Hitting the trails a couple of months ago, the Garmin 550 makes a big leap in technology for handheld GPS devices… the first major handheld GPS device with a touch screen display. Building on the foundations of the Colorado line, the Oregon line aims to make the GPS easier to operate through touch. But how well does it deliver? We’ve been kayaking, hiking, geocaching, mountain biking, and driving with the new Garmin Oregon GPS giving it a workout over a few months time for this review.

 

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Garmin 550 reviews

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I’ll jump right in with one of the main attractions of this unit, which is the camera. To operate it, you select Camera from the main menu, and you’ll get a screen that looks like the one at right.

It’s a little difficult to see in this image, but there are three icons at the top – zoom buttons and a sun symbol that allows you to switch to a low light option.

You can press and release the camera icon to take a quick auto-focused shot, or hold it down. If you do the latter, a white focus frame appears, which turns green when the scene is in focus.

Using the main menu’s Photo Viewer, you can choose to view photos by Most Recently, Near a Location or On a Specific Date. Choosing near a location lets you select from photos near a Recent Find, a Waypoint, your Current Location or a Map Point.

One of the things that interested me was linking photos to waypoints. The process is a bit cumbersome, but here it is:

• Take a photo as described above
• A thumbnail shows at the bottom center of the screen (you can see this in the image above)
• Tap the globe icon on the next screen
• Tap the file name at the top of the next screen (e.g. DSC0017.jpg), as shown at right
• Tap the mark waypoint icon that appears at the bottom of the next screen
• Tap “OK” when it tell you the location was saved as DSCxxxx
• Tap the Edit icon at the bottom of the next screen
• Tap Change Name and give your waypoint a name

Now Garmin nuvi 550 can do better than that, and hopefully they will streamline this process in a future firmware version. But after all your troubles, you get a nice photo waypoint.

Oregon 550 tri-axial compass 

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Having a tri-axial compass means you don’t have to hold the unit level while navigating. The calibration process is the same as on the Dakota 20.

More maps for the Oregon 550

As I said earlier, there are some great resources out there for free 1:24,000 scale topo maps, like GPS File Depot.

Then there is the recent introduction of Garmin custom maps. Basically, this allows you take any map image you find and put it on your Oregon. Found a park trail map online? Add it to your GPS! The image at right shows a custom map I made from an aerial photo of the Golden Gate bridge. You can read more about this feature by checking out my posts on Garmin custom maps.

Finally, Garmin just announced their own BirdsEye imagery program, slated to come online in March of 2010.

Oregon 550 touchscreen display

All of the newer generation high-resolution GPS screens suffer a bit when it comes to visibility, and the 550 was reported to have been improved in this regard. While it does seem a bit brighter and more legible than my Oregon 400t, it is not a dramatic improvement.

My take on the garmin Oregon 550 series visibility issues can be summed up as follows:

• If you are using it as a handheld, you will intuitively tilt the screen for the best view; this sort of use is not a problem
• If you are comparing it to a bright low-resolution color unit like the eTrex series or 60/76C series, you’re going to be disappointed
• I do not recommend the Oregon series for fixed-mount, non-powered use, such as for mountain biking; the visibility just isn’t that good (the Dakota series seems good enough for this use though)
• I do recommend it for powered fixed-mount use (car, ATV, boat, etc.)

Garmin Oregon 550 Interface

Handheld GPS receivers typically offer lots of options, and can be overwhelming for a first-time user. Even so, the Oregon is about as intuitive as they get, and I love the touch screen menus. The main menu is spread across five screens (as shown below); these can be customized, so if you don’t need Man Overboard, you don’t have to display it.

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