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Warning: Long review ahead.

I bought the GO 920 as a replacement/upgrade to the very good (if not as widely known) Nextar C3, which I’ve had just under a year. I’ve been very pleased with the C3, but wanted a unit with maps of Canada (for upcoming travel there) and a bigger screen than 3.5″. Dell Home had the GO 920 on a mad, crazy sale for $260, which is nearly $200 off its regular price, and free shipping as well, so I couldn’t resist. The day after I ordered it, I couldn’t even find it on their site again (and still can’t), so I felt pretty lucky to snag one at this price.

The unit itself is sleek and serious looking, almost elegant, with a medium gray finish, an anti-glare 4.3″ touchscreen, and “chrome” metallic plastic accents. There are no external buttons save for the flush-mounted power button on the top of the unit. It’s a nice-looking PND. (I’m told that stands for “Personal Navigation Device.”) The suction holder couldn’t be any simpler, but it does an excellent job of holding the receiver fast and firm. There is no annoying wobble or jiggle like I’ve seen in some other units’ holders. Mounting and unmounting the unit from the holder takes a few tries to get used to it, but that’s it. After a half-dozen or so times fumbling around and trying to guide the receiving slot onto the attachment, it becomes easy to do.

The “at-home” interface is via a very well-designed docking cradle that accepts the GO 920 smoothly and easily, and connects to your computer via USB 2.0. This also charges the unit, so no external AC adapter is required. The dock also allows you to access the TomTom “Home” software to update, customize, add/delete content, and generally have a field day with your PND. A 12v DC adapter terminating in a mini-USB plug is provided for in-vehicle charging.

The GO 920 starts up fast, and locks in the satellites’ signals with amazing speed. A widget you can load onto the unit from TomTom’s “Home” PND management software informs the unit of where the satellites will be in the sky for the next 7 days, so it “looks” in the right places and, accordingly, finds them much more quickly. The receiver is outstanding: Even in my house, it’s common to have 7 to 8 satellites locked in.

Navigation is straightforward, with a number of mostly pleasant voices from which to choose. There are many more voices available (free) on the included software CD. I uploaded a nice British woman’s voice on mine. Note that for text-to-speech functionality (reading out street names, etc.), you must employ a “computer” voice rather than a pre-recorded actual voice. As expected, some of the computerized voices are less pleasant than actual voices, and they do gleefully mangle some of the more unconventional street names. The unit comes with over 40 European countries’ maps preloaded, along with the U.S., Canada, and Guam. (Really… Guam? Really??) I can’t imagine the butchery of some of the European street names. Additional maps (such as Hong Kong, Singapore, and Australia) are available for purchase at the “TomTom Store.”

Pairing the GO 920 with my mobile phone was nearly effortless. I have the ubiquitous Motorola RAZR V3, which gives most (but not all) available functions with the PND. The one feature it doesn’t offer is the sending of SMS, although you CAN receive them onscreen (and even have them read aloud, and it generally does a fine job with this, though you can expect some humorous computerized pronounciations occasionally). Nokia and Sony phones seem to support the full SMS functionality more so than Motorola phones (see www.tomtom.com/phones). Everything else was supported beautifully — my phonebook, recent calls, etc. This Bluetooth functionality also allows you to get traffic reports and weather reports displayed on your PND screen (if you have a data plan with your mobile service provider). My understanding is that this is only supported by GSM phones; in the U.S., that’s AT&T/Cingular and T-Mobile.

The GO 920 is incredibly customizable, from map colors and styles to voices (you can even record your own, I think) and shortcut keys. Menus are generally laid out pretty logically, although some of them can get a little deep (three to four levels).

Spoken word navigating worked brilliantly, and I don’t have a particularly loud or clear voice. I put the shortcut on my favorites key, then just touch it, and I’m prompted for the city, then the street, then the number. If I say “Denver” for the city, and the PND isn’t 100% sure, it will display a short list, with the most likely name at the top. You simply confirm by saying the number (e.g., 1. Denver, you would speak “one” or “okay” if your choice is atop the list). I was very impressed with the accuracy of the voice recognition without any “training” or such like I expected. You just start talking to it right out of the box and it works.

The screen is bright and crisp. The status bar can be displayed horizontally (along the bottom) or vertically (on the right side), which is a nice touch. Unlike other touchscreen devices I’ve used, I didn’t have to calibrate this one (indeed, I don’t even know if that is an option). It’s very accurate and precise all on its own. Independent color schemes can be chosen for day and night maps, and more are available on the TomTom HOME software. The GO 920 has an integrated light sensor and will dim the display backlighting in steps as the ambient light grows darker, and when a certain level of darkness is reached, the map switches automatically to night view. The brightness levels can be set independently to your own tastes.

On the main screen, you have the moving 3D map with variable zoom (can be set to 2D as well), time of day (can be synchronized to GPS satellite timebases), speed, satellite signal strength bars, and navigation information (distance remaining, time remaining, ETA, etc.). You may also place a compass (one of three formats) in the corner, along with a Quick Menu icon (for accessing frequently used commands). At the bottom of the map, the street name you are currently on is displayed. In navigation mode, a bar below that will show the next street on which you will turn.

Navigation has been very reliable so far, with a couple of minor glitches, but nothing major at all. When deviating from a proposed route, recalculation is pretty fast, usually within 3-5 seconds. Multiple stop itineraries are available, and you can program a trip from your computer at home with the GO 920 docked. It’s a nice touch. You can even specify if you need to arrive at a certain time at your destination.

The built-in FM transmitter (full range of FM frequencies) is wonderful. I love this feature. I’ve used it primarily for playing music over my car stereo (yes, the GO 920 has an integrated MP3 player), but you can also play the turn-by-turn navigation instructions over your car stereo as well. I have found, with MP3s, the quality to be better than that of two different standalone FM transmitters I have used. It’s not flawless, but it’s pretty darn good. Highly usable feature, and I’m glad to have it. Find the best/cleanest FM station in your city for receiving transmissions at www.belkin.com/mybestFM/.

In addition to the MP3 player, the GO 920 can also have photos uploaded to it, and play those photos in a slideshow, or on demand. You can also choose your own pic as the startup “splash” screen. This seems a bit of an odd feature to me for a navigation device, but it’s certainly not a drawback. The GO 920 also supports iPod control through an optional cable. This purportedly allows you to control all the functions of your iPod from your PND touchscreen. As if we don’t have enough to play with in the car while we’re driving, right?

In addition to the myriad normal features, the GO 920 even includes first aid guides and auto care guides. One standout feature I really liked was under the “HELP ME” button, where an icon called “Where am I?” can be touched and a real-world prose-style location appears (”On S. Main St., 40 yards south of Maple Blvd.”), along with a 2D map and precise latitude and longitude. Invaluable information if you’re in an unfamiliar area and need to give your location to emergency responders, AAA, towing service, etc.

The lithium polymer battery life is very good, but not jaw-dropping. You can expect 5 to 5.5 hours per charge. A mini-USB port is the sole connector for data transfer and battery charging. Auxiliary jacks are also present for audio output and connection to TomTom’s optional traffic receiver antenna (standard on the 920T). A standard SD card slot rounds out the jacks, ports, and slots complement on the bottom of the unit. Not sure if the GO 920 supports SDHC.

The included remote control is not only a thing of complete beauty, it’s far more useful than you might think. The remote itself is perfectly sized and shaped and is utterly minimalist. Apart from the word “TomTom,” there is not a word nor a marking on the face of the remote. You get a standard “iPod-style” control ring with four-way navigation and a center “enter” button, three very subtle buttons under that, and a volume control bar under that. It’s powered by two AAA batteries (included). The remote is a Bluetooth appliance, so it’s not dependent upon line-of-sight, which is pretty cool. It has an included “holster” so you can mount it in a convenient location and as long as it’s within 10 meters of the PND, you’re good to go. This is not your typical crappy remote that’s thrown in as a novelty or an afterthought. It’s functional, helpful, and it works. Indeed, this remote is/was a $60 option on other models in TomTom’s lineup.

Some things I don’t like… first off, there’s no provision for showing your altitude! Even the clunky handheld monochrome Garmin GPS I have from the late 90s displayed altitude. Most of the time, I don’t care, but I live in Colorado, and sometimes it’s just cool to see your altitude. Very disappointing that this isn’t even on the GPS/satellite page. A cursory search on TomTom’s forums suggests that a large number of customers are distraught about this, so perhaps a flash update is in the future.

One of the coolest features of the GO 920 also leads to one of my biggest complaints. Taking hands-free phone calls through the PND when linked via Bluetooth to your cell phone is awesome. However, the calling party can only be heard over the internal speaker, and it’s not nearly loud enough. I hate that you can’t use the included FM transmitter to hear the caller over the radio. On the plus side, every person I’ve talked to says they can hear me quite clearly; only one person even indicated it sounded like I was on a speakerphone. I’m not sure why phone calls can’t be output differently from the internal speaker, since both the GPS driving directions and music can be independently output through one of four choices (internal speaker, line-out, FM transmitter, or Bluetooth hi-fi device). My guess is that the full-duplex nature of the phone calls somehow precludes their transmission over FM, but I’m not at all sure.

Another disappointment is the user’s manual. Not the printed quick-start guide, mind you: That one is almost completely useless. But even the “full” guide (included in .pdf form on the CD) is woefully inadequate. For not only such a complex gadget, but for TomTom’s flagship PND, I really expected more thorough, thoughtful documentation. Crashing disappointment here, and it’s only because the GO 920 is reasonably intuitive to operate that this doesn’t count heavily against it.

Of course, one of the much-ballyhooed features is one that’s completely seamless and unseen. Utilizing an internal gyroscope and accelerometer, the GO 920’s “Enhanced Positioning Technology” continues to track your position when satellite signals are lost (overpasses, tunnels, a maze of downtown skyscrapers are all enemies of GPS). This is some pretty cool engineering, for sure, but I haven’t been through any tunnels yet to see it in action.

The other feature is TomTom’s “community” user-updatable maps, points of interest, and user-creatable and editable content (color schemes, icons, voices, etc.). It’s all a bit intoxicating and you can spend more time playing with your tethered computer and PND than planned, but it’s practical and also quite fun. Note that the flash drive inside the GO 920 is a reasonably sized 4 GB, but the extensive maps and preloaded features consume over 3.5 GB, so there’s precious little space remaining for additional maps, voices, music, etc., to be added without employing the SD card slot. Fortunately, SD cards are preposterously cheap these days, so this is really a non-issue. Features can be added or deleted via the software while the PND is docked, and it’s extremely straightforward.

All in all, it’s hard to not enthusiastically recommend the TomTom GO 920. It does have a couple of significant shortcomings in my view, but they’re not dealbreakers. My final word would be this: If you drive a lot for business or are regularly in unfamiliar towns and have a genuine (or perceived) need for a GPS unit, it’s very much worth ponying up $350-400 for this PND. If you’re more like me, someone who does have occasional need for it, but have more of a need to satisfy your craving for cool gadgets, $400 might be too big a bite. If you can get get lucky like I did and find it for under $275 or so, it’s one seriously cool gadget to have.

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