Spill Your Coke On Me, I’ll Still Help You Out…

If you’re either clumsy or into aquatic adventures, the Garmin Nuvi 550 will help you figure out where you’re going with a minimum of muss and fuss. In fact users looking for turn by turn directions are greeted with an exceptionally intuitive interface that starts off by simply asking you to either look at a map to pick a location or even more simply asking “where to?”

The 550 isn’t the top of the line, and it shows in the somewhat low-quality 320 by 240 3.5” TFT display. The anti-glare coating on the screen is an odd choice for a device that seems targeted at adventuresome outdoorsy types, as does the limited battery life of up to 8 hours. Despite these few shortcomings it’s hard to complain about the features you do get without breaking the bank.

On top of the feature list is the ability to almost instantly locate yourself even under heavy cover and then find the closest petrol station, police station, hospital, or intersection. The unit is allegedly waterproof but I’m not sure I’d try testing that out on my next diving trip. I did notice that the microSD slot is located in a very secure and well sealed battery chamber so the jury is still out on the waterproofing.

The bottom line is that the 550 isn’t targeted at the high-end market, and competes favourably with similarly priced units. My advices is to bring extra batteries if you are taking the 550 on a long hike (But you might wanna consider brining the Oregons for those).

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