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I must admit that although.....
I have never used a Tom Tom, having heard positive reports from others here and various mates I will probably go with a Tom Tom next time. I use a Garmin 550 which is generally really good but has one or two quirks that I don't like.
The pluses are:
Very sturdy construction
Nice big buttons and big buutons on the touch screen
Solid mountings for car and bike
Great mapping software for PC based route planning
Good battery life for fiddling with it in hotels etc (calm down)
General ease of use/intuitive controls for GPS/Bluetooth etc
The minuses are:
Slow to update itself, can be very vague about turnings especially when various road junctions are very close together. The centre of small French villages often confuse it terminally.
No earphones, bluetooth or otherwise for sound reception in helmet-its very hard to figure this out in a unit designed for bike use (and costing nearly £500 quid).
Garmin website insisted that there were no map updates for my unit (bought about a year ago) until it was exactly a year old when hey presto there is an update available and its £53 plus VAT. Oh and no provision for a VAT free sale even though we are outside UK! Thanks guys.
I find the lack of a 'Distance to travel to your destination' facility, whilst in mid journey, a bit irritating. Yes it tells you how far it is when you first calculate a route but after that th mileage to run is pure guess work.
I am generally very happy with the Garmin Zumo 550 but I can sense a change of brand coming along when I upgrade it in a year or or so.
Cheers
Rick
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