Sum and Substance:
Thumbs Up:
Plenty of advanced features, fuel prices can be downloaded, big 4.3 inch WXGA touch screen which makes it easy to enter address and read the display. Safety of the device is enhanced through text-to-speech functionality.
Thumbs Down:
Big size, increased thickness, portability is hence limited.
The Whiz Kid Speaks:
TomTom XL 340 S is 4.7 inches wide, 0.9 inch deep, 3.2 inches high, and weighs 7 oz. Voice features include announcement of street name and voice navigation instructions. The device has antenna and speaker built in. Other features include Emergency Help, Plug & go, Built-in speaker, Downloadable POIs, Automatic routing, Preinstalled POIs, Speed limit warning, TomTom QuickGPSfix, IQ Routes technology, Advanced Lane Guidance, Text-to-Speech (TTS), 2D / 3D map perspective, Traffic Message Channel (TMC) ready, TomTom Map Share technology.
The GPS has maps of Canada, Puerto Rico and Mexico included. TomTom HOME software is also included. Trip computer features include Short/fast route, Quickest route, Street address search. The display is 4.3 inches big and has a resolution of 480×272 pixels. Supported languages are Czech, Danish, Dutch, French, Polish, German, Slovak, English, Catalan, Finnish, Italian, Flemish, Latvian, Swedish, Spanish, Turkish, Hungarian, Estonian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Lithuanian. The rated battery life is three hours.
Other included GPS accessories are – USB cable,Car power adapter, EasyPort mount. The rated battery life is three hours.
Razzle Dazzle:
The display is 4.3 inches big and has a touch screen interface. On the back, there is a loud two inch speaker. The power button on the top is the unit’s only physical button. On the bottom, you have the miniUSB port which can be used to plug in a 12 volt car charger. There is no external memory card slot on the TomTom XL 340 S unlike the Garmin Nuvi so all you get is the onboard 2 GB memory. Most of this is occupied by the voice and map data.
Inside Dope:
TomTom XL 340 S is a sequel to XL series from Tom Tom which have been quite successful in the market. There are features here like advanced lane guide, IQ Routes, TomTom Map Share and daily fuel prices. They work together to update the route mapping algorithm and map data. We expect this device to get better in the near future. The S in the model number relates to text to speech feature and this reads the point of interest streets and names.
TomTom gives you EasyPort mount and this makes it easy to integrate the cradle of the device in to the back. If you want to attach the TomTom XL 340 S to the windshield, all you have to do is flip out the suction cup, place the gadget on the windshield and then twist the ring lock. The suction cup’s twist lock feature does not feel as secure as that of Garmin’s system and the XL has increased size so we were more concerned about mounting the device. However, with a bit of practice, we got hang of it pretty well and we could easily remove the device from the windshield and we were also impressed by its mounting angles flexibility.
TomTom XL 340 S comes with integrated cradle which adds to the bulk of the already big size. The thickness too is doubled. We wouldn’t recommend this device if you like to carry your GPS out of the car with you. But if you are going to put it away in a bag or something, it’s just fine. On the bright side, the EasyPort mount doesn’t leave cradle behind and hence thieves won’t get too ambitious when they peep in your car.
TomTom XL 340 S comes with a USB connection cable, 12 volt car charger, and adhesive disk to attach the device to the vehicle dashboard if it is not possible to mount it on the windshield. The device has Advanced Lane Guidance and this is a new feature for this device. It gives you a detailed may of the complex freeway interchanges along with the lane information. There are arrows on the illustration which show the drivers which lane they will have to take for keeping on the selected route.
TomTom XL 340 S has text to speech feature which reads aloud the POI and street names. If you don’t need aloud reading of these names then you can opt for the non ‘S’ version of the device and save on some money. There are 14 Spanish, French and English voices. You can download more voices from the Web and this includes celebrity voices. We downloaded John Cleese and Mr. T and they were quite amusing.
The Map Share service of TomTom lets you correct the POIs, road speeds, directions, street names, etc. These changes have to be approved after you have uploaded them after which you can share it along with other TomTom devices. But if you don’t trust this, just leave this service and you will receive only official updates.
TomTom XL 340 S has IQ Routes feature which uses anonymous historical time and speed data from other Tom Tom devices for calculating the quickest route from two given points. For instance, if the gadget thinks that a certain road is full of traffic, it will try to avoid that way. If it cannot find an alternate route, the GPS will at least try to give an accurate prediction about the time required to reach your destination.
For getting access to the map updates and other such downloadable content, you have to use the TomTom Home software which is there on the internal memory. You just have to connect the TomTom XL 340 S to your PC through USB and then the application automatically prompts you for a quick installation. You don’t need any discs.
Nitty Gritty:
TomTom XL 340 S has a lot of features but the price is still low and this impressed us.