TomTom announces widescreen ONE XL GPS

The FCC may have ruined the surprise, but TomTom's not letting that bit of leakage stop 'em from talking up its new ONE XL GPS unit, which the company officially announced today. As we knew before, the big selling point here is the relatively spacious 4.3-inch widescreen display, which gets backed up by 32MB of RAM, Bluetooth 2.0, and pre-loaded maps of the United States and Canada. along with the usual plethora of POIs. You'll still have to wait a little while longer to take one of these along on your next trip though, with the device only set to hit stores in June for $400.

[Marc @ Apr 16th 2007 1:08PM]

The TomTom One is a great product (I have one), but I don't really see the logic of having a wide screen. Since the road ahead is shown at the centre of the screen,the extra space at the edges is only useful for showing you where you're NOT going, except when you're turning corners and then you shouldn't be looking at the screen anyway.

[Jonathan Keim @ Apr 16th 2007 1:11PM]

Well, you would be able to see more information. What they should do is have a 1/2 inch side bar that holds statistics in addition to the information bar on the bottom

[yao @ Apr 16th 2007 2:06PM]

does this have text to speech? it doesn't indicate it on the tom tom website's features page.

[Langdon Alger @ May 1st 2008 12:56PM]

In keeping with Tom-Tom's tradition in nomenclature, I would expect it to NOT have text-to-speech since it's named ONE-XL and not ONE-XLS. That's just my two cents. I have to say though, if it's anything like the past models, it's going to be a whipping. My cousin bought an XLS and she has spent more hours with their customer service than I have ever cared to witness. You can very easily turn it into a brick (the core application can be uninstalled but the replacement app cannot go onto a "blank" device) and there are a lot of variables that are not immediately apparent to the user (for example, some voices can do things that other voices can't ... what a joke!). Check out Delphi while you're at it ... they have some really reliable units (NAV300, used by a coworker) that can better live up to their marketing claims (bluetooth, hands-free, text-to-speech, etc). You can snag one for $300 new or less than $200 used.

I would like to echo others' indifference with the new ONE-XL's widescreen format. Who cares about what happens miles away, off to the side? If some of the icons were on the sides, I'd say, yeah, it makes some sense. The screen is split top-bottom anyway. Hopefully they're give users an option to split it left-center-right to make better use of the proverbial real estate.

[chris fredette @ Apr 16th 2007 2:21PM]

Right on Marc
My 3 year old Garmin ique is still the smallest GPS out there and work just fine. My only complaint would be no SERF III chip. It sync's contacts, address's, has a office suite, has a 3.8" 320X480 screen, and fits in my pocket. Also, .5" to .8" thick with a "leather" cover that easily fits in your pocket.
The whole GPS industry is retarded(sorry retarded people) with these bigger screens. smaller and portable is much better.

[Kev50027 @ Apr 16th 2007 3:33PM]

Smallest GPS out there? No, sorry. I have an iQue 3600 as well (the first version) and I never really liked it much, it's clumbsy, the maps are pretty cruddy, there's no 3D mode, and I far prefer my Tom Tom Go 300.

[chris fredette @ Apr 16th 2007 4:00PM]

I have a ique 3600.
My point is mostly about the size. not the interface. Why are these new devices so much larger and they do less.
The 3600 is far from perfect but it works day in and day out. I've biked, hiked, driven, and flow with it in the US and Europe and I've never been lost.
If I had my way I would add the serf3 chip, 3D mapping, a HD-SDIO slot, and a interface designed for thumbs. The 3000 ique added the 3D maping but lost the SD slot. Bad news for the 5GB in maps I would like to carry.
The Tom Tom 300 is like 3X thicker than the 3600 and that is unacceptable to me unless you only put in your car.

[Stu Bee @ Apr 16th 2007 2:31PM]

I have to agree with Marc.
This widescreen tag is a thing that rings a bell in consumers minds when they see the feature listed...but really, not much advantage. Just take a large screen, take off the top inch...tada widescreen.
I have a Windows Mobile phone running iGo (a bit better than tomtom imho)..it allows sideways display....same kind of result.

[Mickey Jones @ Apr 16th 2007 3:04PM]

I like the widescreen, especially when in the city. If you're on the highway, you don't really need to see the peripheral streets but if you're making multiple turns in a short distance, the additional coverage is handy.

I've used GPS software on my Dell Axim PDA which has a 640x480 display but in portrait. It always seems much easier to navigate when in landscape mode.

It looks like it will still fit nicely in a pocket. Hopefully these will plunge in price as fast as flash!

[Kev50027 @ Apr 16th 2007 3:36PM]

Unfortunately, that Axim screen is pretty low quality, I had the same model and was very dissapointed with how sluggish it was. I then stepped up to the HP iPaq hx 4700, and the screen (4 in. 640x480 Sony LCD) is so much better that they don't even compare.

Anyway, I don't think anything with a 4.3 inch screen will fit nicely in pockets.. but I am looking at GPS models and this one looks pretty nice, but I don't know how long I can wait for it.

[ventivent @ Apr 16th 2007 3:56PM]

I love my TomTom Go 300 which I've had for two years now. My only complaints are poor visibility in sunlight, and slow to acquire GPS signal. I just bought the updated US and Canada maps this morning, for $49.95 from the TomTom website. If you've got an older model TomTom, make sure to get the updated maps while they're heavily discounted or in some cases, free. This model looks awesome; I only wish TomTom had better support in the US for traffic, weather, etc.

[Gristle @ Apr 16th 2007 4:16PM]

Chris, you will find that these products from Tomtom are first and formost designed for in car use. That thickness of the 300 accounts for the large speaker and the decent speech volume when you are driving.

[jonhoffm @ Apr 16th 2007 4:15PM]

I own a TomTom 910. The device itself is fine, but what really gets to me is that they listed RDS/TMC traffic as a feature of the device at launch and listed the antenna as "coming soon". Well, the antenna was eventually released in Europe only with numerous problems. They apparently have not struck a licensing agreement to be able to offer the service in the U.S. and there is no word from TomTom as to if and when the service will be available in the U.S.

Now they offer an (intentionally?) vague reference in their press release to this device offering traffic info:

"...The TomTom ONE XL is also traffic ready.

...added visibility and the possibility of receiving traffic information on the device."

Yeah, it is traffic ready - but will it ever by traffic capable? Yeah, there is the possibility of receiving traffic info on the device - that is if we ever decide to develop an accessory to do so.

[VideoVeteran @ Apr 16th 2007 4:18PM]

Widescreen? Why would you want to see more width in a 3D display? So you can see the streets you not using? This puzzles me. I think you want a TALLER screen with a GPS, to see further ahead, not a wider screen. Can you rotate the screen of this TomTom to use it in the tall-mode?

I'm another one who uses the iQue 3600 - far from perfect, but the tall high-res screen works well. There's still nothing on the market that can replace that versatile little gadget.

[chris fredette @ Apr 16th 2007 4:39PM]

The ique comes with a car dock/larger speaker system that is perfect and looks to be larger than the speakers in the Nuvi's or Tom Tom's.
Problem solved. It also makes it easy to move from car to car.

[Lizzy @ Apr 17th 2007 9:29AM]

I think the widescreen is a great feature and I'll be really anxious to try the new ONE out. I have used the current version of the ONE and I had no complaints - from the picture, it seems that the wide screen will be really helpful for seeing the road and various turns ahead. I'm looking forward to trying it out.

[BobbyBoston @ Apr 19th 2007 4:58PM]

Wow $400 is a great price for the ONE XL. It has Bluetooth, Text-To-Speech, a bigger screen, and traffic updates. Sounds like it will be a winner...I only wish I didn't have to wait until June :(

[SteveJCA @ Feb 19th 2008 7:09PM]

I agree!!! Are there any wide screens that rotate. I have a garmen iquem5 and it doesnt have text to speech, but until I find a text to speech unit with a TALLER screen view instead of wider, I have to stick with it. Does anyone know of a device like this???