| TomTom GO 520 Satellite Navigation System With UK & Ireland Mapping | 
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| Brand: TomTom
Category: CE
Buy New: £149.99
New (16) from £149.99
Avg. Customer Rating:  16 reviews
Sales Rank: 143
Media: Electronics
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 7 x 7 x 3.5
Legal Disclaimer: Layer One UK does not offer any warranty other than the one imposed by the manufacturer. Consequently, the warranty conditions proposed by Layer One UK will be an exact copy of the manufacturers.
MPN: 1N00560
Model: 1N00560
UPC: 636926017022
EAN: 0636926017022
ASIN: B000RW2WU2
Release Date: June 11, 2007
Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours
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| Customer Reviews:
 Problematic October 20, 2007
20 out of 32 found this review helpful
The 520 looks great on paper however when I connected it to an Imac it wouldn't initially work. The support from Tomtom in next to useless and they seem to be closed at weekends - website support unavailable and no phone support. I have now returned the item after trying for 3 days to get it working....
Replacement now seems to work fairly well on a G5 mac. Still a couple of major issues. 'Browse Map' doesn't work properly. When I try to move a map, the view suddenly zooms in fully then I am instantly taken to other random menus where it can, and has, changed important preferences. Also the voice recognition sometimes recognises the internal TomTom confirmation voice and adds unwanted information to the destination. Now returning this item for a second time.
On a lighter note, this is the first occasion in over 10 years that I've returned anything to Amazon and returns procedure/policy is excellent.
 Good solid, simple satisfactory device October 15, 2007
31 out of 34 found this review helpful
Tried the Tom Tom, one or two points on the reviews to consider, but on the whole I liked the strong build, good quality mount and the screen is just a bit bigger, which makes it easy with a man's chunk fingers.
Lots of configurations too, I like that.
The voice is neutral and not snappy or annoying like others. You can download silly voices, cheaply too, for fun or record your own, but I'd rather hear a nice voice, not mine.
Menu quick to setup -no need to even read the manual, its that easy to put in a route and go.
love the way the map moves and the 'car' arrow symbol stays still. The car turning on the map as in others is too cartoon and confusing I found.
Voice prompts, steady and nicely timed, pre-warning you on Motorways nicely.
On complex motorway merges, it even advises the best land to take to avoid stress and nasty boy racers hassling you for the last 10cms of road space left. My wife appreciated that as we used the M40, M25 and M4 in the space of 10 minutes, she found it very helpful indeed.
The device transmits to the car stereo, this is useful with the Ford focus, the sporty low-profile wheels make a lot of road noise and it makes it much easier to hear instructions. Note: In my Citroen, it is not needed, no road noise!
The Tom Tom Home software is extremely easy to use, just plug the supplied home dock into a USB port and the GO 520 will charge, these also work if the PC is powered down. Handy.
If the PC is on, the GO 520 asks if you want to download and install the home PC software, very fast, no effort - it just does it - so no need to use the CD, just go for the latest on-line version.
Note when the PC is on and you plug in the GO 520, it ask if you want to connect, if just charging it, say NO and no problemo.
Voice recognition. Marvelous, understood Tring, Windsor, Hatfield, Hemel Hempstead first time, we were impressed. It then plotted the route easily, but the M1 was closed, so a simply route overview and avoid M1 by touching it and we had the better route I would have gone for too.
Strangely, it never offered to use the short simple route between hemel and Hatfield, the M10, preferring to use the dreaded M25 instead, no no-no for those who know. Again an avoid touch cured it.
I deviated through old town Amersham to get petrol, the Go 520 was quite patient and as i left, it did not try to take me back to the bypass, assuming there was a reason I left it and plotted a simple route through the scenic old town, easy on a Sunday. We were impressed with the speed of re-calculation too, and it didn't annoy us whilst filling up with repeated turn around requests as some other brands have been reported.
Other all, we like it -it was bought for the family, there are 3 drivers, soon to be a fourth - so the extra expense over the ON model was deemed worth it.
You need a (11) case to carry it around it to protect the screen, buy one with it and save the postage, it can be half as much as the case otherwise. Order an SD memory card too, if you like music whilst in traffic jams - it will take a 2 GB card, but 6 for a 1GB is enough for when they put rap on all the FM radio channels at the same time.
Map share, not seen one yet, but it is possible to add a short cut to map correction and report a new road camera location, some said it would be tricky to report, but not with the short cut menu, which is configuration and instant access. Subscription is FREE.
Phones - limited compatibility, go to the Tom Tom web site and look for phones and check, mostly Nokia / Samsung it seems and some Motorola.
Traffic subscription 19 per year, via the mobile.
To buy the TOM TOM unit is about 30 and uses the TMC blue masts you see around the place, there is no fee then, but reception is varied and another unit must be plugged on and the aerial placed as high as possible. The Garmin has it built in and the aerial incorporated into the charge cord - This was the only advantage the Garmin equivalent had over the GO 520
On the whole, The Tom Tom wins out hands down.
 An worthwhile upgrade. October 13, 2007
49 out of 50 found this review helpful
This new design has all of the great feature you expect from TomTom but coupled with a more usable mounting system and a great widescreen display. Both myself and my wife spent a large amount of time investigating the various models on the market and found the features and ease of use of the TomTom Go 520/720 were clearly the best available. Coupled with the iPod cable I can now use both my TomTom and iPod through my car radio and not have difficulty hearing instructions over the music. On the downside my Mobile phone, an orange SPV3100, does not want to work with the hands free option provided; this is a bit of a disappointment to an otherwise perfect solution.
 Its great - but a word of warning !!! September 29, 2007
43 out of 49 found this review helpful
I have just bought this after owning a Garmin sat nav. It is clearly a top sat nav, the vioice recognision is very good, speed top etc. Loads of fuctions and fun. The word of warning is related to the hands free compatibility. I am talking with tom tom customer service about this right now, i have a SE W8010i, which seems to work fine with the GO 520, message reading, phone book transfur, receiving and making calls via the screen, its the buzzing i get (and the other people get) when making a call. Tom tom have said, the phone isnt compatable so there is no support for this problem. If you look at their compatible list for the GO 520, there are only 3 manufactures that have fully compatable phones - so im not sure their claim this unit can be used as a hands free phone unit is really fair - you can check the compatibility at www.tomtom.com/phones
I would recommend you do - hay, other than that, its a top toy to have.
Martin
At last, sat nav with daily map updates! August 13, 2007
186 out of 203 found this review helpful
By far the biggest improvement on this system compared to previous Tom Toms is that no longer will you ever have to suffer a map being wrong, with the Tom Tom 520/720 the maps are updated everyday. If you're driving along and you come across a road that isn't currently on your map just tap the screen and it will map the new road as you drive along it. Plug the Tom Tom into your pc each night and your map modifications are sent to the Tom Tom site at the same time as downloading everyone else's map corrections. Everyone who has mocked sat nav systems in the past for their inaccuracy will now have nothing to complain about as you'll never have wrong maps. You can even correct changes to 1 way systems or speed limits.
There are many other major improvements such as the ability to speak to the unit rather than having to press the screen. How many times have we all been tempted to lean over and tap the screen at a time when it isn't safe but you just had to do it? All you need to do now is speak navigational instructions such as "Glasgow" then it asks which road, if it hasn't quite understood you or there's more than 1 road with the same name in that area then you get a numbered list to choose from and you just say "1" or "2" etc. It also speaks back to you when giving directions so instead of just saying "take the next road on the left" it will say "turn into the next left, castle road" or whatever the road name is. It also sounds very human and not like one of those creepy speech synthesizers from the 80's that gave kids nightmares.
Despite having a larger than ever 4.3 inch screen this Tom Tom is far smaller than before which makes it much easier to carry around with you unlike the brick sized Tom Tom 510. It is lighter, thinner, sleeker and the battery lasts an hour longer than on the previous models so you can now navigate for 5 hours without recharging. The on/off button is greatly improved so it no longer keeps turning itself on when in a bag.
You can now not only store MP3 songs on your Tom Tom but you can send them through your car radio, even better you don't need a fancy blue tooth stereo to do this, it works with any car radio at all. Just select a blank frequency like 103.00 fm or whatever, tell the Tom Tom that frequency and hey presto, crystal clear mp3s play through your car speakers with the tom tom instructions coming out the speakers as well or just from the Tom Tom as normal.
It's hard to see how the Tom Tom 520 could ever be improved upon, I had many ideas I wanted to see used by Tom Tom and they've done them all - the ability to speak to it, the bigger screen, the map updates. The only advantages the 720 has over the 520 is that is has a 2GB hard drive built in but that seems pointless to me when SD cards come up to 8Gb in size now and they access much faster than a hard drive. A hard drive would also drain more battery power because it has moving parts. The 720 also comes with full door to door. European maps but that's only useful if you ever plan on crossing Europe. Although the 720 is only 30 more, the 520 is where the smart money goes in my opinion.
The hands free phone system is great and means you can answer your phone and talk legally. Some people critise the Tom Tom 520 for not being compatible with all mobile phones, well just to clear that up it does work fine for talking with any phone which has bluetooth, it is just that not all phones can send text messages to the Tom Tom and that's a very minor complaint as far as I'm concerned.
This may not be the cheapest system available but it does 10 times more than any other and you get what you pay for. There is no better sat nav system available today.
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