Tom Tom 710 GO

In its day this was a top of the range gps unit, now you can buy it on Ebay for as little as £40,
Feature are excellent and it does more than enough to get you to where you are going,
Kitted out with live services it is great at keeping you out of trouble, the screen is easy to navigate and read while on the move,
All in all why would you need a brand new device that cost £'s when this little beauty can do just about all the things the new ones can,
Lets face it you dont use half the features on them, most of us just want to get from A to B and thats it.

Everybody I talked to recommended the TomTom's navigation, tracking of satellites, clarity of screen and ease of use.

I agree with them. It's superb at what it does.

This model -- the 710 -- also acts as an extremely good hands free-mobile phone system for Bluetooth phones. With its (provided) external microphone, the quality is better than my old, fully fitted, Nokia hands-free kit, and, seriously, this unit is not a great deal more expensive than having a new hands-free unit fitted into the car. What's more, the TomTom onscreen display is a lot better and easier than my phone's.

As far as my purchasing decision was concerned, the unit's excellence as a hands-free unit and for GPS navigation fully justify the purchase price.

HOWEVER.

Other areas are not so good. The speed camera database, for example, seems unable to distinguish between traffic-light cameras and actual speed-cameras. And, what's more, it gets the speed limits wrong from time to time. This wasn't part of my buying decision, and I won't be taking out the subscription, but this could be potentially costly if you relied on it rather than keeping your eyes on the road.

The TMC aerial is fine as far as it goes. It picks up TMC traffic information broadcast by radio stations such as Real FM and Classic FM. There are lots of broadcasts during rush hour, and a fair few during the day, but late at night and early in the morning it doesn't give any information (I guess it probably would if there was a major incident to report). The TMC option is another £58, is government backed and requires no further subscription. Alternatively, TomTom's own service is 39 euros per year (about £20) but relies on your bluetooth mobile phone having GPRS access. This means that, if your contract requires you to pay for GPRS connections, you could be committing yourself to a hefty bill.

The points of interest database is not especially good. For example, it didn't recognise the Welsh Institute of Sport, but does include some fairly minor leisure centres. It's good on parking garages in the centre of Birmingham, if that is any recommendation.

The iPod connect function requires you to buy the special iPod connect cable. This costs more than a car iPod kit, and results in even more tangled wires (my only real disappointment with the TomTom is the number of extra wires). Its on-screen display is really quite good, but it doesn't charge the iPod (at least, it didn't charge mine), and it really isn't any better than plugging your iPod straight through the stereo. iPod through the TomTom's own speaker is tinny, as you would expect, though it might do for an audio book. Furthermore, the iPod connector uses the same socket as the TMC aerial connector, so you can't have both at once.

A superb mid range Sat Nav unit, far better than the brand I was already using.Very clear graphics, and being slightly deaf, I found that the audio instructions were extremely clear.

All seems to work and gets me too and from so all i can ask.bought product to help wife in a new city. product a bit bulky compared to latest models.

Much better than description.Charged using the mains charger,switched on and fantastically worked as should.Easy setting,clear voice,clear itineraries,what else do you want?is the best product one can buy does not matter if it is a bit heavy to carry.