Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Review: TomTom iOS Hands Free Car Kit

Echo-cancellationImproved speakerExtendable micNo additional GPS circuitrySpeaker not powerful enough for musicBluetooth reconnection issuePrice

The new TomTom Hands Free Car Kit replaces the original Car Kit - and that's ultimately a bit of a shame; it's bulkier and sticks more out more.

On its own, it's £20 cheaper than its predecessor, or you can opt for the Navigation Pack that includes the Western Europe version of TomTom's excellent sat-nav app; the £50 price tag of the app is just added to the £80 of the cradle, however.

We'll have to spend some time with the new TomTom-powered sat nav in iOS 6 to see whether it's a reasonable alternative to the full TomTom app, but regardless, there's no financial benefit to buying the bundle.

There's no dedicated GPS circuitry in the Hands Free Car Kit - TomTom says that the new generation of iPhones don't need this boosting. This might be a little premature though, the same iPhone 4S used in both models seemed to be less certain about positioning and slow to update when in this new model.

It has a boosted speaker, echo-cancellation and an extendable mic. But while yes, calls are more intelligible for both parties, the louder, slightly richer speaker is still too weedy to be used to listen to audiobooks or radio at motorway speeds.

Worse, the Bluetooth seemed to need to be manually reconnected if you leave your car and then come back. Ultimately, we'd consider buying a cheaper, simpler cradle.

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