Garmin Streetpilot C550 2.1-Inch Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator
by Garmin
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Garmin Streetpilot C550 2.1-Inch Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator
Customer Review: Great product - but I'd buy it again for the traffic avoidance alone!
Summary: 5 Stars
I'll echo any positives that I read before deciding to buy - the c550 (my first gps) worked easily and immediately right out of the box, etc. - without ever having seen a gps, you use this intuitively. Mine was purchased in August, came with maps and software up-to-date; but going to the Garmin website was easy as well, downloaded some extras (nothing important).
But here's my story from our first real use of it this past Labor Day weekend. Returning to Connecticut from New Jersey on Friday, we were on a course to hit the usual parking lot on the G.Washington Bridge - turned on the radio advisory way ahead to hear that it's a 2-hr delay going over the bridge. Heard from someone at a rest-stop that the Tappanzee was just as bad so don't bother, sister-in-law at the same rest-stop making basically the same trip said she was just going to get in line and deal with it. To make a long story short, we decided to just let the Garmin take over and avoid traffic. It took us off the turnpike (saying that it was recalculating the route to avoid traffic tie-up), worked us through a couple little N.J. towns (during which we kept passing on-ramps full of parked cars), and got us over the bridge in maybe 20-30 minutes. As we approached the Connecticut border, called sis-in-law to see where she was - she was still in traffic not even yet in sight of the bridge.
Aside from my traffic story, I love this little machine anyway. Oh, and don't be an idiot like I was on the first try - use the locking lever on the suction cup mount (duh) to lock that baby down (could that mistake be why people are complaining about the mount?). It's not going anywhere...
Customer Review: Pretty Slick!
Summary: 4 Stars
I bought this GPS for a company work truck and have so far been pretty impressed by it. It boots up very quickly, is extremely accurate, fast, and quite intuitive.
I generally judge a product's ease of use by being able to use it out of the box without the book. This passes the test! After 5 minutes of playing with it you understand how to get what you need, and it's even easy enough to do as you're driving.
It is loaded with all kinds of great info and has nearly every hotel and place to eat I've asked for. It even finds places that I were almost sure wouldn't be in the unit!
Occasionally, during navigation, it will try to take you on the round-about way or on a path that is obviously not right, but most of the time it's spot-on. I do wish it had the smarts to know when you have given up on its suggested routes; sometimes it will keep telling you to turn around even though you've clearly found a better route on your own.
The unit does have just about every road imaginable in it's database. In fact, I was on an unpaved around in the middle on nowhere and it displayed the name and even the turns in the road were correct.
In the past two months the unit has worked flawlessly. The traffic alert feature is awesome, but I don't know if I will renew the subscription when it expires.
The only features I wish it had were: an odometer (it has a trip meter but on long trips it's nice to reset that often) and lat/long display.
I don't think you can go wrong with this GPS. It's really a fantastic tool for travel!
Customer Review: a good GPS
Summary: 4 Stars
This is my first GPS. It's pretty easy to use, does what it's supposed to, is fun to have, takes a lot of the anxiety out of going to new places. Voice is loud and clear, having the street names (text-to-speech) helps a lot. So far have discovered at least one new restaurant from POI.
Drawbacks:
When it gives you a route that, for various reasons, you really don't want to go (questionable area, propensity for sudden traffic jams even if it is unclogged at the moment, etc.) I haven't found any good way to get it to give me a different route instead. Yes, you can choose between fastest and shortest route, etc., but that doesn't usually solve the problem. In one case, I found I could get around it by indicating Triboro Bridge as a stop along the way, but overall it's a limitation. Otherwise, I can go my own way and listen to the voice get kind of peeved as it repeats, "Recalculating," and tries to get me back to the original route until it finally gives up. But that only works if you're pretty confident of a good portion of the trip already. The traffic feature, which is one reason I got this model, hasn't been much help yet and doesn't work in some areas, but I still have to give that feature more of a try. The thickness makes it impossible to stick in your pocket when you don't want to leave it in the car, so you need some kind of bag or case to carry it in. The manual is skimpy and leaves a lot unexplained.
Those issues aside, though, overall I'm happy with it, and some of the drawbacks are probably common to other GPS models as well. Final analysis, I recommend it.
Customer Review: A very capable unit
Summary: 4 Stars
This can do everything it advertises, with no problems. It's easy to mount, easy to set up, easy to use. I haven't used the traffic detection yet, so I don't know how good that is. But I've used this in two different cities, with successful directions for the most part.
Trying to find a place is natural enough, as it breaks things down into multiple categories (example, Places - Food - Pizza, etc.) and returns places that are currently closest to you. You can also enter the address if you know it. You can also set a hot button to Home, which is nice to have a set favorite location to go to. The Bluetooth integration is nice too. It will give you a hands free setup, if you don't already have one.
Of course there are some quirks that I found, which may or may not have solutions. The primary one is that once you enter your destination, and receive your path route, there isn't an easy way to get an overview to ensure it is taking you to the right place. Zooming way out on the map far enough, is rather painful. So, there is an element of trust that needs to go on. Luckily it hasn't steered me wrong yet (that I know of). The other minor quirk is that trying to browse places isn't as good as I'd like. I was in a strange city (Kansas City) and wanted to find good places to go. The places it returned to me seemed limited compared to what I had seen earlier in Google maps. But, it did return enough that we had a good time with what was provided.
All in all, I would recommend this unit, since it definitely does what it is supposed to ,and it does it well.
Customer Review: Better Than Expected
Summary: 5 Stars
I read some of the other reviews after I purchased the C550 seems there are quite a few people who have some minor problems with making there's opperate to it's full potential. No problems right out of the box I was looking for the map CD there wasn't one. Already programmed for north America. I bought this to replace my C330 that lasted the good part of 3 years before it started messing up. Alot of the work I do requires going from address to address in neihborhoods all over the state and sometimes "BFE" these GPS's are a real time saver I used my 330 just about everyday of the week (Home Repair/ Handyman Business)Map books are a thing of the past. Like I said before right out of the box this thing works as promissed. The bluetooth paired with my samsung blackjack right away(AT&T). That sure makes life alot easier and safer since my truck has a 6 speed manual trans. I thought about ordering the extention mic. but so far I've had no complaints about the clarity of my calls on the other end and the volume in the cab is more than sufficient. A little ata boy for Amazon I ordered it on the 28th of Aug. 08' and was told I'd have it on the 4th. of Sept. but got it on the 2nd. can't complain about that.
I do have one complaint though I tried to register it with Garmin online and there website doesn't seem to recognize the serial number or model number of the C550 what's up with that I went so far as to plug the unit in to my PC follow there direction and downlaods but stil can't register it. Anyway at $160.00 you can't go wrong with this unit.