TomTom GO 720 Preview & First Impressions

Update: See my Full Review of the TomTom GO 720

On my recent trip to TomTom, I was able to play with the new TomTom GO 720 and wanted to give you my first impressions. The TomTom GO 720 was recently announced, and while it’s not yet available to the public, it will be by the end of July/Early August. I think there are a couple of things going on with the TomTom GO 720 that are worth noting. Gone is the big form factor; thin is in. The big news item that was associated with the TomTom GO 720 release was the MapShare program which should allow users to have some limited input initially on the maps, allowing you to input on the correctness of the maps and share those corrections with others.

The TomTom GO 720 is not just about MapShare, or its slim form factor. It's got a lot more.

Complete Information on the TomTom GO 720 here at GPSLodge.com

The TomTom GO 720 includes the new operating system release; Version 7. Version 7 has a more up to date look, and supports the MapShare, and “Safety” capabilities. I would imagine looking at TomTom’s history of upgrading the line after major operating system releases that the rest of us will be able to load version 7 sometime in the future. That would effectively take the MapShare users from the thousands of GO 720 purchasers to the hundreds of thousands of TomTom owners to spread the map knowledge and learning. Can’t wait.

One interface item that bugged me a bit on the TomTom ONE XL was cleaned up and that is the POI interface. The Version 7 interface will remember your state, which allows you to default to a certain state for searching POI’s. It also did away with the 3 miles, 15 miles, etc search criteria. The GO 720 will also add some critical POI items, like Fire stations, Schools, and actual stores, which I miss greatly. I wrote about these aspects in my TomTom ONE XL review. I also like the fact that the menu bar can move to the side of the screen to take advantage of the width to display more vertical map.

The idea of “Safety” was designed into the interface. Recall that many GPS users trust their GPS to keep them from getting lost and therefore as a safety device. This is true especially for women. With built in safety features, like the nearest police station, hospital or car repair service center. The TomTom GO 720 also allows the user to quickly identify their location for emergency assistance providers. Magellan is exploring a similar vector with select Magellan Maestro series that has similar capability that is tied into their integration with AAA driving club.

The TomTom GO 720 looks good, and its widescreen is beautiful. There are some fun features that I look forward to exploring like the voice recording capability that will allow me to put familiar voices and new messages into the GO 720 that will play as part of the navigation. The battery life is longer than the TomTom ONE XL, coming in at about 5 hours. The GO 720 will support TMC capability and the antenna will cost a little over $100, which will come with a 1 year subscription.

What Chipset is in the TomTom GO 720?
The TomTom GO 720 also has the SiRF star III chipset in it, but that's not all it has going for it. The TomTom GO 720 has Text to Speech, although if you choose to record your own voice for some or all of the 60 standard phrases, the unit will need to revert back to regular command based (non-Text to Speech) voice prompts.

Finally in the goofy but very fun department, the car icon can be changed to one of about a dozen on the device. If you set the right specifications you can also upload your own image to be the car; like an image of your own car, or even your head if you want to. Make the image between 40x40 and 128x128 and drop the image into the “Artwork” folder. The image should be available to set as the car icon.

Stay tuned; I expect to get the TomTom GO 720 in for review soon...

More Info on the TomTom GO 720 here at GPSLodge

TomTom GO 720 at Amazon

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Posted by Scott Martin at June 21, 2007 9:54 PM

Completely useless for me.
I've bought 720 2 days ago - I wish I hadn't sold my reliable ViaMichelin X950-T.

So far the device is completely useless for me and the reason is pretty simple:
1. Attached my new device to the PC

3. Downloaded the latest HOME 2.0 software
3. It by default runs latest updates - I have got them all.

4. Created backup with 2.0
Device is completely dead - on start it shows yellow screen with red cross.

In the shop changed the device for new one - the same scenario repeated again ?!
TomTom adviced me not to download their latest application next time (the device is currently in the shop for restoring original software).

Is it not supposed this to be the best TomTom device in the market - in the sense that you expect at least to work ?!!!!!?
Will sell it on ebay and NEVER, EVER WILL BUY TOMOTOM AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My next device will be 980 from ViaMichelin.

And by the way even if it was working it had only Western Europe maps, so if you travel in whole Europe forget about it - I asked TomTom to buy complete Europe maps and they answered me to wait till they produce them - currently you can not buy them because the new fancy MapShare maps are not ready yet - it is pathetic for the supposed leader of the GPS market ???

:twisted: :twisted: :twisted:

Posted by: wolfi665 at October 24, 2007 3:49 PM

The 720 does look really cool. I had a chance to check out the GO 910 a few weeks ago and was really impressed. The widescreen on the 720 has me hooked though. I'm looking for more information on it as we speak.

Posted by: WolfyMcWolf at July 6, 2007 1:06 PM

I'm still very much in the 20th Century. I've never had a GPS and am finally breaking down. I probably want to purchase the TomTom GO 720, but am attempting to get some simple questions answered - and consquently writing to you with the hope that you will send me your reply:

1. Can the unit be suction held to the car console?

2. Can the battery be recharged and if so, how often - after how long a period of time of use?

3. Still on the question of the battery; is it possible and/or necessary for the owner to remove and replace?

3a. If so, what would the cost for same be?

Posted by: David at August 17, 2007 4:21 PM

I just bought the 720 and have a big problem. I explained to the salesman that I have a camper and need to avoid parkways. I was told by the salesman that the 720 has it. Well, I've been playing with this thing for a week and can't find "avoid parkways". I try to alter route when I see a parkway but I get "no route found" display.. Not too happy as of yet. Anyone with knowledge please e-mail me

Posted by: Jim at September 19, 2007 6:15 PM