Comments on: Garmin Zumo 550 3.5-Inch Portable GPS Navigator

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 11:16:44 +0000

5.0 out of 5 stars
Garmin ZUMO 550
What can I say that hasn’t already been said?? This unit is zoot, a perfect 10. If you get lost easy, (like me), this is the answer to your prayers.

By: Odalys

Odalys — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 06:46:14 +0000

4.0 out of 5 stars
Great GPS
Even though the price is more than what I wanted to pay, it was worth it. I like the choices of voices and ease of use.

By: Cholena

Cholena — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 01:14:32 +0000

5.0 out of 5 stars
Couldn’t Be Much Happier
To begin with, the turnaround on my order was much quicker than I expected; it turned out that I lived close to the distributor.

By: Zain

Zain — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 22:40:56 +0000

5.0 out of 5 stars
Only Motorcyle GPS to own
If you ride any type of motorcycle and are looking for a GPS this is the only unit to consider. Price is in line with others but quality and accuracy far surpasses others.

By: Jovan

Jovan — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 21:45:52 +0000

5.0 out of 5 stars
Lots of room for MP3s and more
I added a 4gb card and made the unit recognize this as its boot drive. I have tons of songs and the olny downside is it takes a while to boot to a full map view with all my mps…

By: Shoshanah

Shoshanah — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 19:54:00 +0000

3.0 out of 5 stars
AS Advertised
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.

By: Xenia

Xenia — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 17:51:24 +0000

5.0 out of 5 stars
Solid
I’ve had this for about three years. It works like a charm and is as solid as a rock. During the cold weather months, it resides in my SUV, but in the motorcycle riding months,…

By: Uriah

Uriah — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 12:43:51 +0000

4.0 out of 5 stars
Great piece of equipment that is unsupported.
I originally bought the Garmin Zumo 550 for my father for his birthday. He attempted to set it up, and spent over an hour on hold with Garmin.

By: Usoa

Usoa — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 06:32:37 +0000

4.0 out of 5 stars
Great GPS!
I love the garmin. The same day I got it it went on the bike. You do not need any kind of voice directions on the bike due to great screen with advanced instructions.

By: Timandra

Timandra — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 04:42:18 +0000

The 550 works very well. Specs say it works between 32 & 140 degrees. I ride all winter – so far it works at 15 degrees F. Surprisingly easy to use with heavy winter riding gloves. The motorcycle mount is much cleaner than I expected. Very flexible, allowing the unit to tuck in close and not look dorky. The car mount is clean with an acceptable albeit not great speaker. It’s VERY easy to move between vehicles. I was somewhat disappointed at first about the lack of a built in speaker, but if I need to walk around with it, it’s no big deal to use your cell phone Bluetooth with it. Maybe that’s the price you pay for a truely waterproof unit. While riding, you can hear the alert tone using a cell phone Bluetooth, but cannot understand the audio. I plugged in iPod ear buds into the bike mount and it sounds great without being obvious about being “plugged in” (I ride a half helmet). If you use a full face with built in speakers you will be very happy with the audio.
Others complained about the lack of things like a real compass and satellite acquisition display and built in speaker. I have addressed the speaker issue. The compass displays eight points (like the one in the rear view mirror of your GM car). That’s all I really need. Showing the satellites it has acquired is neat – but what do I really care – the thing is very sensitive. I get 5 of 5 bars IN my house. The MP3 player does work well although it does not have play lists. You can at least sort by album, artist and genre. To listen to decent quality audio, you will need ear buds. Displaying pictures looks good but the response is a little sluggish.
Storing up to 50 routes is great – and being able to download them to Google Earth and visualize them is very slick (it does take Google Earth Plus – a $20 annual fee to support this feature).
Overall I am VERY pleased with this unit – it does exactly what I need (and then some) – looks great – very sturdy.