In the hotly contested portable navigation device market, TomTom has announced its latest products, the GO 730 and GO 930, boasting two notable new features: IQ Routes traffic-informed routing and Advanced Lane Guidance with realistic views for major intersections. Both new features will be in the GO 730 and GO 930 models, on sale late April.

IQ Routes functionality draws on historical speed profiles of over 6.2 billion miles of roads driven by TomTom users. Devices already in service capture the data and then it is made available about four times a year when TomTom releases its regular map updates. By understanding the traffic patterns due to rush-hour congestion, traffic lights, rotaries, and other factors, this new feature reportedly enables the devices to provide a more appropriate route for the specific day and time, and subsequently give a more accurate prediction for time to destination.

Advanced Lane Guidance changes the map view to a relatively realistic depiction of highway junctions with lane-specific visual directions on a static image. Navigon offers a similar feature called "Reality View." In our testing, we found this to be helpful when navigating confusing highway intersections. (See Navigon 5100 first look and video.)

TomTom GO 730 and TomTom GO 930
The new personal navigation devices (PNDs) introduce a sleek, black design and new features to the company's GPS lineup. The two units appear quite similar, with few differences. The 730 includes maps for the United States and Canada, with 2 gigs internal memory. The 930 adds European maps and has 4 gigs memory, plus it has a unique dead-reckoning technology to maintain navigation even in tunnels and among skyscrapers. Otherwise, the models are quite similar.

Common to the GO 730 and GO 930:

• 4.3-inch screen
• Voice address input
• Spoken street names
• Bluetooth
• "Help me" direct access to emergency services
• FM transmitter

—Jeff Bartlett

For more information on portable GPS navigation systems, see our Ratings and buying advice and watch our video guide. Discuss GPS devices in the forums.