REVIEWED - TOMTOM CAR KIT FOR IPHONE
SiRFstarIII GPS + Patch Antenna - Loudspeaker - Bluetooth - Power In - Audio Out
iPhone 4 compatible with an adapter


Product page on the UK Apple Store : >> LIEN <<

1. The content : a pleasant surprise, a dashboard "sticking plate" is included and it will come in handy as an iPhone will be interacted with, conditions permitting of course, unlike a "standard" GPS once the destination has been programmed. There is a car charger too, outputting 1.2A, a bit more than the usual 1A, but the iPhone needs that based on my experience with other chargers. The miniUSB connector is straight so it might be a bit of an eye-sore...The manual is short but gives enough information to get started, like pairing the iPhone with the Bluetooth module of the car kit (you need to press the "jog shuttle")


2. The form factor : the car kit certainly looks quite smart with a pleasant finish and even a "rubbery" bumper with the TomTom "hands" to dampen the impact of the bumps on the iPhone. In spite of the many features it packs, it remains light, but it's weighty enough to feel solid.


3. The features : EasyPort (the screw-in suction cup premiered on the ONE v4 and XL v2 in 2008), SiRFstarIII GPS Module with dedicated patch antenna, loudspeaker with a "jog shuttle" to set the volume, Bluetoth for handsfree conversations, audio out (3.5mm jack), it's hard to do better and I don't remember seeing such a comprehensive car kit since the Seidio G4850 for the Dell x50/x51 in 2005 but it lacked Bluetooth as it was a PDA, not a Smartphone.
   
   We'll get back to the GPS aspects in detail, but looking at the other features, everything works as expected once the mount is powerered. Fast Bluetooth pairing (mind the unusual 5555 code) for handsfree conversations (I suppose there is no hardware pin for a "mic in"), the loudspeaker is a bit louder than the iPhone's built-in speaker (arguably the best one on a smartphone) but has more bass when playing music and "cracks" less when pushed to its max level using the "jog shuttle" on the side. This speaker is certainly a welcome addition as it is the biggest limitation on the powered Carcomm mount I'm currently using


4. The GPS feature : this is the most anticipated feature of the car kit with the built-in SiRFstarIII chipset. The performance of the SiRFstarIII chipset, the first "high-sensitivity" module launched in 2005 and regularly optimized since, is well documented and the use of a dedicated patch antenna inside the mount will help get the satellite signals where the is less interference than inside the iPhone, what with its large screen, wifi, bluetooth, gsm modules. This should finally bring decent GPS performance to the iPhone, on par with a standalone GPS system. The built-in module is the capable Globallocate Hammerhead II used successfully by TomTom on the ONE, XL, GO x40 and GO x50 AIOs but it clearly struggles in the "GPS hostile" iPhone environment and tends to lose the plot in dense urban areas as I found this week again in Paris.
   
   As a reminder, the iPhone handles positioning in a "centralized" way using three sources in order of increasing quality : GSM, WiFi and the internal GPS. The SiRFstarIII module of the car kit is likely considered as an additional source with top priority. One open question is whether the external GPS can benefit from the AGPS assistance provided by most GSM networks.
   
   Unlike on the Windows Mobile/PocketPC platform, there are no GPS tools available for the iPhone to dig in and see what's going on and run cold/warm/hot resets. Still, the first tests are encouraging since I quickly got a high quality position (according to Motion-X GPS) in my office. After disconnecting the power, the fix was lost and the positioning switched to the internal module that slowly got the fix back with a lower quality. Same thing with Google Maps, iGO, Navigon, TomTom or CoPilot.
   
   It will be hard to measure but there's a chance the iPhone will offer snappier performance since the hosted internal GPS module will not by using any CPU cycles
   
   Stay tuned for more...

---

2. ANNOTATED PICTURES

---

THE CONTENT OF THE BOX


360 DEGREE ROTATION (32 "notches")


SEEN FROM THE BACK - LOUDSPEAKER AND MINIUSB PLUG


FLEXED OR FOLDED


ZOOM ON THE CONNECTORS AND ON THE "JOG SHUTTLE"


A "BUMPER" WITH THE TOMTOM "HANDS"

quote:

---

Originally posted by newyork


I just purchased a TT car kit I am quite pleased with the improvement in satellite reception. I connected the device to my car aux input and this is a great sound improvement over the built in speaker.
However, one problem I am having, for some reason all iphone applications (navigation, radio stations, ipod,...) are routed to the car speakers except telephone calls are routed to the built in speaker.
This renders the car kit and the Bluetooth feature almost useless for calls, as the built in speaker doesn't provide adequate sound quality for a telephone conversation.

Is there a way to fix this and have the calls also routed to the car aux?
Thanks,

---