TomTom ONE (New Edition)

TomTom has redesigned their popular ONE unit to make it smaller, more stylish and more compact. Although the changes are largely all in design, the ONE still remains an excellent GPS choice due to TomTom's superb user interface, clear touch screen display and excellent maps and voice navigation See our full review of the original TomTom ONE for more information.

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We loved the original unit because of its feature set, price and compact design. The ONE New Edition has the same features as its predecessor but carries a lower price tag and features a sleek and lightweight design. Measuring just 96mm x 82mm x 25mm and weighing a mere 174g it really has been slimmed down. Although it is still an in-car unit, the ONE New Edition fits snugly into most shirt pockets and can be easily taken with you from car to car.

The unit still includes just one button on its exterior (a power key). There are no external volume controls, but the volume can be easily accessed on screen by touching the bottom left corner of the unit and sliding you finger up and down the screen.

We were slightly annoyed with the ONE's menu as each time you adjust a preference or setting and save it, the screen goes back to the map, so you have to navigate all the way through the menu again should you wish to change something else. Despite this small issue, the user interface remains extremely easy to use and is excellently designed. It's the same style as the ONE, featuring clear and colourful icons that look very similar to a mobile phone menu. As with all TomTom units, everything is operated via the touch screen which we found to be quite bright and clear, although it did suffer a little in direct sunlight.

The other major design change comes in the form of the car window mount. The previous ONE mount was quite large and bulky, but the new one is the smallest we've ever seen on a GPS. There are no buttons or clips - you simply press the suction cup firmly against your windscreen to lock it in place, and pull the small flap of rubber to remove it. Furthermore, the unit effortlessly slides in and out, making it very easy to carry around.

The software has been updated on the ONE New Edition so it now filters street names by suburbs, effectively fixing the previous ONE's problem of giving you a list of every street in Australia. Unfortunately, you still can't search for street names first, only a suburb. The general navigational experience remains superb, with highly detailed maps, clear voice instructions and quick re-routing times. The ONE New Edition also performs excellently in obtaining and maintaining a clear GPS signal, even with an obscured view of the sky.

Most of the ONE New Edition's operations can be accessed via the main menu, which is split into three separate pages. From here you simply tap the 'Navigate To..." button to navigate to your home, a favourite location, a specific address, a recent destination or a point of interest (POI). You can further narrow down your search when looking for a specific address, as the ONE allows you to navigate to a city centre, specific street and house number, crossing or intersection or even via postcodes. Navigating to a point of interest also offers a bevy of options, as you can choose a POI near your current location, in the city, near your saved home location, along the current route you are travelling or near a specific destination.

The ONE New Edition maps are very detailed and can be zoomed in and out easily. They are also able to show remaining time, remaining distance, arrival time, current time, street name and speed - and these can all be turned on and off in the preferences menu. If you don't hear the voice instruction, you can tap the left hand side of the status bar at the bottom of the screen to repeat it.

Battery life is rated at three hours by TomTom and we found this to be almost spot on. On average, we experienced between two and a half and three hours of battery life which isn't particularly special. We'd like to see this improved in future models. TomTom disappointingly doesn't include an AC charger in the sales package, so you'll have to charge the unit via the USB cable or cigarette lighter adapter.