Garmin Streetpilot C550 2.1-Inch Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator by Garmin
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Digital camera reviews of Garmin Streetpilot C550 2.1-Inch Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator
Digital camera Review: 5 stars for GPS, but 1 point off for support
Summary: 4 Stars
We really needed a GPS in our family. My lovely wife, whom I cherish and who gets far too little thanks for driving our children to their many activities (and who might read this), would often call me at work to use Mapquest to help figure out where she was and where she was going. Much as I enjoyed these calls, I thought it would be best if she had an onboard co-pilot. After reading the reviews on Amazon, I thought the Garmin sounded like the best choice.
First, the unit certainly does what my wife asks it to do: chart paths between points A and B. At that, it has been essentially flawless over the several weeks since we purchased it. In addition, it is tremendously easy to install (taking just a couple of minutes) and use. In the first two weeks, my wife went from a techno-phobe doubter to a true believer. Asked about the purchase in that first 2 weeks, I'd have given it 5 stars.
Then it died, for no good reason. The company (Garmin) was a bit hard to reach, with limited tech support hours (including no weekends). We had to send the unit back, and we did promptly receive a second unit. That unit has worked great for going on a month now. Given that there are a couple of other users with similar complaints, I'd have to say that these units may not be quite as reliable as a typical electrical device. Also, we have not had any trouble with the mount, unlike several of the reviewers.
In summary, for its core function, I think the unit is awesome. There are some issues with customer support that Garmin should work on, but these are not enough to seriously tarnish our experience.
ADDENDUM (10/16/06) - after some use, I have concluded that the function which estimates arrival time does so by using a best-case assumption about your speed. It seems to predict that you will always be traveling at the speed limit on a given stretch of road. This means is does not anticipate the inevitable red lights. It consistently underestimates travel time for in-city driving. If I could deduct a 1/2 star from my original review, I would.
Digital camera Review: 550 STREET PILOT
Summary: 5 Stars
WORKS GREAT. FINDS SATELLITES FAST. EVEN TELLS ME KEEP RIGHT OR LEFT ON HIGHWAY EXIT RAMPS
SOMETIMES IT PRONOUNCES STREET NAMES FUNNY BUT YOU KNOW WHAT IT MEANS.
SO USER FRIENDLY MY WIFE CAN USE IT.
Digital camera Review: A great little 5 Stars
This is a great thing ever. My wife can not go places without this. I hope every people should have this product.Digital camera Review: A little pricey for a toy.
Summary: 3 Stars
The dealer was fine, I should say that upfront. Our fist item worked for a few hours on Christmas day. The replacement has functioned well since we got it. The directions are sort of spotty and the maps are rather incomplete. They also have an auto complete on the street names that makes some streets impossible to get to. It is way too expensive to be a sometimes usable tou.Digital camera Review: A very capable unit
Summary: 4 Stars
This can do everything it advertises, with no problems. It's easy to mount, easy to set up, easy to use. I haven't used the traffic detection yet, so I don't know how good that is. But I've used this in two different cities, with successful directions for the most part.
Trying to find a place is natural enough, as it breaks things down into multiple categories (example, Places - Food - Pizza, etc.) and returns places that are currently closest to you. You can also enter the address if you know it. You can also set a hot button to Home, which is nice to have a set favorite location to go to. The Bluetooth integration is nice too. It will give you a hands free setup, if you don't already have one.
Of course there are some quirks that I found, which may or may not have solutions. The primary one is that once you enter your destination, and receive your path route, there isn't an easy way to get an overview to ensure it is taking you to the right place. Zooming way out on the map far enough, is rather painful. So, there is an element of trust that needs to go on. Luckily it hasn't steered me wrong yet (that I know of). The other minor quirk is that trying to browse places isn't as good as I'd like. I was in a strange city (Kansas City) and wanted to find good places to go. The places it returned to me seemed limited compared to what I had seen earlier in Google maps. But, it did return enough that we had a good time with what was provided.
All in all, I would recommend this unit, since it definitely does what it is supposed to ,and it does it well.