Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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289 of 293 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Bought this for my bro-in-law, should have bought it for myself., December 19, 2006
This is the third Garmin GPS I've purchased, the first being a C320 for my mother and the second being a 2820 for myself. I've reviewed both of them here and I suggest you check those two reviews out first so that this one falls into better context.
Having purchased three Garmins I can say with no small amount of certainty that the c550 is the one I should have purchased for everyone. (As I write this I'm seriously considering selling my 2820 and buying the c550 for myself.) It is as close to a perfect GPS as Garmin makes. It really seems as if someone at Garmin took the best features of both the low-end and high-end units and put them together into this one unit.
As with other Garmin GPS's that I've used, the interface is very intuitive and easy to navigate. The LCD screen is touch-sensitive and all of the controls are laid out in a logical pattern with simple icons and bright (but not overwhelming) colors. It does everything you'd expect a GPS to do; it will create a route by speed ("fastest route") or distance ("shortest route"), allow you to save your favorite locations, etc. One of my favorite GPS features is the ability to make detours on-the-fly, and the Garmin makes this easy. Stuck in highway traffic? Touch DETOUR and it will plot a new course off the highway. I can't tell you how many times this has saved hours of potential sitting-in-traffic time. (The c550 is even better as it has the FM traffic receiver. If you drive through a supported area, the GPS will *AUTOMATICALLY* reroute you around traffic, construction detours, etc.)
The unit is slightly larger and bulkier than the smaller 300 series units owing largely to its additional features. Improving on the low-end Garmin units, the c550's screen doesn't suffer the wash-out problem that exists in the 300 series. The screen remains bright and clear even in direct sunlight. The screen itself is the same size and resolution as the 300 series but a subtle change in the bezel makes it look a bit larger. Like the 300 series, the c550 has a built-in battery that's good for about 6-8 hours under normal use (letting you use it outside of the car, particularly useful in case you ever get stranded in the middle of nowhere), simple external controls (power button, volume wheel, USB port), and an SD memory card slot. Like the 2820, the c550 has hands-free Bluetooth, will speak street names and exit numbers, and has the same anti-glare monitor.
There's only one feature that the 2820 has which neither the 300 nor 500 series have which I've found particularly useful. On the 2820's display, there is an arrow in the upper-right corner that shows you what your next turn will be and, below that, how far ahead the turn is. The angle of the arrow tells you how sharp the turn will be; an exit off a highway will be at a slight angle while a turn onto a suburban side street will be at a more severe angle. While this may seem trivial it becomes EXTREMELY handy on the highway, as the arrow shows you which side of the road the exit will be on. (So if the exit's on the left, the arrow leans to the left. If to the right, then then arrow is to the right.) Both the 300 and 500 series will show you how far it is until the turn, neither of them tell you if it's on the left or right until you're about a half mile away. Personally I like having this information well in advance and the c550 doesn't provide this.
The c550 also has features that exceed both units. For example, the c320 offers a mono speaker, no mic, no Bluetooth, and no traffic receiver, while the 2820 requires an external speaker and mic, and the built-in traffic receiver requires an external antenna at extra cost. The c550 has built-in stereo speakers, a built-in microphone, and a built-in FM traffic receiver with a built-in antenna. And while both the c550 and 2820 offer MP3 playback, the 2820 lacks an SD memory card slot so you have to connect the unit to your computer if you ever want to upload new MP3 files.
The c550 uses the same WebUpdater application that Garmin supplies (free), to keep your GPS up-to-date with software updates and such. This is a no-brainer application; plug the GPS into your internet-connected Windows PC and run the app. It will poll your GPS to determine its model and software status, then compare that to Garmin's latest and greatest. It'll then download and install whatever updates it finds.
I'm giving the c550 four stars instead of five, but I would really like to give it three and a half -- but Amazon doesn't let me do halves so I'm rounding up to four. Things I DON'T like about the c550: First and foremost, Garmin's support flat-out sucks. They NEVER reply to emails, pre- or post-sale, and their telephone representatives are significantly less than helpful. For this alone I take off a full star.
If I could remove another half star from my rating, it would be for three minor shortcomings. The first is the "arrow display" as I explained above. With the addition of that one 'minor' feature I would drop my 2820 in a heartbeat and buy the c550 right now. Second, Garmin doesn't include the map CD with the unit. Although the c550 is preloaded, so is the 2820 -- but the map CD came with the 2820, so why not include it with the c550 too? And third, updating the Garmin takes a REALLY long time. The unit itself seems to operate on a USB 1 interface so you don't get USB 2 speeds, and the Garmin update site (which the WebUpdate application accesses) is often very busy. It took over two hours to update my brother-in-law's c550. Fortunately this isn't something you have to do very often but even so, a simple USB 2 interface would have sped things up immensely.
I would definitely recommend this unit to anyone.
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86 of 91 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Great, when it doesn't die on you, August 8, 2006
I've gone through two of these. The first i exchanged at the store, the second was past the 14 day return policy, so I had to mail it in at my expense.
They work great for the first few weeks. The first one died around when the temp was getting into the 100s, so I thought "Ok, maybe the heat did it". The second died overnight when the temp was around 60. Just won't turn on anymore.
I've read other reviews indicating a similar problem. Hopefully Garmin can send me a non-defective unit. In the meantime, be careful and make sure you can return it.
** UPDATE **
The returned unit from Garmin has been working flawlessly. I believe they have worked out the defect in the original batch.
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91 of 97 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
5 stars for GPS, but 1 point off for support, September 13, 2006
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.
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