Thoughts on the HTC TyTN II's GPS Navigation Capabilities

I was originally a bit skeptical about the HTC TYTN II's GPS capabilities. I was expecting it to be kind of a poor implementation similar to what happened with the Trinity. I mean you can't possibly fit all the features of the TyTN II into one device and have everything work perfectly, right?

Well, I'm a bit surprised to say it, but the TYTN II is very likely the best GPS Navigation system I have ever used. Normally when I leave a parking garage, I have to drive down the road and maybe even stop for a minute or two before being able to get a signal and have TomTom calculate my position. This is with the HTC P3300 Artemis or external SirfSTAR III Bluetooth receiver.

With the TYTN II, I had three blue satellite connections and an accurate position as soon as I hit daylight from the same underground parking garage. Furthermore, normally with those other GPS devices, it takes a very long time to get a fix on your position if you're currently in motion. I've been on the highway for longer than 20 minutes at times waiting for a fix. The TYTN II gets a fix in a matter of seconds even when in motion. I'm not sure if this is because I'm currently using a smaller city map on the TyTN versus larger regional maps on the P3300 Artemis, since I haven't yet been able to transfer the activation of my full TomTom map set to the new TYTN II yet.

Regardless, another awesome feature for GPS navigation is the tilt screen and keyboard. You can set the TYTN II right up on your dashboard with the screen tilted up and just type in the letters of your destination with the keyboard. No longer am I forced to deal with those horrible on-screen hunt-and-peck alphanumeric software keyboards that most GPS navigation programs force upon us.

By the way, I got mine at Smart-Mobile-Gadgets in case you were wondering.