TomTom One XL Hands-On Review

TomTom One XL Hands-On Review

Published August 25, 2008 at 01:16:09 PM, by Raymond So

Finding the right GPS system can be quite a daunting task. Do a quick search online, and you're presented with hundreds of models to choose from. It's good to know that GPS units are now mainstream consumer gadgets for everyday use, slowly replacing the good ol' paper maps. Once considered a luxury item that you can only get as an option on higher end cars, today you can easily find an aftermarket unit that any everyday man can afford. Good yes, but the market is so saturated with GPS makes and models, that finding that perfect device can be quite a task. Even among the big three GPS makers (TomTom, Garmin and Magellan), there are dozens upon dozens of models to confuse you.

That said, the TomTom One XL is our very first GPS device getting the full review treatment. Based on the well received TomTom One model released in mid-2006, the XL adds to the One by throwing in a larger and wider 4.3" display for your enjoyment.

Does the TomTom One XL fair well in the tests? Is this the perfect GPS device for the price? We'll find out!

Design
The TomTom One XL is essentially a stretched version of the popular One model. That being the case, the XL's silver plastic casing is simple, sleek and contemporary. The unit blends in well with most vehicle interiors. Soft curves surround the edges of the device and the backing has a nice curvature giving the unit a sleeker appearance. TomTom already made the original One visually appealing and the XL continues that trend. The device is clutter free, with only the large touch-screen display taking up the front. There's no physical buttons, save for the lone Power switch at top. The plastic is of good quality with no creaking. Build quality is very nice.

Despite having a bigger screen, the TomTom One XL is still relatively compact.

The XL gets its name from - you guessed it - its 4.3" widescreen display. But don't let it's name fool you - The bigger screen (The original TomTom One has a 3.5", 4:3 screen) isn't exactly "XL" in terms of increased size as it tries to imply, but the added real estate does make navigating around easier. For comparison sake, my car's OEM navigation screen is 7.5". Now that's XL big.

Size matters: The TomTom One XL sitting pretty next to a Garmin nuvi 200.
Note the addition of a wider 4.3" screen on the XL compared to the Garmin's 3.5" screen.

Despite the increased screen size, the One XL is still very compact, measuring a svelte 4.7" in width, 3.4" in height, and 1.2" in depth. It's lightweight too, coming in at 7.4 ounces.

Lean and clean. The XL is free of clutter.

Keeping things clean, the TomTom has moved all of its ports to the bottom. Underneath the unit, you'll notice a SD expansion card slot for map expansion, a mini-USB plug for syncing with a PC, and a power plug for the car charger. At the back, there's only a rear speaker and jack for attaching an optional antenna. Nicely designed, TomTom.

Keeping things simple and clean - the ports are all located underneath. Note the speaker at the back.

The TomTom comes fully packaged with everything you need out of the box. Inside the package you'll find:

• TomTom One XL
• Car Charger
• Windshield suction mount
• USB 2.0 cable
• Software CD
• Assortment of written manuals and documents

The TomTom One XL comes with everything you see here: TomTom One XL unit, Setup CD, Window mount suction, Car charger, and USB cable

Features & Performance

Display
As mentioned earlier, the key feature of the TomTom XL is its widescreen display. The screen is capable of displaying 65,000 colors in its 4.3" screen and runs at a resolution of 480 x 272 pixels. Text is sharp and the maps are brightly displayed. Overall, the visuals are as vibrant as they are crisp. In bright sunlight, there was noticeable glare making it hard to read the screen, but in most situations, legibility was fine when viewed directly or at slight angles. Visibility goes down when viewed from a wide angle. A nice feature with the TomTom is the changeable color schemes, giving your maps and menus a unique look. There's also display settings for night time colors and backlight adjustment within the menu options.

Yes, fingerprints are to be expected with most touchscreen devices, and the One XL is no exception. Thankfully, the semi-matte display kept finger smudges down to a minimum. Besides, having a touchscreen GPS is far superior to a joystick-controlled model. Trust me, I know.

TomTom's touchscreen display has a great looking interface with large icons to get you around

Touchscreen Menu
Thanks to its touchscreen capabilities, the One XL's menu system is very easy to use with large and clearly labeled buttons. Entering letters was no problem and the key entry accuracy is pretty good. Much of that is attributed to the larger display which greatly helps punching in addresses with the larger virtual keyboard.

In default standby mode, you'll view a map of your current location. Pressing anywhere on the map screen will take you to the main menu screen for entering a location or changing options.

On the bottom right box of the map screen, you'll find information regarding your trip: GPS signal strength, ETA, compass, distance to destination, time to destination, and speed. You can choose to hide some of this information in the Preferences settings within the main menu. Touching this boxed area of the screen brings up trip menu with a full mapping of your destination route. From here, you can switch between different navigation options such as a summary of turn-by-turn listings or rerouting options.

The lower left box shows you the next turn of direction with a large arrow, and the distance to the next turn or intersection. Pushing that area adjusts the volume of the voice prompts.

The One XL (left) compared to the Garmin nuvi 200 (right) from the side

2D/3D Maps
Like most GPS devices out on the market, the TomTom can display maps in either a flat 2D mode or a default bird's eye 3D view. Personally I much prefer the 2D view as I get to see more of what's around me. The 3D mode works fine with good graphics and good overhead view. Whichever view you choose, the map occupies a good 2/3s of the screen leaving the rest for destination information.

The TomTom One XL comes preloaded with maps for the United States and Canada. For additional maps, you can buy preloaded TomTom-specific SD cards or download updated maps and POIs from a computer onto any standard SD card.

Entering a Destination
Navigating to a desired destination can be performed in a multitude of ways, the easiest by keying in a known street address. Other ways include entering an intersection or city center. You can even save destinations to your Favorites menu or backtrack with your Recents list to map a new route. Alternatively, the One XL comes preloaded with "millions" of POIs (Points of Interest), offering you an easier way to find a location quickly by category. You can search POIs by category including Airports, ATM machines, Gas stations, Hotels, and Restaurants, etc.

The One XL also has the ability to calculate alternative routes by fastest time, shortest distance, and various highway/street options. It can find detours, plan multiple trip destinations, and reroute a location on-the-fly. The TomTom One XL really does make thing simple to use yet powerfully robust in its mapping features.

The navigation screen is cleanly organized with different search parameters.

TomTom PLUS + Bluetooth 2.0 Syncronization
If you have a Bluetooth-capable cellphone and also a wireless data plan, you can bring out more advanced features on the One XL in the form of "TomTom PLUS". These additional services include such useful items as weather forecasts and traffic reports, but only if you have the data services from your cell carrier to utilize them. You can even download celebrity voices among other nifty options. Unfortunately, most of these added services come with a usage fee.

Oddly enough, while the TomTom has Bluetooth built-in for the PLUS features, voice-activation controls and hands-free calling are notably missing. What gives?

Performance
Well I'm gonna be brutally honest here and say that I had mixed feeling using the TomTom One XL. I wanted to like it, but in many ways this GPS device proved more frustrating than helpful. How can this be? TomToms, afterall, are known for their ease-of-use and simplicity. While the TomTom One XL is no exception, it does take some getting used to. At first, using the TomTom was relatively straightforward. But I soon realized the more time I spent with it, the more problems I started encountering.

First, the good. The system was quick at locking into position with nearby GPS satellites. The touchscreen system proved fairly accurate, although I have mistyped addresses on occasion - it's more of an issue with the smallish virtual keys. The visuals of the main menu and maps are what I liked most about the TomTom. I liked the simplicity in appearance for the buttons as well as the cleanliness of the user interface. The maps themselves are crisp, providing good detail and graphics while text was sharp and clear. And most important of all, the device's mapping system was fairly accurate at navigating to destinations, often times successfully mapping out the best route. I also liked the detailed trip summary and timely voice prompts which weren't robotic sounding at all. Another plus is how well the TomTom is able to reroute or redirect a route quickly.

TomTom's rerouting functionality works quite well

Then there's the bad. The first frustration - and a huge flaw - came at the map's zoom feature. Conveniently located at opposite ends of the screen are +/- "buttons" for zooming in and out; Pretty straightforward. Yet, for some odd reason the map mysteriously zooms back out to its default view after 5 seconds. The same goes when you try to zoom out to see more of an area. This really frustrated me as there's no way to turn this auto-zoom function off. This happens in either 2D or 3D modes. I'm sure this would frustrate many trying to see more detail up close or when locating a particular street within a big city. What's the point of having zoom controls when the map is going to go back to its original state??

Another annoyance is the way the menu structure is set up. The large icons are easy to read and push, yes, but proved quite difficult to navigate around. For most of my time testing the device, the biggest problem I had was figuring out how to cancel a route once it's been set or trying to sort through the map functions. On a recent trip to Las Vegas, I told TomTom to route to the Venetian hotel, but to my amazement the POI didn't exist in its database. Instead, I told the system to go to MGM Grand. Things were fine until we got near MGM where for 15 minutes I tried figuring how to cancel the route. Thinking that there really was no way to cancel, we drove on to the Venetian while the voice prompt annoyingly recalculated routes back to MGM. I tried turning the voice prompts off, but discovered the volume control feature doesn't include a mute setting. In the end, I gave up and turned the device off. The next day, thinking that the TomTom would have reset its route, I was irked to find that it resumed to map a way to MGM. Well at least I know the rerouting and resume functionality works well.

It wasn't till a week later on a trip to the Bay Area that I discovered the existence of the cancel navigation button; Conveniently located on page 3 of the menu screen, BUT only AFTER you enable "Show More Menu Options" on Page 7 of the Preferences menu. Gee, I don't know how I could have overlooked this...After enabling the extra options, I wasted even more time hunting down that elusive cancel feature, only to realize TomTom labeled it "Clear Route". A aptly named "Cancel navigation" or "Cancel trip/route" would have suffice. Why the manufacturer decided to hide this function, and not place it alongside all navigation/map controls on page 1 is beyond me. And I'm not alone either: I discovered online many TomTom One users asking in forums how to cancel a route. It was then that I finally found TomTom easier to cope with.

The POI options are aplenty but not a very pleasant experience

TomTom could have better organized its menu structuring, putting all important navigational options on the front page and putting subsequent options in the last. Labeling of terms could also use some work. When you try to search by POIs, I was dumbfounded by all the "POI" related navigation options. Restaurants, for example, are not arranged by cuisine. Where is the simple search by POI category or place name? Why do you have to confuse users by having to pick among searching a POI by where you are or where you're headed to? I also had some issues entering addresses with the keyboard. The text entry box is so small (at the top) I had trouble finding it initially. And in a number of occasions, I was taken back to the main menu when I hit the "back arrow" key thinking it's a backspace. TomTom's operating system may have a user-friendly interface, but features sure are hard to use.

Keys are big but the area to enter text or select an address are small. Backspace and back arrow keys can be easily confused.

Omitted Features
It's great that the TomTom One XL comes with Bluetooth 2.0 built-in so that you can sync with your phone to obtain weather and traffic reports. But why is there no hands-free calling? The technology is obviously there so why gimp it?

Speaking of hands-free, I was expecting the One XL to have voice-activated controls. To my disappointment, this feature is not available. I'm sure you've seen the commercials where the driver would call upon "Doug-Doug" and ask how to get to a destination. From those commercials, I truly was expecting voice-activated prompts utilizing "TomTom" as the keyword for activating voice commands. False advertising? Or high expectations on my part?

Conclusion

Pros:

• 4.3" widescreen display
• Touch-screen controls
• Accurate mapping and tracking
• Simple and clean menu/map interface
• Fast mapping and GPS positioning
• Automatic rerouting and detour
• Weather and traffic reports via Bluetooth (w/ fee and data plan)
• Stylish and compact

Cons:

• Expensive
• Butchered Bluetooth capabilities - No hands-free calling
• No text-to-speech; No voice prompts for streets
• Questionable menu structure and labeling
• Worthless map zooming function
• Lack of any multimedia functionality

Despite its flaws and shortcomings, the TomTom One XL is still a good GPS product worth considering; it's just not great. For me, the frustrations of figuring out TomTom's menu system and lingo prevented me from enjoying its navigational convenience. Okay so I admit, I didn't read the instruction booklet upon using the TomTom One XL. But the whole point of GPS devices are that they are so easy to use, reading a manual should be unnecessary - Just pick up and go. For justification, I never once looked at the instruction manual for my Acura's OEM navigational system, or on most gadgets I've owned for the matter.

That said, the TomTom One XL does impress with its excellent mapping system and rerouting features. Its visual interface is also very easy to like with good looking maps, clean menus, and accurate driving directions. It's definitely a user-friendly device from a visual standpoint. I also liked the sleek design of the device and if I were to judge on aesthetics alone, I'd say the One XL is one of the best looking GPS units out on the market.

At $349 retail, the One XL is hardly a bargain and you can certainly get a lot more for your money from other makes that even include multimedia features. The lack of hands-free calling despite the inclusion of Bluetooth is a huge no-no. In the end, the TomTom One XL is a no frills GPS device that will get you to your destination, if you put in the time to cope with it.

Perhaps I'm being a bit unfair - almost too harsh - in my review. Perhaps I'm asking too much. Afterall, I am looking out for that one aftermarket GPS device that can compare to Acura's (and Honda's) OEM touch-screen navigation system. The Acura/Honda system is highly regarded as the best OEM GPS navigation system on the market for its ease-of-use and breadth of features. Thus, I had rather high expectations for the TomTom One XL. Truth is, aftermarket systems just can't compare with OEM units, but it shouldn't stop manufacturers from trying. The One XL just so happens to not be that contender.

Maybe someday TomTom will release a model that will let me say: "TomTom, how do I get to...?" - Just like the ads!

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Technical Specifications

No specifications are available.