Garmin Zumo 550 3.5-Inch Portable GPS Navigator by Garmin
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List Price: Our Price: $595.00 You Save: $304.99 (34%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $450.00 (click here) Category: GPS or Navigation System See more digital camera details and other models |
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Digital camera reviews of Garmin Zumo 550 3.5-Inch Portable GPS Navigator
Digital camera Review: A must for the serious Rider
Summary: 5 Stars
Pros: easy to use even with my cold weather gloves on!
Cons: I don't have enough vacation time to ride my bike on more trips
"I received my Zumo 550 in the mail on the day I was leaving for a five day motorcycle trip. I did not have time to read the instructions, only time to mount it and go! The unit was so simple to use I was an expert by the end of the day. I traveled 1900 total miles on this trip and the Zumo 550 became an invaluable tool! I used it in the mountains of North Carolina always expecting the unit to Not know where I was or loose satilites but that Never happened. The built in blooth tooth linked my cell phone and bluetooth headset and I was able to hear directions clearly! With the extra mount for my car, I am able to quickly move the unit from bike to car effortlessly. I look forward to adding the XM antenna to an already feature packed unit. I loaded my 2GB SD card and listened to my favorite music and also loaded pictures of the trip on the unit as well. Don't bother looking at any other units for your motorcycle, THIS IS IT!!"
As for you folks upset about having to use a headset to hear the directions, how were you expecting to hear anything from a speaker on a GPS at highway speeds? Why would you not want the blue tooth headset to link your phone and listen to mp3 music as well? Anyway, everyone has an opinion.
Digital camera Review: AS Advertised
Summary: 3 Stars
The 550 is a marked improvement over the other Garmin GPS's I have owned.I have found only one glitch in the program; it doesn't know where home is. The only other complaint I will make is on the Motorcycle Mount. There is no way to disconnect the power supply from the mount so as to take both the unit and mount off for safekeeping at night or while in suspect areas. Garmin wants to sell you a 30.00 dollar lock to secure the mount onto the motorcycle but is not aware that a few minutes work with a wrench will remove the mount and RAM Ball. Way to go Garmin. As for the rest. I will say, so far so good.Digital camera Review: Agreat motorcycle GPS
Summary: 5 Stars
This is my second motorcycle GPS and it definitely comes much closer to perfect than my previous one. I bought this model for Bluetooth and I have to say that function works perfectly. Combined with the interphone motorcycle headset it is the perfect combination. Listen to music, GPS instructions and even phone calls while you ride. Your phone book loads into it and you can add a SD card for music. As a GPS it functions well allowing you to create routes which are really nice for motorcycles. As advertised, it works with a glove on which is very handy. The only negative is once on a route, if you go off, you cannot tell it which via point to go to next, it guesses, and sometimes it guesses wrong. Other than that, I highly recommend it.Digital camera Review: Amazing device that delivers everything it's supposed to
Summary: 5 Stars
I've read a lot of the critical reviews on Amazon and frankly I just don't see where they are coming from. The unit itself lives up to all the claims and THEN some. It is very intuitive and does many things that are surprising. For example, the bluetooth capability (which linked up to EVERY phone I tried it with when I brought it to the Sprint store AND the Apple store [iPhone]) automatically downloads your phonebook. It also accesses your phone's recent incoming call, recent outgoing call and missed call lists in real time.
Of course as a navigation unit it is excellent. The interface is equally intuitive and it contains 6 million points of interest. You can search for PIOs along your route, at a destination, nearest, etc. Lots and lots of features and options are useful.
One thing that really impresses me is the overall feel and responsiveness of the interface and the applications. I had a Magellan 4250 before this, and that was a fine unit for the price, but the Windows CE environment was rather slow and (what else?) prone to needing reboots. The Garmin Zumo feels like it's totally integrated and gives a great level of confidence. The BEST part is Garmin's web updater that detects the device, figures out your firmware levels and automatically presents the any newer software with a description of what changed. Garmin seems to be pretty active in fixing bugs and improving features and they come up with updates every few months. To me, that is critical. I need to know that my unit is actively supported.
In terms of being a motorcycle unit, I give this a very high score. The mounting hardware is beautiful and the kit comes with everything: cable to hardware the mounting cradle to the bike's battery (optional, of course, but SO great!), car mount, car power adapter, USB cables, additional plastic bezels for when you beat the heck out of the original ones. I've gone mine mounted on a Ninja 650R and so far so good.
Yes, the price is WAY higher than anyone wants to pay, but it can be had from an authorized dealer for far below the MSRP, and you need a ruggedized unit to survive the vibrations of a motorcycle (no matter how smooth you think your bike is). The feature set is huge and the quality top notch.
To the folks giving this unit one star because of seller issues, this isn't a seller rating system. To those giving this unit one or two stars because it didn't work with some bluetooth device XYZ, whattiya gonna do? I've tried a ton of devices just for kicks and they all worked. Garmin can't control what other vendors do or don't do. Many people have given few stars because of issues that were fixed by firmware updates 18 months ago.
Bottom line is that this is a beautiful unit that continues to surprise me with it's feature set, completeness and attention to detail. Well worth the (admittedly nosebleed) price.
Digital camera Review: Best Ever
Summary: 5 Stars
Installation was straightforward. Programminng from the included mapping cd was easy. The Zumo finds position faster than my iWay. If you dedide to alter your programmed route it recalculates very quickly to get you to your destination. It is easy to see and easy to read, The music downloaded to the unit from iTunes sounds good through the headset and I can use the Bluetooth to answer my cellphone if necessary. It also looks good on the bike. I have no complaints at all. Great unit and worth the pricey cost.