TomTom Go 920T review

TomTom's Go 720 was our favourite satnav of last year thanks to its easy navigation and MapShare feature, which lets you correct mapping errors on the move. The 920T is TomTom's latest satnav, and sits above the 720 in its standalone satnav range.

The two are very similar, but while the 720 has full maps of Western Europe, the 920T also comes with full street-level maps of the US and Canada on its 4GB of internal memory, and there's an SD card slot for any other maps you may want to use. The 920T looks almost identical to the 720. It's the same shape and size and has the same 4.3in 480x272-resolution display. A superficial difference is the textured rubber back, which makes it feel more expensive than the 720.

Fixing the 920T to your car's windscreen is tricky, as the unit detaches too easily from the mount as you press the suction cup to your windscreen. The mount stayed in place once we'd attached it and didn't fall off while we were driving.

The 920T has the familiar TomTom interface with its large, colourful icons and finger-friendly operation. The menu responded instantly to finger presses, and everything is clearly laid out in menus and sub-menus. The 920T comes with a Bluetooth remote control, which could be useful if your car's windscreen is particularly far away.

Planning a route is easy: you can navigate to an address, postcode or city centre or simply click on a point on your map to act as your destination. The 920T also made a good job of navigating us around London. The 3D display isn't quite as clear as the Garmin 610T's (opposite), but the map screen shows far more information about your trip.

Along with a clear voice prompt, the next turn is described by a diagram showing the type of turn and the distance to it. The 920T tried to send us the wrong way down a one-way street at one point, but quickly calculated an alternative when we ignored it. Thanks to the 920T's MapShare feature, we were able to correct this map error when we got home and upload the correction to TomTom's servers for other users to download.

The 920T will warn you of any upcoming speed cameras, and it has two ways of receiving traffic information. You can either use the supplied TMC antenna, which receives information from RDS FM radio, or connect it to your phone via Bluetooth and download the information over your data connection, using the Traffic subscription service. The 920T can act as a Bluetooth hands-free kit for making phone calls. There's a great text-to-speech convertor for reading out road names, and its voice recognition feature for speaking your destination worked surprisingly well.

TomTom's Go 920T is an excellent satnav unit, but it's expensive if you don't need maps of the US and Canada. Most people would be better off with TomTom's 720T, which has full European maps and a TMC receiver and costs £247 from www.handtec.co.uk.