–May 8, 2008
If you’re looking for the ultimate portable GPS navigator, you’ve got to consider the 930 series. TomTom’s 2008 flagship models bring all of their technological advancements together with ease of use and a sleek design to present a severely cool device. For a couple of year’s now, TomTom’s been driving forward community-driven navigation features. They began by introducing with Map Share, which lets you instantly modify street names, street direction, and custom locations called points of interest (POIs) on your own device, then upload them to TomTom’s HOME network and download changes made by all of the other users. When you do this, TomTom gets to find out what routes your device has been taking. The data is [Read More...]
Buy TomTom GO 930 4.3-Inch Widescreen Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator at Amazon
I’ve owned Garmin’s for more than 5 years and I currently own a NUVI 760. I’ve heard the great news about the TOMTOM 930 with IQROUTES, lane guidance, and the HOME feature so I decided to buy the 930 so I can give it a spin and compare it to the NUVI 760 with MSN DIRECT.
TOMTOM Pluses:
Arrival time -
The arrival time with IQROUTES are MORE accurate than Garmin’s. The NUVI keeps updating the arrival time during the trip. I compared the arrival time from the start and the TOMTOM was more accurate. TOMTOM is constantly collecting the travel times and updating their database. When you sign in to the HOME program the IQroutes from your trips are uploaded to the TOMTOM server.
Routes:
If anyone writes a review about a GPS and states that routes are 100% accurate then they are lieing, I have not found the perfect GPS with perfect routes.
The routes on both the 930 and the NUVI 760 have been identical. With the 930 I see minutes left on the trip, time left, and arrival time. I can even tell the 930 what time I would like to arrive at my destination.I can AVOID any of the roads on my trip. You CANNOT avoid roads on the NUVI 760.
TRAFFIC:
I’m using traffic on the 930 through my ATT Tilt phone and it seems to work and it is accurate. It uses my Tilt to access the traffic on the TOMTOM server through the Internet. If you have cell coverage you should have traffic data.
MSN Traffic on the 760 is not accurate and the avoidance feature does not work that well. The bad thing about the MSN Direct feature is that it does not have good range. I live in Chicago and the service does not work in many of the outlying suburbs.
PLUSES:
Iqroutes are more accurate than the NUVI.
Lane guidance works in my area.
Avoiding roads on your trip.
Being able to correct street names, closed streets, one ways, and many other errors is a big plus.
Traffic works well.
The GPS chip has not lost reception. I’ve lost the signal numerous times on the NUVI.
More information on the 930 screen than on the 760.
TOMTOM minuses:
The screen is hard to see in sunlight.
The maps are not bad since I loaded the Garmin map look on the 930. I even have the magenta route line on my 930.
The battery does not last more than 1 hour.
The Text to speech does not work all the time. The street names are not pronounced as good as the NUVI.
You don’t get the constant reminders that the NUVI 760 provides. Sometimes I don’t think that I drive the 930 with my eyes close. With the 760 you can close your eyes and not miss a turn.
I cannot locate an address by ANY city like the NUVI. Sometimes the 930 cannot locate an address if it thinks it’s in a different city. You have to input the surrounding city names to get the correct address and route.
Hello,
I have recently moved in USA and it is a big challenge to drive in USA w/out efficient and reliable GPS. As soon as I landed, I bought Tomtom 930 because Tomtom is very famous in Europe. Just recently, I have bought Garmin 680 for my wife and I have been using for for 3 days and can make proper evaluation despite time is short to make an accurate evaluation:
PROS and CONS of Tomtom 930 & Garmin 680
1. Tomtom is a lot more user friendly with remote control.
2. You can find the locations with Zip Codes (I have not seen such spec in Garmin yet at least)
3. Tomtom’s guidance is a lot better in complex areas (And with Lane help, it is even better).
4. Tomtom’s map is not as good as Garmin’s at least for USA. Garmin can find more destinations and more side streets. Tomtom is great only if you don’t need every single street in each and every city.
5. Garmin has a lot better view on the screen when compared to Tomtom. It is more clearer and tells you on the screen the next street you must take and the distance left. I may feel it complicated on Tomtom’s screen because I am color blind. So, suggest you do not rely on this evaluation too much.
6. EPT is a great feature for Tomtom which guides you even there is no satellite reception. However, this feature sometimes crashes and turns the device off.
7. Tomtom follows different ways for the same origin and destinations. It is so strange but I do not really know the reason.
Last but not least, Tomtom is a great product with great features when compared to Garmin 680. However, if your occupation is sales like me, you need Garmin to find where you need to go in all details. But, Garmin’s features are a lot less than Tomtom’s. I wish there was a GPS which compiles all pros together in one device. You should also compare the price difference between two devices I own.
Pros:
Much improved trip time estimates
Better routing choices than previous TomTom models
Interface customization options
Cons:
Hard to see screen in bright light
No route optimization
TeleAtlas map accuracy (at least in Florida)
Inability to route to off-road locations
Operating System stability
I’ve had the 930 since the end of April, running it side by side with a Garmin 760. Overall, it’s been a fine performer. But it’s also pretty much a 920 with only one real updated feature. . . IQRoutes. TomTom added (via navcore8) historical speed data to the TeleAtlas mapset, greatly improving not only it’s estimated trip times but it’s routing decisions. Whereas TomTom devices have been among the poorest in drivetime estimates, the 930 is now pretty much dead on for most trips. In fact, my Garmin, which has always had excellent drive time accuracy, now is matched and even sometimes bettered by the 930, depending on time of day. Both units can be trusted in this regard. Routing is also improved. During rush hour, if the TomTom 930 recommends a different route than my nuvi, I tend to go with the TomTom. In the evenings, or at light traffic times, the 760 may be a bit better, tho not always. In fact the 930 and Garmin 760 will now frequently recommend nearly the same route. This is really the only step up feature from the 920 for all practical purposes. The other two touted features, Active Lane Guidance and Static Interchange Images, will rarely, if ever, be seen by most users. In 6 weeks of driving in Central Florida I’ve seen ALG perhaps three times and Static images never. Not even once. The only users who seem to ever see them are in the countries densest metro areas: San Francisco, Chicago, New York, etc, and no frequency even there. So if these are the features that interest you, buy a TomTom 920 instead (or better yet a Navigon). The hardware, features and performance of the 920 and 930 are otherwise identical. For the current price difference between the 920 and 930, my recommendation is the 920. Just not yet enough difference to justify the extra $150-$200 price premium for the 930. Until IQRoutes takes time of day into consideration in it’s route computions, the usefulness is still somewhat limited. Currently the options are three: Mon through Fri / Saturday / Sunday. No time of day or weekday option.
A couple of issues I have with this TomTom are system stability and the TeleAtlas maps. In Florida, at least, the TA map, while very detailed, is much more error-prone than the Navteq maps (used by several others, including Garmin, Google and Magellan). There are a lot of “imaginary” roads, some highways misdrawn, and others no longer existing or misnamed. The maps do appear to reflect many new road additions, but are slow to show corrections to existing roads. This level of error is not seen in my Navteq map, tho it too is far from perfect or all-inclusive.
My 930 has rebooted for no obvious reason on several occasions and required one system reset so far. In contrast I’ve never had to reset my 760 in nearly 8 months of use and can remember only one spontaneous reboot. The TomTom OS is suspect with regard to stability in my opinion. Speed limits data is seldom seen, unlike my 760 and Navteq’s extensive speed limit displays. Map updates have also been somewhat problematic. The only other issues of note are listed at the top of the review, with the screen being the most apparent problem for most users. The Garmin 760 display is very bright with vivid colors and clean text, easily seen in my truck with the brightest sunshine. The TomTom 930 screen is sometimes nearly unreadable under the same conditions. Moving it off the windshield, using an optional vent mount for example, improves the viewing quite a lot.
Voices are very good, not quite the quality of the Garmin voices, but usually a little louder. Some limitations on enunciation , but not enough to cause an issue for most users. The included remote is more of a novelty than truly useful, IMO, as I can touch enter addresses faster than I can with voice entry and with less aggravation. It should be noted tho that the only way to move backwards in the menus is with the remote.
Overall, the 930 is a very good automotive gps, better than my 760 at some things, worse in others, but worthy of consideration, tho the 920 (or nuvi 7×0’s) is a better value for the features.