Garmin NUVI 550 Prices, Reviews, Sales, Compare
 |
Garmin NUVI 550 Prices, Reviews, Sales, Compare.
Product: Garmin NUVI 550 Amazon Price: Too low to display Availability: In Stock |
Compare Prices on Garmin NUVI 550
So, finally I got my nuvi. It was a tough choice: many GPS carriers are available, and each has many models that advance in titanic variety of flavors. I've narrowed it down to Nuvi 550 for the following reasons:
1. Text to speech to me is really annoying. I want my GPS to whine me when and where to obtain a turn, and not anxiety about spending extra time looking off the road to confirm street signs.
2. I wanted my GPS to succor me out more than unprejudiced driving directions. I hike, I camp, I disappear all over, and not unprejudiced North America. I wanted the versatility of being able to navigate and pin point my residence on the highway, in the mountains, offroad, and not honest be able to locate nearest gas status. Before Nuvi 500/550 I would have had to select 2 GPS units: one for the car, one hand-held (e.g. Colorado series) .
3. I needed it to be durable, and generous. 8 hour battery life + waterproof function to me are the two features I'm very very contented with. To date, my diminutive nuvi took 2 falls (one on the rocks, and another one flying off down some stairs -- don't ask), and I'm overjoyed to represent gadget is functioning flawlessly. I'm not advocating it's indestructible, but it does have durable construction indeed.
4. Satellite communication is top-notch for the product. Leafs, heavy cloud veil, even indoors, I acquire exquisite reception. It does have its quarks rarely, but overall, it pin-points me within 10' radius. Gotta worship it. With the latest firmware update dwelling has been even more right, so it's worth doing it asap. The update also adds a variety of language options and scooter mode, which is really clean.
Here's something to be aware of... This model unlike 500 does not arrive with topo maps or marine maps. It felt like a splendid trade because it gave me Canada, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands and all of US maps (includes Alaska and Hawaii) vs. 48 lower states+topo in the other model only. But here's a bag. No mapSource software. There are so many free topo maps (and for that matter many others -- e.g. Israel maps, which garmin does not market) available, but there's no method to load them. Because of the proprietary interface, mapSource is the easiest draw to steal advantage of all these resources. There is third party software available, but it's not the easiest thing to exercise. Another annoyance is that unit does not approach with any case. There are not hard to fetch, but composed.
So, besides lacking the software, this is a colossal unit worth every penny. I found LCD reveal to have sterling visibility in a daylight, volume was gigantic - I could hear it objective blooming with stereo on, and overall demonstrate was sparkling and simple. It's dinky and light, so it's easy to carry it around, and suction cup for the windshield is titanic, no need to salvage any extras. I also like the fact that it has swappable batteries. On long trips with no access to electricity, unprejudiced bring a few extras, and you won't secure stuck. Really no learning curve to using it, and performance is wonderful. Stout investment, no regrets here.
It took me a while to understand the different between the Nuvi 500 and the 550. Gaze no further. Only the infamous method is different. The 500 comes with the lower 48 states with topographical information while the 550 includes all of North America (Canada and Mexico) and no topographical information. The units are identical otherwise.
First, the noble stuff. This GPS is mercurial becoming an invaluable tool for long drives. I have been able to enter a street address as well as many restaurants, hospitals, and businesses then unprejudiced click on "go." On one dawdle, it correctly navigated reversing direction on a double-cloverleaf turn. A suited divulge guides you and alerts you of upcoming turns. Miss the turn and the unit will patiently wait for you to realize your error. Then, after a while it will unbiased recalculate your route automatically. It is also possible to tweak the routes by manually entering points to divert the automatic routing or pressing "detour" on the cruise if you pick up yourself stuck at a railroad crossing. Custom routes can be saved. Waypoints can be sorted by category and current categories can be added. Photographs can be added, although I haven't done distinguished with this feature. Clicking on the top bar will exhibit the route turn by turn. I found the routing quite radiant and noteworthy assume this unit over my last human co-pilot (but I hope that she never reads this review) . This particular unit has a rechargeable battery and the unit can be mounted on an optional bean bag mount to impartial throw it on the trip instead of messing with cables. This makes it perfect for rental cars as well. It has four modes for driving, walking, boating, or bicycling.
Next, the so-so stuff. This unit does not advance with any software. There is intention updating software available which can be downloaded from the website, but there is no loyal befriend for uploading and downloading waypoint information. It is possible to exercise Garmin's MapSource with this unit if you have an faded copy, but the Nuvi 500/550 does not seem to be fully supported. After wrestling with it a bit, I was able to download points but not modify them. And, since the background way is pre-loaded, there is no background plan for MapSource. There are features which are missing, such as the ability to turn off poi's (Point of Interest) labels or the ability to modify the lat/lon of a point once it's created. It does not reach with an a/c adapter or usb cable, but they are both available from Garmin at an scandalous note. Thankfully, the USB cable is a standard mini-USB and you may already have the cable you need at home and not know it. Once you locate a cable for it, it appears as a disk drive on Mac or PC without additional drivers. I added a microSD card, which appears as a second drive, but haven't found a exhaust for it yet.
Finally, the terrifying stuff. 9 times out of 10 the street address translates to lat/lon coordinates within a few feet of your destination. But, once in a while, it's a bit off translating street addresses to lat/lon and there is no method to modify this information (at least, not easily) . The user data file appears on the unit as Novel.gpx in xml format. However, this file appears to be only a copy of the staunch one. Any edit or deletion of this file is simply undone when the unit reboots. And, since there is no software with the unit, you may have to fair determine for arriving stop to your destination instead of it bringing you fair up the driveway.
If you really want to dig into the guts of the system, the best map I found is to generate one waypoint and employ the data in the Fresh.gpx file as a template for your personal waypoints. I created several custom .gpx files in xml format with notepad. The lat/lon can be entered easily by using Google Earth, right-click on the current point (which may first be dragged to exactly where you want it) and paste the information into notepad. When you're done, you will have several gpx files (xml format) which will be incorporated into the unit's memory when you reboot. The poor news is that the points must be deleted through the menu system (not a tremendous deal) and the decision to re-load your personal files is apparently certain by the file creation date. Duplicate points or database corruption is possible, but easily undone.
Using this plot, I was able to legal the lat/lon of a waypoint which was 4 houses away from the factual address. I found a more just region in Google Earth, deleted the point from memory, and re-loaded it through my custom gpx files. It's actually easier than it sounds since the only software you really need is notepad. I've added many modern waypoints by copy/paste. To execute a custom category, simply name it in the appropriate price. Routes, I imagine can be dealt with the same contrivance but I obtain their format too difficult to do or modify by hand.
There's many missing features which I've found on other hand-held units. There is no contrivance to achieve and load personal files, other than doing it by hand. The satellite tracking and fix information has been replaced with the same type of "bars" you have seen on cell phones - easy to understand but less information. It has a touch cover, but it is not very staunch, tends to effect mistakes, dragging is melancholy and the resolution is very awful... but, all of this is acceptable since most of the time you only need to press a few spots on the cover to originate navigation. The cleverness of the unit really outshines the shortcomings of the exhibit.
All in all, a incredible proceed companion. It's smart, useful, and will support you company on long trips. If you're a gps hacker, you'll bag it unprejudiced flexible enough execute it do what you want, but it will build you wonder why Garmin makes us go through so worthy misery to tweak or build a waypoint to your pc.
For my motorcycles, I've had a Garmin Quest and later Quest 2 for years. I loved their limited size, long-range battery and that they were water proof. But the time it took to recalculate and ability to lose satellite signal even in light tree cloak became unbearable. So I began to see an upgraded unit.
It came down to the Zumo and Nuvi 550 units because they are water proof, a requirement for my bikes. The Zumo clearly has several features the Nuvi does not, but was lacking in one notable region for me - battery life. The Zumo is rated at 4 hours, virtually requiring hard wiring. Since I exhaust GPS on all my bikes, I did not want to go through the hassle, and the Nuvi comes with an 8 hour battery.
All it is lacking for me is the interface to enter addresses. On the Zumo it is more glove honorable. But other than that I could not be more tickled. I consume the Mapsource software from my Quest 2 to view routes on the PC and upload to the unit. It is lickety-split to recalculate and never loses a signal. I bought a RAM-MOUNT and it enables trouble-free and solid mounting to the bikes (fair like they had done for the Quest 2) .
If you don't want to hard wire, this is a broad GPS unit. Oh, and I bought a spare battery and withhold it charged - now I have 16 hours - more than I'll ever need for one day.
5 stars well deserved from this blissful owner.
