• Bluetooth GPS receiver
• SD memory card containing pre-installed application and maps
• User manual CD (that can stay in the box!)
• Cigarette lighter charger cable for GPS receiver
• Installation & Quick Start guide

Some of you will see we have a slight problem already. As you should know, the C500 (SP3, 8010 etc) only accommodates miniSD cards so our first job was to transfer the contents of bundled SD card, over to an already half-full 512MB miniSD card. At around 120MB, TomTom Mobile isn’t going to cause too many problems storage wise when you look at how ridiculous memory card prices are today.

After briefly pairing the GPS receiver with the C500, TTM started off with an introduction on the functions and interface before you’re left to your own devices. Read the manual if you wish but to be honest if you’ve had any experience of previous TomTom products you’re going to feel right at home or soon on the road there!

The interface is clean, tidy and well laid out and combined with the amazing screen on the C500 you are easily able to see what you need at a glance, although with the voice navigation as it is I found there were very few times I had to take my eyes off the road. TomTom uses a selection of audio files to issue directions rather than synthesized ‘noises’ that other navigation software is know to implement. This means you’re never left wondering if you should have taken the previous exit! Woe betide that ever happen, TomTom Mobile quickly recalculates your route without any intervention to either take you back to where you went wrong, or if it can find an alternative that is not too out of the way, it will continue as if nothing has happened.



The address input is the only area that really raises any negatives from me but I’m sure there are valid reasons as to why things are done as they are. TomTom Mobile accepts addresses by first entering the town name, followed by a road/street and house number or intersection of another road.



This method can be quite long-winded especially when you need to program a quick route change while on the road. I would have liked to have the option of entering a full postal code (rather than just WD3) or selecting the address of a contact however for version 1 these seemed to have been left out; possibly for a later version or update I can only hope. Oh and to slow you down just that little bit more, entering towns, roads, and names are done using multi-tap rather than T9 predictive text input. Thinking about it though maybe this is the trade off for keeping the interface quick and responsive when filtering through the enormous lists of destinations.

Until last year I used to run TomTom Navigator on an iPaq 3970 using the same TomTom Wireless GPS unit. With Navigator there was no built warning for POI (Points Of Interest) and support for this was left to 3rd party add-ons. Well TomTom Mobile brings this feature to you straight from the box. You can select from one of the many built-in lists, or add your own in the form of a CSV or OV2 file. Probably the most popular and useful POI lists is the PocketGPS UK Gatso list (or speed cameras to you and me). Drop this file and icon into the right folder on the storage card and add it to the visible POI list under the Preferences menu.



Then hey-presto you can see them in 2D or 3D view when you close in on one; as you can see from the screenshot there are more than enough around Watford as it was pointed out on BBC’s TopGear!



Now that you have them visible you can turn on proximity warnings which fire a sound file when you get within a predefined range. It is also smart enough to only trigger when the POI is on your route rather than picking up everything around you.



Out on the road I decided to evaluate TomTom Mobile by comparing it side by side with another GPS offering – BMW’s Professional GPS system. Admittedly this can’t be a fair test comparing an integrated large screen solution with a phone-based package, but I was purely looking at route calculation times and clarity of driving directions.

Plotting a fairly straight forward route from Watford to Hemel Hempstead both units came up with the same route, and quoting a similar arrival time although this soon changed as the BMW system adapts the times based on your driving and traffic ahead. Maybe taking the M1 during rush hour was a bad idea as I soon found myself stuck in a ‘good old needless jam’ (you’ve all heard that radio ad right?). Unfortunately I didn’t have TomTom Traffic for this review so wasn’t warned of the problems ahead of time, although the BMW system quickly gave me another route to avoid the tailback.



As soon as I moved from the original route and took an early exit, TomTom Mobile promptly spotted this and recalculated within about 3-4 seconds to get me back on track. Vocal directions were extremely precise, spot on time and as I was being taken through an area I’ve not been through before I found I didn’t even need to glance at the screen to see where to go next or what was coming up.

For those of you who aren’t current TomTom software users or simply haven’t heard about it, TomTom Traffic that I mentioned above is an ingenious service that helps you avoid those irritating sea of brake-lights for miles ahead. For a very reasonable annual subscription fee TomTom Mobile is given the added ability to download traffic updates over GPRS. These are then factored into your route and where needed a new route is calculated on the fly. But the information is only as good as the reports received and the areas monitored, so you can’t expect that milk-float induced trail down your street to be picked up! {Edited to remove female orientated driving comment}



Having played with Mapopolis as well it is clear to see the differences and dedication that has gone in to making TomTom Mobile the number one GPS solution for Smartphones. Although both Mapopolis and CoPilot Live are good contenders in the marketplace I have to give my personal award to TomTom for a product that is well put together and more of an all round professional package. Yes as with everything there are downsides but they are few and far between, and all of its plus-points make the negatives pale in comparison.


The price of TomTom Mobile is £140.41 (ex VAT)
And it can be bought from: Dabs.com