Tom Tom Camper Sat.Nav.

Anyone who reads my Twitter feed will know that my Tom Tom Camper and Caravan sat.nav took its bat and ball home just before Christmas causing me to have to shell out on a new model,the Tom Tom Camper.

I thought I would do a short review of the new model in comparison with the old so anyone buying it will have a rough idea what to expect.

Before I start I need to say that these are my own views and other people may think differently.

I am not going to go into every feature in every nook and cranny of the thing,but there is an on-line manual available on the Tom Tom site which if you see the length of it you will understand the above comment and is worth some study although if you fiddle about with the sat.nav. long enough you will get an idea of what you want it to do.

Right,first off is what do you get in the box,firstly the unit itself which has a six inch screen covered in a black safety film,a magnetic mount which can attach to the windscreen or side window ( more of this in a minute ) an adhesive disc for fitting to the dashboard,a USB cable and a brief instruction book .

 It also possesses free “lifetime” Europe Camper maps,traffic and speed cameras.

When it says “Lifetime” though,don’t be thinking you will be downloading maps etc.in your retirement home for the elderly,it means for as long as Tom Tom continue to support it which is presumably at their discretion.

As mentioned earlier the unit has a six inch screen which is quite a size when placed against the windscreen so sensible positioning is vital.I use the beanbag mount that I used with the previous model which I find a better option than attaching it to the screen but everyone to their own.

I shall now move on to the differences to the previous unit most of which I preferred.

Firstly on the old unit there was a light incorporated into the on/off switch which gave the state of battery charge,secondly you could run a preview of a chosen route which you can’t on the new model,thirdly the layout seemed more intuitive on the old model and you could place things on the home screen for easy access,for example whether you were in car mode or car with caravan mode which I can’t find on the new model even if it exists.

These are all missing from the Camper and I used to find them useful.

Moving onto the new unit,the on/off/sleep button is at the rear and when turned on gives a bright screen on which the brightness is adjustable.

To the bottom left is a Menu icon above which is an icon to enlarge or decrease the image size and change from 2D to 3D imaging,tapping the screen enlarges the image.

Touching the Menu icon brings up,not surprisingly, the Menu which incorporates My Places,locations that you save to the unit,My Routes for saved routes and so on through Record Route,Voice Control,Petrol Station,Parking and Settings.

Touching Settings brings up the “works” of the unit which incorporates My Vehicle where you can enter the dimensions of your caravan and caravan/car combination to avoid it taking you down some single track lane (it does work as going to storage the other day I accidentally had it set to “car with caravan” and it routed me down the M62 rather than the narrowish road I usually take ).

Destinations of your choice can be inputted and when these,or ad hoc destinations,are selected a side bar,adjustable in width,appears on the screen giving various information such as ETA,time,distance,location of petrol statons,speed cameras etc.

As opposed to the old unit,this one can download updates via wi-fi rather than using a computer but I have to say it is not brilliant at connecting to wi-fi,it does connect but can be a bit picky about it.

Now any of you who have used Tom Tom units before may have used Tom Tom My Drive Connect to download updates to the unit,on this one you can’t,hence the wi-fi.

BUT,you can still download updates via your computer if you have My Drive Connect running in the background,just plug the unit into the computer and it does the rest.

Of course no-one tells you this until you have driven yourself into a psychiatric unit trying to get Connect to work and have to go fishing about to find out why it won’t.

It tells you in the voluminous instruction manual but who reads that as a first off,it’s like War and Peace ( abridged version ).

 It can also connect and sync.to your smartphone with the Tom Tom My Drive app ( note NOT My Drive Connect ) and the same with your computer.

You can find routes on the app which will then be sent to your sat.nav.,works as well.

There is a Bluetooth function that allows hands free calling by connecting to your phone and I believe,though I haven’t tried it yet,that it reads out incoming texts.

The unit can be controlled by voice but in the short tries that I have had it doesn’t seem brilliant but perhaps I need to give it a bit of practice so it remains a project to work on.

That is about it really,I was a little disappointed that some of the features of the previous model seem to have been removed but it does seem a competent unit which should do the job I bought it for admirably.

It is of course a little pricey over a standard sat.nav. but it does contain far more map information so I suppose it has to be paid for.

The present full retail price is £379.99 but at the time of writing Halfords are offering it at 25% off which is where I got mine.

If anyone has any questions about it then get in touch,it is important that it is what you hoped for before shelling out what is a sizable sum.

As I come to use it more I will update the blog with things that I discover or find useful.

Ian