TomTom Go 720

By Derek Fung on 23 November 2007

Don't let its beautiful body tempt you, the TomTom Go 720 is both too pricey and too buggy. The cliche "beauty is only skin deep" is particularly apt here.

4.5 5.1
  • Good: Beautiful body • Wide-screen
  • Bad: FM transmission weak • Bluetooth occasionally causes complete silence • Text-to-speech not preloaded • Too expensive by half
  • Specs: GPS navigation device • See more specifications
  • RRP: AU$799.00

Design
Although the TomTom Go 720 retains the same, familiar TomTom design cues, including the D-shaped cross-section, it manages to feel like a AU$799 unit. This is thanks to the black, rubberised coating which adorns its body and the metal highlight down its back, which houses both the speaker grille and the mounting point for the windshield mount. The body feels great in the hand -- the metal highlight is particularly dreamy -- and push all the right buttons if you're wandering through your local store looking for a GPS.

The mount is the usual compact unit TomTom ships with its GPS navigators which, with its stubby form-factor, is great for stowing in a cluttered glove box. Sufficient viewing adjustment is provided by the ball-arm. However, the lack of a lever arm for the suction cup means that short, sharp ruts on the road -- which for New South Wales drivers are all too frequent -- often sends the GPS unit crashing down in a haze of sound and fury.

As with the rest of the TomTom range, the 720 is devoid of any physical buttons, except the power button. With the 720's interface, TomTom have elected to leave well enough. Doing basic tasks is pretty simple with the usual array of large menu buttons. There's also a "done" button which, in most menus, skips us back to the map screen. And the map graphics on the 720's 4.3-inch screen, though lacking the pizzazz of some other brands, is effective enough.

Features
In 2007, a AU$799 GPS unit can't sell on a big screen alone, it needs features. To that end, TomTom has gilded the Go 720's lily with Bluetooth hands-free, text-to-speech, MP3 playback and an FM transmitter.

We like text-to-speech because hearing "turn left on to Bent Street" is significantly better than a generic "turn left". Although in the 720's case, TomTom have omitted the "on to", leaving us with the rather grating "turn left Bent Street". There's a choice of two text-to-speech voices, an acceptable English one, and an American voice which sounds eerily like the cold, hollow and just a little bit evil computer generated voices of the mid '80s. Neither deal with Australian nor apostrophised street names particularly well. Compounding our frustration is the fact that the text-to-speech voices aren't preloaded onto the 720. This is particularly odd because TomTom has gone to the effort of pre-installing the latest R14 Sensis maps on the 720, instead of distributing them on SD card. To get text-to-speech working, you have install TomTom Home onto your PC, connect the 720 and transfer.

Route instructions and MP3s can be played through the car stereo via the Go 720's built-in FM transmitter. The FM transmitter is fairly weak and more prone to interference than the iPod FM transmitters we've come across. So in order for instructions or music to be audible, the car stereo volume will need to be turned quite high -- double the normal levels on our car's system. Should you accidentally switch sources without turning down the volume, you run the real risk of damaging your speakers. During our time with the 720, we couldn't get MP3s to play off straight off SD card, we had to load music files onto the Go 720's internal memory via our PC. However, a 720 user on the CNET.com.au forums has found a workaround -- load the MP3 files into an MP3 folder on the card to have them recognised by the GPS (see the thread here).

All Bluetooth hands-free calls can only heard through the 720's internal speaker. However, the ring-back tone isn't played through the 720, so you'll have no idea, until you get an engaged signal or your friend picks up, whether you successfully pressed the dial button just before the lights turned green. Even more annoyingly, though, on several occasions we lost all FM and internal speaker output when we attempted to answer or make a call using the 720's Bluetooth hands-free. In these instances neither party could hear each other even though the call had been connected. The only way to free the TomTom's voice from the cone of silence was to shut it down and start it up again.

Unfortunately a few good features available in overseas versions of the 720 haven't survived the trip across the Indian Ocean. Sensis have reportedly put the kibosh on the Map Share feature, which allows users to make corrections to the maps, as well download corrections that others have made. This would be useful as the Sensis maps are not without error and, with its one year update cycle, unable to keep up with temporary road blocks and restriction changes. Another missing feature is speech recognition for street names.

Performance
When surrounded by tall buildings in the CBD, the Go 720 fared worse than the previous batch of GPS navigators to pass through the CNET.com.au offices -- with location confusion happening earlier and signal drop out occurring on a more regular basis. The suggested routes will get you from A to B; sometimes they're remarkably good, but oftentimes they'll cause well versed local drivers to snigger at its ineptitude. Then again, as any student who's gone through a computing degree will tell you, path-finding in real-world environments is a difficult task.

If you connect the Go 720 frequently to your home PC -- and we're not sure how many people would actually do that -- the TomTom Home software will use its QuickGPS Fix feature to update the 720 with the latest locations of the GPS satellites, allowing for quicker satellite lock during start-up.

For AU$799, though, doing an OK job at navigating may have been acceptable a year or two ago. Nowadays, the entry-level units from TomTom, Navman and Mio kick off at AU$399 and do a similar, if not better, job than the Go 720. And for AU$499, you can get a wide-screen unit, possibly with Bluetooth or text-to-speech or both. Don't fall for the 720's gorgeous and tactile body, AU$799 is too much to pay for a GPS navigator with a weak FM transmitter, buggy Bluetooth and grammatically incorrect text-to-speech.

Topics: tomtom, gps, go 720, fm transmitter, text to speech, 720

Comments (27)

  • Kezza gave a review on 14/05/2009 10:30 Report abuse

    No service, they dont want to know you after you buy their product.Tomtom works for a short while giving you a false sence of security that this on will be better. Had three and it a different problem with each one. Today my screen is full of lines, tried everything. Another one for the garbage box.

    • Good: Short term gps, they will malfuction before 6 months.
    • Bad: If you buy for quality this is not your product
  • aj gave a review on 03/04/2009 04:15 Report abuse

    forget your password and you are f***** no gps. Lovely for about 800 bucks

  • markdc gave 9/10 on 21/03/2009 22:44 Report abuse

    Not sure what the person that tested the TT720 expected but in my experience having used a few diff GPS I will have to say that the 720 is nothing short of fantastic.
    I do not work for TT nor I have any financial interest in the company.
    My TT 720 connects to my Iphone quickly, does not fail, does not disconnect, the clarity of the sound is perfectly clear.
    It plays my MP3 music through my FM with outstanding sound quality that matches the sound of my own MP3 -If my recording was perfect it plays it perfect, and if wasnt any good it just reproduces it as bad as the original.
    The GPS part is also very very good, I have installed lots of POI that interest me, sounds that play as I approach school zones, cameras.
    In summary the only feature or luck of that does satisfy me is the fact that you have to manually connect the cable everytime you want for safety reasons make the unit non vivible - take it off the windscreed.
    It ought to have a cradle like my previous TT that you just simply seat the unit in it to get it connected.
    Other than that it is perfect.
    My other car is a Mercedes Benz with the factory fitted and veeery expensive GPS. The TT720 that I use in my Ford leaves the Merc GPS for dead.

  • Ron A gave 6/10 on 17/03/2009 21:25 Report abuse

    Gets me there although at times takes the long way around, Supposed ability to update when you connect to the internet does not work Section of new Freeway in Perth has been open for 6 months however when you use it Tom Tom still states "Proposed Freeway" ???
    Hate the American voice

    • Good: Got me through western europe and got me home
      easy to use
    • Bad: American voice - What the hell is a rotary??
      Add on are not user friendly
  • Adam gave 2/10 on 15/03/2009 18:58 Report abuse

    I have a Go 720 and found it to be good up until a year after I purchased it. Now i will turn it on and it takes ages to find it's Gps Position, then it will work ok for 5 minutes then it will freeze up and it will say Tom Tom in the middle of the screen for a minute, (no matter what you touch during this time even the off button it will stay on this screen unless reset is pressed) then shutdown turn off then turn back on take ages to come on then work ok for around 15 minutes then go back to the Tom Tom Screen and then stay frozen until reset or the batterie goes flat. I also have a problem when turning it on it wont even load and will come up with error screen with a cross and a hard drive on it. I have Reloaded, updated all the software and stuff on it and reset the factory settings several times, (does nothing to fix). Also another thing i was dispaointed with was that when I bought it it said free 2008 map offer but when i tried to download them they weren't on the website anywhere or nothing was mentioned on the software. I would not recommend this product to any body.

    • Good: OK when it did Work
    • Bad: Bugs Galore
      False map offer
      Now left with useless product that is dearer to repair than to buy another gps thats less expensive than this one.
  • Taipan gave 1/10 on 11/03/2009 17:15 Report abuse

    My 930 I I think it was. A bloody great piece of junk. Red light cameras that have been in place for over 20 years were missing. Speed limits on a lot of roads were wrong. The M2 in Sydney is mostly 100kph yet my tomtom showed 70kph. Country roads that were 70, 80 and 90 showed as 50. Finally got hold of tomtom and they told me it had the wrong maps on it. They said I would have the maps to download after 6PM yesterday the 10th March.

    Guess what? Nothing came through to download. Rang tomtom this morning and was given two BS stories as to why the maps hadn't come. Took it back to the retailer and after a long battle swapped it for a Navman.

    • Good: None
    • Bad: Everything
  • Leanne gave 1/10 on 22/02/2009 16:51 Report abuse

    My Tom Tom GO720 worked a few times has been a total failure ever since. It is very buggy and I have tried to fix it via online support but this has failed on several occasions. It jams at the opening screen, does not connect to my computer and has been a waste of money.

    • Good: Unit looks good.
    • Bad: total waste of money!!!!!!!!!! DON'T BUY ONE!!!! Jams at start up screen. Suction falls off windscreen. Online support totally confusing and unreliable. I will be looking for a refund and buy another brand.
  • VISailor gave 6/10 on 13/01/2009 07:46 Report abuse

    will not sync with bluetooth phone or pc

    • Good: will always get you home
    • Bad: interface is cumbersome
  • Scott Collins gave 1/10 on 27/11/2008 20:04 Report abuse

    I have GO700 and it has been plagued with problems from day one. Bluetooth has never worked properly with any make or model phone. The window mount doesn't stay on the windscreen and the retailer told me they have had heaps of returns becasue of this. Then I returned my unit for repair and not all of the parts were returned, it has now been 4 months and I am still waiting and only receive answers like they have a world-wide shortage of parts. No wonder I suppose when they are continually replacing faulty parts. Also, I have to reboot the unit at least once a week ????

    • Good: Not too many
    • Bad: Pricey
      Not reliable
      Poor repair service
  • Doug Leith gave 2/10 on 07/11/2008 12:35 Report abuse

    I have used many brands of Nav systems and decided to try the Go 720 because it has the mapshare ability.
    Not a bad idea, but the 720 is not a patch on the Garmins or Navmans that I have.
    Bad pronounciation of most names.
    Totally incorrect directions at times.
    Bad country mapping.
    I lost calls through the Bluetooth.
    It had a 'faulty' "Home' that I couldn't get rid of. Trouble is Home was nearly 2000 klm for where it really is.
    I didn't like the menu after using other makes.
    The screen is impossible to see in daylight no matter what colour you change it to.
    Many late turn warnings which could cause problems.
    Other makes tell you that the destination is to the left or right, but not the Tom Tom.

    • Good: Ability to correct some road mapping however it does not apply it directly to your Tom Tom as I expected.
    • Bad: Too many

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