Review: Garmin StreetPilot C550 Arrives for Review at the GPS Lodge
Update - Read our review: Garmin StreetPilot C550 Review by GPS Lodge
The Garmin StreetPilot C550 arrived for review at the GPS Lodge, and we’re pretty excited. The StreetPilot C550 is the latest addition to the popular C-series for Garmin. Late last year we reviewed the StreetPilot C340, and though that it was great. Very simple, very accurate, very good. (Read our review).
The new additions to the Garmin C-series was announced back in March at the CeBIT in Germany, and included the C510, the C530 and the C550. The C510 has European coverage, and optional traffic alerts, the C530 has the same features for the US market and the C550 has Bluetooth hands free speaker phone capability, FM traffic alerts standard, an MP3 player, and text to speech capability to say street names. All C500 series products have the SiRF star III chipset, preloaded maps and an SD card slot for added features and memory.
Right out of the box, the Garmin StreetPilot C550 is the comfortable familiar shape, but has an even simpler mount versus the mounts that are on the C-300 series products. The new mount is similar to the ball and socket mount that is on the I-series products. Over the past few months, I have come to appreciate the mount as an important part of the GPS experience – I mean you snap these things on and off the mounts several times a day, and a crappy mount is a total headache. The C340 had a good mount that was easy to operate one handed, but this ball and socket mount is even easier.
Upon start up the C550 was quick to find its location and the new features are obvious upon start-up. New buttons have appeared where there were none to indicate traffic alert capability, and music capability. The Traffic Receiver is actually part of the power adapter that plugs into the car's power outlet. Smart move, but interestingly enough you don't need to have the thing plugged in to use it - the traffic receiver can run off the C550 battery. Nice.
Well, we’re off to try out the Garmin StreetPilot C550 – it looks great. I think I am going to go find some traffic to avoid, while chatting on my Bluetooth phone. Gotta go.
Read More in: Automotive GPS | GPS News | GPS Reviews | Garmin GPS News | Garmin GPS Reviews
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Posted by Scott Martin at June 28, 2006 8:17 AM
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