Customer Rating:      Summary: Does not have adequate memory-Very disappointing Comment: After careful study on the internet, and going to a local store to make some comparisons between buying a TomTom navigator (world wide supposidly the most popular)or a Garmin navigator (considered to be the most popular in the United States}, I chose the TomTom XL 330S. I liked the idea that you could download an updated map if a more recent one was available in the first 30 days after you bought it. I also liked the MapShare feature, which allowed people to make corrections on the maps, and after those corrections were approved by TomTom, you could download those updates for free. So I played with it while I was driving home. My first disappointment was that it wouldn't place my home address on the right location on the map, and it also called my personal/private driveway a public road with street name. None the less, I thought I would just correct that to submit to TomTom. Next on my way home, driving by a local College,I tried to find that under Points of Interest, in the educational category, but it wan't there. It was a total blank spot on the map (I had read of other navigators that actually could show camping spots in a camp ground), so I found it hard that it couldn't recognise a major college or any of it's roads. But again I thought I would just correct and submit to TomTom. When I got home I connected to the TomTom web site to see if there was a more recent map available, and there was. I went to download it, but was told I did not have enough memory to do so (the process would not just update the map, but it ended up requiring that I removed the map that came on my TomTom. I backed up that map version and then deleted and downloaded the new map. I then saw there was an additional free update to the US and Canadian maps (along with a bunch of little specialty updates), so I went to download the major update and again was told I did not have adequate memory. I hunted online to see if I could find a solution to this problem, as I could not imagine that TomTom would provide inadequate memory to use their product as advertised. I read that it was suggested that you could gain memory by taking off features out of the memory that you didn't need. The only features I was able to remove was some additional voices (it is only the computer voice that can say the street names, so I wanted to keep that, as that is why I purchased this TomTom version). The removal of these other voices only provided minimal memory. I ended up talking to the people at TomTom. They implied that I should have been aware that there was only 1 GB of memory, and no slot for an SD card to expand the memory. I told them that I had been aware, but had no way of knowing that between the map, computer voice and program to make it all work, that they would basically fill up my memory. One man at TomTom even told me to take the new updated map off my unit and put the older one back on, to gain some memory!!!!!! I have had this product 1 week, and I kept hoping that I could be happy with it, but I just can't get beyond the fact that I don't have the memory to allow me to make the basic updates that I want to be able to make. That was the main reason of choosing the TomTom in the first place. At this time I am so disappointed, I think I would rather have no GPS navigator than have one that doesn't have adequate information. I was willing to overlook examples of inadequate information when I thought I could get the mapsharing updates for free, but when I find I can't, then the missing information is more troublesome. For exmple, when I looked up gas stations or restaraunts, many were not listed. The other day I was driving on a major high way that recently had some work done, and the TomTom kept on showing that I was driving on nothing. I was also traveling to someplace in Northern Minnesota, and it kept on wanting to direct me into Canada, and also kept referring to my having to take a toll road. That was not a reasonable route, aand there was no toll road. Locally I tried maping out some other trips, and again totally ignored roads that were there and direct, and went signifcantly out of the way (and yes I had it set to map the quickest trip, which is not necessarily the shortest, but it did not do that. I can't help but think, if it is so lacking in my area, where I know what it is telling me is wrong, how can I trust it in an area that I don't know......especially when I don't have adequate memory to download the corrections that other TomTom users submit to TomTom. Maybe my expectations were too high, but I don't think I am out of line to expect to have adequate memory so I can use the product the way it is advertised. On a positive note, some say the voice is not loud enough, but at 50% it is very loud.
Customer Rating:      Summary: Excellent GPS Comment: First off, I've owned multiple different Magellan models and they all started to die (battery quits holding charge) in less than one year, after commuting ~1h each way every day for work. I tried a Garmin Nuvi and it worked ok, but the features were less intuitive, even irritating. The Tom Tom XL 330 is awesome. It does everything I need and does it well with a very intuitive interface that remembers previous choices and makes smart suggestions. The main display tells you your speed, the speed limit, direction, time, time of arrival, total distance, distance to next turn, and has a compass. If you want it to read street names, get the S model.
Customer Rating:      Summary: Unit Severely Short On Memory Comment: This GPS unit is out of memory out of the box! I won't dispute any of what was said above, but be aware that all the voice options, all the help, all the frills that come loaded on your XL when you pull it out of the package take up so much memory that you can't update you maps with them on the unit. They must be sacrificed in order to download and install any up-to-date maps. This was a great big deal breaker for me... my unit TomTom XL 330s went straight back to the store. The pity is that TomTom knows this and refuses to acknowledge their design flaw. Don't buy this unit.
Customer Rating:      Summary: Deceptive Wording! Comment: Were you fooled by the title of this product? I was. You see, I thought that when I ordered this product I would also be getting the TRAFFIC RECEIVER that is mentioned in the title.
While this particular device is "traffic ready," it does not include the TRAFFIC RECEIVER needed to be able to access traffic information.
I love the GPS device itself -- great graphics, useful maps, excellent directions, but I am very disappointed in the way in which Amazon has chosen to promote the product.
Customer Rating:      Summary: Major, Embarrassing Oversight by TomTom Comment: Stay away from this junk.
I received a TomTom One XL for Christmas, which is the discontinued model that the XL 330 S replaced. It worked fine, until I tried to use TomTom's current map guarantee, which allows you to download any newer maps that have been released since the device was loaded at the factory. I could not update to the new map because it is 30 or 40 MB larger than the previous map, requiring a few MB more flash memory than is supplied on the device. So I returned the device and bought the 330, thinking there is no way they would have made the same mistake on the newer model. WRONG. I couldn't update to the current map on the XL 330 S, either. I checked the support site, which helpfully informed me that in these cases I could remove nonessential files from my device, such as, oh, voices. There's only one "nonessential" file large enough that it's removal would allow installation of the updated map, and that's the computer voice file, which allows reading of street names. So I was faced with keeping the old map with spoken street names, or updating the map and losing spoken street names.
This is utterly unacceptable and represents a major, embarrassing oversight by TomTom. This one is going back too, and I'm done with TomTom. I'm going to stick with Garmin, as I have extensive experience with their aviation GPS units.
Somebody forgot to tell TomTom that this isn't a government contract, and a GPS with a permanently outdated map with no possibility of updating it for any price is worthy of a zero-star review, but that unfortunately wasn't an option.
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