No. If this was twitter, I’d end it right there, but here’s my reasoning:
TomTom GPS Enhancer:
With this kit, the iPhone 3GS takes literally less than 3 seconds to locate my position. I tried it inside a parking garage, and on the highway, (i hard rebooted the phone both times). This is pretty nice, but for what I need, the time difference isn’t that big of a selling point. I’ve never had the 3GS take longer than 15 seconds to locate my position.
iPhone Holder
This is by far the nicest looking holder for the iPhone, yet it’s also the most inconvenient holder for me. This may be just because of the car I drive and the angle at which the windshield is, but I could not find a position where I could mount the holder, without needing to stretch, or move my car seat closer to the steering wheel, either way it makes the phone harder to use.
iPhone Charger/Playback in car
My car has a built in auxilliary jack that is actually a composite input, as opposed the normal 2.5mm jack. Normally, I have the Apple Composite cable hooked up, which gives me great sound, much better than the 2.5mm jack in some other cars, though not as nice as the USB input into a alpine or pioneer head unit. There is an issue with my car not outputting clean AC, so there is a hiss when the iPhone is charging, but the cables work fine even if the phone is not charging.
Anyway, with the TomTom kit, I needed to use a 2.5mm jack to composite cable, I purchased one, and tried it out. The sound quality is decent, the only issue is that the jack requires power at all times. So, the hiss is always there. I can plug in the jack to the headphone jack of the iPhone, but it defeats the intended purpose of being able to easily disconnect the phone and leave with it.
The total cost of the TomTom is actually $119.99 + $99 ($69 for christmas) + $20 for audio cable, so about $238.
If I was just going to use the TomTom Car Kit as an iPhone holder, we’re talking $139 (it comes with a car charger).
If I was to compare that to my existing setup
1. Apple Composite Cable for iPhone : $49.99
2. Griffin Mini car charger USB ($9.99)
3. Kensington Car mount: $24.99.
We’re looking at a total cost of $85. Which, in my opinion gives me much better sound, and ease of use. Even with the TomTom app running, it’s cheaper to not get the car kit, and the delay in locating your position is not noticeable
As always, reviews and opinions are subjective, don’t take this as Gospel.
