The new design certainly is an improvement from the original, its size helps with transporting to and from the car, but we did find the new car cradle fitted too close to the windscreen, which caused an annoying reflection - which put us off a tad whilst driving.

Thankfully the anti-glare screen helped reduced the glare from the sun - which compensated for the above niggle.

Feature wise you get a choice of either UK & Ireland maps or maps of Western Europe, the device also supports Bluetooth, as well as an integrated SiRF-Star III receiver, you also get some multimedia functions such as an image viewer, but hardly worth bothering with as its main purpose is for navigating.

And navigating is something that TomTom (TT) does well at, especially as the device features the latest TTNavigator 6 software.

The interface now supports hi-res graphics and several new features which TT veterans will find in seconds, as they are seamlessly integrated within the confines of the menus.

Also new is TomTom Home and TomTom Buddy - these we will come back to later.

What sets the TT range apart from the competition is how easy it is to simply pick up the device and navigate within seconds. The interface is laid out with large buttons which are easily pressed and clearly labelled. All your functions for navigating to a destination are in easy to reach places and you can input destinations using a 7 digit post code, improved POI (Points of Interest), city and street.

The route planner has also been tweaked and it now allows you to include multiple waypoints for easier planning. Plus you can view demos of a route before you embark and unlike other products you can increase the speed at which the demo runs - very useful if your journey is long.

Another new feature of TTNavigator 6 is the "Arrival Time" function which when activated will prompt you if you need to arrive at a destination within a given time frame. The on-screen display will then show you the expected arrival time.

Before heading to the plus service screen you are best to log into the TomToms website and create yourself a free account, with this you can then unlock some of the freebies that are under this option.

From the options available you can link your TT up to your Bluetooth GPRS compatible phone and use the TT as a hands free kit and download weather reports, use the Buddy service, get speed camera updates and Traffic updates (you get a one month free trial of this) - though on paper this sounds straight forward we found it a bit fiddly to connect wirelessly to our Orange equipped Nokia.

The Buddy service on paper sounds cool. As long as your colleague or friend are connected up to the service you can send each other - via your GPRS Internet connection - your GPS location and instant messages.

We found the TT Traffic service - which is used for warning and re-routing your destination if it detects any traffic problems - extremely useful.

On a downside getting updates to the safety camera option require you to subscribe to the service, which raises the overall price slightly.

The other new addition to TT arsenal is the Home function, which is a cool utility that sits on your PC and it allows you to connect your TT via a USB cable (which also charges the unit) to check for updates, install new maps and to backup and restore your device.

The great thing about being able to link to your PC is the ability for the TT to use your PC's internet connection for downloading content - which saves your GPRS bill.

During our tests navigation performance could not be faulted, each route was accurate and our attempts to confuse the unit by going the wrong way did not phase the device one bit.

Speed cameras were also detected in good time and rather handy for ensuring you don't get zapped.

The lovely voice directions spoken from Jane were crisp, but like most TT products you can download new spoken voice directions from the net, which could be celebs or your own voice if you have the software to do the job.

The only gripe was the map detail (supplied by Navteq) which was pretty basic - though you are given additional directional aids on-screen to help with navigating. Plus your have a night mode - which changes the colour of the maps. On the subject of colours if you don't like the default scheme you can change this from the option menu.

Finally the TT does have a poor battery life - TomTom claim only 2 hours, so the unit will need to be plugged into your car charger frequently.