Automotive GPS Systems The Best Deals On Automotive GPS Systems

I purchased the Garmin Nuvi 550 because I was moving to a new state, and wanted something small an compact that I could take with me walking through the city, on hikes and while biking. My girlfriend had an automotive model from Garmin. She had said that, while it was very helpful, it was not 100% reliable. Foolishly, I ignored that important warning and blew close to three hundred bucks on this model, which is advertised as being specifically designed for walking, biking and driving. I had read a review from an electronics website, and wish I could recall which one it was, because I would be writing the reviewer as well. It is obvious that the review was based solely on the manufacturer’s claims, and not on putting the device through its paces to see how it actually performs in the field. I did put it through its paces for a solid month, and never intend to turn it on again.

First of all, this device has a really hard time acquiring satellites. It usually takes a good, solid ten minutes to acquire satellites, so I had to get into the habit of turning the device on fifteen minutes before I intended to use it, and setting it outside to locate the satellites. Not ideal. Worse still, several times it completely failed to acquire satellites at all, and I was on my own.

Another huge problem is that it is missing a very basic feature: There is no way to leave the device on, but lock or turn off the screen. This seems absurdly basic for a device specifically designed for walkers and specifically made small enough to pocket. Any time you put it in your pocket, doing so activates the touch sensitive screen, and changes your view or, worse yet, your navigation settings. This inability to black out the screen is also a huge drain on battery life. This isn’t a problem for a car model which will be plugged into the car, but for a device meant for walking and biking, it is a critical flaw. The company claims that the battery life is “up to five hours.” I am guessing that to get five hours of life out of the battery they supply, you would have to turn off the GPS and allow it to sit doing absolutely nothing for five hours. I found the battery life in the field to be under four hours, far less time than my average hike or bike ride.

I also bought the bike mount for this device, and it is equally terrible. The ball-and socket joint is very loose, so as the bike vibrates (even on smooth roads) the monitor gradually sags, which requires you to constantly reposition the screen. Worse yet, on little bumps, the device goes flying out of the mount. I’m not talking about huge jumps on a mountain bike, either. I ride a hybrid, and this device leaps out of the mount on the kind of minor bumps that are a constant fact of city biking.

I would not be so put off by the fact that the touch screen sensitivity is very clunky and slow, and that the user interface is also rather poorly designed if the other features of the device were better. Fortunately, I will never actually use the thing again, so these flaws won’t impact my life.

Overall, this device was a HUGE waste of money.

Rating: 1 / 5

We used this on vacation (close to 5000 miles all total). It does great. But make sure you take a map with you too.

DRIVING: At times it won’t select the best route. We used it a month ago to go about an hour and a half from here. I told it to take us the fastest route (and didnt’ have a paper map w/me). It took us on some unbelievably poor back, back roads. We’re talking ONE lane gravel. When I got my Blackberry out to double check things w/Google maps, I discovered we could have taken interstate to within 10 miles of our destination, then 9.5 miles on a two lane blacktop road, then just a half mile on the back roads to our destination. Otherwise it does great.

WALKING: I chose this model b/c it had hiking, biking, driving, etc. modes. It should do great retracing my tracks if I get lost while hiking. I was hoping I could take it walking too …. so I could track how far I went and how fast I walked. That didn’t work so well. While walking the speed would fluctuate between 0 and various other speeds (1 mph, 3 mph, 4… etc.) even though I had not changed my pace. (this is why I gave it 4 instead of 5 stars)

Overall — it’s works really well and I’m glad I got it.
Rating: 4 / 5