KEY POINTS:
TomTom's Satnav units have become more portable with the launch of the new, touch-activated $399 One.
We've been using this compact unit for the past month and we're impressed.
The One clips into a mounting that sticks to your windscreen - or pops out and into your pocket or bag.
You can use it to navigate on foot, to find parking buildings or banks and to give you journey lengths and times.
It'll work for at least two hours before plugging back into the car's cigarette lighter.
You can also log on to the internet and download map updates, icons, and voices - Kiwi place-name pronunciation is coming soon.
You can even make map corrections. It showed an incorrect speed limit on one stretch near me. I can log a correction on the net, TomTom staff will check it and embed the information for download to all TomToms subsequently checking in.
Its Achilles heel during my time with the unit was Auckland's spaghetti junction, where lane advice was slightly confusing if you weren't reading your destination on the road signs - the unit's screen was too small to be much help with such a complex junction.
Still, New Zealand has few junctions this tangled, meanwhile get it wrong and TomTom quickly redirects you.
Overall, this is a very useful device - its compact size and the ease with which it unclips from the mount to slip into pocket or bag meant I used it for more applications than traditional in-car units.
To win a $399 TomTom One, send your name, address and phone details to motoring@ heraldonsunday.co.nz with TomTom as the subject, or post to TomTom giveaway, Herald on Sunday, PO Box 3290, Auckland. Entries close 1pm, October 8.
The winner's name is published here.
