we really like the 3D buildings mode meaning that you ca see the shape and size of buildings as you drive past.  This really helps with navigation, however it does mean that you have to take your eyes off the road, look at your gps unit and then view the surrounding buildings to make the added feature work, which is not very safe.  When you approach a difficult interchange, the TomTom unit automatically switches in to TomTom's advanced lane guidance system which shows you which lane you need to be in to get to your destination on time,

We love the fact that the maps are fully updated four times a year for the life of the unit meaning that for as long as your have your unit, you should not have to worry about using outdated maps.  This is an example of TomTom's extra features which also includes ​TomTom's "My Places" which allows you to save your favorite locations on the map so you can easily find and navigate to your favorite locations again and again.  We also really like TomTom's nearby parking aid which is available throughout your journey meaning that you can choose to navigate directly to the nearest parking garage when planning your route, or find parking en route — either near your destination or close to your current location.

If you need to connect your TomTom unit to your laptop you can easily do this using TomTom's "MyDrive Connect" which is a small piece of software that you download that will allow you to upgrade the device firmware, maps, safety camera database and other items. 

Overall we do really like the TomTom GO 600 and feel that it really could be the best GPS for your car option on the market if TomTom just sorted out their Traffic problems.  I really feel that the maps, navigation and overall experience is better on the TomTom, however i hate having to pay extra for traffic alerts that come free on all Garmin models and many other gps designs.​

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