Garmin announce the Nuvi 550 Rugged Navigation Device

[MikeB]

Last month at the British Motor Show in London Garmin announced a new "Rugged Navigation" PND: the Nuvi 500. This is a waterproof SatNav system for use by outdoor enthusiasts, drivers and mariners.

Some years ago one of the big names in Marine GPS talked about producing a PND that you could use in the car to get you to a marina, grab the SatNav from the car and put it in your yacht and sail off into the sunset. Well that never saw the light of day, but Garmin have gone one better and produced a waterproof GPS system that has quadruple usage models: Walking/Outdoor; Cycling/Motorbiking; Driving, and Marine GPS Navigation...

Click here to read the rest of the article including some pictures, the specs and Garmin's official press release.
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Mike Barrett

[philpugh]

You could argue that the Colorado series does this already. It doesn't have the touch screen but you can use City Navigator 2008 / TOPO GB / BlueChart on it and achieve the same navigational functionality.

However it's an interesting device and worth watching where it leads to in the near future. Even though the screen size is bigger than the C300 I suspect it is still too small to be used as your main marine chart plotter device - you just wouldn't see sufficient of your surroundings to be absolutely sure of your safety. Shame they felt necessary to remove the BT phone capability. Hands free on my bike would be quite nice That seems to be the problem - more capabilities less functionality.
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Phil

[MikeB]

I think that there is a market for an all singing, all dancing GPS device, but I dont think it is possible to create one without bending (or breaking) the laws of physics and nature.

For outdoor navigation I would like a small palm sized device that is light and lasts forever on a set of batteries. It must be fully waterproof and float.

For driving I need a slightly bigger device with good clear audio. BT handsfree as well.

As you have noted for Marine navigation you need a larger screen.

These requirements seem to be somewhat contradictory

I currently think the best convergence device (from Garmin) is currently the Oregon, but from what I have seen of the specs it lacks audio so would not be great for driving. However on the basis that utopia is impossible with these criteria I think I would go for an Oregon 400t as the best compromise solution.
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Mike Barrett

[blackrat62]

Shame about the lack of an audio out plug (present on the Zumo) - this is useful for motorcyclists to plug in earphones so they can hear directions. Still it might bring down Zumo costs - I'll be keeping an eye.

[ianchapp]

I currently use a Quest 2, following a Quest 1 and Etrex Legend. Probably 80% of my use is on motorcycle. My MP3 player's just bitten the dust, and also I'm starting to get frustrated at my Quest 2's re-calculation speed particularly in cities.

So, if I'd like a built-in MP3, is the Zumo my only real option? I'm a little concerned by it's HDD (that's what's just blown on my MP3 - again!). Speaking to a guy at Garmin, he seemed to suggest I waited for the Nuvi, but I think he erroneously thought it did MP3's. And do we know how the processing spped compares between the two - is the Zumo in fact getting long-in-the-tooth now? And I assume tracklogs are retrievable from the Nuvi by USB2? In fact, I'm not quite clear what advantages the Nuvi 550 will have over the Zumo 550??? I'm not too bothered by BT.

The Zumo does appear to be very good value, with all that's "in the box", I'm just slightly concerned that it's part way through it's life-cycle, has a HDD, and also rather unusually I don't think the fields are customisable?

Thanks.

www.aslc43.dsl.pipex.com

[alan_sh]

The Zumo does not have a hard disk in it - it's all solid state memory.

[ianchapp]

Thanks Alan, not sure where I got that from - it did sound strange!

Any ideas why I might prefer the Nuvi to the Zumo?

[gsandy]

When I first saw the review of the new Nuvi I thought "damn it, I've just bought a Zumo (to replace my stolen 2720) and Garmin have brought out a new bike system". The only plus that the Nuvi seems to have over the Zumo is price but on the Nuvi you lose the MP3 player, headphone/mic sockets, Bluetooth pairing to both phone and headset, hard wiring to bike comms systems and the more useful than expected ability of the Zumo 550 to speak street names.

Looking at the specification of the Nuvi it seems to be similar to satnavs costing half the price but with the addition of a waterproof case.

I don't think the fact that the Zumo has been around for a while makes much difference. The Zumo hardware is fast enough and I can't see anything on the Nuvi spec. that would suggest it is any better. On the software side Garmin are pretty good at supplying updates so the Nuvi software is unlikely to be any better.

If the main use is on a motorcycle the Zump is a great satnav that is still great when used in a car. The Nuvi seems to be a car satnav that could, at a push, be used on a bike but has little advantage over using a cheap car system with a plastic bag over it..

[ianchapp]

Thanks gsandy, that's pretty much what I thought!

Is the MP3 player good? Somewhere I read that it was a "gimmick"! Not sure why tho.

PS Just realised you're probably "gs andy" rather than "g sandy"? I ride a 1200GSA.

[Skippy]

Ahhh, I remember the good old days when all the Garmins were rugged, waterproof and could navigate on road, water, air and off road.

Then they brought out the dumbed down Nuvi - now it's come full circle, except there's no text-to-speech or bluetooth.

A sat nav designed by engineers then the marketing department dumbed it down.
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Gone fishing!

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