TomTom Start 60 review

Sat-nav screen sizes have been expanding over the last couple of years. Not long ago, your main choice would be between a budget device with a 3.5in non-widescreen, or a premium model with a 4.3in widescreen. Larger displays were reserved for specialist devices and truck drivers. But the prices of big-screen sat-navs have been falling steadily, with landmarks like Mio's 5in Spirit 685 and Navman's incredibly cheap 7in Panoramic. TomTom clearly doesn't want to be left out of the big boy's party, so we have the Start 60. It's not exactly pocket friendly, but if you have problems seeing regularly-sized sat-navs (as some of our readers have argued), it could be just what you need.



The screen itself, other than the 6in diagonal, is bright and has decent viewing angles. The surface has a relatively matt finish, so although very bright direct sunlight can wash the image out quite a bit, reflections won't completely obscure what's onscreen. In other words, the Start 60 will fulfil its primary mission of being easier to see than regular sat-navs, in most conditions.



Other than the huge screen, however, the Start 60 is a pretty standard member of the Start range. It has the characteristic integrated mount, in common with the Via range, which is an arm hinged from one edge. This looks like it could seriously restrict your mounting options, and certainly screen attachment can be a little more awkward than devices using a separate mount. But there is one feature that potentially makes it more flexible. The screen will automatically flip when you turn the device around, which puts the arm at the bottom, so you can mount it sitting up from your dashboard rather than hanging down from the windscreen. A plastic disc is supplied which you can permanently afix to your dashboard, to provide a more effective mounting point for the Start 60's suction cup.



Although, when the range first arrived, the Starts had a cut-down menu system, now they use the same menu as every other TomTom sat-navs. This is the vastly improved and more logical arrangement first introduced with the GO LIVE 1000 series. Pressing on the screen calls up the menu, which has just six icons on the first page, rather than the pages of uniformly weighted options found in previous generations. You can navigate to an address or full UK postcode. There's a traditional category-based Points of Interest database that you can search by name, but you can't search for an address by keyword. You can save a Home location and a list of Favourites, plus your previous destinations will be found in a Recents list. You can navigate to latitude and longitude coordinates, too, and the position of your last stop is recorded, useful for finding your way back to where you left your car.