Product Description
The garmin nuvi 550 will guide you while you drive, hike, bike or boat. Go sightseeing with geotagged images from garmin Connect Photos or see your terrain with the digital elevation model basemap. The nuvi 550 comes preloaded with highly detailed City Navigator maps. The preloaded map data features millions of points of interest, including hotels, restaurants, gas stations, ATMs and attractions. The map data is provided by NAVTEQ, a world leader in premium-quality mapping. Geocaching, including Wherigo Platform player Built-in DEM Basemap (Digital Elevation Model) 3.5 QVGA color antiglare TFT with white Backlight Touchscreen Display - 320 x 240 Pixels User replaceable lithium-ion battery - up to 8 hours depending on use Dimensions - Width 4.21 x Height 3.35 x Depth 0.9 (10.7x8.5x2.3cm) Weight - 7.6 ounces (215 grams)
I'm really pleased with the Garmin Nuvi 550. I bought it to be a portable unit for both car, boat, and hike. It's quite easy to use, seems to have good battery life, and includes some pretty cool features that are accessible with a few presses of the touch screen.
My only beef with this unit has been the lack of clear information about a few things. After, some research, calls and emails to Garmin (helpful and responsive by email), and some communications with third-party vendors ... I am all straight. Here are some things that I found out to save you some grief.
1)Charging ... yes, you can charge this with most/any standard USB-to-computer cable OR a USB charger (i.e. for an MP3 player or cellphone). They all use the same, standardized amount of power ... so you can save yourself some money (and simplify) with just what you already use with other devices.
2)BlueChart G2 MicroSD Vision maps for Marine use. Garmin (as of 4/25) is completely updating their Marine line and NO LONGER recommends G2 Vision (vs. G2). I was looking for the Chesapeake Bay for this model ... and was pleased to find out through Garmin that they now sell the entire US (G2 version ... not G2 Vision) for this model at half the price as previous cards. Go to Garmin, choose their map/chart selector, choose BlueChart g2 >> Regular >> US039R - US g2.
3)Hard to find MicroSD? - At least during this change-up with Garmin, Garmin and retailers seem like they don't specify MicroSD ... apparently, the Bluechart maps all come in MicroSD and include a standard SD adapter. So you don't need to specify.
4)Taking off the battery cover for the first time. The first time you remove this, it is stuck on there pretty good. Pull the latch down, then stick something very fine (like a jewelers screwdriver) on the right side of the panel that says "Garmin" and gently pry up. After that it seems like you can get it off easily.
5)There are some descriptions on the internet for this device that mistakenly say that street names are audibly pronounced. This is not the case. The directions are "Turn left in .2 miles" are audible. This is probably for the better ... for clarity sake ... and for the simple fact that it would probably butcher proper names anyway and that would be overwhelming.
SUMMARY - Very nice, portable, compact GPS that includes a lot of features. I'm glad I bought it.
We purchased the Garmin Nuvi 550 GPS Navigator because it was the only unit we could find that could be used for vehicle, foot, bicycle or boat navigation. We're pretty impressed with it's capabilities, although we have no need to implement the real-time traffic feature in our rural neck of the woods. For vehicle navigation, the only thing I'd change is to add trip miles remaining to the map screen; you have to go one screen into the system to find that information. And, to make it more fun, I wish they had more voice choices. For some reason the first unit we received would not charge the battery at all. Garmin tech support was prompt, and advised us to return it to the vendor...which we did for a replacement with no problem. Amazon is good that way. And the replacement unit works great.
The Garmin nuvi 550 is a compromise - a very good, multi-use, highly functional compromise. The challenge was that I could purchase only one GPS for use on foot, bicycle, motorcycle, and car. There are a number of GPS units that are superior for any one of these travel modes but none are as good at all of them. The nuvi 550 is small enough to fit in my backpack or hip belt pocket for hiking and walking use. It is true that the digital compass only works when moving but a few steps is all it takes and the compass is reliable, accurate, and functional. The 550 is rugged enough for street bikes (pedal or power) and the battery life is long enough so a hardwired power source isn't needed for most rides. The 550 is sealed sufficiently to handle moisture and dust, the screen is bright enough to be visible in sunlight, and the touch screen buttons are large enough to use with light weight gloves. In the car, it is small enough to not appear to fill the windshield while the display is large enough to be easily used while driving. The only negatives that I've found are that a belt case and standard motorcycle power cord are not readily available. Neither of these are big problems and can be easily addressed.
I received this unit yesterday with the intention of using it on my motorcycle. It is very nice and compact, waterproof and also has many different mounts available.
I registered the unit and it immediately asked if I wanted to update to the 2010 maps for free. I accepted and chose the download method rather than the mailing of a disk. It took a little over an hour and the unit has all the update software and maps.
I took it out in the car to test it and the unit works perfectly. It has a great screen, the speed is much better than my Streetpilot C550 for both obtaining the GPS signal when started and then computing and showing the route.
I like the unit and it can be used off in the hills hiking but you will need to buy the Topo maps if you do that extensively.
For a nice, cheap, waterproof GPS you cannot go wrong.
This GPS is great as you can use it at the car, walking or cycling
I've had a couple navigators and have found that you must caste a suspicious eye on whatever route the navigator comes up with. Don't follow it blindly. The windshield suction cup mount that comes with the unit is useless: You can then buy their bean bag holder. The GUI is pretty nice, but I wish I could change the items in view. That said, I like the nuvi 550 alot and gave it four out of five stars.
For my motorcycles, I've had a Garmin Quest and later Quest 2 for years. I loved their small 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 cover became unbearable. So I began to seek 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 critical area for me - battery life. The Zumo is rated at 4 hours, virtually requiring hard wiring. Since I use 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 friendly. But other than that I could not be more satisfied. I use the Mapsource software from my Quest 2 to plan routes on the PC and upload to the unit. It is quick to recalculate and never loses a signal. I bought a RAM-MOUNT and it enables trouble-free and solid mounting to the bikes (just like they had done for the Quest 2).
If you don't want to hard wire, this is a great GPS unit. Oh, and I bought a spare battery and keep it charged - now I have 16 hours - more than I'll ever need for one day.
5 stars well deserved from this happy owner.
So, finally I got my nuvi. It was a tough choice: many GPS carriers are available, and each has many models that come in vast 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 tell me when and where to make a turn, and not worry about spending extra time looking off the road to confirm street signs.
2. I wanted my GPS to help me out more than just driving directions. I hike, I camp, I travel all over, and not just North America. I wanted the versatility of being able to navigate and pin point my location on the highway, in the mountains, offroad, and not just be able to locate nearest gas station. Before Nuvi 500/550 I would have had to purchase 2 GPS units: one for the car, one hand-held (e.g. Colorado series).
3. I needed it to be durable, and reliable. 8 hour battery life + waterproof function to me are the two features I'm very very happy with. To date, my little nuvi took 2 falls (one on the rocks, and another one flying off down some stairs -- don't ask), and I'm happy to report gadget is functioning flawlessly. I'm not advocating it's indestructible, but it does have durable construction indeed.
4. Satellite communication is superior for the product. Leafs, heavy cloud cover, even indoors, I get fair reception. It does have its quarks rarely, but overall, it pin-points me within 10' radius. Gotta love it. With the latest firmware update location has been even more precise, so it's worth doing it asap. The update also adds a variety of language options and scooter mode, which is really neat.
Here's something to be aware of... This model unlike 500 does not come with topo maps or marine maps. It felt like a fair 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 catch. 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 way to load them. Because of the proprietary interface, mapSource is the easiest way to take advantage of all these resources. There is third party software available, but it's not the easiest thing to use. Another annoyance is that unit does not come with any case. There are not hard to find, but still.
So, besides lacking the software, this is a great unit worth every penny. I found LCD display to have good visibility in a daylight, volume was great - I could hear it just fine with stereo on, and overall display was smart and simple. It's small and light, so it's easy to carry it around, and suction cup for the windshield is great, no need to get any extras. I also like the fact that it has swappable batteries. On long trips with no access to electricity, just bring a few extras, and you won't get stuck. Really no learning curve to using it, and performance is fantastic. Great investment, no regrets here.
It took me a while to understand the different between the Nuvi 500 and the 550. Look no further. Only the base map 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 good stuff. This GPS is quickly 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 just click on "go." On one trip, it correctly navigated reversing direction on a double-cloverleaf turn. A pleasant voice 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 just 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 fly if you find yourself stuck at a railroad crossing. Custom routes can be saved. Waypoints can be sorted by category and new categories can be added. Photographs can be added, although I haven't done much with this feature. Clicking on the top bar will display the route turn by turn. I found the routing quite intelligent and much prefer 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 just throw it on the dash 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 come with any software. There is map updating software available which can be downloaded from the website, but there is no real support for uploading and downloading waypoint information. It is possible to use Garmin's MapSource with this unit if you have an old 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 map is pre-loaded, there is no background map 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 come with an a/c adapter or usb cable, but they are both available from Garmin at an outrageous price. 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 use for it yet.
Finally, the ugly 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 way to modify this information (at least, not easily). The user data file appears on the unit as Current.gpx in xml format. However, this file appears to be only a copy of the real 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 just settle for arriving close to your destination instead of it bringing you right up the driveway.
If you really want to dig into the guts of the system, the best way I found is to generate one waypoint and use the data in the Current.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 new 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 bad news is that the points must be deleted through the menu system (not a big deal) and the decision to re-load your personal files is apparently determined by the file creation date. Duplicate points or database corruption is possible, but easily undone.
Using this method, I was able to correct the lat/lon of a waypoint which was 4 houses away from the correct address. I found a more accurate location 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 new waypoints by copy/paste. To create a custom category, simply name it in the appropriate tag. Routes, I imagine can be dealt with the same way but I find their format too difficult to create or modify by hand.
There's many missing features which I've found on other hand-held units. There is no way to save 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 screen, but it is not very precise, tends to make mistakes, dragging is miserable and the resolution is very bad... but, all of this is acceptable since most of the time you only need to press a few spots on the screen to start navigation. The cleverness of the unit really outshines the shortcomings of the display.
All in all, a wonderful travel companion. It's intelligent, useful, and will keep you company on long trips. If you're a gps hacker, you'll find it just flexible enough make it do what you want, but it will make you wonder why Garmin makes us go through so much misery to tweak or save a waypoint to your pc.
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About Garmin nüvi 550 3.5-Inch Portable GPS Navigator detail
- Amazon Sales Rank: #1449 in Consumer Electronics
- Brand: Garmin
- Model: NUVI 550
- Dimensions: 4.21" h x 3.30" w x .90" l, .50 pounds
- Native resolution: 320 x 240
- Display size: 3.5
Features
- High-Sensitivity GPS Receiver For Improved Performance And Reception
- Built-In 3D Basemap
- Built-In US Maps
- 3.5-Inch Display, 320 X 240 Pixels
- Easy Touch-Screen Interface
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