TomTom GO 720 GPS Review
TomTom Go 720 is a step above an entry level model with better features and higher price. TomTom is one of few GPS navigation unit manufacturer that has dominated the GPS market. TomTom Go 720 offers proven reliability and quality that has been the hallmark of any TomTom GPS navigation units.
Screen
Like similarly priced GPS units, the TomTom Go 720 comes with 4.3 inch touchscreen. The touchscreen is coated with anti-glare material that shows off a very crisp and clear screen in any light condition. You can change the brightness according to your preference or light condition. The touchscreen is very responsive to touch and don’t require too much force before it registers an input. It is a very high quality screen.
Ease of use
One of TomTom’s strength is its easy to use interface. Without having to read manual, you can start figuring out the overall operation without too much problem. The device comes preloaded with maps on its 2GB internal hard drive. Once it booted up, it took about 3 minutes to acquire satellite. Once locked in, the device is extremely easy to use. You can input destination via onscreen keyboard. From start to finish, it only takes few inputs including the address.
Reliability
Previous TomTom model we’ve reviewed had no problem with accuracy and reliability. As stated earlier, the TomTom Go 720 took around 3 minutes to locate the satellite. The satellite tracked the GPS unit very accurate as I drove around. Some units have significant lag that is very apparent and annoying. The overall route calculation was spot on with accurate routing. The destination did not involve incorrect or unnecessary travels. The rerouting worked perfectly once I missed a turn. The overall routing and reliability was very good. However, the unit kept dropping satellite signal throughout the testing. This was particularly frustrating as there were no high rise buildings or tunnels during the test route. I’m not sure if the unit was bad or there were some interference.
Features
The TomTom Go 720 boasts impressive set of features. The list includes the standard text-to-speech, Bluetooth, real time traffic, and media playing capabilities. The turn by turn with street name is very easy to understand and the visual representation is clear and easy to understand. The call quality through the device was crystal clear and easy to understand. The help function on the device is pretty helpful if you get stuck on usage or programming. The preloaded maps and POI were fairly up to date. Few of the new hotels in the city did not show up. With media player feature, you can stream mp3 music through your car speaker from the GPS unit. You can get live traffic updates with TomTom Plus service. This includes the up to date weather information. The TomTom Go 720 should satisfy most users looking for feature packed GPS unit.
Battery
The rated battery life of 5 hours was not very accurate. The normal usage only yield about 3 hours without having the unit plugged into the automobile. This shouldn’t be a problem if you leave the unit plugged into your automobile.
Expandability
TomTom is very good with their updates and you shouldn’t worry about the map or firmware being outdated. The downside is that these upgrades tend to come with service fees that might be free on another GPS manufacturer.
Pros
- 4.3 inch touchscreen
- Text-to-speech
- Fast GPS fix
- Accurate direction
Cons
- Poor satellite signal
- No free map update
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Car Windshield Flexible Gooseneck Mount for TomTom GO 520 520 720 730 920 930 920T 930T GPS Sale Price: $9.79 Average Rating:   |
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Car Windshield Flexible Gooseneck Mount for TomTom GO 520 520 720 730 920 930 920T 930T GPS Sale Price: $9.79 Average Rating: |
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This site contains the personal opinions of various authors and contributors to this website. The opinions in these articles and reviews are offered in good faith, but also come with no guarantees or warranties.
after updating software last month the tom tom no longer recognises hands free feature on phone.i tried 4 different phones. nothing works now.for such a large company they must have a software department run by idiots.
Thanks for the post! If you spend much time driving in unknown territory, i.e if you rent cars in big cities, a good portable Car GPS makes an awesome difference. Car GPS reviews are the most reliable source of information that provides all the latest info about different car GPS systems. I did some research and finally decided to buy this unit, and after using it for a couple of weeks, I am really happy with it.
Thanks for the post! If you spend much time driving in unknown territory, i.e if you rent cars in big cities, a good portable Car GPS makes an awesome difference. Car GPS reviews are the most reliable source of information that provides all the latest info about different car GPS systems. I did some research and finally decided to buy this unit, and after using it for a couple of weeks, I am really happy with it.
Comes with nifty features. I bought 2 more for my family. Highly recommended
Very nice GPS navigation unit. For me, it was easier to use than garmin gps navigation unit.
TomTom Go 720 did what it was suppose to do.. get me to places without wasting my time. The clarity of the voice was superb coupled with precise timing of the instructions led me to believe that I was actually listening to a live person.
Overall an excellent navigation.
Good Product, Could Be Better
Nice unit, but does not always provide the best (quickest) routing to the destinaion though it gets you there. Has nice feature of lane specific directions. Good entry level unit. Overall satisfied with product for the money.
Whoops… no polarized sunglasses, please
We bought after reading many, many good reviews here on Amazon and elsewhere.
It may be a great unit – I only used it for about an hour, though, on my way home.
It was excruciating- It seemed to operate really quickly, with a fast GPS lock and quick routing.
However, I realized almost immediately I would have to return it as the screen dims really bad if you wear polarized sunglasses. I can’t drive with my head at a 45 degree angle!
I read that the newer model (the 910 I think) has a different screen, which apparently doesn’t cause this trouble.
Sorry, but without being usable with polarized sunglasses (which my wife and I both wear while driving) it simply feels like this unit was not designed by drivers. Two stars…
Never Again!
I’ll never purchase another Tom Tom GPS again. This unit is not what it seems. Can’t even find a Point of Interest where I live which is in San Diego, CA. I tried downloading POI but it’s too much of a hassle. You donwload 1 per POI. Can you imagine downloading 1000? It’ll take you a whole year! If there is a negative star, that’s what I’ll use to rate this. So, I returned the GPS.
Poor perfomring GPS with misleading features (Bluetooth)
I wish I could give this GPS more than one star on this review but I feel as though many don’t consider customer service in their ratings. Getting in touch with a TomTom representative is like trying to call Barack Obama on a direct line…it’s pretty much impossible. So after going through a million prompts to answer my inquiry about incompatibility with the bluetooth feature I was finally told that they only have a few phones that are compatible with the unit and sometimes even phones that are compatible don’t offer all the features like loading contact list into the GPS for real hands free calling etc, etc. If it weren’t for these major drawbacks I’d give this unit three stars. It does ok on route navigation although on more than one occasion I’ve gone a map route and saved over an hour on one trip. This unit also lacks spoken street names which could keep your eyes of the GPS which means a safer drive for everyone on the road.
TomTom customer service sucks -1 star
Charging for online services that should be free to a faithful community of TomTom users -1 star
The screen scratches ridiculously easily, you have to buy the case or wrap the thing in a sock -1 star
I heard the newer Garmin GPS’s are better via [...]check it out…
very cool
Plus side – lots of features including bluetooth connectivity with phone, and mp3 player through fm radio station. Can add memory with sd card. Built in memory is already full with us maps, to add maps you have to add a SD card. Down side – somewhat complicated to get maps onto the sd card and get everything working. However, I downloaded Ireland maps (about $60)and it was fantastic help in negotiating small poorly marked Irish roads. I recommend this product. I had a tomtom one previously and this one works the same way but more options – If you have and like your tom tom one, you’ll like this one too.
Tom Tom 720 Go Go Portable GPS
Hard to setup but fairly easy to use once it’s setup !
To much stuff on it you don’t need taking up space !!
Outdated map Pains were fixed!
Seems like a good unit with plenty of features.Bluetooth works good with a samsung delve phone even though its not listed as compatable. The map is a year and a half out of date though and the map gaurantee wont work with the outdated map. I will be calling TomTom in the morning to see about getting an updated map. If they wont give me one I will be sending it back. A new unit should have a new map or at least the map guarantee should work. Other than that it seems to be top shelf.
UPDATE!!
Called TomTom customer service. I was helped quickly buy a guy with a foriegn accent, No long waits on hold. He said he could help me out. I emailed a copy of my amazon receipt to him and he had the new map in my TomTom home account by the time I got home from work.Installed easily and now works like a charm. I am very happy with this purchase so far. Seems to be really solid with the new map.highly recommend.I give it 5 stars now.
No Go
This model apparently suffered from a malfunction of some sort as it overheated and refused to remain on the map page. When it was working, it seemed to work efficiently, but was not able to recalculate an alternative route. Having read reviews that raved about this unit, I assumed that I might be able to resolve the problems with a call to Tom Tom’s help line. This proved futile as there was never any contact with them after repeated attempts over three days. Finally, I decided to purchase a Garmin Nuvi 1300 and tested the two systems side-by-side. When the Tom Tom continued to malfunction, I decided to return it and keep the Garmin which worked flawlessly during my trip from California to Florida.
As for the comparison test, Garmin’s screen was exceptionally more legible/visible, it recalculations were quick and correct, and functionality was more intuitive and user friendly. I did, however, like Tom Tom’s Blue Tooth functionality better than Garmin’s, but that’s is hardly a reason to choose the Tom Tom!
THIS PRODUCT WORKS GREAT
I love the added features! A couple of years ago we purchase the TomTom One and needed a second one for myself. The 720 has a bigger screen and allows you listen through your radio via bluetooth.
We use this on every trip Thanks TomTom. It’s one of the BestBest!
LOVE IT!
Super nice little GPS – really the screen is very nice. I like all the options… easy easy to operate.
computer Voice dissapointment
The TOM-TOM GO 720 works great and I would recomend it over a Garmin 200 that I own. The only thing I have found that is not desirable is the non-clearity of the computer generated voice, even though the clearity / some what muffled (Susan – American English) and the pronounciation of some words is quite humorous. From the intertainment perspective I would give it a 5-Star rating. On a recent trip with family my nephew when driving, turned off the highway just to check out how the TOM-TOM would annunciate a street name, and some would cause uncontrollable laughter.TomTom GO 720 4.3-Inch Widescreen Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator
Everything stops working when you update software?
I was able to make hands free calls to my cell phone verizon vx9900 (lg env2) which is on the list of supported devices. Then it stopped working, it can no longer connect to my phone any longer, so I deleted the entries on each device and tried to pair again. They say “paired” but cannot connect via bluetooth. POS!
Also, Now I notice I cannot connect to my computer via the USB, so I cannot even back up my device when I reset it to factory default. I contacted service but have not heard back yet. All I can think of is that it was after I updated the device and firmware through the application. What a POS! This is all after a week of having the device and everything worked fine until I updated!
Not Bad
Nice unit with good graphics. Like some other people, after downloading the most recent maps all I had on my unit was a map of Guam. However, one phone call to the folks at Tom Tom rectified the problem. As I understand the situation, some units have been on the shelf for a while and don’t have software upgrades to recognize the newest maps when downloaded. But it was a quick and painless fix. Also, as some have noted in reviews, only the computer generated voice gives street names while navigating. But that’s okay. All in all a good product for the modest cost and certainly worth a look. I am still trying to figure out if I can create my own routes to certain destinations and then have them recognized whenever I am heading to that particular location.
Never Disappoints
I am going to concentrate on the little things in my review since my tomtom go 720 did it’s main job (navigation) perfectly. The FM transmitter worked great for me. The sound was clear and loud, and the tomtom automatically paused the music off my SD card whenever giving instructions. The SD card worked from the moment i plugged it in, though you have to remember to place your music in a folder called mp3 or else your tomtom won’t know where to look. The computer voice read most street names well, and i had lots of fun letting eric cartman give me the directions!
people often say that garmins are easier to use, but i definitely prefer my tomtom. the menu might be a little more involved, but with so many extra features it needs to be.
I am thoroughly satisfied with my purchase, and will definitely stay with tomtom.
TomTom
have used this product in different states and it has save my bacon numerous times, like it very much have recommended it to friends and family!