| Software Author: | TomTom | | Product: | TomTom NAVIGATOR 5 – Bluetooth GPS | | Cost: | $199.95 with Bluetooth GPS/$99.95 software only | | Reviewed By: | Russ Terrell | | Rating: | |
TomTom NAVIGATOR 5 – Bluetooth GPS Announced March 14, 2005. TomTom NAVIGATOR 5 is available in the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Netherlands, Belgium, Luxemburg, France, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Austria, Switzerland and Italy. Tested on a Dell AXIM x50 2003se with TomTom Bluetooth GPS and iBlue Bluetooth GPS. The package comes with the software on one CD and maps on eight CDs. On the software CD is the software and a HTML version of the manual. Installation is straightforward, just place the CD in the PC drive and let autorun start the installation program. The maps are spread over 8 CDs. Each CD is setup to autorun. You can install a single state map, group of states or a whole region. The program allows you to pick your target storage location. This can be directly to your Pocket PC, a storage card reader, or your hard drive. If you have a card reader, you can put your SD card in it and select installing to it. This can save some time if you have a USB 2.0 reader. I found using Activesync didn’t take that long to download the Minnesota map. The file is 20M in size. If you’re loading several states or regions, using a card reader could be a big time saver. The map loader was very easy to use. You do need to load one map before you can use the PPC program. The software must be activated after it’s installed. The activation process is straightforward, using a code given to you in the package, a code from the device and a code generated on their web site. For some reason I had a mismatch with my codes and they had to give me a new one before I could activate the software. Before you start Navigator for the first time, be sure your Pocket PC and Bluetooth GPS are paired. When you start the program, you don’t need to have the Bluetooth radio turned on, as the program turns it on for you. Each time you start Navigator, it asks you to agree to not enter data or operate the software while operating your vehicle. The first time you use Navigator, it will give you the option to review the tutorials. These help you to understand the basic operations of the software. You can also go back and review the information later. The last thing it will do on the first use is to select your home location.  |
The main map screen is nicely laid out and simple to use. All the major options are accessible through large buttons on the screen. The + and – buttons control the zoom function. When you are in navigation mode, the left hand corner shows your next turn and distance to that turn. It you tap that area, it will give you a voice announcement of that information. At the bottom right portion of the main screen is additional information. When the program is in guidance mode, is shows ETA time, drive time, miles and your current speed. Tapping anywhere on the screen takes you to the menu options. There are three pages of options in the main menu with many sub-menus. You will need a TomTom account to use TomTom Services such as TomTom Traffic, TomTom Weather and Download extras. This is a pay service and you will need ‘on the road’ internet access. They offer a 1 month trial of their service. The Change Preference screens are where all the options for the software are set up. These include; toggle between night and day screen colors, turning off and on 3D mode, turning off the map display at a certain speed, showing and hiding POIs, sound muting, selection sound volume preferences, manage favorites, change your home location, switching maps, manage POIs, planning preferences, toll road preferences, compass preferences, setting day and night colors, show GPS status, keyboard preferences, show version, name preferences, status bar preferences, set units, operate left-handed, hide tips, change voice, switch language, delete a map, reset factory settings, rotate screen, edit service account and guided tour. If you use the software with a different GPS you will need to go to the show GPS status and select the appropriate GPS.  |  |
To navigate to a location, tap Navigate to and the screen comes up. You can select your Home location, Favorites that you have set up, an address, resent destinations, a Point of Interest, Zip Code, Point on map, Center of Town, GPS position or POI in city. If you select an address, it will prompt you for the city (or zip code), street and then house number (or crossing). In the example I selected my work location in the Favorites. Your preliminary route will be displayed. You can tap on route and review your trip several different ways or you can tap on done to start your navigation. When you get to the navigation screen, the voice guidance will start and give you information on your first turn. Before each turn the voice guidance will tell you how far it is to the next turn and which direction you will need to turn. The voice guidance will announce when you reach your final destination. I found the program was a little sluggish on recalculating routes when I took a turn that was not on the route. I also found myself on side roads off the freeway at times. This seems to be typical of most guidance programs I’ve used.  |  |
One of the best features of Navigator is the ability to pick alternate routes ‘on the fly’. Each time you tap on Calculate Alternative, Navigator goes down the routing preference list. Only walking and bicycle routes aren’t overly useful unless you’re using the program for a walking or bicycle trip. Select Avoid a roadblock, to get around a problem section of the route. You can select several distances to the roadblock. The Travel via option allows you to select a stopover in your route. Avoid part of the route allows you to detour around a section of the route. To use Minimize traffic delays, you need a TomTom PLUS account. All rerouting is done with a few screen taps. The reroute calculations take only a few seconds. Advanced planning allows you to look at the best route and travel time between any two given locations. This option works just like when you set a destination, except you pick a starting and ending location and it doesn’t start the navigation. The program has the ability to plan multiple itineraries. On the Itinerary screen you can add any number of locations. These are added the same way as you select a destination. You can mark these locations as a waypoint (stopover or travel through) or a destination. The program will route you through all waypoints, so you’ll want to order them the way you wish to travel to them. You can save and load your itineraries. I found this was a good way to force a route that you want to travel.  |
The other big feature of Navigator is the Points of Interest. The program has a huge database of POIs that appear to be up to date. The program allows you to add and delete POI categories and POI locations. Adding locations is done with the same interface as selecting a destination. POI locations can only be added to newly created categories and not to existing ones. Adding POIs is a nice feature if you live or travel in a fast growing area. You need a TomTom PLUS account to download new POIs from their web site. My ‘user experience’ with Navigator 5 was very positive. I liked being able to use all the functions with screen taps. It made navigation easy, without taking my eyes off the road. The software has a high degree of accuracy. This is best seen when you enter an intersection and it shows you doing the same on the screen. A nice feature with the program is that you can work with your Pocket PC contacts to add favorites to Navigator. The software is feature rich; especially in the itinerary section and the ways of selecting your destinations. I liked the ability to view the proposed route several different ways, including a demo of the trip. The software is very stable; I never had a lockup or crash. I was disappointed in the fact that you had to subscribe to their PLUS service to use some of the features. Communication with the both Bluetooth GPS units was very consistent; there was some wandering when I was stopped though. I did experience some GPS signal losses with the TomTom GPS, but didn’t notice any with the iBlue. I would recommend this software package. I would suggest buying the software only package and buying a different Bluetooth GPS. The major drawback to their GPS is the 5 hour battery life and no home charger. The site doesn’t offer much information on the GPS unit. Strengths of TomTom NAVIGATOR 5: - I liked how the program uses the full screen. This helped a lot during navigation and made it easier to see the map.
- All the navigation locations I tested were accurate.
- A standardized interface for selecting destinations, no matter what screen your in.
- The program look and feel is very customizable. You can change the screen color schemes, 2D/3D views. You can add additional voices to the voice guidance.
- The program comes with a good starter manual and a HTML manual on the CD. The program is easy to use and intuitive most of the time.
Weaknesses of TomTom NAVIGATOR 5: - I found it a little distracting to have the map zoom in and out on its own. I found several times that after I had zoomed in to see a street name, the map when gradually zoom back out. I found no way of overriding this feature.
- I found the speed indicator to be too small to see at a glance. I like to check my speed versus what the GPS is reading.
- The voice guidance gives you basic directions such as turn right in 400 yards, then stay left. It doesn’t give you exact street names or highways the way some other programs do.
- Navigator does not tell you which side of the street your destination is on.
- The HTML manual was not up to date for the product. It would have been nice to be geared for a US audience. The maps and address were French and use kilometers for distance.
- Lacks the ability to enter coordinate locations. I use my GPS for Geocaching and it’s a good way to navigate to a specific location.
TomTom NAVIGATOR 5 – Bluetooth GPS - Clear and Accurate: Spoken instructions and 3D maps lead you from door-to-door, whether you travel by car, by bike or on foot.
- Stopovers and Itinerary Planning: Plan routes to multiple destinations & add stopping points
- Easy to use: Simple touch screen operation, intuitive interface
- Contact Navigation: Navigate directly from your PDA address book integrating TomTom software into the PDA menu
- View Route: Review and test the calculated route before you actually start driving.
- Dynamic Status Bar: Improve readability by customizing the status bar.
- Tip Feature: Discover everything TomTom NAVIGATOR 5 has to offer through useful onscreen tips
- Extensive Guided Tour: View all the features quickly and get the most out of your TomTom NAVIGATOR 5
- Multilingual: Voice instructions spoken in more than 30 languages, in both male and female voices. User interface now includes 18 languages
- Millions of points of interest: Parking, gas stations, hotels, restaurants etc. with a possibility for an automatic alert option as you approach
- Compass Mode: Displays a compass on screen for even more orientation while driving
- TomTom PLUS services offers you traffic and weather information, as well as downloadable safety camera information (UK, DE, FR, and NL only), additional voices, points of interests and much more.
Systems Supported - PalmOne - Treo 650, Tungsten E2, Tungsten T3, Tungsten T5, TX, Zire 72
- Sony - Clie TH55, Clie TJ35
- Acer - N30, n311, N35, N50
- Airis - N509, NC05A, T460
- Dell - Axim X3, Axim X30, Axim X3i, Axim X50, Axim X50I, Axim X50V, Axim X51
- Fujitsu Siemens - Pocket LOOX 610, Pocket LOOX 720
- HP - HW6510, HW6515, iPAQ H1940, iPAQ H1945, iPAQ H2210, iPAQ H2215, iPAQ H3870, iPAQ H3970, iPAQ H4150, iPAQ H4350, iPAQ H5450, iPAQ H5455, iPAQ H5550, iPAQ H5555, iPAQ H6340, IPAQ HX2110, iPAQ HX2190, IPAQ HX2410, iPAQ HX2490, IPAQ HX2750, iPAQ HX2790, iPAQ HX4700, iPAQ RX1950, iPAQ RX3715, iPAQ RZ1710
- Imate - Jas Jar
- O2 - XDA II, XDA IIi, XDA IIS
- Qtek - 9090, S100
- T-Mobile - MDA Compact, MDA III, MDA Pro
Compatible Operating Systems Receivers - TomTom Bluetooth GPS
- TomTom Cable GPS
- Other Bluetooth GPS
- Other Cable NMEA GPS
Routing - Multiple stopover/waypoints
- Itinerary planning (user-defined trip order)
- Detour by distance or avoid road
- Shortcuts to "Home" (user-defined)
- Trip status box displaying ETA, distance, remaining time, and speed simultaneously
- Real time weather report (TomTom PLUS and internet access required via LAN, BT, mobile phone, Wi-Fi, etc)
- Turn-by-turn visual instructions with voice prompts
- Route by quickest, shortest, avoid highways, only walking routes, only bicycle routes and only limited speed
- Automatic & dynamic rerouting for wrong turns
Map - Detailed map display w/ street names in 2D & 3D view
- Zoom in and out
Visual Display - 2D/3D display
- Geo-features differentiating lands, body of water, airport, etc
- Full screen mode for pocket pc
- Finger accessible
- Intuitive menu options
- Distance indication bar
- Bright colors for visual enhancement
Voice - Turn-by-turn voice prompts
- Automatic voice alerts before each turn/exit
- Repeat voice direction feature
- Multiple distance notification for each maneuver
Availability
TomTom This review was written in August of 2006 for Smartphone and Pocket PC magazine's 2007 Buyers Guide. NAVIGATOR 6 has been released since this review was written. |
