TomTom VIA 1605TM 6-Inch GPS Navigator with Lifetime Traffic & Maps

I have a well used and much loved TomTom Via 1405 that began to show signs of a slow death. The search was on for a similar device with perhaps a larger screen. I never got past the rest of the Via line choosing the TomTom Via 1605TM with a 6" screen. I charged it, plugged into TomTom's website, down-loaded the latest items and headed out to the car. If you have or have had a Via of any model you will certainly be familiar with this unit. Aside from a much bigger and markedly brighter screen with sharper graphics it is identical in many respects to the other units in the Via line. Let me explain: I ran my dying 1405 alongside of the 1605TM. I'm not kidding when I say it sounded like an old stereo record with an echo in the recording! Exact same voice saying the exact same thing at very nearly the exact same moment! Now if all you want is a bigger screen with great directions and lots of flexibility then grab one of these things! It is as flawless as can be used in this way. The alternate routing is fast and easy to use on the fly. It is customizable from top to bottom and has everything you would want to get you from here to there. A really nice unit. Now for the negative: As soon as you switch to the supplied antenna cord used for traffic data, the overall performance drops. A LOT! The comments from others about sluggish refresh rates, slow screen navigating, etc... all true when using this feature. It's especially awful from initial startup until it finds and locks the fm signal and finishes loading the local traffic data. Punch the screen and 7 or 8 seconds go by before it responds. Once the process is done, (in the metro Philadelphia area it takes about 4 minutes), the screen response is better and the refresh rate improves but it's still slow. Unplug the antenna cord, wait two or three minutes for everything to clear and it's back to full and impressive speed. Bottom line: If you don't need to use the live traffic information, this is a fast, LARGE screened, exceptionally good GPS every bit the top of the Via line and it's not too expensive to boot. Am I a bit disappointed over the Live Traffic issue? Well, yeah... a little. Would it keep me from keeping this big screened beauty? Oh heck no! 4 Stars with the live traffic engaged, 5 stars without it. UPDATE: 05/13/2013 Downloaded the latest updates from TomTom about 10 days ago. The Live Traffic slow run has been entirely fixed! Boot up and operation are at full speed with the Live Traffic running. About the Live Traffic: It works as advertised and when combined with the option to automatically re-route for a faster route, it is also seamless. Very nice technology! Changed the rating to 5 Stars.

I've had my Garmin, Magellan, and now tried TomTom. A few years back TomTom maps left a lot to be desired. That has changed. I plot a course and it takes me on the most direct and logical route. The one I would usually take in my car. In my tractor trailer at work it may plot a side street to connect to the upcoming main road if the side street is a straight 45 degree connector to that main road but instantly corrects as I pass the side street. It doesn't suggest side street "shortcuts" if they are not almost straight shots. These are good shortcuts in a car but not useful in my trailer truck. Big screen and the most easily readable fonts of any GPS. The screen is clear and bright even in direct sunlight. Not as bright as the Garmin 1490 but almost and I prefer the map graphics and general layout. Less buggy too and consistently better directions. Traffic warning is pretty good, but not perfect. No GPS traffic is. No bluetooth but I wanted the most reliable directions and get them with my TomTom 1605TM. I have to add that I experience no more lag than any other GPS unless you try to start a new procedure before a previous one completes, as would happen on any computing device. The touch screen is sensitive and responds quickly and I should note I still have my Screen Protector on. Maybe that's why I have no washout in direct sunlight. That would be funny if true. Entering a route is simple. To change state tap the state in green circle at upper right corner then proceed with state, city, street and street number. Simple. The route is generated instantly then tap select and then tap done. Good to go.

Wow, I'm impressed; I've owned seven GPS units over the years starting with the old Street Pilot series and ended with the Nuvi 5000 which ended life when the dumb stand-alone power connector attachment broke and Garmin told me they didn't have a replacement part on a three year old machine. I also own a Magellan Maestro which is a piece of garbage. It's designed to get you to an address in Chicago from Chicago through Alaska. I've also owned two versions of the PC based Co Pilot. The 1605 is the machine I've been waiting for, but didn't know it. I'm getting old and the 6 inch screen is a life saver. It's so easy to read. The quick start manual is junk and I would like to see a REAL manual (paper) that comes with the machine, but that won't happen with today's push to cheapen products as much as possible. I won't go over all the features that have already been covered by many prior reviewers and mention one or two that I love. The Via 1605 shows you well in advance the cross streets that are coming up. You might think "so what", but you'd be wrong. There are many times that someone has given you verbal directions on the fly without an address and all you have is" turn at this street a mile or two down the road etc. It's night time and no there are no street lights, or you're in a city that has street signs the size of a postage stamps, it's the sign is missing, hidden, simply would miss it, or the name doesn't match the one given since street names often change from one suburb to the next or might be marked with a highway number. The 1605 will show you EACH street name BEFORE you approach. It won't show you just one name but ALL the names of this street including the Highway numbers. If there are two highway (local, versus county, versus state) numbers assigned it will give you All of them. This has saved me many time especially on rural routes or at night. Another wonderful feature is that it tells you well in ADVANCE the name of the turn points or exits and continues to do so right up until the time of the turn unlike the Garmin which announces the turn two seconds prior (a slight exaggeration, but not by much). It also has tons of information about what's happening at the bottom and top of the screen with speed, time to destination, time of destination and the wonderful feature of telling you when speed or red light cameras are coming up in plenty of time to slow down. All this WITHOUT interfering with the map. The fact that the speed box turns red when you're speeding is also a nice feature. It doesn't have Bluetooth and frankly, I could care less. My car has a build in blue tooth that is far superior to anything built into a GPS since it use the whole car audio system which works regardless of road noise. I bought the unit on Amazon for $199.00. I consider this a deal. The turn lane graphic is nice and allows me the time to get into the lane I need to be in BEFORE the turn or exit. I also love the feature that ALWAYS tells you where the next turn is even if 20 miles away with a name and a graphic showing you which way you will be turning. In short, I love this TOM TOM. No, I haven't tried updating the map and I'm in no hurry based on all the problems everyone seems to have with updates regardless of brand. At some point I will, but for now since this is a 2012 product how old can the map be. I have a feeling that it will work well based on what I see with the other feature of this unit. If you're a Garmin user it will take some getting used to since the interface is slightly different, but there are loads of options and features to try and play with.

Big screen and all that... Plugged this baby in to download the difficult to find software and guess what...device not recognized. The web site does not list the 1605 in the pull down menu. Tomtom.. You suck! <Update July 5th 2013.> (read this while humming the theme song from The Beverly Hillbillies, helps me!) So the community manager suggested a couple of things to make it connect. DOES NOT WORK. Some dude named Frank offered some help, thank you Frank but it's still a no go. Glad you have it sorted out and working though. Tried calling the number provided, on hold for 34 minutes. Maybe you were busy updating maps or having a watergun fight or you went out for pizza..or maybe it's nappy time. You should think about the difficulties customers have simply trying to contact you. Also realize that when you inform callers that it is being recorded for "training purposes" that message tells me, you want the people that you are "training" to be aloof and all around un-helpful like the rest of you. You should have picked up, I'm pleasant and respectful when I'm asking for help. Really! Sent an e-mail, it requires you to list the device you have, guess what can't find the 1605 in the pull down menu..Hmmm this seems like dejavu all over again! Went to 1 star on the rating because you people are too difficult to contact. To anyone reading this: the device is nice, it's big but there are problems with getting questions answered. THINK TWICE BEFORE YOU BUY A tomtom! I will be posting the progress here, good or bad. Hopefully good.. I would really like to let everyone know how you resolved this problem and made the world all full of butterflies and daffodils, rainbows and lollipops. So how about getting off your...(well you know), and getting this resolved there tomtom'ers!!! Can ya help a brother out? Update<July 8th 2013> Well someone from tomtom sent me a message with a link to an update page for the trusty "Ol" 1605. As Frank had mentioned it took quite some time for the update process. Seems to be all set at this point. None of the questions I asked in my email to tomtom were addressed though. I will try to make them easier next time..I promise! Wouldn't it be easier just to have the update info for ALL of the gps units on the website..(easy to find. I'm not much on treasure hunts.) Anyway it's working and has been updated so I would maybe reccomend this unit....but tomtom has some very sketchy customer support so you might give that some thought before buying any tomtom..This will be my last! Update<July 17th 2013> As those of you that have been following this on-going diatribe should know I bought this to replace an older tomtom that was no longer supported with updates. After all the problems getting the trusty "Ol" 1605 to connect and updated I find that I was once again let down by this device and support from tomtom. The fact that it wanted me to go around in circles was funny at first. Since this was my first visit to Cali I tried to use this to go from Monterey, Ca. to Carmel Valley Ranch. Short drive actually..(really nice place!) FAIL! With the latest updates installed the trusty "Ol" 1605 wanted me to take a left at the next corner onto Ocean ave. Another left at the next corner. Another left at the next corner. Another left at the next corner..... Actually needed to go right onto Ocean ave. then straight, then left on Delores. This particular device is truly useless. (I can only hope it is just the unit I have and not all..) Couple that with the problems with updates and the wacky customer service I have had enough. Will now look into purchasing a Garmin. Would be nice if it's trouble free, easy to update, connect when I connect, guide me when I ask for guidance and just work as it is supposed to. If it doesn't well am I any worse off? Seriously, sometimes there are problems. Happens with anything you purchase. I get that..but to have so many problems? I'm going to back over this with my truck. Put it out of my misery. I know, deep, deep, deeeeep down that I will feel pretty good about it. Then I think I'll kick back with a cocktail and take a look at those Garmins..Hey! Have an awesome day! Update February 2014, wanted to load the latest maps for a trip this weekend....the software that was such a pain in the A$$ to find in the first place no longer supports this device. Absolute pos! DO NOT BUY THIS IT IS USELESS. Have purchased a different brand. TomTom is the worst, hands down the absolute worst that could ever be. Those that have had little or no problems.. I'm happy for you but me experience tells me TomTom is not for me. Just backed over it with my truck.. I feel so much better.. TomTom suck it!

I have owned a few and this is my new favorite. When my old GPS maps kept getting out of date it was costly to get new maps, not anymore with the lifetime maps, can update as often as I like. Another feature that I thought was awesome is the lifetime traffic that came with this one, I didn't understand how it worked but basically the plug is the traffic receiver antennae and the gps gets signals that tell you how fast traffic is moving, when the route is too slow the gps will automatically suggest a new route, tell you how much time you will be saving by choosing the alternate route, and with one touch your on your way, brilliant! The lane guidance is also sweet, just make that the primary view under settings rather than the split screen which can be confusing. This GPS is big and easy to read in any kind of lighting and the attachment suction is strong and works great. I am totally happy with this purchase.

My first GPS quite a few years ago was a 4.3 inch Navman, that I enjoyed very much and it operated like I do. I believe it was made in New Zealand. I could not get subsequent map updates for it and then could no longer find a U.S based retailer. I did not like the operation of my fiances Garmin, in comparison, but ordered a Garmin as the reviews everywhere, including Consumer Reports, placed Garmins significantly above TomTom, and both a large margin above Magellan. I did not like my Garmin as it picked routes that were not efficient, according to my local knowledge and it just never did feel right to me. 18 months ago I decided to try a TomTom, but a large percentage of reviews pointed to many problems with the new, higher end units I was interested in. So I waited hoping new models would fix the previous issues. Last week I purchased a TomTom 1605TM and immediately used it on a 5 day trip. What a relief to have this over my older midrange and upper end Garmins. I discovered 2 caveats almost immediately: 1) the auto power on feature did not work reliably when starting the car's engine and 2) the unit did not say "recalculating" when I made an errant turn. So several times I made wrong turns and had no immediate clue I had done so as the unit simply just routed me in whatever direction I was going to my end point. I called TomTom support concerning the unreliable auto power-on issue when external power is supplied and they ran me through the same items I had already performed, like resetting back to factory defaults, etc. The TomTom support person then decided it was probably a bug in the new software and said he would write up a report and I would have to wait until a fix came out for this issue that I could download. Normally, I would not wait for a fix that obviously should have been caught in their testing prior to production release of this unit. But since I like this GPS so much better than my other GPSes, I have decided to wait and hope TomTom will fix this issue promptly. Until then I will have to remember to manually power on the unit whenever I start the car, especially when I am using the GPS for a route. Update: This has a gorgeous screen and I have not noticed any sluggishness in its performance. When it is setup to display restaurants along the route, it will do so with the particular company's logo, in its proper color and design, which is pretty nice and makes selecting a destination of this type much easier. The standard suction cup mount in conjunction with the supplied dash mounting plate works surprisingly well. Both mount very securely to my dash and the suction cup is easy to remove. I have decided to exchange this through amazon in case the power issue is one of hardware and not the device's programming, which has already been updated through the My TomTom application. I really like this GPS... Update: I received a 2nd unit from Amazon and immediately tested it before any updating. This one would initially power on automatically when power is applied, but now would not power off automatically, which is opposite of the first unit. I applied all updates and now it will power on automatically about 1/2 of the time and will power off automatically when power is removed, as it is supposed to do. I like this TomTom much better than my Garmins and will put up with the power on issue, in the hope TomTom will get the power on/off issues resolved. But I am dubious it is solely a software issue and it may be hardware also. Also, with greater usage I am now seeing some sluggishness as others have mentioned. In particular, when driving the speed limit in town where there are a lot of intersecting streets, this TomTom does not seem able to keep up with displaying the street names in a timely manner, and sometimes either misses some altogether, or displays the street name after I have just passed it. As far as this type of issue is concerned, my Garmins were much better. Originally gave it 4 stars, but am now subtracting 1 star.

So, We bought this as a gift for our parents - opened it and found that it only had two maps loaded - you guessed it Argentina and Uruguay. So, being fairly proficient at using a computer I went to the TomTom site to download the correct maps since it is supposed to have Canada, US and Mexico maps load and guess what, "Cannot connect to your device at this time - try again later." I'm not sure who messed this one up but it sure seems like TomTom has crossed wires here or the seller is repackaging the items, including new cellophane wrap and selling them as though they are US spec items.. Extremely Dissappointed in this transaction. Update (as of 4 Jan 2014) The day after I wrote this review I had an e-mail from TomTom asking me to contact them to fix the problem. It took a while to get through on the support telephone and when I did they asked the basic questions to ensure it was a legitimate unit. I provided a copy of my Amazon invoice and the next day they were able to clear out the old maps and after restarting a few times install the USA/Canada/Mexico maps. We used it for the first time today and it was great. Unlike a previous version it is quick to get the satellites and start directing you. One of the features we really like is the "your destination is ahead on the right" instead of the older "you have reached your destination" which could be on either side of the road. On an 8-lane road that makes it very hard to be in the correct lane for the turn. One other added feature is that you don't have to use the power button to turn it on or off. When you plug it in to the power outlet on the car it powers up and when you unplug it the unit powers down. It does the same thing when connecting to the computer and using MyDrive (which so far seems to be a great improvement over TomTom Home software). My in-laws really like that it warns them about going over the speed limit (4 mph seems to be the magic number) with a tone and the red indicator in the current speed tab of the display. Another feature that is nice is when you are using the system you can check on the timing, route, and get information like closest gas station with the simple press of button. Our old unit has begun stuttering when calling out directions and regardless of the updates to the software it doesn't get better. We may have to upgrade ourselves.

I spent an enormous amount of time reading reviews and researching all the different brands & models. All roads (no pun intended) let to this particular model, which seemed to meet all my requirements. I knew I didn't want a 'tiny screen' (like many other models) that I could barely see while driving. But I didn't want to spend a fortune either. This TomTom definitely is easy to see and automatically 'dims' at night and changes to a darker background. It has a great 2D & 3D screen that you can choose from, plus there is an added 'split screen' when you come to a folk in the road that requires you to be in a certain lane, bright yellow arrows flash as to which direction/lane you need to go. You also have the selection of lots of different voices, which is fun to pick one. Not only does this model come with Free Lifetime Map Updates, but the 'Real Time Traffic Updates' is great! It can detect big traffic delays due to construction back-ups or accidents and re-route you around the mess saving time. It can mount directly to your front windshield with a really secure lockable suction device. We used this for a trip across the country and to Washington D.C., and it was amazing how it can 'analyze' all the roads & highways and put you on the fastest route. It also calculates your arrival time to your destination. I would highly recommend this device. It's a big bang for the buck.

Very good gps with rich features and large screen

Gave it a 5 star because it is very clear and informative. The 6 inch size is perfect for my aging eyes

I think this is another worst device I had ever bought! I bought this new from Amazon, spent over 10 hours couldn't get it started! Sending inquiries and received their advice, none worked! Will see how long does it take to just get it started! If none works will return!

Does everything I expected it would. Gets me to where I need to go with no issues. Love the graphics.

I bought this since I had this brand before, so familiar with the interface. The LMT feature and 6 inch is a big selling point. We took a long road trip on the east coat (1000 plus kilometer) and found the GPS to do its job. However, it does suffer from some quirks. While travelling on the various turnpikes along the east coast one feature repeatedly got me into trouble- the GPS always told us to keep in the EZ pass lane!!! The fact that we don't have the EZ pass and have to use the cash lanes did not matter. My logic was that it always calculated the fastest route and hence put us on the EZ pass lanes!!! While it was not an issue to spot it during the day time and correct it, it was hard at night. Also some toll stations (one I remember in New Hampshire) is bit different, the roads bifurcates one leading to the EZ pass and other cash etc. There being an actual divider between these two lanes makes it difficult to retrace your step in case you follow the GPS blindly which will land you in the EZ pass lanes. Tom tom should fix this rather than assuming that all vehicles have EZ passess!! There were few instances where it lost its connection and we were forced to take a wrong exit till it found its connectivity. I guess this is a universal issue with any mid priced GPS... overall it was not an issue and happy with the purchase.