Home > Consumer Reviews > TomTom GO 930T Satellite Navigation System

Usually I dont leave reviews on products I get unless it is exceptional - and this is!!

This product, although expensive, is well worth its money. Got one last week and read some reviews about the traffic announcments being usless - that is utter rubbish to the point that I doubt the ariel was even pluged into the reviews unit! This unit has the version 3 traffic ariel and with it laying on the car dashboard it picked up a strong signal in minutes both out in the countryside and in Central London! The traffic updates are excellent - when travelling along it keeps in constant contact with the RDS channel and then prompts you to click on yes or no or even say it to re-route. That option is given after it has picked up traffic and told you how long the delay is - one traffic delay was 16 minutes due to Thams Water digging up Lower Thams Streeet near the Tower OF London (a delay I knew that would exist) and the second one was a delay of 4 minutes on Euston Road late at night - saw the traffic as the unit took me over the road and away from it :)

I have had Tomtom Navigator 5 and 6 for many years on a Pocket PC and this item is so much better - the Traffic is well worth its extra money and the advanced GPS tracking even when you loose a signal is very good. The signal pickup of satalites is excellent and you are connected in seconds and reading the directions out to you is much better and easier to use. The menu structure is the same but the voice recognition helps navigating easier.

The remote control helps make this work well - at times you might want to change your end location, update a POI etc and if you have someone else in the car with you they can do it for you to leave you free to do the hard bit of driving the car.

The only downside I can see about this is the traffic arial is the same socket as the IPOD connector and it could do with including the case with the unit to protect it. Apart form that this unit is well recomended.
Also the bluetooth pairing was a bit difficult with this and my phone (a Samsung Omnia SGH-i900) - I eventually got it paired and the hands free worked well but I cant get text messages reading out of the unit.

James T

Was a little uncertain on purchase of 930T after reading the reviews however my faith in Tom Tom and positive comments of other models meant I would give it a go.

Fantastic SatNav which quickly located location and is easy to program. Within a week of receiving I took to the USA with me and we managed a week and 500 miles without getting lost.

The traffic system updates well and seems accurate.

Only reason for not giving this gadget a 5 is that the map was not most up to date and with the traffic information system there are lots of wires as you have one for that and the power lead (battery life could be better for the long trips as seems to be no warning before it cuts out)


On the positive about the maps you can download free most up to date version however this takes some time.

If you want a Satnav that does everything then this is it.

I was initially concerned by some other reviews I had read of this device. However I've had a TomTom unit in the past and have been very happy with it, so plumped for this one - and I'm very happy with this one too!

It worked as expected out of the box. TomTom sensibly provide a Mac OS version of their software, which again works really well; "TomTom Home" seems very simple and straightforward to use. There were updates to download, indeed every time I connect the unit to a computer (either iMac or Macbook Pro) there are mapshare updates available. Updated mapping was available too, which was a massive download (nearly 2Gb for Europe and the same for US). The downloads and updates installed perfectly on the unit without the suggested need for an additional memory card. Sadly the latest mapping doesn't include the new city centre roads in Bristol, nor did it include the road on a newly built estate some friends live on in Basingstoke (though seeing as their local council's refuse collection doesn't seem to know about their road either that's not a surprise!) Postcodes all seem to work fine (except those not on the map!)

There is no mains charger supplied as the unit charges either in-car or when connected to a computer via USB - these leads are supplied. The longest trip I've done so far is about 2hr30 and afterwards the battery was showing about 35-40% charge left; I didn't select any of the battery-saving options (the unit can switch the display off when not navigating) and Bluetooth was on throughout.

The unit itself is incredibly quick to get a position from the satellites and seems to hold onto it with amazing tenacity. The 930t is very smart looking, it's pleasantly slim and light (compared to it's predecessor) and the screen mount is excellent. RDS-TMC has always found a signal within 15 minutes, though I've yet to go anywhere where it has needed to re-route around a problem so I can't commenton it's efficiency. It's a shame this option needs an extra wire (supplied) and that it's not built-in.

Bluetooth stuff all works well, and provides a handsfree phone option with both a Sony Ericsson k800i and Apple iPhone (not at the same time!). However it doesn't seem to be able to use the iPhone (neither original or the new iPhone 3G) as a data source (eg for TomTom Traffic) whereas the k800i is fine. The unit is able to read phonebook contacts from both phones. There is also a remote control supplied which works fine though I don't see much use for it unless rear-seat passengers were to use it, which would no doubt prove annoying if they kept re-routing or changing the display!

All in all then a really powerful satnav system - as you would expect being the top of the range system from the leading manufacturer! It's a bit pricey, but I guess you get what you pay for. As I had some Amazon vouchers to use I'm delighted! It's not perfect - the mapping isn't as up-to-date as I hoped and it's not (yet) 100% with iPhone (which I consider the most powerful mobile phone on the market) but it's nothing that can't be fixed in a future download.

Marks out of 100? I'd put it in the low 90's!

Bought this model from Amazon in May 08, it started to lock up pretty soon after this. Would put it on charge and it would not start up, have only used it for a couple of journeys. Contacted Tomtom and they arranged for it to be sent back for repair. It is great when it works, which has not been to often. Just got it back from Tomtom and the report said it had replaced the main board. When I switched it on and reset my settings , I had an error message appear ? Anyway set it all up and then I noticed it had become a 920 T on splash screens and on a welcome screen, contacted tomtom and spoke to a woman, who had a suspicous American accent, probably a call centre in Bombay. She assured me this was ok. Have sent email to Tomtom to find out why my model has changed.
Like I say when it works, its pretty good, but for the last 5 or 6 months that has not been to often, for nearly £400 It has been a great let down.

GPS is very quick to aquire and re-route. Unfortunately the RDS-TMC receiver does not work very well, if at all. It takes up to 30 mins to lock onto a radio station. Having been told by Tom Tom that feature had been upgraded from previous versions (a known fault) I feel that I have been misled. If you want the RDS info do not buy this unit.

Update following trip to France... found the RDS worked well overseas. The 930 in general was very good but one annoying feature regarding the routing preferences.. the unit does not appear to allow you to avoid minor roads. This meant I had to be cautious and ignore it when it suggested short cuts that were unsuitable for a normal car (eg insead of doing a hair pin bend it suggested taking a very high gradient 'path').