I have used tom-tom devices for more than 15 years for both navigating and for finding places on a map.
So when the GO Premium came out, I decided to replace my old TT720.

The new larger screen, the upgraded dashboard mount, the sleek and thin product and the fact, that you could use voice recognition, all swayed me towards buying this product.

The inability to dim the previous TT 720 to a much darker screen then I would have preferred, has meant, that driving at night would mean that the screen would be blaring light into your eyes and you would soon get vision fatigue.
The new Tom Tom GO has the ability to dim the screen much more.
This means, that driving at night is much more pleasant experience and I truly cannot understand, how some people can drive with their phones set at maximum brightness at night.
This is not only dangerous, but it also strains one’s eyes to the point, that a longer journey will then become very tiresome.

Display:
The 6 inch screen of the GO Premium is very nice to use.
I use glasses for reading, but as the display is very clear and the lettering on the screen is big enough, I can see the display clearly, without having to to reach for my glasses while driving.
This makes using the Tom-Tom a much safer experience.

Docking Station:
The dashboard docking station is magnetic, so this means once you place your tom-tom close enough to the docking station, it will just click in place and stay put.
The docking station is reasonably well designed, sturdy and is withstanding even some off-road activity.

Saying this, it sometimes has difficulty staying fixed in place in hot weather.
To combat the docking station falling off in hot weather, I sometimes release the ring which tensions the suction cup below it, in order to relieve the suction cup pressure for a period of time.
This means, that when I get back into the car, I need to re-tighten the docking station fixing ring, in order for it to stay fixed.
In my view, as these docking stations have gone through years and years of development, they could have been made much better.
The failure of this docking station also stems from the fact, that it is unable to be mounted to any dashboard, which has a ripple surface. You must purchase one of those small, stick-on intermediary plates, glue that tho the dashboard and then the docking station is then fixed via the suction pad to this disk.
Yet another “forced purchase.”

It is unbelievable, that on a product costing around 300, the company is STILL unable to include a well thought through docking station and one, that would initially work on any type of surface, including on today’s dashboards.
This is a fundamental failure of the design department.

Features:
Too many to list here.
See TomTom website for details.

Just some features below:
Screen Dimming,
Great lane Changing Display,
Accident Alerts,
Route Closure Alets,
Faster Route rerouting,
Points of Interest navigation,
Alternative Route Finding and Display,
and many more……

Use:
The product is very easy and very nice to use.
However here are some major failures:
This Tom Tom has the ability to connect to the traffic monitoring system and therefore it will route you into areas with lesser congestion, or, it will navigate past areas where there has been an accident.

This is all great, if it wouldn’t be for the fact, that it takes ages to actually acquire the necessary data, in order for the navigation to actually start working.
Once I get into my car, I would say that 30 or up to 45 seconds should be well enough, and, if I would be very lenient, maybe a minute could be enough for a product of this caliber to actually start navigating.

Don’t get me wrong, it is very easy for the tom-tom to acquire the GPS position, however, acquiring the other information it often needs takes an enormous amount of time, in order to navigate you in the correct direction.
And if you happen to be in an area with weaker mobile coverage, the product may stop working altogether and will throw a fit, often displaying only a greyish screen.
To me, this is a complete disaster and on some occasions I was even forced to make an inconvenient stop in order to wait for the product to catch up and to start displaying the desired route.

I am very technically minded, and in my view, this lack of speed of the product points squarely to a cheaper and less powerful processor, which, for this price bracket, could have been much better.

Once the product does however have a signal and once it has all the necessary information, it is a subsequently a joy to use.
It navigates with ease, reroutes your journeys around obstacles and/or around any accidents and has a fantastic way to show you, which lanes you need to use on the motorway, prior to you making an exit.

Maps:
The fact that you get an unlimited worldwide map update with this product is also a bonus.
This will mean, that traveling to different countries is no longer an issue, as you can download various maps directly to your device and therefore do not have to rely on either Internet, phone signal or any other mapping systems in order to get you to your destination.

Tom-Tom calls this map update system a “lifetime subscription”, but it is really up to Tom Tom, to define what exactly the “lifetime” means.
Unfortunately for the user, it means the lifetime of the product CYCLE and not the lifetime of the individual product in service.
Confused?
So was I.

So what this means, is that in say eight years, Tom Tom may well decide to no longer support this particular product, as it will come up with new products and new features.
So really, the “lifetime” subscription to the maps is a bit of a white lie.

Conclusion:
I have used various navigation devices before and so, have had the chance to use products from different companies.

Tom Tom was one of the first ones to use the great lane changing features and it had many other features, which the competition was later just copying. I even tried using Google apps sometimes although I hated it, but it seemed, that Tom Tom has always found a better route and it was always easier and more pleasant to use.

So, would I recommend you buy yourself one of these?
Well, YES.

Of course there are now many devices and many companies vying for your money and for your attention.
But the fact still stands, that even Apple uses TomTom’s own data, to improve their Apple Maps and that says to me, that TomTom still has something, which others do not possess. And it shows.

Yes, there are some design oversights, yes, there are the some glitches, but ultimately, if you are in need of a generally reliable and well enough designed product, you can’t go wrong with this, or many other TomTom devices.

 

I had a TomTom o 6200, but stupidly left it on the windscreen during our extraordinarily hot summer and its innards got fried. It would still do routes, but not traffic. After getting stuck in some dreadful traffic jams I started looking for a replacement.
This meets all of my needs. The voice recognition is OK but I find it won’t work if the heater/aircon fan is blowing loudly and sometimes it seems to take great delight in misunderstanding me. Otherwise, thus far, it has worked brilliantly and, because I had a TomTom before, all my routes were transferred over WiFi without me having to do anything about reloading them. I am also very happy that I don’t have to subscribe to any update sites – everything is updated automatically for the life of the machine.
I am very pleased with this product.

 

First one was faulty but replacement has been brilliant. Accuracy is stupendous updates are a doddle speed cameras updated almost daily!! Couldn’t be without it now paid for itself avoiding fines

 

I’ve always favoured the “opposition” but I got really fed up with the way it treated Dual Carriageways as Motorways, so clicking on “Avoid Motorways” would also avoid Dual Carriageways making it necessary to plot a dozen or so “Via Points” to keep it on track for my preferred route – e.g. Down the A5 using any DCW sections as we came to them rather than turning off to avoid.
This TomTom plots a route exactly as I required, NO M-Ways but keeps to the DCW all the way over some 120 miles!
OK – so I’ve always (& still do) prefer the screen quality on the old unit, the TT is a little low res, not as bright & generally a tad fuzzy by comparison but, hey it takes me the route I choose, keeps me within the speed limits & incudes free updates for just about everything.
Long may it continue…… 🙂

 

This item always seems to beat garmin. Uses the most up to date 5g so it points a lot of people in uk out of joint for updates. Put in a huge 128 gb sd card . So greeeat!

 

TomTom GO Premium saw no issues. Set up was easy. Admit that downloading to update was slow, but I have had this experience with other models of TomToms. It just calls for patience. Just put it to one side and leave it to download updates, may take 1 to 2 hrs. I cannot fault the device as yet. I bought the 7-inch screen version; it’s clear in detail bright. I would recommend it. Pricey but worth it.

 

Voice recognition sometimes activates itself not a major issue quite expensive but am glad I spent the money I use it for work and it has saved me a lot of time keep it updated to avoid any slowdown and it works grea

 

Bought this because it picks up speed cameras and upgrades regularly so I don’t after to pay extra for new subscriptions

 

I do a 1.5 hour commute each way to work, and find this invaluable to avoid major problems on the road, just be sure to check your route time and listen to it!
Bought this to replace the TomTom Go510 from 4 years ago, that was a good unit but got updates from phone via bluetooth, sometimes forgot to tether and suffered for it, also the unit was starting to glitch occasionally from being in the sun for extended periods.
This new unit gets traffic updates via in-built SIM, so don’t have to think about it. Camera, map updates etc are via wi-fi, I recommend doing these at end of day indoors as they can take surprisingly long to install.
I initially mounted this to a TomTom adhesive mount disc, which worked well, but have since installed a Brodit PNA car mount (see picture) – this mount replaces the suction part of the TomTom mount, and screws onto a bracket purchased direct from Brodit that specifically fits your car model. It sits in front of the fan, keeping it cool or warm depending on weather, out of direct sunlight, and in easy reach, excellent.

 

I do a 1.5 hour commute each way to work, and find this invaluable to avoid major problems on the road, just be sure to check your route time and listen to it!
Bought this to replace the TomTom Go510 from 4 years ago, that was a good unit but got updates from phone via bluetooth, sometimes forgot to tether and suffered for it, also the unit was starting to glitch occasionally from being in the sun for extended periods.
This new unit gets traffic updates via in-built SIM, so don’t have to think about it. Camera, map updates etc are via wi-fi, I recommend doing these at end of day indoors as they can take surprisingly long to install.
I initially mounted this to a TomTom adhesive mount disc, which worked well, but have since installed a Brodit PNA car mount (see picture) – this mount replaces the suction part of the TomTom mount, and screws onto a bracket purchased direct from Brodit that specifically fits your car model. It sits in front of the fan, keeping it cool or warm depending on weather, out of direct sunlight, and in easy reach, excellent.

 

Only use it for lesure travel – so weekends friday afternoons and sundays… always does well at its tasks and live traffic is a godsend.. speed limits can be out of date but speed camera warning and average speed cameras are very accurate normally.

 

I like the software features, voice assistant and some lane guidance with distance. It is lot better than Google map & easier to get to new places. It has permanent traffic cams alert which can help you save money on speeding & moving off on red light fines. You can also record your own routes, like for during rush hour or off rush hour routes. The battery is barely acceptable, it only last one hour and you have to keep it charging almost most of the time

 

This is my first sat nav as I normally just use my phone, but needed something more accurate with traffic updates etc. Everything seems to be working fine with the actual device. I am however having trouble with the mount. I live in a very hot and humid country and sticking things to my windscreen has always been an issue. I wanted to give the TomTom mount a chance so i rubbed the area with alcohol and stuck the mount. Less than a week later, i got in the car and found the mount on the floor. Thankfully the device was not attached so no damage done. I do need to find a way to keep my device attached and safe, without the fear of it collapsing in the middle of a journey. Any suggestions from similar experiences?

 

I have always had a Tom Tom sat nav and I have always found them very easy to use but wether they are better than others I could not say.
I love the magnetic connector for this model as it is completely hassle free, quick on and off. Also I like the automatic sleep, when it is plugged in, once removed from connector. The turning on and off of previous models has always annoyed me – the little things are what count for me!
I am not sure if it is really fantastic value for money but only because I have not researched other brands as I saw no reason to switch from Tom Tom. It was expensive but that does not mean it was not good value.

 

I have previously used the TomTom 6000 a number of years ago, and loved the real-time traffic information. However, the device was clunky and slow to use, and had a pathetic battery life. I was keen to see if, after a number of iterations through the 6100 and 6200 to the this new GO Premium, this is now the perfect sat nav.

Of course the world has changed over the past few years and Apps like Google Maps and Waze have come into their own, and increasingly cars feature built in sat nav systems. This begs the fundamental question of whether it is even worth buying a dedicated sat nav in 2019.

My main interest in a sat nav is avoiding traffic. I have an acute dislike for being stuck in traffic, especially with small children in the back. I want something that can give me up to the minute traffic info and divert me when necessary.

The great thing about the GO Premium 6 Inch is that it includes a built in SIM card meaning it can receive traffic data directly, rather than having to link with a smartphone. The traffic information is simply brilliant, and I think better than the free Apps. You can see areas of traffic clearly marked on the affected roads, and it has diverted a number of times to avoid considerable delays (I know because a family member took the route we had planned to take and had over one hour delay). Really happy about this and justifies the sat nav’s existence for me – time saved is a precious thing.

It is great that all updates including maps, traffic and speed cameras are now free.

The sat nav must have faster components because it is quicker in use than the previous model I used, and doesn’t have the same lag.

I would strongly recommend the 6 inch model. Having compared them both in a shop, the 6 inch model has significantly better resolution and is much sharper and clearer than the 5 inch model. The additional size is also helpful when in use as the screen is easier to see.

The provided suction attachment to the windscreen is also genius – stick it against the windscreen, twist, and it holds solid.

The ability to link with the Smart devices in your house is a fad if you ask me. Nobody needs their sat nav to tell the lights to come on when the get home – fun for us techie types to play with but utterly unnecessary and more hassle to set up than it is worth.

There are some downsides, which are worth being aware of:

– Battery life is better but still very limited – it has to be plugged in pretty much all the time or the battery won’t last long.
– The voice control only really works when the car is stationery and quiet – it simply wouldn’t work for me on the motorway – which makes it a bit useless really. For me though, it is more of a nice-to-have than an essential feature, but worth noting if this is important to you.
– The internal memory cannot hold all the world maps at once so you have to leave maps or details off, or buy a memory card (leaving you the customer distinctly unimpressed that the 300+ device you’ve just bought is inadequate without an additional purchase). In practice it is not a big issue though because you don’t usually need maps for the entire world all there at the same time – you can just download the ones you need in advance of your travels.

Overall, a great device which should give you hours of your life back. I think it is a better service than the mobile phone apps, with more accurate traffic info and more intelligent diversions.