Garmin 550 Review

By de0ris

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).

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By Michael A. Aron

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.

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