Gear review: TOMTOM GO 60

The TOMTOM G0 60 offers widescreen convenience

A satnav! Where are we going? To any one of 45 European countries. They’re all loaded into the GO 60’s memory banks. Just say “Hey TomTom” to activate voice control and tell it where you want to be.

France. I want to go to France. You can pay for the petrol and the péage. The GO 60 knows where the service stations and tollbooths are, so you’ll get lots of warning when it’s time to hand over your euros. The route’s rendered on a six-inch touchscreen, and city-centre landmarks are shown in 3D.

What else is in the box? A press-and-twist windscreen sucker that’s quick and secure. A USB cable supplies power, and there’s a 12-volt socket adapter.

What if French farmers have blockaded the roads? We’ll outsmart ’em! By pairing the GO 60 to your smartphone via Bluetooth, it keeps itself and you aware of traffic snarl-ups and speed cameras, and will suggest alternatives. TomTom says the GO 60 shouldn’t chew through more than 7MB of data a month. You also get at least four free map updates a year for the life of the device.

It sounds like someone from Neighbours is telling me where to go. That’s James. He’s one of the GO 60’s inbuilt voices. He has a neat line in Aussie quips, although his advice about “grabbing those sunglasses” during a stop-off at Breich in remotest Lanarkshire makes me think nobody from TomTom has ever visited Breich.

Any niggles? Voice control was a bit iffy. A request for directions to Lanark returned three options on mainland Europe. Maybe it’s my accent, or maybe it’s because the inside of my car is noisier than the Space Shuttle.