Review: TomTom VIA 180

Brenton Currie
Sunday, 08 May 2011 13:59

Mobile devices

The VIA 180 is the latest in a line of worthy GPS devices from TomTom, offering voice command support, bluetooth support and a gorgeous 5'³ touch screen.

It's clear TomTom have attempted to make the Via 180 as sleek and thin as possible, choosing a minimalist approach over the more button-intensive older versions. You'd be hard pressed to find any buttons on the VIA 180 '” there's only one, the power switch. Everything else such as the volume controls are now completely controlled by the touch screen, making for an either frustrating or brilliant experience depending on your love of touch technology. There's also an in-built windscreen holder with swivels on the back of the device '” it can't be removed, at least not easily.

If we were to nitpick, one problem we found with the minimalist design was that plugging in the USB cable was a fiddly task, with the USB port situated in an alcove on the rear of the device. It's meant to hide the port, but when used practically it makes it more difficult.

Startup time wasn't so crash hot '” it still takes at least 30 seconds to go from start to finish, but it's well improved once again over many earlier TomTom devices.

Onto the main task of the device: navigation. While it utilises TomTom's standard navigation software, it seemed snappier and quicker to calculate routes than past TomTom devices. If typing addresses in isn't your thing, voice controls allow you to speak the street name '” which unfortunately appeared to work 50% of the time, with the other 50% proving at times partially incorrect or completely wrong '” while the handy point of interest option allows you to quickly select, as the name suggest, from a vast array of nearby points of interest, such as petrol stations, restaurants, hotels and even cultural centres.