Garmin zumo 550

Waiting for the Garmin zumo 550 was a bit long but it paid off! Released nearly a year after the Tom Tom Rider had hit the market, the zumo 550 has a bit of wonder stuff to attract your attention. I will not call myself to be a rich fellow but somehow I managed to adorn my garage with a car and a bike but I have a soft corner for the boy with two wheels and love to be with him most of the time. No! Don’t get me wrong fellows… I was just talking about my bike. And now the Garmin zumo 550 has given that extra bit of gloss to my little friend and guess what, it has become a super cool dude in no time. Thanks Garmin!

Out of the box:

Out of the box, the Garmin zumo 550 GPS navigation system for the bikers has left a lot to be desired with other GPS systems. The surprise element was the boat-loaded box! So, here is what I found in the box: a mount for the bikes, a plastic adhesive car mount to fix the navigation unit on the dashboard (just in case someday I have a bit more affection for my four wheeler), black colored face plates made of plastic (in case the gray color annoys you), car charger, a power cable which connects to the battery of the bike, an AC adapter, a USB cable to use it with the computer, tools needed for mounting the zumo 550 on the handles of the bike, City Navigator DVD, a screwdriver for the unit’s “safety screw”, owners’ manual CD-ROM, quick setup guide and some stickers. Well, isn’t that a boat-load? For me it is and I guess that same applies to you. But something I missed was a Bluetooth earpiece. But I guess that the company did a great thing by concentrating on the unit itself and not on a thing which is readily available in the market!

Let us see the design:

SEXY! A silver shell along with a couple of removable caps, one place on the top and the other at the bottom so that you can customize the design. And, this cool dude has an IPX7 standard. So, if you accidentally drop it in water, it will come out unhurt from a depth of three feet. But more than 30 minutes and better luck with a new zumo 550. The unit possesses a sturdy shell but for added security there is a safety screw! The screen of the unit is a bit on the smaller end with a size of 3.5 inches but is UV resistant and touch screen. It allows choosing large icons. A real handy feature! You can turn on the device by pressing the power button for a couple of seconds, which is place carefully on the right-hand lower corner! Four other buttons on the left allows a plethora of functions like zoom in and zoom out, menu scrolling, volume control and many more! There is an SD expansion slot, USB port and a mount connector of 24 pins. Guess what? There are many other features!

Navigation:

Garmin zumo 550 has a high sensitive GPS receiver and preloaded North American map that helps in proper navigation. The menu is quite simple and all that I had to do was to select the one that I wanted and then I had to either go to the sub menu or just put in the details and that is all! The navigation unit gave turn-by-turn as well as voice-guided directions. Additionally, the zumo 550 has TTS (text to speech) functionality. Among the other options are the automatic route calculations, detour, POI database of over 6 million POIs and also provides real time traffic updates via Total Traffic Network of Clear Channel but alas! You need to buy a traffic receiver, which is compatible with zumo 550. Everything cannot be given right? Whether you are a 2D lover or a 3D lover, see the maps in a way you want! I prefer it to be 3D. The integrated Bluetooth helps you to make hands free phone calls with the unit and your mobile once they are paired!

Conclusion – The Pain:

Well, a couple of glitches always remain and you accept them. In case of zumo 550, some of the POIs are out dated but detour can recalculate a more realistic tour but the calculations are a bit slow. Hopefully Garmin will fix this. However, I was quite happy to shell out $625 for this wonder boy!