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 Best Sellers | | Home TomTom GO 720 4.3-Inch Widescreen Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator | |
|  | |  | | | TomTom GO 720 4.3-Inch Widescreen Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator | | | | | SKU:
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List Price:
| $449.95 | |
Our Price:
| $195.00 | |
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| $254.95 (57%)
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| | Product Details | | Product Length: | 3.2 inches | | Product Width: | 0.9 inches | | Product Height: | 4.7 inches | | Product Weight: | 0.37 pounds | | Package Length: | 7.1 inches | | Package Width: | 6.9 inches | | Package Height: | 3.5 inches | | Package Weight: | 1.65 pounds | | Average Customer Rating: |  based on 356 reviews |
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| | Features | Stylish and lightweight pocket-sized design; preloaded with complete US and Canada maps and millions of POIsSpoken directions with real street names; 4.3-inch touchscreen with TomTom's award-winning navigationBluetooth for hands-free calling via your cell phone; real-time traffic and weather via TMC or TomTom PlusMapShare technology--make your own map changes and download verified updates from the entire TomTom user communityMP3 player and photo viewer; integrated FM transmitter gives directions and plays music through your car stereo system
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| | Customer Reviews | Average Customer Review:
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 Tom Tom 720 Jul 04, 2010
The Tom Tom 720 got me where I needed to go but finding POI's was very hard. There were very few POI's in the unit. We depend on our gps to find places to eat and this unit did not do the job very well.
Um...well...maybe... Jun 11, 2010
I'm actually writing this as I'm scouring reviews of other GPS units to replace my 720, which I've had just under a year. I'd actually really prefer to just be keeping the one I've got, but a slew of problems are forcing me to remedy its deficiencies. That said, I probably could have gotten everything fixed ten months ago, but my laziness, combined with being a little too busy, meant that I stuck myself with what might just be a wonky unit. I'll try to be as objective as possible in this review. Oh, and I'm probably repeating much of what's already been mentioned, but, if you're like me (and I know I am), you're probably just skimming the first few pages of recent reviews rather than exhaustively searching everything ever written.
I'll start by saying that, when it's working its best, I have the biggest crush on my 720 -- so much so that I'm most likely going to end up replacing it with another Tomtom despite my issues. My wife has a Garmin Nuvi (with its pretentious umlaut) and I find it maddening when it works as it's supposed to. I thought she had a defective unit until I was in the car with my friend's Garmin and experienced the same silliness. Apart from the Garmin's interface being much more involved, a constant computer-generated drone of "re-cal-cu-lat-ing" when you make a small detour (or are just trying to get to the mapped road from a large parking lot), and the excitement of not being told to turn until literally in the intersection, I just don't find the units incredibly utile, especially when compared to my Tomtom. The Garmin's points of interest are incredibly lacking and address input needs to be much more exact. Maybe it's just me, but in this age of instant information, I feel like this little device should be doing more of the work for me. After all, isn't that the point of buying a GPS in the first place?
Ah, I've digressed...
The thing about the 720 is that it's all the Garmin is not. I find the simplified interface and customizable quick menu incredibly easy to deal with. The points of interest are plentiful and very accurate. Inputting an address starts at the 10,000-foot level of city and, based on where you are (or have been recently), the predictive input suggests cities for you. As you get to the street and number, they're equally intuitive and, bonus, will suggest recent entries that haven't warranted a permanent place in your 'favorites.' Best of all, if you've got a street address, but don't have an exact city/town/suburb/whatever, the Tomtom is kind enough to work through neighboring locations, whereas the Garmin is much more demanding about locale. The Tomtom is also polite enough to recalculate altered routes silently, rather than make a constant plea for attention. I find the lane guidance much more helpful than I thought I would, especially in major metropolitan areas where half a dozen freeways converge within a couple of miles (or like LA, where freeway names and numbers are used interchangeably for the same stretch of road - though none of the numbers have "the" in front of them, so I'm still befuddled why so many idiots here refer to 'I-10' as 'the 10' and such but would never say 'the Wilshire'). One thing Garmin has that the 720 could use is announcing which side of the street the destination will be on, rather than leaving the driver looking for street numbers (not applicable to POIs) or hoping they can make out on the screen which way the tiny arrow at the end of the highlighted route is pointing.
As for added services, I subscribed to the traffic updates for a year and it was among the best $60 I ever spent. I'd say that Tomtom accurately spotted traffic congestion more than 90% of the time. For someone who loves driving but hates other drivers, this was perfect for me. Whether I relied on the 720's suggested rerouting or bailed early from a freeway where I was expecting trouble, I found that, more often than not, the GPS guided me on a much more efficient (if sometimes strange) path toward my destination. The only unfortunate part is that the traffic doesn't account for surface streets (which is weird, because Google Maps on my Blackberry does) and, sometimes, that can be much, much worse than stalled freeways. Since this mostly comes up for me in LA and I'm pretty familiar with traffic patterns (K-Town and Hollywood are nightmares on Fridays!), it didn't matter much, but I could see it being a problem on new turf. I didn't try the gas prices or anything else you'd subscribe to, but I did make some contributions to the map sharing/correcting service. I'm not sure how much, if at all, I actually benefited from others' contributions to it.
[Possibly esoteric side note on the 'avoid traffic' functions of both my 720 and the wife's Garmin: When we used to live on the West Side of LA and both worked downtown, we'd carpool a few times a week, so I got a chance to see both of our GPS' efforts to make our drives more efficient on the aforementioned '10.' My Tomtom would drop us down to parallel surface streets like Adams or Jefferson to avoid freeway congestion. Her Garmin's solution (and my proof it was programmed by one of the millions of terrible drivers in this city)? As congestion increases, take each off-ramp, wait at the light at the top of the overpass, cross over to the freeway entrance, and get back on to repeat the procedure a mile later. Factoring in the light, it seems terribly inefficient and dangerous. I'm guessing that if the US DOT didn't frown on it, Garmin would suggest passing all the traffic via the shoulder.]
So, uh, what was wrong with this unit I seemed so enamored with? Well, like I said, I think I got a stinker. My hard drive would reset randomly, which was awesome if you wanted to forfeit your life and start anew, but really annoying if you were looking to, you know, get places and find stuff. Sometimes, it would just freeze up and Tomtom customer service would tell me to do a manual reset. When I'd ask whether I'd lose all the information I'd been unable to back up, they'd assure me it would be safe. It wouldn't be and I'd be back to the whole-new-life thing mentioned above. Though my old Blackberry wasn't technically supported (for both phone and Tomtom services), I was able to find a work-around online to get my traffic updates. Of course, this victory was often short-lived when the 720 would suddenly find itself unable to connect with the phone, doing so almost invariably when I was in the biggest of rushes. There's actually a pretty good-sized dent in the front left of my unit from when I punched it for not connecting when I really needed it to. It's either a testament to the product that it could take the impact or an embarrassment to punch strength that I couldn't break it or both.
To be fair to Tomtom, I reported my issues with the resetting within the first couple of months and they sent me a FedEx prepaid label to send it in for repairs (this was, BTW, well before I punched it). I never got to that, however, so I can't say how much better things might have been had my 720 been in tip-top condition. At the same time, the fact that I would have to send in a defective product is a little annoying in the first place.
What's driving me to finally replace my 720? Well, two interrelated things: One is that I can't get my new Blackberry to connect to the GPS, but probably the most important determining factor is now that I've lived with traffic updates for almost a year, I can't go back to not having them. I replaced my phone a couple of weeks ago, just before taking a long road trip up the California coast. When I couldn't see how much traffic I was facing along the route, I felt oddly uncomfortable. I've still been looking for work-arounds without luck (do some research online to make sure you can get your phone's date to work with the 720 before you invest). Besides that, the thing just reset itself again and wiped the memory clean, so I might as well reenter all my info on a new device.
So why am I still considering a Tomtom despite my first one lasting less than a year before I tired of its antics? Again, the interface is much more intuitive than other brands I've seen, the POI are actually useful, the traffic updates and reroutes are super-helpful, and I'm not about to spend $300+ necessary to get similar features and ease in some other company's device. Since I got my 720 on Amazon for a good price last year (much lower than the two bills their partner is pricing it as I write this), I'm not going to sweat considering it a trainer/backup device now. Yeah, a lot could be better, but a lot is already really good. If you need something a little better than the basics, I can endorse it so long as you get a fully functional unit (and at a price more in line with what I paid). That's exactly what I'm hoping to get when I upgrade.
 TomTom Go 720 Jun 05, 2010
I bought this 720 to replace a 720 that kept falling off the dash board of my truck. The last fall broke the plug where the power cord connects. I love the 720 and was lost without it so I bought a new one. The only problem I have is the suction cup on the mount. It seems like it only lasts for about a year. Of course I leave it in the car with the unit attached all of the time and I have a disc on the dash which the mount connects to. I did have an issue with the maps when I first hooked the unit to my PC. I made the seller aware of the issue and they stayed in touch until the problem was resolved. TomTom actually resolved the issue for me with very little trouble. I actually think my issue was my fault due to already having a 720 set up on my PC. But within a week or two I had my 720 up and running with no further issues. I would recommend the 720 to anyone.
A real mixed bag May 16, 2010
I can't get into comparing this with any other GPS unit, since this is the only device I've used. Coming from a background where I used to print out directions from google maps, this device seemed wonderful for a while. But once you get past the initial wow factor, the limitations become very annoying. You must know the zip code to get directions to an address! I'm not stuck with this nonsense when I search for directions on google maps. This is very frustrating when we're traveling and don't know the area. For instance in Atlanta we wanted to go to a specific restaurant, we had the address but not the zip. Entering Atlanta into the TomTom brings up a list of zips, so to find the address you want you have to go through each zip code and try your luck. Eventually you'll get lucky. POIs seem to be hopelessly out of date, we've not had much luck with this. In practice, you have to find addresses online then enter them into the device. At least where I live in Ohio, the free map share updates don't provide any value, nor solve the issue with the POIs. To be fair, I have not paid for a more up to date map, as the costs are ridiculously prohibitive, given the fundamental short comings with the search, I'd rather put the money towards purchasing a better navigation device - perhaps a smart phone.
 Absolutely maddening May 14, 2010
The TomTom GO 720 DOES have some very nice features. When it works, it works well. However, I consider it something of a miracle that I haven't simply smashed the unit under my foot.
The problem with the TomTom GO 720 isn't the unit itself, per se, it's the TomTom Home software. In particular... well, without resorting to profanity it's just difficult to describe how frustrating the process of "updating" the TomTom is.
Let me just list the PERSISTENT problems I have encountered every time I hook up my TomTom GO 720 to my laptop. Btw, I have owned my TomTom for over a year. (I am currently using Windows Vista. The problems I list are identical to the ones I encountered when I used Windows XP. I'm no fan of Windows software, but the problems I am describing are entirely TomTom's.):
1) Hooking up the TomTom to your PC automatically launches the TomTom HOME software - but it also launches a "install TomTom HOME" software dialog box. It took me a while to realize I don't have to re-install TomTom HOME every time I hook up the GO unit, and now I just cancel the "install software" dialog box. Still, this is HUGELY annoying, not to mention appallingly poor software on TomTom's part. When TomTom released version 2 of their HOME software I thought this always-install-the-software bug might be fixed. I thought wrong.
2) The backup and restore module of the HOME software works like, well, insert your chosen profanity here:_______. I won't bother with the details. The backup and restore just doesn't work.
3) It is a slight problem that back up and restore doesn't work because of one OTHER appalling feature of TomTom's software. If you sign up for the map upgrade program, where you get a full, mutiple-GB update/replace of your map every quarter, well, that process of updating your map WIPES OUT NOT JUST ALL OF YOUR PREFERENCES BUT ALL OF YOUR FAVORITES!!! ARGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!! Anyone who has used a GPS for any length of time knows how valuable favorites are - and how long it can take to compile a good list of them. I mean, how about if your contacts folder were wiped out every time your email program released a product update??!!! This is EXACTLY analagous.
4) All too often, after hooking up - and subsequently disconnecting - my TomTom GO unit to my PC to update maps and such my TomTom won't restart! (And I am scrupulous about using the proper software commands to disconnect the GO unit; I don't just yank it out of the cradle.) There are, in fact, a few problems I run into here:
a) Regardless of how long the GO unit has sat in the hook-to-PC cradle (which recharges the unit) sometimes the battery on the GO unit has been completely DIScharged. I then have to hook the GO unit to the in-car recharger, and drive around for a while before the GO unit will turn back on.
b) EVEN THEN it is often the case that I have to press the Reset button on the bottom of the GO unit before it will spring back to life - and EVEN THEN I often have to go through this resetting process multiple times!!!!
c) Sometimes when I have PROPERLY disconnected the GO unit from its cradle the unit will be powered on (i.e., the screen is on).... but it will be FROZEN!!! This will then require often-multiple presses of the Reset button, and sometimes multiple re-cradling of the unit to get it going again.
5) Once I get over the hump of my TomTom not restarting, having hit the restart button so often has just totally wiped out and reset preferences I have set. This frequently occurs when I have gotten just a minor download of map updates. So, I have to reset my preferred map colors, map display, quick menus - you name it.
6) Getting back to the whole-map-download updates... this process wipes out not just for favorites, but (and this just happened 2 days ago) virtually everything else on my GO unit. I have had to reprogram my name, my initial screen-saver image. In fact, not only has my Home location been wiped out, I can't even reprogram that location at this point! The icon is all grey'ed out!!
At this point I am probably forgetting some of the other extreme annoyances of the GO, but you get the picture.
To me these are not "annoyances" - they are very serious defects and it amazes me that a large company like TomTom would be marketing a product where such basic functions produce such disastrous results.
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