Road Angle Navigator V's TomTom 700

Road Angle Navigator V's TomTom 700

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Discussion

sykes111s

Original Poster:

107 posts

255 months

Tuesday 6th December 2005
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As the title says really which is the one to get assuming they are the same price

Tripps

5,814 posts

273 months

Tuesday 6th December 2005
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sykes111s said:

As the title says really which is the one to get assuming they are the same price
Looking at similar systems myself and can't decide - I'm also looking at the Snooper Indago and the NavMan iCN550 with traffic module.

I've been told that the Indago is better builts and works far better, it also uses the superior NavTeq data, but does cost £100 more than the RoadAngel Navigator - the navigator has the advantage of being louder though, handy for roadsters and those with loud exhausts.

sykes111s

Original Poster:

107 posts

255 months

Tuesday 6th December 2005
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The thing is i'v already bought a Navigator(£400) but as yet have not opened it.

So i was thinking that i could sell it on ebay, as Navigators are going >£400, and buy a TOM TOM 700 if they are better

Tripps

5,814 posts

273 months

Wednesday 7th December 2005
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sykes111s said:
The thing is i'v already bought a Navigator(£400) but as yet have not opened it.

So i was thinking that i could sell it on ebay, as Navigators are going >£400, and buy a TOM TOM 700 if they are better
Well Amazon do the 700 for £439, so your cost to change would be minimal or nothing.

It comes with full European mapping, traffic (with subscription) and the Bluetooth hands-free interface are quite a boon - I'd hope that the camera warnings and data would be better on the RANav though. But the RANav is louder than the competition as the docking base has an amplified speaker, which could be handy...

The only thing stopping me taking the plunge with TomTom is paying for the traffic data (subscription and GPRS charges), when you can get it free over the air on other systems (NavMan and Garmin) - it also means that if you're making use of the hands-free system to make a long call you won't get any traffic updates so could drive headlong into a queue.

nubbin

6,809 posts

279 months

Wednesday 7th December 2005
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TTGo 700 is loud enough for a TVR with the roof off at 80mph - so should be O.K. in a normal car!

Tripps

5,814 posts

273 months

Wednesday 7th December 2005
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nubbin said:
TTGo 700 is loud enough for a TVR with the roof off at 80mph - so should be O.K. in a normal car!
How fast do you have go stop hearing it out of curiosity?

kojak

4,535 posts

254 months

Saturday 10th December 2005
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I've just bought a Tom Tom 700 from manchester airport for £374. So if anyone knows of any of their friends travelling through, thats a good price.

I will let you know what its like when I try it, when my 'courier' returns.

cerbagriff

342 posts

242 months

Sunday 11th December 2005
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A quick report on my Road Angel - so far has shown me doing 376mph through London rush hour, tells me to turn right into my road, which is on my left - and has frozen up once. Screen keyboard is poor - sometimes the bottom row of figures and numerals are unusable as they seem only to operate the buttons in the row above. Laughable, especially bearing in mind the cost. As far as mine's concerned "Bunch of ar5e mate". Going to be asking for a refund next week.

ICSD

638 posts

235 months

Wednesday 14th December 2005
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Tom Tom now have speed camera data on their web site which you pay a subscription for.

Surely that means that they're as good as a Road Angel, Origin etc?? Or am I missing something?

octane

205 posts

230 months

Wednesday 14th December 2005
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I think the road angel navigator is one of the worst products out there!

the touch sensitive screen is to small to be effective, the constant noise from the unit warning of cameras drives you mad and the unit takes a long time to get sat lock on some occasions and the unit freezes as well.

Sum up- anything would be better!

Tripps

5,814 posts

273 months

Wednesday 14th December 2005
quotequote all
ICSD said:
Surely that means that they're as good as a Road Angel, Origin etc?? Or am I missing something?
I can't imagine their database is as good as those who've been in the business for years, as it takes a lot of time to accumulate and even more to keep the quality high, remove old cameras, add temporary ones etc. I may be totally wrong though, they could just have poached the right people for the job, or just nicked the PocketGPSWorld data and used that as a start point I guess...

I recall the data from Origin beingnoticeably better than that of Blackspot who never removed cameras from their database, leading to two useless warnings within three miles house now on the RA, when they'd been removed from the Origin database before I changed over 18 months back.

ICSD

638 posts

235 months

Wednesday 14th December 2005
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Tripps said:
ICSD said:
Surely that means that they're as good as a Road Angel, Origin etc?? Or am I missing something?
I can't imagine their database is as good as those who've been in the business for years, as it takes a lot of time to accumulate and even more to keep the quality high, remove old cameras, add temporary ones etc. I may be totally wrong though, they could just have poached the right people for the job, or just nicked the PocketGPSWorld data and used that as a start point I guess...

I recall the data from Origin beingnoticeably better than that of Blackspot who never removed cameras from their database, leading to two useless warnings within three miles house now on the RA, when they'd been removed from the Origin database before I changed over 18 months back.

The Origin is a great bit of kit except it keeps jumping out of the cradle in my 911 and you can't easily move it.

I wonder how you find out how the Tom Tom database compares?

Tripps

5,814 posts

273 months

Wednesday 14th December 2005
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ICSD said:
The Origin is a great bit of kit except it keeps jumping out of the cradle in my 911 and you can't easily move it.

I wonder how you find out how the Tom Tom database compares?
My Origin was the original Blue-i, beast of a thing, ugly, big, too many cables and died on me, but the quality of the database was good

I've used the PocketGPS database on TomTom side-by-side with the RA2 and there were a few differences, mistakes on both sides, so I'd be interested to see how good TomTom's own is, but I think when I get my 700 in the new year I'll spent my £50 a year on the Traffic subscription and keep using the free camera database.

alloypearltam

9,586 posts

244 months

Wednesday 14th December 2005
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There is a good sat nav review in this weeks Autoexpress.

mightydquinn

667 posts

258 months

Wednesday 14th December 2005
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speed cameras are free just folow the links. on tom tom that is

ICSD

638 posts

235 months

Thursday 15th December 2005
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mightydquinn said:
speed cameras are free just folow the links. on tom tom that is


Says here it's 69 Euros??

www.tomtom.com/plus/services/pois.php

mightydquinn

667 posts

258 months

Thursday 15th December 2005
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They used to be free as they gave you this link
www.pocketgps.co.uk/uksafetycameras.php
This is what I used .
hope this helps

simonprelude

118 posts

221 months

Friday 16th December 2005
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I was beginning to think this, after a quick email off to Roadangel I received a new memory card through the post with version 2 software on it. Totally transforms the device, give it a go.

octane said:
I think the road angel navigator is one of the worst products out there!

the touch sensitive screen is to small to be effective, the constant noise from the unit warning of cameras drives you mad and the unit takes a long time to get sat lock on some occasions and the unit freezes as well.

Sum up- anything would be better!

N1 GJT

72 posts

246 months

Saturday 17th December 2005
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See www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=217483&f=153&h=0
I have been trying to get through to Blackspot to upgrade my RoadAngel for the last month (£349.99 in exchange for RA, £299.99 in exchange for RA2). The phone is constantly engaged. I once used ring back but was cut off straight away. I have left messages on their answerphone. My e-mails hve been answered to the effect that I have to do the deal over the phone. I will keep on trying as Blackspot have provided a good service in the past for my RA and RA2.

cerbagriff

342 posts

242 months

Monday 19th December 2005
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I spoke to road angel after many attempts to get through the engaged phone lines - and now I am on my third software chip - which is promised to be better than the previous two - yeah right! When (not if) this proves as bad as the others - the software fault (which their techies assured me it was)will suddenly become a hardware fault and need a new unit. Even if it all works again, nowhere near as good as the pure camera detectors. Just dismal!