Garmin nüvi 550 3.5-Inch Portable GPS Navigator

by Garmin

Product Features

• High-Sensitivity GPS Receiver For Improved Performance And Reception
• Built-In 3D Basemap
• Built-In US Maps
• 3.5-Inch Display, 320 X 240 Pixels
• Easy Touch-Screen Interface

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Product Description

Amazon.com

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 can use while hiking, biking, or boating. With its high-sensitivity, WAAS-enabled GPS receiver and HotFix satellite prediction, nüvi 550 locates your position quickly and precisely and maintains its GPS location even in heavy cover and deep canyons--whether in the city or out in the wilds. And it easily switches modes (driving, walking, biking and boating) to navigate through your active lifestyle depending on your activity. Other features include a 3.5-inch touchscreen, microSD memory expansion, geocaching GPX file capabilities for complete cache descriptions and hints, and Garmin Connect Photos--enabling you to associate your favorite images with saved locations.

The waterproof nüvi 550 guides you while you drive, hike, bike or boat.

The nüvi 550 offers detailed 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.

Weighing 7.6 ounces and measuring less than an inch thin, the nüvi 550 fits easily 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 about 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 big picture of the surrounding terrain. In addition, the nüvi accepts custom 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 automatically calculates and stores satellite locations, greatly reducing satellite acquisition time so that you can 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 should be the next time you turn it on. HotFix can 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 activities on land or water. Just insert an optional Garmin MapSource card with detailed 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 great 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).

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 complete 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

Play Wherigo Wherever You Go
This nüvi GPS device is compatible with Wherigo, the latest GPS-based activity from geocaching pioneers Groundspeak. Wherigo (pronounced "where I go") is a toolset for creating and playing location-based multimedia experiences in the real world. Using the Wherigo platform, Wherigo authors can build exciting adventure games, historical tours or other innovative activities.

3D Terrain Maps
If you add topographic maps to your device, then you can view them as shaded relief terrain so you know when to expect hills, mountains, forests and other natural features. Topographic terrain maps are viewable when using the 2D "birds-eye" view.

What's in the Box
Garmin nüvi 550, preloaded City Navigator North America NT1, lithium-ion battery, vehicle suction cup mount, vehicle power cable, dashboard disc, quick start manual

Product Description

The Garmin nuvi 550 will guide you while you drive, hike, bike or boat. Go sightseeing with geotagged images from Garmin Connect Photos or see your terrain with the digital elevation model basemap. The nuvi 550 comes preloaded with highly detailed City Navigator maps. The preloaded map data features millions of points of interest, including hotels, restaurants, gas stations, ATMs and attractions. The map data is provided by NAVTEQ, a world leader in premium-quality mapping. Geocaching, including Wherigo Platform player Built-in DEM Basemap (Digital Elevation Model) 3.5 QVGA color antiglare TFT with white Backlight Touchscreen Display - 320 x 240 Pixels User replaceable lithium-ion battery - up to 8 hours depending on use Dimensions - Width 4.21 x Height 3.35 x Depth 0.9 (10.7x8.5x2.3cm) Weight - 7.6 ounces (215 grams)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

128 of 131 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Great all-in-one November 7, 2008

By de0ris

Amazon Verified Purchase

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. Although with latest update, TTS capabilities 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 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).

3. I needed 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 some 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 durable construction indeed.

4. Satellite communication is superior for the product. Leafs, heavy cloud cover, even indoors, I get fair reception. It does have its quarks rarely, but overall, it pin-points me within 10' radius. Gotta love it. With the latest firmware update location has been even more precise, so it's worth doing it asap. The update also adds a variety of language options and scooter mode, which is really neat.

Here's something to be aware of... This model unlike 500 does not come with topo maps or marine maps. It felt like a fair 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 many free topo maps (and for that matter many 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 advantage of all these resources. There is third party software available, but it's not the easiest thing to use. Another annoyance is that unit does not come with any case. There are not hard to find, but still.

So, besides lacking the software, this is a great unit worth every penny. I found LCD display to have good visibility in a daylight, volume was great - I could hear it just fine with stereo on, and overall display was smart and simple. It's small 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 bring a few extras, and you won't get stuck. Really no learning curve to using it, and performance is fantastic. Great investment, no regrets here.

66 of 70 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing unit in some ways October 12, 2008

By Nameless Faceless User

It took me a while to understand the different between 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 information 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 becoming an invaluable tool for long drives. I have been able to enter a street address as well as many restaurants, hospitals, and businesses then just click on "go." On one trip, it correctly 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 patiently wait for you to realize your error. Then, after a while it will just recalculate your route automatically. It is also possible to tweak 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 can be saved. Waypoints can be sorted by category and new categories can be added. Photographs can be added, although I haven't done much with this feature. Clicking on the top bar will display the route turn by turn. I found the routing quite intelligent and much prefer this unit over my last human co-pilot (but I hope that she never reads this review). This particular unit has a rechargeable battery and the unit can be mounted on an optional bean bag mount to just throw it on the dash instead of messing with cables. This makes it perfect 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 can be downloaded from the website, but there is no real support 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 fully supported. After wrestling with it a bit, I was able to download points but not modify 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 ability to turn off poi's (Point of Interest) labels or the ability 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 standard 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 additional 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 modify this 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 simply 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 instead of it bringing you right up the driveway.

If you really want to dig into the guts of the system, the best way I found is to generate one waypoint and use the data in the Current.gpx file as a template for your personal waypoints. I created several custom .gpx files in xml format with notepad. The lat/lon can be entered easily by using Google Earth, right-click on the new point (which may first be dragged to exactly where you want it) and paste the information into notepad. When you're done, you will have several gpx files (xml format) which will be incorporated into the unit's memory when you reboot. The bad news is that the points must be deleted through the menu system (not a big 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 easily undone.

Using this method, I was able to correct the lat/lon of a waypoint which was 4 houses away from the correct address. I found a more accurate location in Google Earth, deleted the point from memory, and re-loaded it through my custom gpx files. It's actually easier than it sounds since the only software you really need is notepad. I've added many new waypoints by copy/paste. To create a custom category, simply name it in the appropriate tag. Routes, I imagine can be dealt with the same way but I find their format too difficult to create or modify by hand.

There's many 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 information has been replaced with the same type of "bars" you have seen on cell phones - easy to understand but less information. It has a touch screen, but it is not very precise, tends to make mistakes, dragging is miserable and the resolution is very bad... but, all of this is acceptable since most of the time you only need to press a few spots on the screen to start navigation. The cleverness of the unit really outshines the shortcomings of the display.

All in all, a wonderful 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 enough make it do what you want, but it will make you wonder why Garmin makes us go through so much misery to tweak or save a waypoint to your pc.

62 of 67 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Garmin Nuvi 550 March 8, 2009

By R. J. Dick

My initial impression of the unit was very good, it is a small enough to easily fit in your pocket, even a shirt breast pocket and is light enough not to be a problem. I had an older Garmin unit and was using Map Source (Tm) to manage the previous 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 assist with the Katrina recovery work. The unit worked very well on the way, but when I turned it on after arriving to enter the first location that we were going to work, the unit started to reboot and shutdown. No manner of reset or battery removal would stop it. So while my initial impressions were very promising, I currently am waiting to have the unit replaced by Garmin or Amazon. I truly 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 really fit the bill for my needs.