Zumo 550 - Slow?

I have on loan a BMW Motorad Zumo. Never used a Garmin sat nav before but I know people rave about them being the best for bikers. Well, based on my short test in the car I was not overly impressed. I use a TomTom 910 normally in the car which is faster at everything. I noticed how slow the Zumo was recalculating routes if you decided to ignore the suggested route, the screen blinks a number of times as it recalculates which I don't think is helpful. Getting used to the settings is also strange and I don't really like the cartoon maps. TomTom by comparison, seems more of a serious design in that regard as the maps are clearer in my opinion. The other thing is there is no sound coming from the car cradle attachment even though it gets plugged into a power socket. I've tried all the sound settings but nothing works? One good thing about the BMW zumo is that it's all black which is alot nicer than the stock Garmin Zumo 550 in silver me thinks! Garmin do not publish the hardware specs of their products (IE RAM, CPU etc) so there's no way to compare to the TomTom Rider 2.

What is interested is that I've read loads about the Zumo and always with very good reviews but when I tried it, it was a different story - it pays to try first but there is the dilemer how? Once you bought it you can' take it back and therefore you are stuck with it? I notice on another thread a hint at the new Zumo 660 which looks nice - will have to wait and see for that.

Read the manual?

Whats also interesting is that you make it seem like it's absolutely rubbish yet so, so many people are very happy with the Zumo....... Either they are are incredibly uninformed or...

Gps

So where's the dilemma, you dont like it, buy a tom tom.

ph4824 said:

Garmin do not publish the hardware specs of their products (IE RAM, CPU etc) so there's no way to compare to the TomTom Rider 2.

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Garmin never did publish the processor speeds of its devises and some of the early ones were very slow, Streetpilot mono and Streetpilot III come to mind, but that’s a long while back now.

I’d certainly wait and see what the 660’s like, I would expect it to be faster than the current Zumo, but only because it’s a later model

John Armstrong said:

Read the manual?

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It's on loan so how can I read the manual? And what's the manual going to tell that playing with isn't?

This was my first impressions of the Garmin 550, guess I took the hype at face value. However for all I know the TomTom Rider 2 may be worse so I'm not saying the zumo is rubbish just not as good as my TomTom 910! I think car sat nav's are generally better because there's more choice but very little for bikes not to mention the extra cost!

ph4824 said:

The other thing is there is no sound coming from the car cradle attachment even though it gets plugged into a power socket.

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There are two volume settings, one of which only appears when it's in the mount and powered.

You can get the manuals on line if you can't find it.

ph4824 said:

I noticed how slow the Zumo was recalculating routes if you decided to ignore the suggested route, the screen blinks a number of times as it recalculates which I don't think is helpful.

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Yes, the ZUMO 550 is slow, especially when compared to the 26**, 27** and 28** series.

ph4824 said:

based on my short test in the car I was not overly impressed.

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Theres the problem

It's designed for use on the bike. I have come from using TOM TOM and while it took a few days to adjust to I now believe the zumo to be the superior product on the bike. It's robust, user friendly and is packed with features. I plumbed for the 400 with the full map of Europe which worked out cheaper than the 550 but with very little difference in features.

As for the manual... try Google. It took me less than 10 seconds to find it after typing "garmin zumo 550 manual pdf"

http://www.garmin.com/manuals/zumo550_ownersmanual.pdf

everywherevirtually said:

Theres the problem

It's designed for use on the bike. I have come from using TOM TOM and while it took a few days to adjust to I now believe the zumo to be the superior product on the bike. It's robust, user friendly and is packed with features. I plumbed for the 400 with the full map of Europe which worked out cheaper than the 550 but with very little difference in features.

As for the manual... try Google. It took me less than 10 seconds to find it after typing "garmin zumo 550 manual pdf"

http://www.garmin.com/manuals/zumo550_ownersmanual.pdf

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Well I asked for the bike mount for the loan but they don't give them out. BMW said it's best to play with it in the car. I am open to the insight of people who own the Zumo to persuade me otherwise - as I do actually like some aspects of the unit. How is the Zumo superior compared to TomTom R2?

longdog said:

Yes, the ZUMO 550 is slow, especially when compared to the 26**, 27** and 28** series.

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I read somewhere on a forum that the Zumo 550 was faster than the 2820?

ph4824 said:

I read somewhere on a forum that the Zumo 550 was faster than the 2820?

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I had both. Both speed are adequate for "my needs. Which means on the many occassions I miss the turning .. .. it does recalculate in good time.

What I have found recently on my Zumo 550 is the startup times have slowed dramatically. I don't understand why as I have not done any updates to the device

What do I mean by slow ..
When it boots up and I goto the view map screen, it now take a couple of minutes to draw the map. So I have a blank map screen for quite a while. It used to do this within a minute.

Is there something I have done to the machine? Or is it about to konk out?

I really like my Zumo 550. Easy to read, easy to use when on the move with my gloved fingers and is pretty robust.

Works fast enough for me.

Had an issue with it when I got it and Garmin were superb in their response. I also had a problem with my 6 year old BMW Nav 11 which Garmin replaced it with a recon unit FOC.

Sgt Bilco said:

I really like my Zumo 550. Easy to read, easy to use when on the move with my gloved fingers and is pretty robust.

Works fast enough for me.

Had an issue with it when I got it and Garmin were superb in their response. I also had a problem with my 6 year old BMW Nav 11 which Garmin replaced it with a recon unit FOC.

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Yep! the Zumo 550 is easy to use and I love the fact it's portable, which is really useful when your having a mooch around site seeing on foot, a thing that I always found a bit of a let down with the BMW Nav III.