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I purchased the TOMTOM XXL 530-S at Staples on Black Friday after Thanksgiving for $134.00 including tax.
I feel the unit is a great deal for the price.


I tried to use the adhesive disk TOMTOM provides with the unit. The adhesive disk provided with the unit did not stick well. I then did research on monting devices. I first was told by TOMTOM to look into the [...], the Proclip init is not a good choice unless you want to spend an excessive amount of money to mount your device. The ProClip is also specific to your car model which is another joke. You get a different model car you need a new Proclip. I decided to purchase the Gilsson Universal Beanbag mount for $[...] from Amazon. I noticed it had a five star rating and the price was right. The center of the BeanBag mount has a shiney plexglass so the suction cup of your GPS will grip. The BeanBag can be placed on your dash, your seat, or in any open area in the car. The Bean Bag does not move on the dash or whereever you place it. Also, you are not sticking anything on your car. Also the Bean Bag is easily transportable, so your GPS can be used in all your cars. I placed mine in front of the gear shift where there is a recess storage area. Works Great. Obviously where you place the bean bag in a location that is best for your use is subjective.

The TOMTOM XXL530-S works great. The unit comes with a nice wide screen. The program reads out streets, interesections when needed, and has mulitple views. The unit will tell you how far you are from your destination when you are approaching and has a countdown on the unit. Therefore, it will announce you are 100 yards from your destination, then if you look at the display you can see the countdown meter. You do not have to look at your odometer. The unit also has a feature that can detect redlights that take pictures. I do not need this download option, but it is available. The unit has multiple sounds. You can download many voices free and comes preprogrammed with three voices. The loudness of the voice can be regulated. Most of the street names are clear, a few have been slightly distorted due to enunciation, although they are recognizable. The unit gives you advance notice of what lane to be in for an upcoming turn or exit and gives you ample warning to make the turn.

The unit also gives you a digital display of your speed. If you have a speedometer I guess you do not really need this feature. The unit also will tell you aloud your projected arrival time if for whatever reason there is a delay and the trip is longer than projected. You have the option of purchasing the software which will also notify you when there may be trafic jams and give you altermate routes. I have not used any of the extra features such as the alternate route program, but it is available.


I would recommend you download the software that allows you to upload your unit from the company's website as soon as you get the unit so you can download the latest map updates. You have to dowload the latest map software within the first 30 days of buying the unit. You also have the option of downloading different voices and additional features you may need. Some of the additonal voices are free of charge, and some there are a fee. If you want to download revised maps after your first 30 days I beleive there is a nominal fee.

Overall the unit works great. The display is a very good size. There is some breaking in time to entering in data to the unit however, the learning curve is fast. After you program the unit a couple of times you will master putting the information into the unit. The unit memorizes your previous trips which makes entering in repeat information a breeze. Also, the unit recognizes the first several letters of a city, state, or street. Therefore, one does not have to spell out every single word. The screen is big enough to easily touch the screen and program the unit. The screen is has just the right amount of sensitivity to the touch.

I read the one negative review for this unit and I could understand his concern about mounting the unit with the adhesive disk they provide, but I could not understand the negative review on the unit itself. For the money and the quality I feel it is a good unit. Prices for these units are going down. You may want to wait afer Christmas since I was able to get a better deal after a holiday.

I purchased the XXL530S for $279, took it home and used it for one day. I found the screen size super, clear and easy to read, no glare. It hooked up nicely to the windshield, wobbly at first, but just needed to be tightened by turning the base. The voice was clear and loud, didn't need to use a high volume setting. Lane Assist, Advance Notice worked well, sometimes maybe too far in advance, needed to check the actual distance from a turn, or I would have turned too soon. It didn't find my home location; I live on a dirt road, but I was able to modify the Home direction and save. It did give one miss direction, but friends have told me, it just needs an update. I feel out of the box it should be accurate, but I liked it so much, that I am willing to give it another chance. The only reason I returned it was the price. Found it much cheaper somewhere else and am headed out to purchase it again.

The 530 picks up satellites very quickly, especially if you download gps fixes. It's satellite sensitivity is also great. The iq routes are a godsend. The only bad thing is that it's sound quality of the computer voices is horrible. It also constantly mispronounces English street names. It also as a very big defect, it mispronounces the 0 (I.e. the 105 freeway) to "west". For example it will say merge left onto the one west five east freeway instead of one o five east or four hundred five east. You can see how this would be confusing.

Tom Tom senior tech support says this is a bug that affects all their models. They will not replaced the unit for this reason. They are working on the problem and are not able to give ANY estimate on when this will be resolved.

If you choose two voices, one computer voice and bart simpson for example. It will not speak any street signs in the computer voice. So you have to make a choice between text to speech and the celebrity voices. When you choose a non computer voice, it will also ask you to choose a computer voice. NO computer voice will be heard at this point.

OK, maybe I had low expectations for GPS units in general, so that's why I was so pleasantly surprised, but I love this thing. For the very reasonable price of this unit on sale, I figure I'll save the cost of the unit in printer ink by not having to print out all those google maps, seriously! It is so easy to use. Basically plug it in, listen to a quick tutorial and you are on your way. I have had to play around with it a little to figure out all of the features, but it is pretty intuitive. I don't use the TTS, because I think that would be too much talking. It just says turn left ahead, etc, and I like to just glance at the screen. The screen, by the way, is great. Definitely get the biggest screen that you can. It is so easy to see exactly where you are and where you have to turn.

It is very good at finding restaurants, points of interest, etc. I find this very useful for soccer tournaments, etc.

I wish all of these GPS units did a better job with maps. I like to use the map feature, and getting to exactly the right spot at exactly the right zoom is sometimes cumbersome. It's usable, but this just doesn't seem to be the focus of GPS units in general. With this nice 5" screen, they could display more street names on the maps. I wish they would do a better job of this, because that's how I would like to analyze alternate routes.

The XXL 530s does tell you whether to get left or get right. I don't know if that is what people mean by lane guidance, but it seems to be sufficient for my driving.

I don't actually mount the unit, so I can't comment on the mounting. I just sit it on my lap or the center console and pick it up once in a while. That way I just slip it in my purse when I leave the car. It is very slim, so it fits in a purse easily. All in all, I love this thing and find it very easy to use.

I don't understand the reviews that say it can't get them to their location. Perhaps they live in a very rural area or need to update their map. I live in LA and with only an hour to do errands in an unfamiliar part of town, I got this gps at Office Depot and was taken directly to the 3 stores I needed without error. While I haven't used any other plug-in gps, I have used several built-in navi systems (we have an '08 Honda Odyssey) and this blows them all away. It's very intuitive and easy to use, while after 2 years I still have trouble with our Honda system. I'm very pleased & recommend the unit.

I bought it in Florida in February and used it out there. I bought it back to UK and purchased the UK & NI maps and the Speed Camera alerts. Had an initial problem with it only finding the first part of a post code but the guy at the UK help desk was brilliant, he emailed me a download, explained what to do. I downloaded, followed instructions and now its great. I needed to change the voice as some of Susan's pronunciation was really funny but not much use. It does what I expected it to do and just about all the old Tom Tom did. I like that you get a mileage count down to your next instruction/turning. Useful on the motorway when you are say 5 junction from your turning it tells you you are say 5 miles to next instruction or on a remote country lane you think you near your turning but actually still 2 miles from it. I don't know how well it sits on a dash as I leave it cradled on my central console, it sits there nicely pointing in the right direction jammed between the side of console and power plug. No give away marks when you remove it to glove box. It finds the satellite OK.

What I don't like:
1. I'm used to a Talex telling me I'm near a speed camera and what the speed limit for the road is, That I'm 100 meters from camera and to slow down if I'm still over speed limit and warning of possible mobile speed cameras. I was really disappointed with Tom Tom feeble beeps to alert you. So I run my Talex and Tom Tom together. I guess the 35 pounds for the camera upgrade would be value if you didn't have a Talex but once you've had a Talex, TomTom camera alerts just don't hack it. Now if Tom Tom were to incorporate the full Talex system of camera alerts their product would, in my opinion, be 900% better.

2. When my Husband is driving and I'm fiddling with the Tom Tom, its very easy to run your finger across the bottom of screen and accidentally turn the volume down, which I found out about 1 mile after we missed the turning. I know just leave the damn thing alone!

3. I miss the spousal arguments about reading maps wrong, not knowing my left from right, why didn't you buy a decent maps or I thought I told you to turn off there etc etc, need to find something else to occupy our long journeys now. Also I think we are missing out on finding some great places we wouldn't have seen if we hadn't taken the wrong turning and got lost. Sat Navs, a bit like computers do they really enrich our lives?

Anyway, We like it. It's got us to our destination in UK and USA so I would recommend it.

I got this Tomtom 530s for Christmas, but I exchanged it. NOT because its a bad product, Its a great product.

The 5" screen on the 530s is great/ I don't know how anyone could use one of those crappy 3-3.5" GPS units. I have an old Tomtom 4.3", still works fine, but its nice to have a bigger screen and more updated features.

I returned the 530s and got the 540s for just a bit more. The units are the same except for two addition features. 1) Mexico maps - I have no plans to go to Mexico, definately not to drive. 2) Lane Guidance - great for LA freeways.

If you don't need Mexico map or Lane guidance(only needed for tricky highways), then get the 530s. THe money you save can go for a good case(highly recommended) and you'll get a fair amount of Megabytes free for new voices, other small maps, POI, etc.

530s and 540s are both great.

I must admit I'm new to the GPS world. I got this for Father's Day 2010, ok I bought it then told the family it was my gift. I got mine from Target $129 on sale. We used it on a trip from Phoenix to the mountains of Arizona (Payson). I was interested to see if the unit would maintain signal, as radio stations loose contact through the mountains. It worked like a champ. I was amazed by accuracy even in rural areas. The directions were accurate and gave good warning of impending turns and speed cameras. I would have customized more for the trip but had 2 hours from purchase to leaving the house. The review that stated zeros are pronounced west, is no longer correct, the zero is pronounced zero.
The screen size and price were my selling points, again I have little knowledge about all the features on all different models but there is little I can find that it can't do. It is not voice activated, not blue tooth capable nor does it have the display of which lane you're in on a multi-lane road, but that's it. It gave good directions, in a clear voice. To get traffic updates you need another $20 antenna, but then traffic is free. You get one map update when you buy it, but if you want updates you can get them quarterly for $40.
When I chose a different route from the suggested route, it calculated the change instantly and showed the best way to get where I was going based on where I was.
I have read some other reviews of other makes/models about not updating the position often, this is not the case here. The map was updated instantly and even told me my speed relative to the speed limit. (Not good if the wife is in the car)
I have not found anything that I don't like about it. Great unit, great price.
Oh, it also has the option for in a car, on a bike or walking. I'm sure my Girl Scouts will love the walking feature on their Geo-cache adventures. (Yes I have daughters)
Hope this helps.

I purchased the TomTom XXL 530-S 5-Inch Widescreen Portable GPS Navigator as a gift for my daughter.
The Positives:
The Amazon price was right.
The screen size is right.
The sound quality is right.
The maps even tell you the names of streets and roads that have no sign posts, and Florida has plenty of such roads and streets.
It advises you which lane to keep in and lets you know far enough in advance to prepare for your turn coming up.
It is so smart it always knows exactly where you are, and the horizon even keeps up with changing from daytime to twilight to night.
When you turn it on, it is already in sync with its satellite and does not have to spend time searching for coverage, unlike all annoying cellphones we have ever known.

The Negatives:
It does not make toast or do the dishes.

I am hoping to purchase more of these as gifta for others of my family.

The TomTomXXL 530S ($180 in Radio Shack/$125 online)is a very good gps. We had heard good things about the Garmin ($160 at Walmart) as well, so my dad bought one for him and the other for me. We then went house hunting with both gps(es) in hand. Both told us in advance when to make a turn, but the Garmin added the name of the street on which to turn. We liked that. However, that was the limit of the Garmin advantage. We found that the TomTom offered these extras: driving speed/speed limit, name of road currently on, trip details--how far to go, expected arrival time. I also found that the TomTom's touch system was much more responsive and the ease of moving around the system was much better. In the end, I returned the Garmin to Walmart & purchased the TomTomXXL 530S online--it arrived in 3 days! Great decision.