TomTom XXL 540M 5-Inch Widescreen Portable GPS Navigator (Lifetime Maps Edition) Reviews
TomTom XXL 540M 5-Inch Widescreen Portable GPS Navigator (Lifetime Maps Edition)
- Preloaded with maps of the US, Canada and Mexico with Lifetime Map Updates
- Preloaded with more than 7 million points of interest in over 60 destination categories--gas stations, restaurants, hotels, ATMs and more
- IQ Routes Technology calculates the fastest route possible based on time of day, saving you time, fuel and money
- Advanced Lane Guidance indicates exactly which lane to use, so you can go confidently
- Announces turn-by-turn directions aloud, including street and place names
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My at the start TomTom and won’t be my last!,
History with GPS Steering:
I’ve used built-in Honda (Alpine), standalone Garmin, and Ford ‘Sync’ audio GPS steering devices.
I loved the Honda navi for its size, and I despised it since updates were sparse and expensive.
I loved the Garmin for being up-to-date but I despised it since it everlastingly seemed to chat its mind a lot, or direct me into weird areas.
I didn’t really care for the Ford Sync steering, as it wasn’t a visual navi. Built-in for free with the car, but I point out not to use it. Maybe only excellent as a ‘back-up’ in case the TomTom fails– though I don’t reflect it ever will.
I sold my Honda and looked-for a new steering system.
I bought the XXL 540TM for…
1) Screen size
2) Frequent map updates (4x a year + Map Share)
3) Skill to customize it (lots of settings to play with)
4) Well Celebrated & Feature (I’ve everlastingly heard ‘Garmin’ is the best, but when I’ve tried Garmin, I didn’t like it!)
5) Lane Guidance
6) IQ Routes (figuring out which roads were best to use)
By the way, in case you were wondering the “TM” stands for “Transfer” and “Maps”, indicating here are free transfer and map updates. I had NO harms inflowing the “Lifetime Maps & Transfer” code provided.
What’s in the box:
-> GPS contrivance itself
-> Dialogue box mount (with suction cup)
-> Dashboard ‘sticky’ pad
-> USB cable (to join to PC)
-> Car Potential adapter
-> Set Up Handbook
-> Slip of paper with 1 code, convincing for Lifetime Map/Transfer updates
The at the start thing I did was hook it up to my PC and run all the updates. (A newer map was available + GPSFix + Map Share.) It took in this area 1.5 hours to update all of it. After it was done, it took up in this area 96% of the 2GB built-in memory. (I didn’t try out how much it used before updating.) Not a lot of ‘waggle room’ to add more facial appearance. No built-in SD slot to add memory, any.
One major downside is that I don’t like how basically the contrivance ‘pops off’ the windshield mount. (See additional explanation under “The BAD” not more than.) I am considering being paid a (non-glue) weighted/padded mount to place on the dashboard.
The GOOD:
+ Screen size met my expectations. Simple to see all on the screen
+ Startup time (counting time to lock onto satellites) seemed honestly quick
+ Roads were up-to-date and labeled by the book. Didn’t find any errors
+ Allowable me to customize just in this area all I wanted to.
+ It functioned impeccably as a Steering contrivance. This is where I felt Garmin was gone. With all the facial appearance a Garmin has, it by no means seemed to ‘navigate’ the way I liked. Of all the facial appearance, the ‘Steering’ is the most vital, and TomTom does it well from what I’ve seen.
+ It pronounced some ‘hard to say’ roads impeccably! I’m sure I’ll find some that are not aptly, but Garmin/Sync had a hard time saying road names.
The “OK”:
+- Transfer is only updated by RDS (sent by community FM radio stations). This is what I paid for. RDS updated only major roadways (Interstates) and manifest some accidents / road construction / road closures. It only worked when the potential cord was plugged into the accessory potential port on the car (as the cord functions as the mast.) I would have preferred TomTom’s GO/Live line of harvest which has a built-in ‘cell buzz’ to grab more meticulous and current transfer information. But, these were out of my fee array. The XXL 540TM does “just ample” transfer to make it helpful.
+- It takes some time to estimate a long interval send. But, I also know that it is by IQ Routes to point out the best roads. It seemed 1 or 2 seconds longer than it looked-for to be, but indeed not a huge problem.
The BAD:
- Domestic memory not expandable. 96% used up without any ‘extras’ installed? Hope I don’t need more…
- When browsing maps (dragging my fiddle with) it is a bit ‘laggy’. I don’t expect perfection, but it seemed slow-moving. Opportunely, I don’t plot to browse maps evenly, so I’ll deal with it. I tried turning off Points Of Appeal (POIs), and turning off 3D maps (by 2D maps as a substitution for), and it really didn’t seem to make a difference. I’m impressed with the detail it showed, but wasn’t thrilled in this area waiting 10 seconds for the full screen to end ‘depiction’.
- Windshield mount seemed to ‘pop off’ too basically. When suctioned to the windshield, I have to use 2 hands to ‘hold’ the GPS and keep it emotionally involved to the mount while I chat. I infer it is helpful for people who place the mount blocked on the windshield. I very to take out the contrivance AND the mount and hide them when not in use. (I map a thief will know that the mount is for a GPS, and that the GPS is hidden in the car everyplace.)
I have yet to try this out on a LONG or COMPLEX road trip, but…
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|Still desires many improvements to make it a splendid gps unit,
I bought the TomTom XXL 540S a few weeks ago. This gps is the huge brother to the TomTom XL 340S. This gps just has the larger and brighter 5″ screen.
I have very diverse feelings in this area the gps. Here are many equipment that I like in this area it, but here are also so many small fine points and functions that are gone on it that TomTom any unbendable not to work on or unbendable to eliminate. These modest equipment that are gone drive me absolutely idiotic at times and I don’t know if I can stand them or not. I may consider persistent this gps and being paid any a Garmin or Magellan as a substitution for. I don’t know yet. I really hope TomTom starts addressing some of these issues.
Some of my pros vs cons are not more than which I hope will help others who are tiresome to choose on a gps.
Pros:
+ IQ Routes (TomTom uses historical alacrity data for roads based on the time of day and day of the week, so that it can give you the best possible send)
+ Huge 5″ Screen, which is simple to see.
+ Very loud speaker. (Option in Number Preferences to link the number to your cars alacrity if you want)
+ Satellite acquition is quick (less than 10 sec for me). Shows usually around 9 satellites.
+ Map Affect can be changed.
+ Can chat the affect of the car symbol in 3D mode
+ Auto Day/Night mode changes the brightness and affect.
+ Skill to arrange a send with any Disappear and Destination coordinates.
+ Shows the current street that your on at the underside of the screen and the next street to turn on in the top aptly corner.
+ Well yet to be Lane Guidance on the highway is showed really nicely. Shows an arrow with the lane that you need to be in and also now and again shows a 3D sign for your exit. It is nice and huge and it stays on the screen long ample to be viewed so that its apparent to see where you need to go.
+ Reputation bar can be bespoke to how you like it. It can be showed any horizontally or vertically. Can show the remaining time, remaining interval, current time, arrival time, your alacrity and the alacrity limit, interval to your next turn, compass, ect.
+ TTS (text to address) instructions are very caring in let you know where to turn and also preparing you for your next turn as well. For instance it will say something like “After one qurter mile turn aptly”. Then as you get closer to the street it will say “Turn aptly Main St. Then take the second left”
Cons:
- POI (Points of Appeal) Map Screen shows the POI name, street and thwart street, buzz, city, and state. But it gives NO street addresses! So you don’t know the take up or what side of the street the POI is on, unless you call the place yet to be of time and question. All you get is a checkered flag shown in the middle of the street with TomTom saying “you have reached your closing destination”. On the Go develop the POI Map Screen has a “Fine points” pin that shows the street take up, zip code, and food food type for instance. Why TomTom unbendable to take out this on this develop I have no thought.
- No AutoZoom make possible/disable option (like on the Go develop). You can manually zoom in or out on the map, but in this area 5 sec shortly AutoZoom will kick in and take you aptly back to what TomTom desires you to see. Its very frustrating since I like to zoom in and out now and again so that I can see more map detail, but TomTom won’t allocate me to for anymore then in this area 5 sec. When I turn on the gps the zoom amount that TomTom has elected is so terrible that most all of the street outlines around me have absolutely vanished from the screen. All that I see are a bunch of street names just on the edge around on the map with no streets being shown.
- Doesn’t speak which side of the street your destination is on. (If you infiltrate a street take up for a destination though it does show a modest arrow on the map pointing to the left or aptly hand side of the street when you are approaching your destination. Along with a modest checkered flag on the side of the street your destination is on.)
- Chat Preferences screen is 6 pages deep and only has a pin to enhancement foward to the next page. Here is no back pin. So if you say accidently go past the screen you wanted to be on you have to then push the foward pin 5 more times just to get back to that page.
- No simple way to get into the Browse as Text turn lists sight from the main screen.
- Browse as Text send instructions, the text and arrows for the turn list is just way to small. Also here is no Auto Scroll gathering. To view the next page of new upcoming turns you have to scroll down the list manually yourself.
- POI Map Screen in Night mode shows the thwart street text in black, which is extremely tiresome to see unless you get very close to the screen.
- 3D mode all owing to the day the maps background brightness isn’t consistent in a roundabout way…
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|Very levelheaded GPS with all the essential facial appearance you’d want apart from voice recollection,
The GPS promote has come a long way in the past few being. A decade ago, here were very few after-promote GPS units, they were frequently expensive, and they were also frequently mediocre. The best units cost more than a thousand, and while they’d get you from here to here, didn’t feature a lot of bells and whistles. Factory installed GPS units–then limited frequently to high end cars–commonly cost $2-3k.
A growing number of portable GPS units have come to promote in the past 5 or so being. Over time, the hardware has improved, the software has (for the best ones) gotten sweet excellent, and prices have (especially in the past year or so) dropped tremendously. (That last point–the tremendous drop in fee–has forced many manufacturers out of the promote. At this point, it is frequently dominated by names like TomTom, Magellan, and Garmin). Here is also now struggle from high end smart phones, most of which have a GPS unit built in.
(Amazingly–or I don’t know not–the cost of factory installed car GPS systems has insistently remained around $2,000!)
While here has been significant brand erosion in the GPS promote, here is no famine of choices. That’s since each manufacturer now offers an very nearly ludicrous number of models, many of which are only modestly uncommon.
GPS units can basically be differentiated as follows
1) Screen size (usually 3-5″ in a roundabout way)
Does the unit place forward voice recollection
2) Skill to get your hands on a GPS signal
3) The GUI (graphical user interface) presented to the user
4) Feature of the maps (how evenly updated, what geographical regions they take in)
5) Does the unit incorporate transfer data?
6) Feature of routing (how excellent are the pouring instructions generated)
7) Does the unit place forward text to address? (Does it tell you the names of streets, or just say “next left”?)
9) Does the unit incorporate blue tooth to communicate with your buzz and/or FM transmission to play over your car radio?
10) Does the unit have expandable memory; play mp3s; etc?
11) How excellent is the built-in mounting hardware?
Let’s take these facial appearance one at a time for this fastidious GPS, the TomTom XXL540TM
1) The screen size of this unit is 5″. This is at the high end of current offerings by the major GPS manufacturers. This doesn’t really buy you any additional “real estate”, i.e. the pledge isn’t privileged than the small GPS units. It’s just a modest larger. That IS helpful, to be honest, and is also caring as it makes it simpler to plot the touchscreen menus.
2) This unit, like all the current TomTom line, does a splendid job of acquiring a GPS signal. It can take far less than a small with apparent shape of notice, and my unit was even able to pull up 5 satellites inside my home with the blinds drawn. I also have GPS units from Sony and Garmin, as well as a built in unit in my car. The TomTom is best than the Sony at being paid a signal, as excellent as the Garmin, and slower than the built in in my car (not a honest comparison, since the built in gets a much larger mast).
3) This TomTom has a very excellent GUI. The upset screen is practically responsive and most all appears where one would, instinctively, expect it to be. My largest protest is that here are a LOT of options and option screens you can drill owing to–way too many to deal with while pouring. The upside, is here is a “simple menus” options that will bestow only the most noteworthy option screens. It should be noted that some of the contemporary TomTom models (e.g. the 550) have eliminated a lot of the options/option screens, leave-taking ONLY the “simple” menus. That is a huge negative, since some of these deep menus are practically helpful. Underside line: Excellent GUI and stab to a develop like this that at nominal amount gives you the option of the deep menus.
4) The map data is excellent, and this fastidious GPS comes with lifetime map updates. TomTom also has a “map share” gift, which allows users to upload/download map changes. That earnings if a bunch of users discovery that a street is clogged, they can note this information on their GPS and that info will get transmitted back to TomTom, who then shares it with everyone else. In this way, maps get corrected very promptly. This unit includes maps for both North America (US/Mexico/Canada) and much of Europe. The inclusion of European maps will be thorough a major bonus for some, and irrelevant for those who don’t plot to take this further than this continent.
5) This unit includes lifetime transfer data. The regard of this data will depend on where you live. Major cities have splendid coverage. Less vital cities evenly get poorer coverage. The transfer data is also now and again incorrect. But on the total, the transfer data is excellent, and practically dependable (where you can get it). It is transmitted over the FM frequency, and an mast is built into the auto…
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