TomTom VIA125 Satellite Navigation

TomTom has entered the Indian navigation market and we get our hands on its flagship product the VIA125. There are several international navigation systems that have found it difficult to sustain them in the Indian market. TomTom is Europe’s leading GPS device and we see how well does it fares in Indian conditions. The difficulty is India is the layout of the roads isn’t uniform unlike the USA, which has divided the city more into blocks and UK, where everything revolves around the city centre. 

We have used TomTom in Europe and we will have been pretty impressed with accuracy of the device. The first thing you notice on this device is its sleek body design and well-finished body panel. It isn’t that large, but at the same time not even very small.

The TomTom VIA125 has a neatly located power switch and even the power socket is well designed. The suction cup is also smartly placed and requires lesser space.

Now, speaking of how the device works. It starts pretty neatly, however it does take a while to understand where are the other options on the menu.

The screen is well-lit and it is clearly visible even on a bright Indian sunny day.  The display is nice and even the charging cable is well designed. The device succeeds in its aesthesis and the company has done a neat job.

On starting-up, it looks nice and even runs smoothly. The lane guidance is a good additional feature to have and the device also gets neutral Indian voice guidance.  

The device does have some errors as it reads Taj Lands End as Taj Villa for unknown reason, as you can’t miss a 5 star.  Most of the devices including the google maps app on iPhone and Android works fine in city, we need to see how good is it outside.  

The device also has Bluetooth connectivity and it is absolutely hassle free and gives a lots of options. There  is an option to look for POI and place a phone call to selected POI. Unfortunately, this is not possible with the current software / map as phone numbers of POIs have not been incorporated in the software. But, otherwise it is a very interesting feature and may become functional at some point of time when the database of software supports it.

TomTom has raised the ante as the VIA125 has certain unique features that make this an exclusive satellite navigation device. At the same time, it doesn’t get anything that impressive that one needs. Maybe, you will still put your window down and ask for directions. Some minor tweaks and we see no reason, why isn’t TomTom VIA125 a good device to have.