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Electronics : RAC 200 GPS Unit (UK & Ireland)
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Rating: 
- One simple test..........
Does it come with a little stylus you are bound to lose?; if it does then its a probably badly designed silly product that won't have been properly thought out, and indeed that is what this unit is.
Never mind that it did not even work when I got it home, repeating over and over again, "calculating route" and flashing its screen through all its pages - all products can have faulty units now and again. No,the real problem is that in almost every aspect of its design and implementation it shows that it does not have any, design that is.
The box is cheap, it comes with a cigarette lighter socket charger cable but no means to charge it in the home, suggesting you leave it to charge in the car so some local scally can pick up a fully charged one to sell on ebay. Its touch screen is too small and too slapdash to work well even IF you dont lose the stylus. You are supposed to calibrate it, after you have you get a message saying "press enter button to accept, exit to cancel" but no buttons are displayed!! This kind of dead end and clear lack of end user testing of any kind sums up the unit. Its windscreen sucker attachment seems robust enough but is massively overengineered compared to the elegant ball joint solution used by TOMTOM.
It does seem to have a longer battery life (3 hours claimed) than the TOM TOM ONE XL I swapped it for (2 hours).
The TOM TOM meanwhile oozes quality and confidence from the minute you open its box, quality packaging makes for a better consumer experience, little things like a screen protector to peel off show they have thought this product through. It comes with a car charger AND a USB cable to connect it to the Internet and charge it at the same time. (The RAC one will charge through a USB cable too I think but there is nothing about it in the naff, badly designed, faintly printed documentation)
The TOMTOM worked straight out of the box and navigated me to a lunch appointment with clear well displayed instructions. You can select from a range of voices and languages and download more if you want them... for £4 you can choose premium voices like John Cleese or Sven.
Unlike the RAC model the TOMTOM works, no question and using it was fun and easy, it will make me a safer driver. The voice instructions are clear, easy to follow and repeated at exactly the right moments. It even guessed when I switched it back on after lunch that we would want to go home and started directing us there, incredible! The internet updates are easy and the software intuitive, elegant and very user friendly. The whole thing is a triumph of good design which always endears me to a product.
I'd recommend the widescreen versions of these things too.
TOM TOM was £30 dearer that the RAC model and worth every extra penny.
RAC? Really Awful Kit - No stars :-(
Rating:
- Good but..............
Whoever put the user booklet wants a good slap! No info whatsoever on updating or connecting to PC.
Rating:
- Low Price but Excellent Results
I am glad some of the negative reviews did not put me off. I have found this system easy and reliable, no operating problems and excellent results. The instruction booklet is not the best, but just play with the thing for a while and everything fits into place easily!
Rating: - Good product @ good price
Didn't want to spend £loads so I got this and am very happy with it. Had seen a tom tom in action before and this RAC looks just as good for lots less money. The search engine is the best feature, you can just give it fragments of addresses and it still finds it. Only negative would be the speed cameras but I figure they move around and appear all the time so it's tough keeping them up to date but I didn't buy it for those anyway. Well made, looks good wouldn't be without it now.
Rating: - Very disappointing
I was looking for a basic A to B device for the UK, and this seemed to fit the bill. Perhaps it was faulty but in the 4 days I had it the list of problems included: Twice putting my location about 200-300 metres away from actual position; the post code and street address of my office were in two different locations; it took several minutes to pick up a GPS signal and start functioning. In fact it only worked perfectly on one journey, but on the way back reported a fatal error and stopped working altogether.
I have now bought a `proper' satellite navigation unit. What a difference!
- One simple test..........Does it come with a little stylus you are bound to lose?; if it does then its a probably badly designed silly product that won't have been properly thought out, and indeed that is what this unit is.
Never mind that it did not even work when I got it home, repeating over and over again, "calculating route" and flashing its screen through all its pages - all products can have faulty units now and again. No,the real problem is that in almost every aspect of its design and implementation it shows that it does not have any, design that is.
The box is cheap, it comes with a cigarette lighter socket charger cable but no means to charge it in the home, suggesting you leave it to charge in the car so some local scally can pick up a fully charged one to sell on ebay. Its touch screen is too small and too slapdash to work well even IF you dont lose the stylus. You are supposed to calibrate it, after you have you get a message saying "press enter button to accept, exit to cancel" but no buttons are displayed!! This kind of dead end and clear lack of end user testing of any kind sums up the unit. Its windscreen sucker attachment seems robust enough but is massively overengineered compared to the elegant ball joint solution used by TOMTOM.
It does seem to have a longer battery life (3 hours claimed) than the TOM TOM ONE XL I swapped it for (2 hours).
The TOM TOM meanwhile oozes quality and confidence from the minute you open its box, quality packaging makes for a better consumer experience, little things like a screen protector to peel off show they have thought this product through. It comes with a car charger AND a USB cable to connect it to the Internet and charge it at the same time. (The RAC one will charge through a USB cable too I think but there is nothing about it in the naff, badly designed, faintly printed documentation)
The TOMTOM worked straight out of the box and navigated me to a lunch appointment with clear well displayed instructions. You can select from a range of voices and languages and download more if you want them... for £4 you can choose premium voices like John Cleese or Sven.
Unlike the RAC model the TOMTOM works, no question and using it was fun and easy, it will make me a safer driver. The voice instructions are clear, easy to follow and repeated at exactly the right moments. It even guessed when I switched it back on after lunch that we would want to go home and started directing us there, incredible! The internet updates are easy and the software intuitive, elegant and very user friendly. The whole thing is a triumph of good design which always endears me to a product.
I'd recommend the widescreen versions of these things too.
TOM TOM was £30 dearer that the RAC model and worth every extra penny.
RAC? Really Awful Kit - No stars :-(
Rating:
- Good but..............Whoever put the user booklet wants a good slap! No info whatsoever on updating or connecting to PC.
Rating:
- Low Price but Excellent ResultsI am glad some of the negative reviews did not put me off. I have found this system easy and reliable, no operating problems and excellent results. The instruction booklet is not the best, but just play with the thing for a while and everything fits into place easily!
Rating:
- Good product @ good priceDidn't want to spend £loads so I got this and am very happy with it. Had seen a tom tom in action before and this RAC looks just as good for lots less money. The search engine is the best feature, you can just give it fragments of addresses and it still finds it. Only negative would be the speed cameras but I figure they move around and appear all the time so it's tough keeping them up to date but I didn't buy it for those anyway. Well made, looks good wouldn't be without it now.
Rating:
- Very disappointingI was looking for a basic A to B device for the UK, and this seemed to fit the bill. Perhaps it was faulty but in the 4 days I had it the list of problems included: Twice putting my location about 200-300 metres away from actual position; the post code and street address of my office were in two different locations; it took several minutes to pick up a GPS signal and start functioning. In fact it only worked perfectly on one journey, but on the way back reported a fatal error and stopped working altogether.
I have now bought a `proper' satellite navigation unit. What a difference!