TomTom Go Live 825 June 2011

The TomTom Go Live 825 sat nav has a large 5-inch screen, map coverage for 45 European countries and live services - including traffic information and rerouting. It's features like these that TomTom hopes will tempt people away from much cheaper mobile phone sat nav apps. 

TomTom calls its traffic information HD Traffic. It's available on Live models in the Go, Via and XL ranges. It is a sophisticated system that gathers traffic information very frequently, before sending it over the mobile internet to the sat nav. If your route is affected by traffic, the system lets you know before suggesting an alternative quicker route if there is one.

Live traffic information is appearing on more and more sat navs, and now, a few mobile phone sat nav apps too. 

HD Traffic

Unlike some live traffic systems on other sat navs, HD Traffic gathers its traffic information from a wide variety of sources, such as the position of anonymous mobile phone users and other TomTom live devices. All the data is combined to create a picture of the traffic situation. It covers motorways, A-class and B-class roads. Some systems don't cover B-roads.

The Garmin nuLink 1695 is a sat nav with live traffic from Garmin.

In practice, we were impressed when the TomTom rerouted us away from our normal, but extraordinarily busy, route during a rush hour commute through town, taking us onto some unknown but ultimately faster roads. However, it failed to report heavy traffic during a drive through a busy town shopping street with roadworks. HD traffic isn't foolproof but it can sometimes save you time, especially if you are driving outside cities where the system seems to work better.

Size

The Go Live 825 has a 5-inch touchscreen. 5-inches is large for a sat nav and useful if you prefer a bigger view - perhaps because your windscreen is quite far from your seating position, for example. On the other hand a bigger screen usually means that the unit is less convenient to carry around when you're not in the car. Rather surprisingly however, we found that although the 825 is larger than the 4.3-inch TomTom Go Live 1000 it's actually a bit lighter overall.

Like many recent TomToms, it has an integrated mounting for attaching it to your windscreen. You twist the disc to make the suction pad stick, and untwist to release. It works well and is better than older systems which were more likely to fall off.

In September, a Go Live 820 will be launched, with a smaller, 4.3-inch screen.

Using the screen

The touchscreen feels quite responsive, but entering text isn't as smooth or as fast as on the best touchscreens. Entering a postcode is a bit more prone to errors and typos for example. Also, you can't pinch to zoom or swipe like you can with a few sat navs like the TomTom Go Live 1000, Garmin Nuvi 3790T or Garmin Nuvi 3690T for example.

Reading the map while driving presents few problems. Like most TomToms it is clear, with good colours and acceptable contrast

Sound

Sound quality is good too. You can set the volume to change continuously and automatically according to the car's speed, or you can set it manually. At maximum volume, there is some distortion that makes the voice sound quite harsh, but otherwise we were impressed by the sound. Commands such as "Turn right, up the hill", give reassurance and a feeling that this is a quality product. Commands are usually timely, and in our first look of this product we got to our destinations without fuss or confusion.

Maps

TomTom claims that the Go Live 825 contains detailed road maps for 31 European countries, whilst also providing partial coverage for 14 other European countries.

Like all new TomToms, you benefit from the latest maps guarantee. With the Go Live 825, you can download the latest maps available from TomTom should they not already be installed on the sat nav as long as you do it within 90 days of first activating the device. 

Live services

HD Traffic is part of the Live Services bundle - also included is live weather, fixed and mobile speed camera detection and Google local search. With Google local search, you can look for for services by postcode/town, or near to your destination or current position. You could search for tennis courts in Aberdeen, or swimming pools in Penzance, for example.

These live services are free for your first year with the Go Live 825 - then it's £47.50 for the second year

Availability

The TomTom Go Live 825 costs £230. TomTom is currently also offering £30 cashback when buying this model and trading in an old sat nav at the same time. We look forward to testing it in our full lab and road tests. In the mean time, check out the results of over 100 sat navs models tested in our sat nav reviews.