Garmin Zumo 550 review

Navigation features are on par with the latest portable navigation systems. The Garmin Zumo 550 gives you turn-by-turn text- and voice-guided directions, plus it has text-to-speech functionality, so the system will actually speak street names. Other navigation features include automatic route recalculation, detours, and a healthy POI database. You can also get real-time traffic updates from Clear Channel's Total Traffic Network or XM NavTraffic service, but you will have to purchase a compatible traffic receiver and subscription plan.

There are almost 6 million POIs preinstalled on the unit. POI-loving riders can also install software from the additional CD that gives you access to download lots of extra ones. I haven't tried this feature yet because I use a Mac, but it gives you the ability to upload POIs and routes or download those created by others, then sync this info between your PC and your Zumo. Check out this blog on POI- and route-sharing riders with compatible navigation devices. With the software installed, you can also get alerts when you are in a certain distance of a point or, if you're speeding, distance to school zones and so on. I haven't tried this feature yet since I'm on a Mac OS, but it gives you the ability to upload your favorite POIs and routes, while downloading POIs and routes created by others from your PC to your Zumo. Check out this this cool blog on POI and route sharing riders with compatible navigation devices.

You can view maps in 2D or 3D mode with day or night colors. The colors automatically switch to the night setting at sundown.The map screen is very simple and displays your speed, estimated arrival time, and the distance to your next turn. On the top of the screen, the next turn and the street name is displayed, and there are also plus and minus buttons to zoom in and out of the map. If you touch the speed tab, a slick, trip information screen comes up displaying your direction, speed, max speed, and a fuel gauge. The last feature will only show when the unit is connected to the motorcycle mount, however. You can also view POIs near your current location, but this is one area where the icons were too small to easily tap with big gloves. Obviously it's pretty dangerous when you are actually riding and trying to do this so I don't recommend it.

With the integrated Bluetooth, you can use the Zumo 550 as a hands-free speaker system for phone calls, and it's also one of my favorite features. After some trials and tribulations, I paired the Zumo with a Palm Treo 650 and a Cardo Scala Rider FM. See our Tips & Tricks section for more details on the process. Once your phone is connected, your phone book is synched to the Zumo. If you have a lot of numbers in your phone book, it may take a while to scroll through all the contacts, but you can choose to spell the first or last name, and within a few letters it brings up your matching contacts, which is a great feature.

From the phone menu, you are presented with five icons: Phone Book, POIs, Dial (takes you the keypad menu), Call History (last dialed, last received, missed), and Call Home. I had no problem scrolling through the phone options safely while driving. Once on a call, there is a phone icon that pops up on the map menu; touch it, and a menu pops up with a huge End Call icon. There is also an Options tab that brings up the touch screen where you can transfer audio back to the phone or mute the microphone.

Finally, the Zumo 550 has a built-in MP3 player. You can load a bunch of songs onto an SD card and listen tunes for hours via a Bluetooth headset connected to your helmet. The Cardo Scala Rider FM worked like a champ with this unit. The experience was actually better on the Zumo than on the Rider because it never dropped the Bluetooth connection. This happened a few times on the Rider, and even though it wasn't a big deal to reconnect, it was kind of a pain. You can also connect a pair of external speakers (and amplifier) to the handlebar mount since the unit is equipped with a 3.5mm jack.

Performance
I took the Garmin Zumo 550 for a test run in the San Francisco Bay Area. From a cold start, the unit took about 10 to 20 seconds to lock onto a satellite, depending if I was downtown surrounded by lots of buildings or in a more open area. Subsequent starts were quicker. The Zumo accurately pinpointed my location, but the screen is a little choppier than the TomTom Rider's continuous and smooth motion. I didn't really mind this though, because it didn't look like the screen was shaking. It just wasn't as smooth as the Rider. As the Rider did, the Zumo gave some pretty insane directions to destinations on a number of occasions, some of the POIs were outdated, and it had some wrong names for side streets and alleys. But, at least by hitting the Detour icon, it recalculated more reasonable directions. It also depended on what setting (fastest time, shortest distance, or off-road) I chose.

Route recalculations were slower than the lightening-fast Rider. It wasn't much slower, but enough to be annoying. I purposely missed turns to see how fast it would recalculate and sometimes two streets passed where I should have turned before the Zumo gave an alternate route. Hopefully Garmin will fix this in the future with a firmware update.

I was also a little disappointed with the compass setting. You can only view the working compass if you have the route preference set to Off-road. Otherwise, the Zumo simply tells you on the map view screen which direction you are traveling in.

The Bluetooth phone integration was great, especially with the built-in mic on the vehicle mount. I tested this feature many times, calling friends' cell phones and landlines. The audio was really good on both ends. They could hear me loud and clear and vice versa. With the top down, I still had decent results but had to turn the stereo down every time I wanted to hear the voice commands. If I missed the command though, all I had to do is push the Turn in icon, and the voice command was repeated, and the map presented a close-up and text of the next direction.

The Garmin Zumo 550's battery is rated for three to four hours depending on usage. I got more than five hours of ride time before the low-battery warning came up, which was impressive.