TomTom XL 340 S GPS Review

Car Tech — on July 15, 2009 at 6:29 am | Comment Now

Yummy: The biggest plus point is that it is the product of the company that is having an experience of producing such products. Also some specific features like lane guidance, downloadable furl prices and the clarity and utility of Google Map are the crowning specialty. 4.3 inch WXGA touch screen is a flashy and easy to use. Newly added feature of Text-to-speech is the increment bonus to the features.

Oops: Almost everything favorable except size. It’s too large to handle and keep in pocket. The thickness and weight also are the burdens that limit the portability of the device. Routing speed in the moving vehicle is also lower than all the competent devices.

Specialty: Audible assistance: Navigation instructions, Street name announcement; Weight: 7 oz.

Our Verdict: The TomTom XL 340 is introduced with some advanced features compare to the midrange line up. The most optimistic feature is the lower price of the device.

Price range: $179.95 – $249.97

tomtom xl 340 s gps system

TomTom XL 340 S Overview

The TomTom XL 340 S is a crown of all the devices presented with the XL series of portable navigation tools with a larger utility and wider screen. Advancing to the older and previous versions is done nicely with the help of introducing unique features like lane guidance, daily fuel prices and IQ Routes Map share. It can be said that TomTom has fulfilled all the lacking they had in the previous devices wisely.

The important and notable feature being the text-to-speech facility that reads the names of streets loudly and further quickly.

Deliberate Design
The design is so distinctive and deliberate that it makes a great sense with the unique outlook of the device. A 4.3 inch WQVGA wide format touch screen is one of the awesome features of the device. The front of the device is quite descent to see. A 2 inch loud speaker is placed on the back. Control of the whole unit can be diverted through the power on-off button that is placed on the top edge of the device. The bottom is also furnished finely with the Mini USB port that serves as the connector of 12 volt car charger with the data.

What’s different than the competitive Gramin Nuvi?
Well, if we compare the unit with the rival Gramin Nuvi, we can find that the Gramin Nuvi device was having a safer SD and Micro SD which is not added to the features of XL 340 S. So, the users would have to stick o the onboard storage of 2 GB which may not get sufficient as the map and voice data shares major part of this 2 GB. Even if we compare the suction cup of the TomTom and Gramin Nuvi, the later proves better than the previous as the installing method is somewhat complicated with the XL 340.

The bigger size and also the increased width of the XL 340 make it difficult to place it in the windshield easily and peacefully. So, even in this field, the flexibility matters a lot between the Gramin and the XL 340 and again the previous one bags the deal.

The other noticeable thing you can have with the XL 340 is that not only the width and length are increased but also the thickness is being almost doubled which definitely makes a sense for the up gradation of the security measure but also it remarks a difference n maintaining the device when some one is out of car and needed to carry the device in pocket. Security is always a good concern and due to doubling the thickness, the stiffness and thickness boosts a lot, that matters when the device is fallen down in case. But, the larger difference occurs when the weight of the device is to be carried I the hands.

The plus point with the device is the XL 340 S is available with the 12-volt car charger, a USB connection cable, and an adhesive disk for attaching the XL to the dashboard of vehicle if there is no windshield available in.

TomTom XL 340 S GPS Features
After seeing some of the comparisons with rival Gramin phone, let’s see some of the prime features of the XL 340 which is generated heavily for the advancement and revolution of drivers and driving.

The unique feature of the device is the Advanced Lane Guidance that shows detailed illustrations of complex freeway interchanges and fully furnished and complete lane information. Arrows overlaid on the illustration makes the drivers aware of the lanes that are favorable regarding to the traffic congestion and also seeing the exact route to the destination.

Other better feature that makes a good sense with the device is the Text-to-speech functionality that allows the supreme utility of announcing the street and point-of-interest names aloud. There are also the options to mute such announcements. If you are not at all interested in such facilities, you can really make the savings. The unit comes along with 14 different languages like English, French, and Spanish. More of the languages and voices can be downloaded from the internet. Some people used to have the celebrity voice, which also can be available through the web.

The free TomTom Map Share service is available for the differing of street names, directions, road speeds and POIs. If you are not interested with the prime services of the company, you can stick to the original ones.

Another service of IQ Routes is a mind blowing ones as it uses outstanding and unbelievable historical speed and time data to transfer from actual driving and other TomTom Map Share. This makes the route transforming easier and access of the destination A to B.

This service makes a huge sense when the unit let you know that a certain road is typically congested and will find an alternate route for you. The working of the device is also interesting ones as if it learns that another road is congested on weeknights between 5 and 7 p.m., it will make you informed and ask you to avoid that road on weeknights, but not on weekends. If the device could not fine any of the faster and better alternative, it will at least give an accurate time to destination by calculating the congestion and speed of your vehicle to the exact distance to the destination.

Above all, if you connect the XL to your computer via USB, the software allows you for a quick installation and you need no CDs. Once installed, the device quickens the download updates, back up data, plan routes, and even play with a virtual representation of their XL 340 S.

TomTom XL 340 S GPS Pivotal Performance
The TomTom XL 340 S can be considered as quickest to boot and satellite acquisition averages even less than a minute. So, it’s a truly faster device with speediest services!!

Sweet Summary
Summarizing the whole scenario, TomTom XL 340 is having a unique feature of speed with it and also the cost is cheaper comparatively but there are some functional drawbacks. So, if you are fine with the drawbacks, the device is really good to have!!