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TomTom XXL 550T 5-Inch Portable GPS Navigator (Lifetime Traffic Edition) | 
| Brand: TomTom
Category: CE
List Price: $229.00
Buy New: $144.99
as of 9/5/2010 03:58 CDT details
You Save: $84.01 (37%)
New (15) Used (1) from $138.99
Rating:  11 reviews
Sales Rank: 12477
Media: Electronics
Edition: 550 Lifetime Traffic
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Batteries Included: Yes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 0.9 x 5.2 x 3.5
MPN: 1EP0.019.03
Model: 1EP0.019.03
UPC: 636926039895
EAN: 0636926039895
ASIN: B003FSTAHI
Shipping: Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Features:
| • | Preloaded with maps of the US, Canada, and Mexico, complete with spoken turn-by-turn instructions and 3D graphics | | • | Lifetime Traffic Updates included--outsmart traffic and avoid delays for life with real-time information via your TomTom | | • | More than 7 million points of interest in over 60 destination categories--gas stations, restaurants, hotels, ATMs and more | | • | IQ Routes Technology calculates the fastest route possible based on time of day, saving you time, fuel and money | | • | Advanced Lane Guidance indicates exactly which lane to use, so you can go confidently |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
XL 550T 5" Widescreen Auto GPS Navigation UnitOutsmart traffic with the TomTom XXL 550·T. With complete 5-inch widescreen navigation plus Lifetime Traffic Updates* you'll always outsmart traffic and avoid delays with real-time information via your TomTom. TomTom automatically updates you with the latest traffic information, recalculates your trip time, and suggests alternate routes. Since TomTom has the industry's most accurate and dependable maps you'll have access to one million more miles of roads than you would using other GPS brands. Navigate to any location in the US, Canada or Mexico--or directly to one of 7 million preloaded points of interest. Finding your way has never been easier, using TomTom's new EasyMenu and spoken turn-by-turn instructions including street names. Maps of US, Canada & Mexico
TomTom is known the world over for the accuracy and extensive coverage of its maps. TomTom maps include 1 million more miles of road than other GPS brands and have been rated highest in terms of quality and reliability. Lifetime Traffic Updates*
Always outsmart traffic and avoid delays. View live, real-time traffic information on your TomTom. You receive non-transferable traffic data until the product's useful life expires or TomTom no longer receives traffic updates from its suppliers, whichever is shorter. Details and terms at www.tomtom.com/legal. EasyMenu
Easily access all of TomTom's powerful features through its simple and intuitive two-button menu. Just a tap gets you started, and easy-to-follow commands and recognizable icons lead you through a quick start-up process to get you on the road in no time. 7 million Points of Interest
Comes preloaded with more than 7 million points of interest in over 60 categories. Easily find millions of gas stations, restaurants, hotels and more on your route. Or, seek out a new tourist attraction, nightlife spot or shopping center and navigate directly to it. Cu
Amazon.com Product Description
Outsmart traffic with the TomTom XXL 550·T. With complete 5-inch widescreen navigation plus Lifetime Traffic Updates* you'll always outsmart traffic and avoid delays with real-time information via your TomTom. TomTom automatically updates you with the latest traffic information, recalculates your trip time, and suggests alternate routes. Since TomTom has the industry's most accurate and dependable maps you'll have access to one million more miles of roads than you would using other GPS brands. Navigate to any location in the US, Canada or Mexico--or directly to one of 7 million preloaded points of interest. Finding your way has never been easier, using TomTom's new EasyMenu and spoken turn-by-turn instructions including street names.  Complete 5-inch widescreen navigation plus Lifetime Traffic Updates. |  Expand your horizons with a 5-inch extra-wide touchscreen. |  The award-winning Fold & Go EasyPort mount folds into the back of the device for maximum portability. | Only TomTom has IQ Routes*. This exclusive technology evaluates routes based on actual traffic speeds, rather than posted speed limits, and will recommend the fastest route for the time of day. You'll always be directed to the quickest, most efficient route. Advanced Lane Guidance** provides extra clarity when navigating difficult junctions by showing you which lane to take, so you won't miss your turn or have to make dangerous lane crossings. Photorealistic images and a pulsing green arrow indicate exactly which lane to use. Eighteen percent of the nation's road information changes every year. With TomTom's exclusive Map Share On-Demand Updates, you have the ability to update your own map instantly or download verified updates from other drivers. Update your TomTom daily or whenever you wish. The "Help Me!" menu lets you travel with peace of mind. It provides added safety features so you can easily access local emergency providers such as police, fire stations, and hospitals. The "Where Am I?" feature pinpoints your exact location so you can accurately communicate it to emergency resources. The award-winning Fold & Go EasyPort mount folds neatly onto the back of the device, so both are small enough to fit into your pocket or bag. Maps of US, Canada & Mexico
TomTom is known the world over for the accuracy and extensive coverage of its maps. TomTom maps include 1 million more miles of road than other GPS brands and have been rated highest in terms of quality and reliability. Lifetime Traffic Updates*
Always outsmart traffic and avoid delays. View live, real-time traffic information on your TomTom. You receive non-transferable traffic data until the product's useful life expires or TomTom no longer receives traffic updates from its suppliers, whichever is shorter. Details and terms at www.tomtom.com/legal. EasyMenu
Easily access all of TomTom's powerful features through its simple and intuitive two-button menu. Just a tap gets you started, and easy-to-follow commands and recognizable icons lead you through a quick start-up process to get you on the road in no time. 7 million Points of Interest
Comes preloaded with more than 7 million points of interest in over 60 categories. Easily find millions of gas stations, restaurants, hotels and more on your route. Or, seek out a new tourist attraction, nightlife spot or shopping center and navigate directly to it. Customize by adding your own favorites. IQ Routes*
Despite posted speed limits, traffic traveling along a road at 8 a.m. moves at a different pace than it does at 2 p.m. Actual traffic speed is affected by rush hour, traffic light changes, pedestrian traffic, day of the week, and more. Only TomTom offers exclusive technology that evaluates routes based on actual traffic speeds, rather than posted speed limits, and will recommend the fastest route for the time of the day. Advanced Lane Guidance**
TomTom provides extra clarity when navigating difficult junctions by showing you which lane to take, so you won't miss your turn or have to make dangerous lane crossings. Photorealistic images and a pulsing green arrow indicate exactly which lane to use. Announces Street Names
Keep your eyes on the road while your TomTom announces turn-by-turn directions, including street and place names. 5-Inch Touchscreen
Expand your horizons with a 5-inch extra-wide touchscreen. A wide screen allows an expanded driving view and easier menu operation. Fold & Go EasyPort Mount
The award-winning Fold & Go EasyPort mount provides maximum portability. It folds neatly onto the back of the device, so both are small enough to fit into your pocket or bag and can be taken with you wherever you travel. *Feature available in the US and Canada only
**Feature available in the US only All TomToms Feature  Plug & Go--Works right out of the box.
 30 Day Latest Map Guarantee--Up to date, off the shelf.
 TomTom Map Share--Modify your own map and benefit from others' verified changes with TomTom Map Share.
 Help Me! Emergency Menu--Easily access local emergency providers such as police, fire stations and hospitals.
 TomTom HOME--Always up to date.
 Fuel Price Service (optional)--Know more, pay less.
What's in the Box
TomTom XXL 550T device, EasyPort mount, USB cable, adhesive disk, car charger with integrated traffic, and user guide
About TomTom Founded in Amsterdam in 1991, TomTom has established itself as a global leader in navigation by being an innovative company with a strong brand, clear customer focus, and high quality products and services. TomTom is the world's leading navigation solutions provider with navigation products sold in 30 countries and in over 20 languages. To further our commitment to car navigation, TomTom acquired Tele Atlas maps in 2008 so we can continually provide the most up-to-date maps and intelligent routing. We have our own mapping company!
Did you know that every year roads change by up to 40% in high-growth areas? Tele Atlas manages this by using the world's most comprehensive systems to identify and incorporate these changes into our maps with unprecedented levels of speed and accuracy. All TomTom devices benefit from the Tele Atlas advantage--more coverage, more points of interest, and more freshness and accuracy. Why TomTom?
At TomTom, we believe that personal navigation should be as easy and safe as possible. We develop smart technology that gives you straightforward solutions, innovations to make life easy.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 11
 Good basic GPS unit August 31, 2010
David K. Watson (Ojai, CA USA)
The TomTom XXL 550T 5-Inch Portable GPS Navigator is a good basic GPS navigation unit which I could recommend to anyone looking for a basic GPS with a larger screen.
That having been said, I had some issues with this unit and TomTom that prevent me from giving it five stars.
-- No Manual. The TomTom XXL 550T 5-Inch Portable GPS Navigator shipped in the late Spring of 2010. When I received the unit toward the end of July there was still no manual available on-line for this model. There are numerous optional settings and even more options if you have the Traffic feature. The "User Guide" which comes with the unit does little more than tell you how to plug it in and plan a simple route. TomTom finally did put up a manual sometime in August, although it appears to just be a link to the XL 350 manual (see below - it just says XL on the cover page instead of XXL, as does the cover page for the 340 XL, which is a completely different guide describing a completely different user interface).
-- Software installation. The TomTom Home software is supposed to install automatically when you plug the unit into your computer. This may or may not happen in Windows, but definitely does not happen in Mac OSX. The software installer is on the unit (which appears as an external drive confusingly named "INTERNAL" on the desktop). I ran the installer, which successfully installed a way-out-of-date version of TomTom Home. When I used the installed software to take me to the TomTom web site, it took me to the UK site instead of the USA site. This led to some confusion since the UK version of the GPS uses a different interface. The manual I downloaded was useless. Eventually the software updated itself and I found my way to the USA site. I would recommend that any user, Mac or Windows, download the most current version of TomTom Home and install it before plugging the unit into your computer for the first time.
-- TomTom Support. Hit or miss. The first time I called I had an easy question that I could have quickly answered myself if I had had the manual. The support person instead had me do a factory reset on the unit, wiping out everything I had installed up to that point. After going through all that, he told me the simple answer. Here's my version: street names can be read out loud only by computerized voices. You have only two English language choices. All of the other voices, paid or free, are a waste of time, storage space, or money.
The second time I called (the same day), it was to ask about the missing manual. The support person was as perplexed as I was and took the time to do some research and come up with a useful answer: since the XXL 550 and the XL 350 share the same TomTom "Two-Button" interface (when you turn it on you get a screen with two large buttons in the middle and five smaller ones at the bottom), the manual for the XL 350 would tell me everything I needed to know about the XXL 550. She also sent me an email with a link to the document.
-- Annoying precision. On a couple of occasions, I have been at my destination and parked directly in front of the store while the XXL 550 was still trying to get me to go out on the street and drive another fifty yards or so past the parking lot entrance, leaving me stuck in the middle of the block with my destination hidden behind a parking structure. I suspect it's a slave to street numbers. Shopping malls and strip malls are just not set up that way. If I'm in a strip mall parking lot, tell me I've arrived so I can start looking for my destination business instead of guiding me five or six doors past it in the name of street number precision.
-- Lack of common sense. On one trip, instead of having me just use a left-turn pocket (which appears on the GPS map) to turn into a parking lot, it wanted me to drive more than a mile out of my way around an industrial park so I could come back from the other direction and make a right turn. It made a similar suggestion on another trip. On a third trip, the long-way-around route was the best choice (even in that case, it kept trying to get me back out on the street to drive a few more yards even while I was already in the parking lot next to the destination). This is one more reason to use Google Maps and Street View before leaving home for a destination in another city with which you have no prior experience.
-- Phantom Left Turn Ahead. On a highway I use frequently, there is a transition from a four-lane freeway to a two-lane highway. You really don't have to do anything except adjust your speed. However, whenever I am traveling from the four-lane part to the two-lane part, it starts warning me about a "left turn ahead." It never tells me to turn left, it just warns me two or three times and then forgets all about it once I make the transition.
There are a a couple of other considerations that fall more under the heading of personal preferences or situations:
-- Measurement. The TomTom XXL 550T 5-Inch Portable GPS Navigator always measures shorter distances in yards instead of fractions of a mile. I'm used to miles and that is how most highway signs are marked in California.
-- Mounting. In my car, there is no way I can legally mount the XXL 550 in the 5 inch by 5 inch lower left windshield space permitted under California law. I tried the Arkon windshield mount which has an articulating arm. The Arkon suction cup fits into the legal area, but the XXL 550 is too big to fit between the windshield frame and the instrument pod. There is no place on my dashboard either big enough or flat enough to attach the TomTom adhesive disc; I have the same problem with bean-bag type holders.
-- Traffic. My XXL 550 came with Lifetime Traffic. Unfortunately for me, the Total Traffic coverage area starts about 20 miles from my home. If you're thinking of adding Lifetime Traffic, I'd suggest you go to the TomTom site and verify (1) the traffic FM signal is available in your area, and (2) highways you typically use are included in the area where traffic flow is measured.
-- Persistent trips. Trips are not automatically cancelled once you have arrived at your destination. This is just annoying; I'm there, erase it already.
There is, however, much to like about the TomTom XXL 550T 5-Inch Portable GPS Navigator:
-- Large, bright screen
-- Easy to program trips. My basis of comparison is a seven-year-old factory-installed system that cost (at the time) more than ten times the price of the XXL 550. I find entering destination information easier and more straight-forward than on the factory system.
-- Street names read out loud. This is probably the major innovation over my factory system. Even though factory system has a much larger screen, upcoming street names are often washed out by the sun or too small to read with my driving glasses.
-- TomTom Home. The software works fairly well on Mac OSX. One feature, Operate My Device, is not available, but the rest of it seems to work and it is quick to do updates and easy to add features, voices, icons, etc.
-- "Safety" camera warnings. I live near a city where there are a lot of red-light-runner cameras and I know where most of them are. The warnings on the XXL 550 are fairly accurate. An out-of-towner could avoid a nasty surprise in the mail by paying attention to the beeps and driving safely.
-- Map Corrections. One of the trips I planned while testing the XXL 550 was to a new out-of-town restaurant. The XXL 550 did not recognize the restaurant name as a Point of Interest or the address as a valid street number. It did get me nearby and once I was there I was able to send corrections on both the restaurant and the new building in which it is located (the land had been vacant previously, so the street number did not exist until the building was completed).
On the whole, the plusses outweigh the minuses by quite a bit, so that even with the issues and considerations outlined above, it still does what it is supposed to do and is reasonably priced in a competitive market.
Much better than I expected from TomTom August 20, 2010
Pen Name (Fairbanks, Alaska)
This is the 4th GPS I've owned in the last two years, and my first one by TomTom. Currently I'm using the Garmin nüvi 260 3.5-Inch Portable GPS Navigator and the Motorola DROID X Android Phone (Verizon Wireless) which uses Google Navigation.
I reviewed the TomTom by running it side by side with my other two GPS units. As ridiculous as this must have looked to people driving behind me, it gave me a fairly good basis by which to evaluate it on. I did notice some small differences between the TomTom and Google Navigation, however the routes it gave me were almost always in line with those from my Garmin. One of the claims made by the TomTom in the description is "you'll have access to one million more miles of roads than you would using other GPS brands." I don't know how accurate that is, but I have never really had a problem finding directions with my other units except for a couple very small roads. And I can't imagine that the TomTom has more accurate maps than Google. The road my house is on was built two years ago, however none of these devices list it (I am using the most current maps for all the GPS units). Even still, I found the TomTom's directions to be very accurate, although I did find some of the routes a little bit questionable in terms of speed (advising me to turn a couple blocks earlier than I thought I should, etc), but nothing that would really make a significant difference in navigation.
The additional features on the TomTom are fairly nice. I liked their Points of Interest (POI) better than the Nuvi, but not as much as Google. They were fairly up to date, most likely from TomTom's more frequent map updates (Garmin updates their maps 3-4 times a year). The device has a great feature that monitors your speed with the current speed limit, and will let you know via audible alert if you exceed it (don't worry, this can be turned off). The form factor on the TomTom is nice as well. I thought the 5" screen would be too big, but it is the perfect size. The unit is lightweight and slim so it doesn't take up a lot of bulk on my dashboard.
Overall, I didn't like the TomTom enough to replace my Droid X with Google Navigation, but if I was looking for a standalone GPS in the future, I would give a lot more consideration to the TomTom over Garmin.
 Works Great August 19, 2010
D. Hong (Philla, Pa)
I took this GPS on a road trip from Philadelphia to Iowa. For the most part, it helped me avoid traffic except for one part of I 80. I think the accident just happened so the GPS didn't pick it up yet. All in all, I never got lost. It found faster routes and asked if I wanted to use the new routes. The screen is large at 5 inches. The volume is great and very loud. I just wish it would speak the name of the streets. It notifies you of upcoming turns, but does not say the street names.
Since it is using live traffic updates, it takes some time to start a route plan if the route is very long. Not a big deal. You can also purchase celebrity voices to replace the standard voice, such as Homer Simpson or Snoop Dogg.
I highly recommend this GPS, and with the lifetime traffic, you can't go wrong.
steep learning curve August 19, 2010
Jody (Northwest Ohio)
This GPS (we'll call him Tom)is much larger and fancier than the unit I'd been using. Tom has multiple good points that outweigh his flaws. He's growing on me. A lot.
Flaws first:
When plugging in a street address, it's town first, then street, then street number. Tom knows where everything is in the US, Canada and Mexico, and he remembers addresses, but the initial search is not intuitive.
It's way too easy to switch screens. A couple of times, I've glanced over to see GPS coordinates on the screen. This is probably because I don't use the cradle that comes with it, and I've been handling the unit way too much. A tap on the screen corrects it, though.
Good points:
This GPS is great for those who plan ahead. If I let Tom know the night before where I'm planning to go, he's On The Case. Trying to punch in a destination at 60 mph, not so much.
Tom makes suggestions about turns and then says, "TURN HERE". Once you're used to it, it's great. He gives plenty of warning.
One source of confusion/amusement is that he refers to roundabouts as 'rotaries' as in "Drive over the rotary." Easy to figure out, but odd.
Once I get out of the learning curve. he's going to be a valuable addition to the dashboard.
Great GPS - love the large screen August 8, 2010
CJ - MO (Missouri, USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I am pleased with the overall performance of the TomTom XXL 550T. It's not perfect but the good points outweigh the bad, and I would recommend this product. Below are a summary of the good and not so good points:
Great features:
* Large screen; easy to read while driving
* Can switch between 2D and 3D display with the touch of the screen
* Accurate maps which include many small side streets - not just the main roads
* Cross-streets are labeled with their names on the 3D map which lets you see what's coming up next
* Convenient plug-in with long cord to your car's 12 volt power supply
* Easy to program your route
* Able to download map updates from the Internet
* Display includes your speed and the speed limit (Unit will even alert you if you exceed the speed limit by 5 mph)
* Fun feature: Can select the type of car to display to represent your car on the maps
Features that could be improved:
* Hard to position unit with the suction cup mount without the unit snapping out of the mount assembly (Which is the main reason I rated this 3 stars for ease of use.)
* USB cable to connect to the computer was hard to connect (had a strange angle)
* Not able to program "auto-dim" of the screen (You have to manually switch between daytime and nightime mode)
* Map graphics aren't realistic - look like a cartoon drawing
* Had an issue with prior routes being held and highlighted in red on the map display
I've had good luck on trips with this TomTom and in spite of some minor flaws, I think it's a reliable, easy to program GPS.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 11
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