Reviews Home > Car & GPS > GPS Navigation > Car GPS

Top Rated Product

TomTom GO 730 Portable GPS

Model number: GO 730 | SKU: 8774533

With preloaded base maps of United States and Canada, turn-by-turn voice prompts and text-to-speech technology, this portable GPS makes it easy to confidently navigate wherever the open road may take you. This model meets our Professional Series criteria Shop all products in our Small Business Center

Average Customer Rating:

4.3 out of 5

10 of 12 (83%) customers would recommend this product to a friend.

Customer Reviews for TomTom GO 730 Portable GPS

Review 1 for TomTom GO 730 Portable GPS

Customer Rating

5.0 5

Great Gps A+++ 12/26/2008
By Taylor2011 from Cincinnati Ohio

Value for Price

4.0 5

Durability

4.0 5

Ease of Use

5.0 5

Features

4.0 5

What's great about it: Bluetooth, Day/Night Map Colors, Edit road issues , long battery life
What's not so great: Nothing Yet!

"Great Gps, lots of features. Easy to update the maps on your pc , you can download better less fake sounding voices and you can edit the maps right on the gps. Long battery life!"

Would you recommend this product to a friend?: Yes
Is this product used primarily for business?: No

Share this Review:

Review 2 for TomTom GO 730 Portable GPS

Customer Rating

5.0 5

GO 730 12/03/2008
By ncfiremech from SoCal

Value for Price

5.0 5

Durability

5.0 5

Ease of Use

5.0 5

Features

5.0 5

What's great about it: Ability to enter and delete POI's, Price vs features, solid feel and appearance.
What's not so great: Spoken voice digitally flawed on some street names, thats all.

"I have had this unit for about a week now and it seems to be "overall"very accurate.
It sometimes will prematurely say "you've your reached destination" about 1/16 mi. before I get there. The mapping is also 'just a little off' sometimes in relation to the vehicle on the road. However, I have the common sense to recognize how close I am anyway.
I have had other GPS units and they all have some kind of issues. Once you have figured this one out, it performs better overall that many others.
I downloaded all of the US National Parks for free and tested the 730's ability to give directions, campground names and POI's around the parks. It did great. It is very cool to be able to have the phone numbers and address of POI's available immediately.
If you are not so picky, as to expect that GPS units will have not some issues, this one is packed with features and try's hard to please you. I also believe that some end-users and lacking the true knowledge of really was is expected in a GPS unit. This is as good as it get's for now people."

Would you recommend this product to a friend?: Yes
Is this product used primarily for business?: No

1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Share this Review:

Review 3 for TomTom GO 730 Portable GPS

Customer Rating

4.0 5

Good Product still needs some minor tweaking 11/12/2008
By njersean from Clifton, NJ

Value for Price

4.0 5

Durability

3.0 5

Ease of Use

5.0 5

Features

4.0 5

What's great about it: Large Screen and Avdvanced lane Guidance
What's not so great: Mount, Brightness of day screen(but improved since last models)

"To start I just Purchased this unit November 10th, 2008. It picked up a signal in under 5 seconds after booting up. A larger screen making reading the current street and next street easier to read. The mount, even though it works looks cheap and my gps unit will be tilted when set up in the middle of the windshield facing me.

I am very familiar with the Tomtom units so I will be able to tell you the good an the bad of this unit compared to other tomtoms and as well as magellan and garmin products.

The screen brightness has been a problem since I could remember, garmin is the best in that department in daylight. The tomtom has improved since the previous models.

The ease of programming a destination has always been the best for me with the tomtom compared to other brands. If you have an idea of where and start entering in the information, it will always get you that location the fastest. It is the order to which you enter the data i think.

The garmin was more like a navigation you try to program in an installed vehicle unit. If you do not have the exact are you will be hitting walls.

the color scheme on their maps are great with any unit.

Voice commands are a great tool but not necessary. I like my remote.
The sound quality has diminished some on the newer unit compared to the past tomtoms that i have owned at maximum volume; you can still make out the instructions with no problems.

The FM transmitter is still not up to par, but that my be my choice in station. it was staticy on multiple 88 - 92 fm settings. It also did not allow me to play instructions over my radio, just mp3 music.

The bluetooth connected with my razr well and I could hear my callers and they could hear me clearly.

I did notice that the map scaling in certain parts of Clifton, NJ and in little Ferry were off. For example i would be driving on a street ( did not matter how slow i was going) it would have me in the middle of the block even though i was already at the end, or visa verca i would be in the middle of the block and it would have me located at the end already.

This can be aggravating, I have found this problem with other Tomtom GPS units as well and other brands-- so the problem is the map software I would guess.

Do not be fooled by mapshare. You will have a 2008 map for example the mapshare will update construction, blocked lanes or altered driving directions on streets, but It does not give you the new map.

The IQ routes does work at times and I have heard mine where it said it did not find any faster routes at this time.
The Advanced lane guidance is a nice NAvigon type feature. with the static picture. And it would put on your left lower hand side of the task bar which lane you should be in. I do not find it necessary for the static screen of the street if it gets confusing.

I find the power location of the unit in a potential bad place as it is on the bottom, with time i think that the cord could lose its connection and fall out to power the unit or if you hit one too many bumps it could fall out the unit. but we will see. not problems with that so far.

I wish it would have an ability to mark your current position when you pull out of your parking spot easier. It does have an ability to mark a spot but after thumbing through a series of options.

I did find a problem with the sound of spoken instructions at certain speeds. It sounded like i was talking to a friend over a digital phone that had poor connection. This only happened once so I do not know if it will happen again as the unit is brand new.

I still have my options to play around with.
With the smaller unit I would guess that the battery life would be shorter than my 910 which did get around 4 hrs.
I am also concerned with the connectivity issue to the computer and the car adapter. the connection to the unit is different that prior models so my initial guess is that they have elimiated this issue.

The prior units used to come with a sleeve or carrying case but not this model.

So compared to othe gps unit i still prefer the Tomtom
Garmin is still a good choice. and Magellan I would rate it poor still in mapping and destination programming."

Would you recommend this product to a friend?: Yes
Is this product used primarily for business?: Yes

3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

Share this Review:

Review 4 for TomTom GO 730 Portable GPS

Customer Rating

1.0 5

Will never buy a TomTom again 11/03/2008
By Al730 from Boston, MA

Value for Price

1.0 5

Durability

1.0 5

Ease of Use

2.0 5

Features

2.0 5

What's great about it: Ease of use
What's not so great: Poor reliability, shor life, mediocre customer service, incorrect maps

"Do not waist your money on this device. After just over 2 years, the device does not work anymore and Tomtom's customer service won't replace it. I had a Garmin before which was much more reliable and durable. Maps were also much more accurate."

Would you recommend this product to a friend?: No
Is this product used primarily for business?: No

Share this Review:

Review 5 for TomTom GO 730 Portable GPS

Customer Rating

5.0 5

my sons map 10/21/2008
By wyliemom from Texas

Value for Price

5.0 5

Durability

5.0 5

Ease of Use

5.0 5

Features

5.0 5

What's great about it: easy to use
What's not so great: none at this time

"My son has a terrible sense of direction, so when he got his drivers liscence, I put a Tom Tom in his car. He has never gotten lost. He has never had the excuse that he was late getting home because he took the wrong turn. It has been a life saver. If you dont have one- buy one."

Would you recommend this product to a friend?: Yes

Share this Review:

Review 6 for TomTom GO 730 Portable GPS

Customer Rating

3.0 5

Navigation Great, POI Lacking 10/20/2008
By yotoman

Value for Price

3.0 5

Durability

4.0 5

Ease of Use

5.0 5

Features

4.0 5

What's great about it: Navigation, Free Content, GPS Ease of Use, Bluetooth
What's not so great: Lack of Points of Interest, Computer Software Non User Friendly

"My initial "homework" was between the TomTom 730 and the Garmin 675T (New). The deciding factor was price.

As for the primary operations, it worked great. The unit found routes quickly and was accurate in directions, although it often routed you around the destination so that you would not have to cross over any lanes. The 730 was very user friendly and the menu was easy to understand. Bluetooth was easy to connect (even on an older phone), and the unit was able to download all contacts onto the memory for caller id while driving. The sound quality in the car was excellent, while the sound quality for the person calling was fair. Online ability: The unit comes with a program that you will need to load onto a pc. Some nice features were the different map color schemes, updates to maps, and voices you can download for free. The actual program is not that impressive with a weak and non user friendly interface. Ex. You have to download items one at a time. Very time consuming for POI (points of interest).

Final Result: I ended up returning the product after I was unable to locate POI while driving. We tried several places (7) that have been in there location for over 5 years and the unit was unable to find the businesses. TomTom customer service told me that they were not able to offer all POI but that I could go online to Google Maps and download the POI. This to me defeated to point of having a GPS system to direct you where to go. On a positive note, customer service was very quick to respond to my inquire. You can download for free many different POIs from TomTom, but they are created by other users (unknown quality) and then again you will have to do them one at a time. I have just purchased the Garmin 765T and will provide a review in a couple of weeks. The Garmin has found all but one of my POIs."

Would you recommend this product to a friend?: No

1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Share this Review:

Review 7 for TomTom GO 730 Portable GPS

Customer Rating

4.0 5

Very good - not perfect 10/14/2008
By photoFred from New Bedford, MA

Value for Price

4.0 5

Durability

5.0 5

Ease of Use

4.0 5

Features

5.0 5

What's great about it: many features - sleek design
What's not so great: POIS not accurate in cases, text to speech sometimes a tad late

"Let me start my saying there is no perfect GPS. The mode of thinking should be that if a product has more good about it than bad, then it should be considered a keeper. I will start with the good here. I replaced a Garmin c340 for a few reasons with this new TOM TOM GO 730. First, it can fit into my pocket where the Garmin could not. It has vast amounts of memory - and with an added memory card, room for lots of MP3'S and other things such as custom POIS. My Garmin has limited ability in storing favorites, while this one seems unlimited. It has the ability to play through a car stereo either via a line jack or FM transmitter. The MP3 player used this way coupled with navigation works magnificently. The MP3 will pause to allow instructions to be spoken - given it the "uninterrupted" feel. If you have a bluetooth phone and have this connection, you can actually speak to people through your stereo. Thats as good as it gets. It has voice recognition, and it seems to never miss a beat there. It offers map correction ability - and believe me - this is a useful feature as I have made corrections a few times. Tom Tom receives them when you connect the device to their HOME software and allows you to share the corrections with others. Quite cool.
Now, for the not so good. There are times when the text to speech function will announce street names when you are actually already in the turn. Completely useless. The idea of text to speech is to allow a driver to keep their eyes on the road and look for the road sign ahead of time. Free map updates? Yes, thats correct - for one year. Then you have to purchase a new map. (well, that is if you want the latest maps all the time) And because this unit uses IQ route technology built into its maps - they are quite pricey. $129.99 for North America, or $79.99 for a region such as the Northeast USA. As far as how well IQ routing works - I think its early to tell on that. I do believe it will improve as time goes along. The points of interest are also off in many cases. I noticed this on a recent trip. But usually its with a dunkin donuts as they seem to be in the wrong location by a block or two. I consider this a minor flaw. Also, the lane guidance feature did not work once for me the whole time I drove on this same trip. Again, possible future improvements? I think so... but the unit passed with ease in guiding me through many mountainous roadways and it even bypassed toll roads as I asked it too for my journey home.
This is turning into a long review so let me sum it up - if you are the type that is a gadget freak that likes to have the latest toy out there, this is probably the choice for you. But you will save significant money on another model - that has text to speech as well, less the IQ route technology (which is supposed to calculate routes based on actually travel speed data vs. posted speed limits) And right now, TOM TOM is the only brand to offer that ability.
So, Garmin or Tom Tom? I do not think you can go wrong either way. The deal clincher for me was the extensive memory of this unit, as well as the map correction ability. And since I have made use of this feature and all things considered - as I do think many of the quirks will be corrected - I am happy with this unit."

Would you recommend this product to a friend?: Yes

Share this Review:

Review 8 for TomTom GO 730 Portable GPS

Customer Rating

5.0 5

Good travel helper asfor me 10/02/2008
By Anonymous Reviewer

Value for Price

5.0 5

Durability

5.0 5

Ease of Use

5.0 5

Features

5.0 5

What's great about it: Good travel helper asfor me
What's not so great: Good travel helper asfor me

"i am sure TOmTom will upgrade its website to have us all the updated maps as early as 2008..well it doesnt have the MP3 play back option in the unit .. i find many pros while 2 cons.. it doesnt support a SD card slot and its mem is 1gb..however it should have street spelling option instead of calling the turns..well its the price that makes it worth.."

Would you recommend this product to a friend?: Yes

Share this Review:

Review 9 for TomTom GO 730 Portable GPS

Customer Rating

5.0 5

TomTom wins 10/01/2008
By TomTomFan247

Value for Price

5.0 5

Durability

5.0 5

Ease of Use

5.0 5

Features

5.0 5

What's great about it: TomTom wins
What's not so great: TomTom wins

"I replaced a Magellan 4040 with this. The Magellan had text to speech - wide screen - blue tooth and AAA guides. Cost much more.

In my opinion the inexpensive Tom Tom beats the Magellan hands down, even without text to speech.

Text to speech is a great concept but seems to strain the processor to the point that it would sometimes forget to give you street names OR directions. Very bad. I had 2 Magellan's ( I thought first was defective and returned it ) and both would do this. I would much rather hear "turn right in 500 feet" than no instructions at all. Many times I was blocks past my turn before Magellan would announce it. Not good.

Both Magellan's got flaky on me as well. One would need an occasional reboot for a frozen screen, the other would occasionally tell me I had reached my destination when it was still miles away.

Tom Tom has been rock solid.

Tom Tom NEVER misses a turn voice command. They are quite detailed as well unlike Magellan. Magellan says "turn right at Blair Street" where Tom Tom says "turn right in 200 feet than make third left".

POI in Tom Tom is way better in my area than Magellan. It had an espresso stands that only opened 4 months ago near me! Of course results may vary depending upon where you live.

Voice is loud and clear, map colors are changeable, interface is very customizable.

Also Tom Tom guarantees a free download of the latest map for your unit at purchase. Garman and Magellan have very vague policies on that and may charge you for the latest map.

I have owned both Garman C220 and Magellan 4040. I will be most likely be purchasing Tom Tom from now on...."

Would you recommend this product to a friend?: Yes

Share this Review:

Review 10 for TomTom GO 730 Portable GPS

Customer Rating

5.0 5

Best gps in this price range 07/21/2008
By Carfi from Silver Spring, MD

What's great about it: MANY capabilities
What's not so great: takes about a minute to locate satelites

"I work with gps' so I was determined to purchase one which was either going to be a tom tom or a garmin. I chose tom tom over garmin because it gives you free map updates whereas garmin you have to pay anywhere from 60-80 dollars! You also get many more features with tom tom for a lower price. My father has a garmin and its great, but I paid $100 more and got MANY more features then he did. With this model you can hear street names, listen to mp3's, download pictures, different voices, more points of interest (with no charge. You also get reality view, advanced lane assistance and IQ routes. This is the best deal in my opinion and I have been working with GPS' for about 3 years now."

Would you recommend this product to a friend?: Yes

1 of 2 people found this review helpful.

Share this Review:

Review 11 for TomTom GO 730 Portable GPS

Customer Rating

5.0 5

Very pleased with the Go 730 06/26/2008
By jms1223 from Chapel Hill, NC

What's great about it: Lots of features, quick routing, nice menus
What's not so great: None so far!

"After about 3 months of research, I had decided I was going to buy the TomTom Go 720. I waited for a few weeks while I shopped around for the best price, and during this time, the 720’s successor (Go 730) was available on the market. The 730 now includes IQ routes, which from what I understand, works similarly to the Dash – it gathers speed information from other TomTom users on every road, so if a certain route is known to have a very low average speed at a given time of day, the 730 will route you around that road to avoid the potential traffic. It also has the new lane guidance pictures – I’ve only seen this once so far in the month or so I’ve owned it, but it looked cool! At first I was torn between this model and the Garmin nuvi series, but the nice thing about this TomTom that was the selling point for me was that you can easily add/remove/edit points of interest. This is done on the unit (not via new map updates or mapshare) and can be done pretty quickly. The Garmin’s brag that they have more points of interest in their bank, and while that might be true, there is always going to be some missing somewhere, so this is a nice feature to have. In fact, in my new town, a nearby grocery store was missing from the TomTom bank. I chose to look up the address of the store online, then store that address in the GPS as this type of POI with this name. You can also accomplish the same thing under the “Browse Map” option and find the proper menu option for adding the point.

Suction cup:
I’ve seen other reviews online about people having problems with the windshield suction cup mount. All I can say is that I used this GPS during my move from NY to NC, which was about an 11-hour drive. Not once during that time did the suction cup mount fail, however since then it has fallen off the windshield a couple of times. The trick that seems to work is to actually lick a few of your fingers and moisten the suction cup before pressing it onto the windshield.

Washed-out screen:
Some users have commented that in intense sunlight, the screen becomes difficult to see. I’ve seen this happen maybe once or twice, but it only lasted a few seconds. From what I’ve experienced, the sun has to be at just the right angle, and this doesn’t happen very often. In the absolute worst-case scenario, you have a little trouble seeing the screen for a few seconds, so you simply listen to the voice commands. I don’t see that as a very large drawback at all.

Other features and comments:
The nice thing this model does (I’m not sure if lower models do this as well or not) is that it predicts what time you’ll arrive at your destination based on the IQ route information, current speeds, etc. I found this to be a handy little feature.

The actual routing seems spot-on so far. Re-routing after you miss a turn is nearly instant (literally 1 second at the most, from what I’ve seen). Also, initial positioning after powering-on the unit takes only a couple of seconds. I did notice some fun things after coming out of a tunnel – my car seemed to be flying in the middle of nothing for a second or two before all satellite signals were locked on. No big deal, and kind of amusing, I thought. You can also very easily route yourself via roads or POI’s. For example, I needed to do some shopping at both Target and Home Depot. I first calculated my route to Home Depot, then went to “Find Alternative”, then “Travel via…” and chose Point of Interest. I found Target in the list, and it then routed me to Home Depot with a stop at Target first. My only complaint about this is that when I got to Target, it didn’t say anything like “you’ve reached your first destination” – it’s up to you to realize you’re there, park, shop, then continue your route to your next stop. As far as I know, you can travel via several (more than 2) stops as well.

I have an Apple computer (Powerbook G4, so not even an Intel mac) and have had no troubles with the TomTom Home software. I was able to download a bunch of free voices, a new car icon, and there’s tons of other stuff in there, both free and not.

Another minor feature is that it has a bank of POI symbols for the major chains. For example, McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Starbucks, and quite a few others have their company logo in there. If you pass by Wendy’s (for example) you wont see the typical knife and fork logo for a restaurant POI, you’ll see the Wendy’s logo on the map.

I was also able to easily pair my Bluetooth cell phone (LG VX8350). A lot of phone numbers for POI’s are stored on the GPS, so if you need to call any one of them, it will forward the call to your phone for you.

I haven’t really used the spoken road names feature – this is only available on the computerized voice, which is the main reason. Nice feature, but not all that necessary for me. There’s also a voice-input feature when you’re entering town names or zip codes in your destination search.

Overall this unit seems like a great bang-for-your-buck. I purchased this at $400, and it really is packed with features. I’m glad I went with the TomTom Go 730, and would recommend it to anyone in the market for one. I’ve had some experience with other brands (Garmin, Magellan) and didn’t like their menus, features, or price tag. Hope this helps!"

Would you recommend this product to a friend?: Yes

6 of 6 people found this review helpful.

Share this Review:

Review 12 for TomTom GO 730 Portable GPS

Customer Rating

5.0 5

Excellent GPS- very customizable 05/26/2008
By Pherball66 from Missouri

What's great about it: Customizable, accurate, sturdy, upgradeable, I could go on and on, oh wait, I did. :)
What's not so great: Brightness, Mount is too short, no auto turn on

"Pros:

1) I have tried multiple GPS's (Mio 220, c520, Garmin Nuvi 260w, etc..) and This GPS surpasses all of them.
2) The navigation has been spot on so far and has all the bells and whistles of the best of them. I paid $380 for it and it was the best money I have ever spent.
3) I was looking for a GPS that would show all of the streets in 3d mode, which are far and few between, and this one does that great.
4) The voice input works wonderful.
5) You can play your MP3's through your radio and have the navigation, pause the music when it gives directions, how great is that?
6) Blutooth to my phone works great and I can hear good and have not had any complaints from anyone about being to soft.
7) You can change just about everything on this thing. If you dont like the colors, you can download other color schemes that people have made or just make your own with a downloaded program.
8) Don't like the voice? You can change it too. You can even record your own voice or download other TOMTOM users voice recordings or celeberty voices, although I have found that some of the other users voices that people have made sound very corny or hard to hear, etc..
9) You can also change the maps, like if it says to go straight but it is closed off, you can mark it and it will update that on other users maps if you want it to.
10) This thing is SOLID. It feels sturdy and looks great.
11) You can put it in it's base, connected to the computer and update it, even download the positions of the satelites so when you turn it back on, it connects immediatly. coolllll.
12) The lane guidance does not come on that much, but when you are close or in a big city, it does come on and is impressive and really helps.

Cons:

1) The mount that comes with it is way too short, so you may have to buy another one.
2) Also, the brightness is not the highest I have seen in bright sunlight but I have always been able to see it fine.
3) Doesn't turn on when you start your car, but it does turn off, kind of a bummer but how hard is it to hit the power button when you get in the car?

Alltogether, This is the Best GPS I have used so far and I have been through many. If you are looking for a GPS that you have unlimited possibilities with then this is the one."

Would you recommend this product to a friend?: Yes

3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

Share this Review: