TomTom GO 910

The TomTom GO 910 is an easy to use yet powerful GPS receiver for car navigation.

Tested hardware and software

The test was done using a TomTom GO 910 acquired off the shelf. All necessary hardware and software came in the box.

The Basics

The TomTom GO 910 is a stand-alone unit with a built-in antenna. The screen is 4 inches (480x272 pixel) large and the only button on the unit is the on/off button above and on the left side of the body. The body is very rugged and not the rather flimsy plastic exterior of previous TomTom models. The 910 is easy to use for those who want to unwrap it and use it as-is.

Pros

The scree size is comfortably large, making it easy to use.

The unit gives a position fix very quickly.

The TomTom GO 910 has a 20Gb harddisk built in as storage device. This has made it possible to make maps of most of Europe, The USA and Canada available out of the box.

The unit body is rugged and can take the kind of bumps that dirt roads or Bulgarian municipal roads offer.

The TomTom GO 910 weighs 340 grams or roughly the same as 3 mobile phones. This is an advantage when using it in a car without attaching it to the swan neck holder as the unit will stay on the dashboard and not slide around as much as a lighter unit would, but it's still light enough to be taken along in your hand luggage and used in a rental car at the travel destination.

Setting up the connection between the GO 910 and a bluetooth mobile phone is unexpectedly easy. During the installation you are even told that if the mobile phone during the installation process asks for a pin, just enter "0000". Excellent!

Cons

When starting the unit for the first time it was set to use a mapset of Guam, rather than Europe where it was sold, and when started and a fix was found no suggestion to change mapset or other kind of user assistance was offered. Instead the new user has to find the map administration icon in the setup and change the mapset manually.

The new EU countries like Slovenia, Romania and Bulgaria are not yet included in the mapset, nor is Croatia.

If you want to do a more thorough setup than the most basic options allow, then you need to work your way down through a hierarchy of choices whose depth seems excessive. It would be better to give the user a choice between basic or advanced setup and show a basic or advanced choice of options.

When using the 910 handsfree function for a mobile phone using bluetooth, the built-in microphone is no good. You need to plug the accompanying external microphone into the suction cup holder plug and use that in order to be able to talk and be heard during a mobile call.

The screen keyboard keys are a bit too small - it is too easy to hit the key next to the one you are aiming for. When bumping down a road this becomes even more of a problem.

The internal battery is not replaceable.

Conclusion

TomTom GO 910 is a good choice as navigational aid in your car. All the maps you will probably ever need are already in the unit, and it has a long battery life, even though it has a harddisk it needs to keep running. It is rugged enough to handle the odd trip to the floor during a sharp turn without breaking and comes with all the extras you need right in the box. This is a very thorough package, and a very solid choice as a navigational aid for your car.

Written by Hans-Henrik T. Ohlsen
May 2007