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TomTom XL 340S 4.3-Inch Portable GPS Navigator Bundle with Case

$126.92

User Reviews about TomTom XL 340S 4.3-Inch Portable GPS Navigator Bundle with Case

Having a GPS to give you good directions to places in areas you are not familiar with is a great help. There's nothing worse than getting lost or writing down direction only to find out you wrote them down wrong.

With this Tom Tom unit getting lost shouldn't be a problem.

It has voice directions to you don't need to constantly be looking at the unit. You can enter GPS coordiantes, addresses or intersections to get directions. There is also a Point of Interst section where you can find the nearest gas station, store or whatever you need.

Afeature I like is that it tells you which lane to be in, which is important for not missing exits. Another one is that it tells you the speed limit on the road you are driving. It will give you an estimate of when you will arrive at your destination and tell you what speed you are traveling. If you happen to run into a road block, you can tap the "road block" button and it will navigate around it. If traffic is slow on the current route, you can tap "alternative route" and it will take your destination via a different route.

While I like the Tom Tom Xl340, it does have it's flaws:

1- The voice warning for turns is often too late for you to actually make the turn.
2- The screen is very hard to see in bright sun.
3- battery life isn't very good (shouldn't be an issue though with the included car charger)
4- Updating the maps can take hours.
5- It sometimes takes a long time for it to pick up at GPS signal when comming out of building.
6- The direction it gives you will get you where you need to go but often is taking the longest route. Sometimes it even has you drive in circles, literally.
7- The maps are not complete. My street isn't even there, some others I've been on are not either even after updating the maps. It seems the closer to a metro area you are the better the maps are. -- It will get you where you need to go

This is a quality GPS at a reasonable price. It is easy to set up and use ... although it did take about 2 hours connected to the internet to update the maps. Fortunately you don't have to do this very often.

The screen is easy to read and the voice is clear.
The help area is good and has a lot of good local information.

The only think that I didn't like, but I think it will just take time to get used to:
When you miss your turn or go a different route, sometimes it does not recalculate/redirect the route. It keeps telling you to turn (and wants you to go back to the place that you missed.)

It easily connects to the windshield and have had no problem with it falling off.
-- Great budget GPS

The first thing I did after receiving the XL340TM was download the latest version of the TomTom Home software (used to manage and update your device and register codes like lifetime maps) and installed it on a Win 7 64-bit laptop. The initial device updates took nearly three hours to complete, most of which was spent writing the updates to the device. Downloading the updates didn't take a ton of time. The updates failed once during writing (error writing to the file bin\gltt on the Tom Tom device). The 340 rebooted in a different language after every update, and there was only about 100MB of room remaining on the device after all updates finished. Just remember, when (not if) the device reboots in different languages, "Yes" is always on the right. The lifetime map code worked fine and went through on the first try. After all updates completed, I was finally able to set the device language to English-US.

The fold & go mount attached very easily and securely to my windshield. However, that's where the compliments for it end. It was very stiff and snapped off of the device any time I attempted to adjust the viewing angle of the GPS. Even thought the mount appears to be built-in to the device, it is removable and it will pop off with relatively minor force. After popping off several times resulting in drops or near-drops of the GPS, I finally decided it's safer to just try my best to make any adjustments prior to attaching the GPS to my windshield. If the viewing angle is a little awkward, so be it. It's better than having the device pop off the mount and drop for the umpteenth time. I'll try leaving only the mount attached to the windshield and give it a few weeks in the summer sun to see if it loosens it up a bit. If it doesn't work, I'm very likely going to buy a ProClip mount for my vehicle instead of relying on the fold & Go mount.

The actual GPS performance isn't bad. I previously owned a TomTom One and and TomTom One XL, so I was familiar with the menu system and most of the features. The 340 GPS acquired a satellite connection much quicker than my old One-XL. The 340 touchscreen seems less responsive than my older TomToms and sometimes required several touches to register a selection. The voice is loud and clear and the display is vivid and nicely laid out. I have not encountered any difficulties with missing streets or incorrect routes yet and this newer TomTom (and maps) even recognizes some routes missing on my older One and One XL. The traffic feature is pretty cool but the receiver is in the car adapter, not the GPS itself. It will not work without it. The traffic alerts only monitor traffic along your current entered route, so the usefulness is limited. So far, I have not seen any benefit to IQ routes as I still tend to find the fastest routes myself. The one HUGE advantage IQ routes does finally solve over my older TomToms is the sometimes ridiculous routes my older TomToms would send me on. There were times when they literally tried to have me drive in circles. I'm not kidding, in circles! One time, my TomTom One-XL had me make a right turn at the end of an off-ramp, drive down the road, make a U-turn, and drive back the other way instead of just making a left turn from the off-ramp. It was a two-way street with a traffic signal at the ramp and left-turns were permitted. I am very glad I don't have to deal with that anymore.

The 340 is a solid GPS. Lifetime maps is probably the biggest reason to upgrade from a previous TomTom (or other brand) model because map upgrades can pretty costly, especially if you need them frequently. But the smarter mapping system, including IQ is not to be overlooked. After also having my old One-XL add two extra hours to a trip home from Myrtle Beach, I learned to appreciate smart GPS mapping. I have a Droid that I use for GPS as well but just like I prefer web browsing on my larger more capable PC, I prefer a dedicated GPS for most situations, and my Droid when I'm trying to travel light or if I get lost and don't have my regular GPS on me. -- A big improvement over my old TomTom One-XL

Included in the box is the TomTom XL340TM with integrated windshield mount, an adhesive disk for mounting to the dashboard, a DC power cord, a USB cable, manual and code for free map updates that you must register online. No case is included (unfortunate) but a genuine TomTom leather case is available on right here on Amazon for only $3.48. Although the case is designed specifically for this unit, I found it difficult to get the unit far enough into the case so I could latch it closed. Hopefully it will stretch some over time. Upon powering the unit on for the first time, you are led through a brief setup. I was surprised to get a satellite lock from the first floor of my two-story home.

After running through the setup, I updated the software then downloaded the latest maps. This version includes free map updates for the life of the unit and also traffic. Downloading the map data took about 2 hours over a 3MB DSL connection. I had no problem installing the map data but it almost completely filled the units 2GB internal memory. As there is no provision for expanding the memory, I wondered if this could become a problem in the future.

I installed the TomTom above my Garmin Nuvi 360 so I could compare the two in the car. The first thing I noticed was the beautiful 4.3 inch display. Even wearing my polarized sunglasses, I had no trouble seeing it. I would not say it is much brighter than the Garmin but it definitely has much greater contrast. Within seconds, the TomTom achieved a lock (considerably faster than the Garmin). After a few minutes, I had a lock on 8 satellites with the TomTom while the Garmin locked onto 12 satellites. This is not a big deal but I found it interesting that the Garmin locked onto 4 more satellites than the TomTom. Neither unit lost satellite lock during a 3 hour roundtrip from southern NH to Lake Winnipesauke.

I punched my destination into both units. Because of the TomTom's QWERTY keyboard, I was able to type much faster than on the Garmin, which has the keyboard letter in a standard A-Z format. Newer Gamin's also use a QWERTY keyboard. Both units took about the same time to calculate the route. Interestingly, the Garmin said I would arrive 8 minutes earlier than the TomTom. Based on my experience, the Garmin tends to underestimate the travel time. As we will see later, the TomTom's predicted ETA was very accurate. I'm not sure if the increased accuracy is due to the traffic feature but it was dead-on. Okay, we're off...

Both units were programmed for TTS (text to speech). This means they are using a computer generated voice that will announce street names. Instead of saying, "Turn right in 300 feet" the unit will say, ""Turn right onto Main Street in 300 feet". TomTom's implementation is different from Garmin's however. The Garmin would consistently announce the street name at least a half mile in advance so you can be looking for the street signs, whereas the TomTom did not do so consistently. Sometimes the TomTom would say, "In .9 miles, turn right". When you approach the turn it would say, "Turn right; Main Street". Other times it would announce the street name with the initial warning (.9 mi in advance). The Garmin always says the street name in advance and then again when you approach the turn. This is important, especially when in a city environment where streets are close together.

For my specific trip, I found the accuracy of the maps to be better with the TomTom. In one instance however (the location of my house address) the TomTom was off by a quarter mile. The reason for the discrepancy is because the TomTom uses Google Maps while the Garmin uses USGS (United States Geological Survey) maps. Google maps has the street numbers on my street reversed. I'm not sure why. Both maps sources have their flaws so I really can't tell you which is better. On the way getting onto the highway, there was one turn where both units told me to turn the wrong way (their route would have gotten me to the highway but added 2 or 3 minutes to a 15 minute trip). I ignored the turn and took the shorter route. The Garmin recited the usual, "Recalculating" while the TomTom remained silent but recalculated the route. I think I prefer hearing that the GPS is recalculation because that is an indication that you missed a turn but I'll admit that there are times (when roads have changed but maps haven't) where the constant nagging becomes annoying. There are two other turns on this route where the Garmin always makes a mistake. The TomTom gave correct directions in both instances.

While we are on the subject of spoken directions, the TomTom voice is much, much louder and clearer than the Garmin. This is mainly due to a much larger speaker on the TomTom. Also, the TomTom has a feature that when enabled, will increase the volume automatically as you drive faster. This is a great feature but I found that it increased the volume too much. If I set a comfortable volume level when stopped or driving slowly, it blew me out of the car at highway speeds. Likewise, if I set at a comfortable volume at highway speeds, I found it too soft at low speeds. That said, the Garmin has no such feature and must be run at or close to full volume all the time in order to hear it. At highway speeds, the Garmin is too soft even at full volume. Both units distort at full volume. The good news is that the TomTom gets so loud you will rarely [if ever] run it at full volume.

Because the TomTom has a large display, there is room for lots of information on the screen. The majority of the screen landscape is used for displaying the 3D street view. At the top of the screen are the +/- zoom buttons. All the buttons to which I refer are soft keys (i.e. touchscreen). The only physical button on the unit is the on/off button. Across the bottom of the screen left to right is the turn indicator (you can press this to repeat a voice instruction or to adjust the volume), distance to turn, distance to destination/time to destination, current time/arrival time, speed limit/actual speed. The speed limit display changed with actual posted speed limits but it was not 100% accurate. There were a few occasions where the posted speed limited changed but the GPS display did not; for example, the speed limit dropped to 55MPH but the GPS displayed 65MPH. There were other times where the display changed exactly as I was passing a speed limit sign. In most cases, it was pretty close but don't rely solely on the GPS to keep you from getting a ticket; watch for posted speed limit signs instead. The unit has two cool features that MAY help you avoid a speeding ticket however. If you are exceeding the speed limit, both the speed and the speed limit displays turn red. Additionally, you may enable a feature in the menu that alarms whenever you exceed the speed limit. I started with this feature enabled but quickly disabled it, as I found it annoying. It alarms even if you exceed the speed limit by only 1 MPH. This feature would be more useful if you could adjust the alarm to a few MPH over the speed limit. The unit will continue to alarm every few minutes until you reduce your speed to below the speed limit. A "snooze" button would have been nice. To the far lower right of the display is a signal strength indication. It displays 1-5 bars indicating how many satellites you are picking up. The number of bars does not directly correspond to the number of satellites but you can press the indicator to get a graphical display of the number of satellites you are locked onto and the signal strength of each. The display lacked some of the features of the Garmin. For example, the Garmin has a trip computer screen, which the TomTom lacks. Since I rarely use that screen, I did not miss it. It really had everything I needed for navigation.

Since I forgot to bring the included DC cord with me, I was forced to run on battery. This allowed me to test the battery life of the TomTom. It is worth mentioning that while this unit sports a standard mini USB connector for power, many adapters will not fit, because the connector is deeply recessed inside of the plastic housing. I had 2 mini USB adapters in the car but neither would work because they were not slim enough to reach the connector of the TomTom. The included TomTom power adapter and USB cable use right angle connectors that I found easy to insert but rather difficult to remove. So, be sure to bring your TomTom adapter.

Because the display stays on continuously, battery life was short (about 3 hours). There is a setting to turn the display off above a certain speed or at highway speeds but I did not test to see if the display would turn back on before a turn. The Garmin can be set to turn off the LCD after a few seconds and then turn back on before each turn. This greatly extends the battery life as the display is the biggest battery hog. One thing I really liked about the turn display, especially on the highway, is that it gives a graphical representation of the lanes with arrows showing you which lane or lanes you should be in. For example, if the highway had 5 lanes and then split with 3 lanes to the left and 2 lanes to the right (in the example, you need to bear right), the unit displays flashing arrows in the two right lanes to show you where you should be. Also, the voice instructions for complex turns seemed more logical or understandable than the Garmin. An example was where we had to exit to the right but then immediately get in the left lane. The TomTom instructions seemed easier to follow.

Overall, the TomTom XL340TM is a nice entry level navigation system. It may not have all the features of a high end model but has everything you need to get from point A to point B without getting lost. With a price point below $200, I highly recommend it.
-- Detailed review of the TomTom 340 with comparison to Garmin Nuvi 360.