Tom Tom ONE 130S Review

TomTom has a solid reputation of producing excellent car navigation systems, they are sold over 30 countries and in about 20 languages. TomTom’s One lineup of car navigators claims to offer numerous facilities like a newly designed mount, optional traffic services, loud speakers and many more.

Although the TomTom One 130S is an entry level unit, it easy to use navigator with multiple features. Text-to-speech functionality is included which is usually not seen in an entry-level device. It is a solid navigation unit for beginners and is reasonably priced. However, buyers might face problems with the speaker volume, as it is difficult to hear the voice prompts clearly.

TomTom ONE 130S Car GPS
TomTom ONE 130S GPS Navigator

Design

The TomTom One 130S sports a whole new design and look, it has rounded curves and is slimmer than it forerunners. It is a compact GPS with a vehicle mount small enough to fit into your coat pocket. The mount also has a twisting lock to guarantee a tight seal with the windshield of your car. Even if you need to drive on bumpy roads, you can be rest assured that the GPS would stay in its place.

The power button is placed on the top, it has no buttons on the side, and the power connector is at the bottom of the unit. The system provides a 3.5-inch, 64,000-color QVGA touch screen that has a 320x240 pixel resolution. The screen of the navigator is a little small but the maps and texts look clear and bright, also you can view it in different lighting conditions.

You can also choose from various color themes, and it can switch automatically between day and night map colors. The touch screen of TomTom One 130S is responsive but due to the small size of the screen, the onboard keyboard feels somewhat cramped.

The user interface is intuitive and hence you can use the device right after purchase without having to memorize the user’s guide. Basically, there are two main menu pages; it has big icons that identify with their functions.

The TomTom One 130S comes with a vehicle mount, a USB cable, reference material and a car charger.

Features

• The unit is preloaded with maps of Canada and United States.
• It can calculate directions in a variety of ways like bicycle mode, pedestrian mode etc.
• The unit is equipped with Find Alternative icon that can help to get new directions.
• It is also capable of making automatic route calculations
• The GPS can also handle multi-stop trips, this way you can stop over at a number of places along your route.
• It contains a database having 5 million POIs (points of interest). It includes ATMs, gas pumps, lodging, beaches and much more.
• It can display maps in 2D or 3D mode.
• The navigator also provides voice-guided instructions at every turn. You will hear actual streets names being said aloud by the device instead of the general instructions. This allows you to pay more attention to the road and not your navigator.
• It includes a “Help Me!” feature where it gives the driver access to information and tools in case of an emergency. This can be extremely helpful in an unknown locality.
• It also offers Map Share feature. This should allow you to make any helpful adjustments to your maps and you can even share this with other drivers. It is easy to make changes right on the TomTom, save them and upload them. Once uploaded you can share the information with others with the help of TomTom Home desktop companion.

Performance

The text-based directions are pretty accurate and it recalculates routes quite fast. One major problem with this unit is the speaker system; it is difficult to properly hear the voice prompts due to lack of a good speaker system.