TomTom GO Supreme 5” GPS Navigation Device

First of all, yes, I’m one of those people who doesn’t like to use my phone to navigate. I always have music or podcasts on in the car, and don’t want my navigator talking out of the same speaker as Rslash. It’s harder to hear. So I like having a dedicated GPS with its own little dedicated speaker.

I had a Garmin for years. Like, I got this thing when I got my first car in 2013 amount of years. The garmin lived a long, happy life until this winter and during all that time, I only ever had one complaint about it and that’s that it didn’t have handsfree voice control. So I’d either have to risk an accident or pull over if I had to enter or change a route.

Now it’s 2021, and a lot of these units come with voice control on board. But most of them are really expensive (tl;dr, BUY ONE OF THOSE) Tom Tom wasn’t.

There’s a reason for that. Look, GPS peripheral units are quirky. They always have been. They probably always will be. So I’m pretty tolerant of their random little quirks (Garmin had them too) but the “quirks” I’ve experienced from this idiotic bot and her clueless engineering team make this product nowhere NEAR production-ready. It’s almost laughable. It would be if i weren’t plowing a 2000 lb missile around at the same time.

Tom Tom’s “Quirks” include (but are not limited to) such gems as:

1. It doesn’t understand anything I’m saying to it. The best luck i’ve had with this thing is by programming addresses in, giving them VERY SIMPLE names, and telling her to take me to the simple names. This works about 50% of the time.

2. It knows the commands it knows. And NO alternate version of those commands shall ever be uttered. So for example, if she’s listening for “End Voice Instructions” and you say “Stop Navigation” she won’t have a flipping clue what you’re talking about.

3. Speaking of… THERE IS NO EASY WAY TO STOP THE THING FROM NAVIGATING. I had to tap around forever just to turn nav off. And you really have to dig around. You can turn voice instructions off (ie: she finally shuts up) but she KEEPS NAVIGATING. Not just until you reach your destination, but after you get there, on your next drive. etc. Until you can figure out how to turn it off, she’s constantly telling you you’re going the wrong way. Forever. Yes, I realize putting a “stop navigating” button on the actual navigation screen (Or, you know, available even one screen back, or even a “stop navigation” voice command) isn’t an intuitive feature …………… but just for fun, why not try my crazy idea?

4. It might be a setting, but out of the box, it doesn’t tell me what time it is. No, there’s no clock on the screen. What the actual bleep is that? I’ve done a lot of long haul driving during the pandemic. I want to know when i cross time zones without having to look at multiple screens. I even asked her what time it was a couple of times and she just said “Sorry, I don’t understand” – I’m not sure why I expected her to know… So at this point, we have a navigation screen with no stop button, no time display, and a navigator who is about as useful as the dumb kid who eats paste.

5. THIS IS WHERE IT GETS ACTUALLY DANGEROUS. She does not respect route preferences or avoidances. AT ALL. I can’t drive on the highway after dark. I can’t see in the dark enough to merge quickly. I also tend to avoid the highway for shorter trips because I see double when i look over my left shoulder, making merging a question of mirrors and not as safe. The only option i have is to avoid freeways. I set that to on when i need it on. I don’t select *use fastest route and this idiotic thing has, during those trips, taken me on highways IN THE INTEREST OF FINDING THE FASTEST ROUTE. Sometimes she appears to remember she needs to avoid highways, then she completely forgets and puts me on a highway. At the end of the trip, I see the avoidance is still selected. But again. Kid who eats paste.

The touch screen sensitivity and accuracy is acceptable. That’s how it earned half of the star i gave it.

In summary, have you ever been in a car where, riding shotgun and doing the navigating, is a cranky senior citizen who has no idea how to get anything anywhere and can’t hear anything you’re screaming in their ear? Welcome to the Tom Tom Go experience.

Listen, guys. If you want voice control, invest in voice control.

I was fascinated and amazed by this product’s features #1 the big size of the screen plus brightness! Second, the wireless Bluetooth connection it truly makes your cell phone a hand’s free device. It will read incoming texts, tell you who it is from and ask you for a reply. It also allows you to answer phone calls. It’s like have On-star but not having to pay for it. It also recalls the frequently visited places, and ask you, if that is where you are headed. It lets you know when there is an update and how long it will take to download. It also finds alternative routes that save time and shorten the distance. I strongly recommend this product. I have always been a proud owner of TomTom they took the cake with this product! Easy to setup and maintain. So, what are you waiting for? The price is also inexpensive and it is worth the value.

This unit is much better than the old tom tom i have with many more options (i dont use) allowing smartphone use for traffic etc….. I have not learned all the features due to the manual you get is barely more than how to turn it on and set it up. It doesn’t cover any of the questions I had nor did the online manual. So you just have to play with the thing if you have the time. I still haven’t gotten it to take directions without punching them in. Voice rec. just isn’t like the old ones that you could just talk to when telling address to go to…etc. But at least this one hears better…lol
It just takes a little time since NO good directions in manual for what if…..example its muted how do i unmute it??? Just the little things. I still give it a 5 because it is much better than the predecessor units.

Tuve en Europa TOMTOM y me funciono FANTÁSTICAMENTE, pero en LATAM muy deficiente.
1. Usa cable de colección USB micro2!! a las puertas de 2025!!
2. los mapas LATAM son MUY MALOS. Tiene uno que saber la dirección exacta, sino, no encuentra el lugar!
ejemplo: Notaria 8 de Panamá, NO LA ENCUENTRA, pero tampoco por el nombre de la calle!!! entonces creo que NO SIRVE, aparte de gastar el dinero.

This is an ideal gps if u drive in different countries. I used a Garmin for many years until it broke down. Other than trying to get used to it the first time, I have gotten used to it and it has been accurate and easy to use.

Navigating works great