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TomTom (for iPhone) Review

2.5
Fair

The Bottom Line

The TomTom app will get you where you're going most of the time, but its map errors and limited POI database could occasionally leave you lost.

MSRP $24.99
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Pros

  • Timely voice prompts.
  • Interesting Help Me feature for emergencies.

Cons

  • Traffic requires paid subscription.
  • Some map errors.
  • Limited POI database.

TomTom for iPhone ($24.99) brings the GPS manufacturer's expertise to your smartphone, but asking users to pay for an app means you better offer something extra. While the app blows the more expensive Magellan RoadMate ($34.99) out of the water (strait?), it suffers from some navigation quirks and lacks a pedestrian mode. For this and other reasons, it can't compete with free GPS apps like Google Maps, our Editors' Choice.

Interface and Points of Interest
When you launch the TomTom  app, you're greeted with a map of your current location. Tap the screen once, and you can access the menu, which includes Navigate To, Route Options, Stop Navigation, and Settings. An option called Advanced Planning lets you add stops along your route. Another option called Help Me shows your location coordinates, which you can use to either call for help or drive to help. The latter option shows nearby car repair and medical and emergency services.

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The navigation menu includes options for Home, Favorites, Address, Recent Destination, Places, People (pulled from your contacts if you enable it), Events (if you connect your calendar), Point of Interest, Copied Address, Point on Map, and Coordinates. You can edit this menu and hide items you don't think you'll use. To input an address, you have to start with the city, then the street, then the house or building number, as you do with Magellan RoadMate, which is tedious, especially if you're used to simply typing in the full address on Google Maps or Waze.

While driving, you can see the miles to your destination, your speed and the speed limit, the distance to your next turn, your remaining travel time, and your estimated arrival time. By default, if you go over the speed limit, your speed shows up in red; you can set the threshold from 15mph below the speed limit to 15mph over the speed limit, which is a handy feature.

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Tap on the map and choose Route Options from the menu and you can see the full list of turns, but the list doesn't update as you complete turns, as it does in Google Maps, which is a bit confusing. You also can't pinch and zoom the navigation map; you have to go into Options to interact with the full route map. Night mode comes on automatically based on your phone's clock, but you can also it toggle on and off through settings. Traffic costs extra: $1.99 per month or $14.99 per year. With traffic, it actually winds up being more expensive than Magellan's RoadMate app (which comes with traffic built in). 

If you want to find a restaurant, museum, or other point of interest near your location or on your route, you can search either TomTom Places or the Point of Interest database. It's not clear why there are two separate databases. The first few times I tried to search for a business in Places, I kept getting an error, though it worked fine a few days later. The main difference seems to be categories, which are available only in the POI database. Another difference is that under Places is an option to search Foursquare and to connect to Facebook. With each, you can search nearby, in a city, and near your destination.

TomTom (for iPhone)TomTom (for iPhone)

The POI database found the restaurant Harlem Public, which Magellan RoadMate could not find, though TomTom doesn't have Fairway Market Harlem in its database, which Magellan does. TomTom found most of the popular restaurants in my neighborhood as well as the New York Botanical Garden. It doesn't have the St. George Theatre in Staten Island (opened in 1929), even when searching near Staten Island.

Car Navigation
On my first route (from Poughkeepsie to Vermont), the app warned that a ferry was on the route, but I couldn't see where the ferry was or get any additional information about it. I chose to avoid it and take a bridge since I assumed the ferry had limited hours; I later saw a sign that said the ferry closed at 6 p.m., so it looks like I made the right choice.

I like that you can click on a turn to repeat a prompt. In general, on the trip to Vermont, the directions were accurate, though when compared with Google, TomTom's route was 30 minutes longer. As with many navigation apps, there are random prompts to stay straight, especially on curvy roads, which is a bit odd. But I love that it clearly shows you which lane you have to use so you don't miss a turn. The app recalculated quickly and accurately whenever I missed a turn or diverted from the route.

I also gave it the Fairway test, navigating from the north. As I mentioned, the Fairway in Harlem is not in TomTom's database, so I entered its street address instead. TomTom made the same mistake that Apple Maps did, sending me down Riverside Drive, and announcing I had arrived when I was really on an elevated highway just above the store. Like Apple Maps, it didn't recalculate when I passed it. I input the address again when on Broadway a few blocks south, and it brought me right back to Riverside even though I could have taken 125th Street straight across. On that same trip, the app kept making random beep sounds, but I didn't see any alerts.

A couple of odd notes worth mentioning: TomTom lost connection along the route in northeastern New York and stopped getting turn-by-turn directions, so I had to switch to Google Maps, which did not lose its connection. And when I plugged the iPhone into a car charger, TomTom's voice prompts stopped for some reason, which was irksome.

A So-So Navigation App
TomTom offers mostly accurate directions and timely voice prompts and route recalculations. However, its database of POIs is somewhat limited, and my tests revealed some map errors. In addition, traffic requires a paid, monthly subscription, making it even more expensive than Magellan RoadMate. Your best bet is to forgo paid GPS apps entirely and stick with our Editors' Choice, Google Maps.

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About Molly McLaughlin

Molly K. McLaughlin is a New York-based writer and editor with more than a decade of experience covering technology. She has tested and reviewed all sorts of software, mobile apps, and gadgets. Before launching her freelance business, Molly was an editor at PC Magazine, covering consumer electronics, followed by a stint at ConsumerSearch.com, a review website. She also contributes to Lifewire.com and other online publications.

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TomTom (for iPhone)