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Recently, a leading tech publication has chosen five of the best GPS navigators in the market, and 4 out of the 5 appliances were Garmin devices. Laymen and experts all agree that Garmin presently gives rise to the best GPS navigators in the market. So if you are in the market buying goods for one, you can't go defective with this brand.
Even when you have chosen the brand, making a final choice may still be rather a daunting task ask Garmin develops a wide range of navigators. For me, I am always for the lookout for a product that gives me the best value for my money. I look for a product that gives me what I need without all the unnecessary bell's and whistles. After numerous research, I in the long run settled for the Garmin Nuvi 255W. Here is a quick look at what I got.
First of all, the price was right. At the time of writing, it costs around $180 a piece, which is as much as I would spend for a navigation gadget. Despite it is price, it does come with a wide array of features. The 255W is so much more than a GPS device. With just a click of a button, you may find the nearest gas station, restaurant, or mall and find the shortest route to get there. Finding the best route tow reach your destination all the time will aid you save time, energy and money.
You would think that a GPS device of this price would get you a little 3.5" screen. The Garmin Nuvi 255W has a huge 4.3-inch touch screen that displays very clear images even in bright sunlight. The big screen makes it much posing no difficulty to view, in particular while you are driving. It likewise has 6 million point of interests and comes with maps of the USA (including Alaska, and Hawaii), Canada and various more. The Garmin Nuvi 255W likewise incorporates galore functions that were once only found in more highpriced navigators. It comes with text-to-speech functions, bicycle modes, effigy viewer, currency converter, calculator mode and much more.
Perfect for crossing over the threshold from city to backcountry, the Garmin nüvi 550 provides a high-sensitivity GPS receiver with turn-by-turn navigation in a ruggedized, waterproof exterior that you may use while hiking, biking, or boating. With it is high-sensitivity, WAAS-enabled GPS receiver and HotFix satellite prediction, nüvi 550 locates your position speedily and precisely and maintains it is GPS emplacement even in heavy cover and deep canyons--whether in the city or out in the wilds. And it without apparent effort switches modes (driving, walking, biking and boating) to navigate through your active modus vivendi depending on your activity. Other features include a 3.5-inch touchscreen, microSD memory expansion, geocaching GPX file capablenesses for finish cache descriptions and hints, and Garmin Connect Photos--enabling you to associate your bestloved images with saved locations.
The waterproof nüvi 550 guides you while you drive, hike, bike or boat. |
The nüvi 550 offers elaborated City Navigator NT street maps for the United States and features digital elevation maps that show you shaded terrain contours at higher zoom levels. The map data, provided by NAVTEQ, features over six million points of interest, including hotels, restaurants, gas stations, ATMs and attractions.
The DEM basemap (above) provides shaded contours, and the nüvi also includes a digital compass. |
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Weighing 7.6 ounces and measuring less than an inch thin, the nüvi 550 fits without apparent effort in a purse, backpack, or jacket pocket. The 3.5-inch color touchscreen display (with 320 x 240-pixel resolution) is easy to read even in direct sunlight, and the nüvi's easy-to-use interface means you'll spend more time enjoying the outdoors and less time searching for information. Simple controls and sub-screens make it easy to enter or search for destinations and get data regarding your trip. Simply touch the color screen to enter a destination, and nüvi takes you there with turn-by-turn voice directions, 2-D or 3-D maps and smooth map updates as you navigate. Its digital elevation model (DEM) mapping shows you shaded contours at higher zoom levels, giving you a huge picture of the surrounding terrain. In addition, the nüvi accepts habit points of interest (POIs), such as school zones and safety cameras and lets you set proximity alerts to warn you of upcoming POIs.
Garmin's HotFix capability mechanically calculates and stores satellite locations, primarily reducing satellite acquisition time so that you may turn the unit on and get going. With HotFix, your nüvi 550 remembers the position of all satellites it is tracking when you turn it off, and calculates their movements in order to predict where they must be the next time you turn it on. HotFix may predict satellite positions for up to 3 days after the device was last turned off.
Conveniently plug in optional preloaded microSD memory cards for all your outdoor actions on land or water. Just insert an optional Garmin MapSource card with elaborated street maps (such as for locales outside the United States), and the nüvi 550 provides turn-by-turn directions to your destination. And with optional BlueChart g2 Vision maps, you'll get everything you need for a outstanding day on the water including depth contours, navaids and harbors.
A user-replaceable lithium-ion battery will give you up to eight hours of battery life (depending on use). In addition to an AC charger, the unit likewise ships with a 12-volt power adapter for vehicle charging, as well as a windshield suction cup mount.
Specifications
- User modes: Driving, Boating, Bicycling and Walking
- Expansion: microSD card slot for optional mapping and data storage
- Wherigo player
- Geocahing: Supports Geocahing.com GPX files for finish cache descriptions and hints
- Dimensions: 4.21 x 3.35 x 0.9 inches (WxHxD)
- Display size: 3.5-inch QVGA color antiglare TFT screen (320 x 240-pixel resolution) with white backlight touchscreen
- Weight: 7.6 ounces
- Battery type: user replaceable lithium-ion
- Battery life: up to 8 hours depending on use
- Waterproof standard: IEC 60529 IPX7
Navigate by Photo with Garmin Connect Photos
Garmin Zumo 3 5 Inch Portable Navigator Pic
Garmin Zumo 3 5 Inch Portable Navigator Photo
Garmin Zumo 3 5 Inch Portable Navigator Image
Garmin Zumo 3 5 Inch Portable Navigator Picture
Garmin Zumo 3 5 Inch Portable Navigator Pic
Garmin Zumo 3 5 Inch Portable Navigator Photo
Great all-in-one
So, in the long run I got my nuvi. It was a tough choice: a good deal of GPS carriers are available, and each has a great deal of models that come in immense potpourri of flavors. I've narrowed it down to Nuvi 550 for the following reasons:
1. Text to speech to me is actually annoying. I want my GPS to tell me when and where to make a turn, and not worry in regards to spending extra time looking off the road to assert street signs. Although with latest update, TTS capablenesses are now available for this model (use Garmin's WebUpdater).
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 skillfulness of being capable to navigate and pin point my emplacement on the highway, in the mountains, offroad, and not just be competent to locate nearest gas station. Before Nuvi 500/550 I would have had to buy 2 GPS units: one for the car, one hand-held (e.g. Colorado series).
3. I necessitated 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 a good deal of 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 lasting construction indeed.
4. Satellite communication is superior for the product. Leafs, heavy cloud cover, even indoors, I get reasonable reception. It does have it is quarks rarely, but overall, it pin-points me within 10' radius. Gotta love it. With the latest firmware update emplacement has been even more precise, so it's worth doing it asap. The update likewise adds a potpourri of language choices and scooter mode, which is in truth neat.
Here's something to be conscious of... This model different from 500 does not come with topo maps or marine maps. It felt like a reasonable 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 a lot of free topo maps (and for that matter a lot of 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 vantage of all these resources. There is third party software available, but it's not the easiest thing to use. Another aggravation is that unit does not come with any case. There are not hard to find, but still.
So, besides missing out the software, this is a great unit worth each penny. I found LCD display to have good visibility in a daylight, volume was outstanding - I could listen it just fine with stereo on, and overall display was smart and simple. It's little 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 fetch a few extras, and you won't get stuck. Really no learning curve to using it, and performance is fantastic. Great investment, no repents here.
Amazing unit in a heap of ways
It took me a while to comprehend the dissimilar amid 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 info 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 getting an priceless tool for long drives. I have been capable to enter a street address as well as galore restaurants, hospitals, and businesses then just click on "go." On one trip, it in the right way 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 in a patient manner wait for you to realize your error. Then, after a while it will just recalculate your route automatically. It is also possible to finetune 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 may be saved. Waypoints may be sorted by category and new categories may be added. Photographs may be added, though I haven't done much with this feature. Clicking on the top bar will display the route turn by turn. I found the routing rather intellectual and much prefer this unit over my last humane co-pilot (but I hope that she never reads this review). This queer unit has a rechargeable battery and the unit may be mounted on an optional bean bag mount to just throw it on the dash rather of messing with cables. This makes it perfective 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 may be downloaded from the website, but there is no real help 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 to the full or entire extent supported. After wrestling with it a bit, I was competent to download points but not alter 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 capacity to turn off poi's (Point of Interest) labels or the capacity 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 frequent 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 further and added 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 alter this selective 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 plainly 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 rather of it bringing you right up the driveway.
If you genuinely want to dig into the guts of the system, the best way I found is to generate one waypoint and use the selective information in the Current.gpx file as a template for your personal waypoints. I produced assorted habit .gpx files in xml format with notepad. The lat/lon may be entered effortlessly by using Google Earth, right-click on the new point (which may introductory be dragged to incisively where you want it) and paste the data into notepad. When you're done, you will have assorted gpx files (xml format) which will be integrated into the unit's memory when you reboot. The bad news is that the points ought to be deleted through the menu system (not a huge 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 without apparent effort undone.
Using this method, I was capable to rectify the lat/lon of a waypoint which was 4 houses away from the rectify address. I found a more exact emplacement in Google Earth, deleted the point from memory, and re-loaded it through my habit gpx files. It's genuinely having little impact than it sounds since the only software you in truth need is notepad. I've added galore new waypoints by copy/paste. To formulate a habit category, merely name it in the suitable tag. Routes, I imagine may be dealt with the same way but I find their format too difficult to construct or modify by hand.
There's a heap of 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 selective information has been substituted with the same type of "bars" you have seen on cell phones - easy to perceive but less information. It has a touch screen, but it is not very precise, have a tendancy to make mistakes, dragging is miserable and the solution is very bad... but, all of this is satisfactory since most of the time you only need to press a few spots on the screen to begin navigation. The cleverness of the unit genuinely outshines the shortcomings of the display.
All in all, a fantasti 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 sufficient make it do what you want, but it will make you wonder why Garmin makes us go through so much misery to finetune or save a waypoint to your pc.
Garmin Nuvi 550
My introductory impression of the unit was very good, it is a little sufficient to effortlessly fit in your pocket, even a shirt breast pocket and is light sufficient not to be a problem. I had an older Garmin unit and was using Map Source (Tm) to manage the former device. The Nuvi 550 was reasonably easy to configure for use with Map source as well. I started to see issues with the unit the 2nd day I owned it, it went into a reboot loop, but after removing the battery it seemed to be ok. I upgraded the maps to the latest available and set out to Mississippi for a 1 week mission trip help with the Katrina recovery work. The unit worked very well on the way, but when I turned it on after arriving to enter the firstborn emplacement that we were going to work, the unit started to reboot and shutdown. No manner of reset or battery remotion would stop it. So while my primary impressions were very promising, I presently am waiting to have the unit substituted by Garmin or Amazon. I veritably hope this to have been a fluke, as I was looking forward to using the device in car, on Motorcycle and in my Kayak. Light weight, 8hr battery and waterproof these features actually fit the bill for my needs.
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