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gpspassion
93392 Posts |
 Posted - 04 déc. 2009 : 18:40:13
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quote:
Originally posted by NanaimoRick
Yes, it's priced well, at least in the US. In Canada we are looking at $350 for the 540S. You do have to remember that part of the price difference is that not only do you not get the traffic subscription, but you also don't get the receiver which sells for $99 from the TomTom website.
Are you comparing the US and Canada 540S or the 540S vs 1490? How can they justify a $150 price difference, unless the traffic receiver is included with a one-year subscription? |
Discounts and Assistance/Réductions et Assistance (Club GpsPasSion) / Où commencer? |
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NanaimoRick
Canada
7386 Posts |
Posted - 04 déc. 2009 : 18:53:15
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| I was commenting on Captcaper's comment "This Tom 540S I see is selling for $200.00 and the 1490T is selling for up to $450". I guess you'd have to ask TomTom how they can sell the unit in the US for $150 less than they do in Canada. I see this morning that the place I bought the 540 has lowered the price from $350 to $280 so I'm on my way over there to get my refund this afternoon. |
Rick James - Nuvi Forum Moderator
Nuvi 350 - Nuvi 760 - Nuvi 1695LM - Nuvi 3790LMT (with ecoRoutes HD) - Nuvi 2460LMT - Nuvi 3597LMTHD (with ecoRoutes HD) also TomTom 540S for side by side comparison >> Here <<
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gpspassion
93392 Posts |
Posted - 04 déc. 2009 : 19:01:13
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| How strange, TomTom's NA marketing need to fix this! Well it seems it's improved a bit now, so you can't get a 540S in North America bundled with a traffic receiver ? Maybe you can get one with the price-difference refund to level the field with the 1490T? |
Discounts and Assistance/Réductions et Assistance (Club GpsPasSion) / Où commencer? |
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NanaimoRick
Canada
7386 Posts |
Posted - 04 déc. 2009 : 19:06:40
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| Good idea about the traffic receiver. I'll look in the US as the place I bought the 540 here in Canada were out of stock on them last week and don't even shown them on their website now. |
Rick James - Nuvi Forum Moderator
Nuvi 350 - Nuvi 760 - Nuvi 1695LM - Nuvi 3790LMT (with ecoRoutes HD) - Nuvi 2460LMT - Nuvi 3597LMTHD (with ecoRoutes HD) also TomTom 540S for side by side comparison >> Here <<
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NanaimoRick
Canada
7386 Posts |
Posted - 04 déc. 2009 : 19:25:52
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Got a chance to take some side by side pictures this morning. In each case the Nuvi 1490 is on the left side as you look at the picture:
Front View
Here are a couple of pictures to show the difference in the depth of these units. The large circular thing on the back of the TomTom is part of their EasyPort™ windshield mount system:
Here is a shot of the screens used to begin to enter a destination. Note that the TomTom defaults to the map screen, so getting to the Navigate To screen requires a screen tap, while the Nuvi opens to the Where To? screen. I can see the 2 sides lining up already :-) :
Here is a picture of the map screens on both units. Notice that both are very bright and easy to see:
More pictures to come of course. |
Rick James - Nuvi Forum Moderator
Nuvi 350 - Nuvi 760 - Nuvi 1695LM - Nuvi 3790LMT (with ecoRoutes HD) - Nuvi 2460LMT - Nuvi 3597LMTHD (with ecoRoutes HD) also TomTom 540S for side by side comparison >> Here <<
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Edited by - NanaimoRick on 04 déc. 2009 20:19:37 |
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gemro311
USA
293 Posts |
Posted - 04 déc. 2009 : 21:13:26
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| Nice Pictures ..Would like to see the difference in Map Details between these units. It appears the last pictures were taken in different locations. As TeleAtlas still doesn't have our location (dig) on their maps it's difficult to see any differences. |
Nuvi 1450LMT/Droid Charge w/Google Maps |
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NanaimoRick
Canada
7386 Posts |
Posted - 04 déc. 2009 : 21:41:43
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Both Navteq and TeleAtlas have my location and the pictures were taken in the exact same spot, my home office. The TomTom has a little harder time determining my exact location when the units are in the house and for the 2 pictures of the map screen the Nuvi showing a north facing vehicle is more correct than the TomTom which thinks it's facing west. Actual location, which is one house in from a corner, is somewhere in between, but closer to North than West. 
Since map detail has become such a hot issue these days, expect lots more screen shots showing the detail, or lack there of. |
Rick James - Nuvi Forum Moderator
Nuvi 350 - Nuvi 760 - Nuvi 1695LM - Nuvi 3790LMT (with ecoRoutes HD) - Nuvi 2460LMT - Nuvi 3597LMTHD (with ecoRoutes HD) also TomTom 540S for side by side comparison >> Here <<
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Edited by - NanaimoRick on 04 déc. 2009 21:44:47 |
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gemro311
USA
293 Posts |
Posted - 05 déc. 2009 : 00:09:06
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| Thanks NanaimoRick...Have a great time on your trip . Looking forward to your comments |
Nuvi 1450LMT/Droid Charge w/Google Maps |
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squirrelpie
Canada
57 Posts |
Posted - 05 déc. 2009 : 01:29:03
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| Rick, Are the units on their default zoom and detail and are both the same scale? Interested as 255W doesn't pick up much for street names and detail until you zoom in a couple of clicks (from 500m into 300m scale). Who drives and who runs the GPSs? LOL. Enjoy trip |
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NanaimoRick
Canada
7386 Posts |
Posted - 05 déc. 2009 : 04:30:15
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| Thanks. Yes, the 2 units are at their default zoom levels and as you can see the 1490 has little street name detail at that point. It gets better when you zoom in, like the 255W I suspect. The Nuvi is set for "most" map detail and I don't believe there is an equivalent setting in the TomTom". The one thing that I'm needing to get used to is that the 2 devices use a different viewing angle for their 3D modes, so even getting them at the same zoom level, the map screens still display differently. This isn't a bad thing but does take some getting used to. |
Rick James - Nuvi Forum Moderator
Nuvi 350 - Nuvi 760 - Nuvi 1695LM - Nuvi 3790LMT (with ecoRoutes HD) - Nuvi 2460LMT - Nuvi 3597LMTHD (with ecoRoutes HD) also TomTom 540S for side by side comparison >> Here <<
2010 Golf Wagon 2.0 TDI Clean Diesel
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Edited by - NanaimoRick on 05 déc. 2009 04:42:41 |
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turbo
1 Posts |
Posted - 05 déc. 2009 : 14:30:28
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Rick,
I really look foward to reading about your upcoming road trip and hearing more about what you have to say about these two gps units. Your previous road trip and review was a joy to read and was extremely helpful and interesting. Thank you!
We recently went to BestBuy to look at gps devices. They had the Garmin 1490T on display which we were able to play with a little bit. Unfortunetly, they didn't have the TomTom XXL 540S on display though. All they had were the older 4.3" TomTom devices.
Couple of quick questions if you don't mind:
1. How long does it take roughly to obtain a satellite lock with both devices when you turn them on in the car? Do you have any troubles getting a signal from inside your house?
2. How do they compare to each other in terms of the time it takes to come up with a route once you put in a destination?
3. Has the TTS voice quality improved on the new TomTom? I know in your previous review of the TomTom 930T it had some difficulties pronouncing street names correctly.
4. Does the new TomTom now announce which side of the street your destination is on?
5. Does the TomTom touch screen respond as fast compared to the Garmin 1490T when you touch the screen and navigate through the settings? When I played with the Garmin in the store it seemed to respond very quickly when you touched the screen, no lag at all.
6. One thing I really dislike about the older TomTom units that I saw in the store and which you had mentioned in your previous review is the jagged edges on the map. It doesn't look like they used any sort of anti-aliasing so the quality of the map doesn't look very good. Someone in the TomTom forum I see mentioned that the new TomTom XXL 540S screen is now supposed to be much sharper and smoother with no jagged edges anymore. Did you notice this also on yours?
I wish you safe travels on your road trip and hope you have a really great time! :)
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NanaimoRick
Canada
7386 Posts |
Posted - 05 déc. 2009 : 15:48:53
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Welcome to our forum Turbo. We are pretty much on our way out the door so I'll give some more detailed responses later. As well some of your questions are going to need more time with the TomTom unit before I can answer them with any degree of knowledge. :-)
A couple of things I can answer quickly:
- no problems at all with getting a satellite lock in the house with either unit. Also they both get first lock in the car well within a minute but I haven't actually timed them. I'll do that at some point.
- my experience so far with the TomTom is that is still doesn't announce which side of the street your destination is on, only "you have reached your destination". The Nuvi continues to say "arriving at XXX, on right".
Thanks for the kind words and I'll get back to you as soon as possible with more complete answers to your questions. |
Rick James - Nuvi Forum Moderator
Nuvi 350 - Nuvi 760 - Nuvi 1695LM - Nuvi 3790LMT (with ecoRoutes HD) - Nuvi 2460LMT - Nuvi 3597LMTHD (with ecoRoutes HD) also TomTom 540S for side by side comparison >> Here <<
2010 Golf Wagon 2.0 TDI Clean Diesel
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gemro311
USA
293 Posts |
Posted - 05 déc. 2009 : 16:28:57
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Rick..I noticed on the Nuvi's that you can go to one screen and hit detour and it will recalculate a new route . With the 740 you have to go thru about 2-3 screens, which is a little time consuming, not to mention dangerous if the driver is doing it. Has this been changed with the 540S.
On our return home from Florida, we used the detour button on the Nuvi, as I was tired of driving on i-95 and we were routed off at the next exit . Very sweet.
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Nuvi 1450LMT/Droid Charge w/Google Maps |
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fragilex
USA
1 Posts |
Posted - 06 déc. 2009 : 15:53:18
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| Thanks for sharing your experience with these units. I picked up a TomTom 540S at Best Buy recently without doing much research on it. They had it on sale for $159 (USD) so I thought I'd take a chance. I've been using a Garmin Nuvi for several years and am new to the world of TomTom, so I'm very interested to see how these two perform for you. |
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NanaimoRick
Canada
7386 Posts |
Posted - 07 déc. 2009 : 01:12:25
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Ok folks we just got into our hotel in Lincoln City Oregon. Lots to talk about but we are just taking some down time before we go out to dinner. Hopefully I'll get an opportunity to bring everyone up to date later tonight.
One thing I can say to summarize today is - TomTom Wins Day One by a Mile - more to come |
Rick James - Nuvi Forum Moderator
Nuvi 350 - Nuvi 760 - Nuvi 1695LM - Nuvi 3790LMT (with ecoRoutes HD) - Nuvi 2460LMT - Nuvi 3597LMTHD (with ecoRoutes HD) also TomTom 540S for side by side comparison >> Here <<
2010 Golf Wagon 2.0 TDI Clean Diesel
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[TOPIC] Road Testing the Nuvi 1490T & TomTom 540S
