Garmin GPS Receiver

This review is from: Garmin Oregon 550T 3-Inch Handheld GPS Navigator with 3.2MP Digital Camera (U.S. Topographic Maps) (Electronics)

After using the 550t for several weeks, I find the unit good but not perfect. It still has some issues, one of which I have been in touch with Garmin over. The main issue I have is it will periodically corrupt the track file and stop showing the tracks on the map or allowing for elevation plots on the tracks. The only way to clear it is to attach the unit to a computer and replace the track file with a new one from the computer.
The compass sometimes loses it’s way and needs to be recalibrated.
I have not had an issue with the accuracy under tree cover, that some have reported, but I have had a few tracks that were not 100% accurate. Walking on known roads, it will be several 100 feet off in some cases. I am not sure if this is an issue with the preloaded Topo 2008 maps, or the unit’s accuracy.
I love the camera and the tagging of each photo.
For a new unit, it is not bad, but it still shows a few rough edges.

Just an update – After comparing the tracks for accuracy, I found it was the 2008 Topo maps that were off. When superimposed over the City Navigator NT 2009 Street maps, the 550t was dead on. So the accuracy concerns I have are shifted from the 550t itself to the topo maps it comes loaded with.

This review is from: Garmin Oregon 550 Waterproof Hiking GPS (Electronics)

I recently just bought 2 new Garmin GPS units to upgrade my aging Garmin Legend (Original Model). I was hesitant to purchase the Oregon due to the mediocre reviews on Amazon, but ultimately I decided to take a chance.

First I bought the Garmin Dakota 20, and I really liked it. Small, Battery Efficient, Easy to Use, and Paperless Geocaching using the touchscreen. Good stuff. I called my friend who likes to have the latest and greatest, and he told me he had purchased the Oregon 400t when it first came out last year. I took a drive to his house to compare it to my new Dakota 20… Very similar in capabilities, only smaller and less resolution on the screen. After seeing his unit, and how well it ran I found myself craving the higher resolution screen, and 3D Terrain features, so I went up and bought another one, this one, the Garmin Oregon 550. I decided against buying the Oregon 550t because the 550 had a little deeper discount than the “t” version. Ultimately I chose to purchase the 550 since it was around $60 off retail, VS. only $1 less than retail on the 550t. I figured I could add the TOPO maps later. Plus I had also just purchased the Dakota 20, and the $160 difference in cost was sounding pretty good. I have completely busted my mad money for now.

Ultimately I find this unit to be right in line with all of the other Oregon models software wise… it works exactly the same way. So go and read some reviews on the other Oregon models sine this unit doesn’t have many reviews yet. It is VERY similar in capabilities, but this one has a few added goodies.. 3 Axis Compass + 3.2MP GEOTagging Camera (Good stuff)…

Another observation between the new 550 and 550t models… Garmin’s specs say the these models have equivalent storage, but in fact this is not the case, the 850MB seen in the specs relates to the free space after taking into account the included maps. In reality it is more like 550 = 1GB, 550t=4GB internal memory. Mostly a non-issue since both have a Micro-SD slot behind the battery, which happily accepted an inexpensive 4GB SDHC card, and since SDHC was supported I would expect you could add an even larger one.

Like the other reviewer stated I noticed that the roads on Garmin’s 2008 TOPO maps are slightly off.. this is easily recognizable if you load a driving map, calculate a route, and then disable the driving map, you will see the driving route is not exactly on the road. To me this is all the more reason to just get the 550 model (at this point) without the TOPO maps. You can add them later once the road data is fixed. On second thought, the TOPO features themselves on the 2008 map seem fine, only the road data is a little off, so if you are using the maps as they are intended this is probably a non-issue. At the time I just felt like the 550 was a better bargain, only $90 more than the Dakota 20 I had just purchased, which also was still at the full $350 retail price since it is still a brand new model.

The only other glitch was with the Compass calibration, which went haywire for a moment, but resolved itself after a reset, and hasn’t happened since. We’ll see if it becomes an issue.. but I doubt it. The reset was very fast as this unit boots up very quickly.

I decided to make these purchases since my girlfriend has expressed an interest in “Re-Taking Up Geocaching”, we really haven’t done it in a while (Since ’02), and its such a great outdoor activity. The original point in making these purchases was the ease at which you can add Geocaches into the unit directly from the website with a single mouse click. She was having trouble getting used to adding the co-ordinates into the old Garmin Legend with that tiny joystick, it was VERY TEDIOUS.

So now she has the Dakota 20, and I have the Oregon 550, and we can easily transfer geocaches back and forth wirelessly, and it is easy as pie to download them from [...].

To me, these new Garmins are a huge upgrade from my old “Legend”, and they are waterproof and rugged as ever.

I would have given this product 5 stars had it not been for the couple of small glitches, which I expect will be fixed in the future via a firmware update / map update from Garmin.

Truely.. the new touchscreen Garmin units are to GPS’s, as the iPhone is to mobile phones. In a class by itself.

This review is from: Garmin Oregon 550T 3-Inch Handheld GPS Navigator with 3.2MP Digital Camera (U.S. Topographic Maps) (Electronics)

UPDATE Nov/25/2010

So, I’ve used this device on a regular basis for over a year and it has definitely become a “don’t leave for the woods without it” device. My initial complaint about battery life is still valid, but as I understand it, fast battery drain is a GPS device characteristic. To be sure, the battery indicator has a life of its own, run the battery down until the indicator goes red and you’ll be fine. Just carry spares. That being said, I still dont have much faith in the re-chargeables. The other complaint, loosing waypoints, has vaporized. I’m not doing anything different so I’m assuming the firmware updates took care of it. I still like how this thing feels in my hand and it is DEFINITELY rugged. At one point I had hung it from the hand on the dog leash and the dog suddenly yanked the leash out of my hand and charged down the trail; garmin bouncing. The silicon rubber housing barely registered the abuse. Another incident; I’d snapped it to a D ring on my back pack and while lunching on a rock in the creek the back pack had kind of slipped off the rock and was part in the water, 550 fully immersed. NO problem. Also, the geotagging camera is very addictive. Pictures that place them selves on a map. How did we ever do without that?

end of update

Having “played” with this device for few weeks now, i’m still not convinced it was worth the money.

Mostly there’s the trust issue, I’m not entirely sure I can trust it. I’ve repeatedly lost waypoints. I feel REALLY naked without a fix point of where I parked my truck and I’d like to be able to get a fix to the last waypoint, which works fine as long as you have the waypoint. If you loose the waypoint, you are well, kind of lost. Seems like the only reliable waypoint you can have (at least I haven’t lost one yet) is to take a picture. Problem is that taking pictures burns batteries even quicker and batterylife is a real issue with this device. real issue. waas off, compass off, back light low and time out set to a few seconds, you still burn batteries FAST. and what is worse is that it is more like catastrophic failure than a slow decline, one moment you have 5 bars of battery and the next, its panic time. Not sure I understand this, what I do understand is that lithium batteries are kind of pricey. Forget the nihm batteries that comes with the device,I’ve no good experiences with those. If you are going anywhere without paved roads and cell coverage be sure to bring an 8 pack of lithium batteries, may just save theday. Also, bring a back up device, if I haven’t been there before I save the truck’s location on the Nuvi and bring that too, then I pull out the nuvi and save a waypoint occasionally. That has saved me before and seems 100% reliable. The oregon ? not so much.
Back to the waypoints,I’ve had TWO issues with waypoints, one of which I opened a ticket for (with Garmin) and another one I’m just going to wonder about,I can’t reproduce it at will. Occasionally when you save the current track the waypoints dissapear. Garmin suggested I do a device reset. Has happened twice after that. The other issue is probably even worse, save a waypoint, just tag it with the default name (an incrementing number#, 1 for the first, 2 for the second and so on.. then find out that while the counter incremented you have NO waypoints saved. Thank goodness I found that out in a place I’ve been before. And today it failed to connect to my lap top. Had to do another device reset. YAY!

Its a pretty device though, and it feels good in the hand, has real potential if they fix the issues. I really DO like the waypoint function, it is by far the easest, fastest waypoint save around, just fix the reliability issues. That has got to be a software issue.

ONE feature I REALLY like: the trip timer, very addictive.

This review is from: Garmin Oregon 200 Portable GPS System (Electronics)

I just had Oregon 200 for a few days and decided to perform an indoor battery life test to see how this receiver holds up on battery life compared to its siblings, Colorado 300. With WASS off, Battery Save off, backlit off and auto track mode on, it actually remained on for 17.5 hours with a pair of Sony CycleEnergy 2000 mAh (NiMH) batteries. Garmin claims 16 hours for this receiver. In comparison, Colorado 300 can only hold for 10-11 hours (less than 15 hours claimed by Garmin) in the same test. This is way beyond my expectation, particularly after my disappointing experience with Colorado’s poor battery life.

The receiver is also very accurate and acquires signal fast. It took about 3 minutes for the 1st useful sat. acquisiton (cold start) and under 10 seconds to have good lock (warm start) afterwards. My test was done indoors and Oregon had lock on more than 7 sats all the time with 15 – 40 feet of accuracy.

As this is the cheapest model in the Oregon family, some features are also stripped off.

1. Only comes with 24 MB of internal memory. Micro SD expansion is supported though.
2. No audio beep (even for battery low warning).
3. The built-in base map has no DEM so no shaded relief on this map. Oregon 200 does support shaded relief for maps with DEM (for example, US TOPO 2008).
4. No altimeter, barometer and compass.
5. No wireless transfer capability to share information with other receivers.
6. No support for HRM and bike candence.
7. Only lanyard included (no carabiner).

Overall, I like this unit so far for its built quality, accurate positioning and long battery life. Too bad Garmin has stripped off several good features (probably contributes to better battery life performance). To users who don’t need those features, this is a great buy if the price is right.

This review is from: Garmin Oregon 550T 3-Inch Handheld GPS Navigator with 3.2MP Digital Camera (U.S. Topographic Maps) (Electronics)

I have owned the Oregon 550T for a year now and I think I have used every of its most important features, accessories and software. My overall rating is that there is room for improvement, its accessories are very expensive but it is one of the top hiking GPS products compared to others. There is so much stuff that can be reviewed so I’ll try to cover purchasing decision factors and how-to tips that I think will be valuable for the ones looking for real and tested decision information.

- ACCURACY: I have used my Oregon mostly in the Shenandoah, VA area and have done hiking in South America as well. One point in behalf of the Oregon is its ability to quickly pick satellite reception and pinpoint your location. I have noticed though that when you drastically change your location, let’s say North American vs. South America, the GPS will need more time to discover the satellites in that area, but after that, it reconnects quickly.
One not pleasant detail is that even when you walk back and forth over the same trail and spot, the GPS shows your tracks several feet apart. The accuracy of the GPS from my measurements is around 25 feet and often more. You may want to remember this when hiking and trying to find the trail the GPS tells you is there. You may find it 25 feet “around” you and not exactly in the direction the GPS is telling you it is. I think its accuracy requires improvement.
Initially I thought this is a problem in my GPS so I contacted Garmin’s support and I was told basically what I suspected. The accuracy is not 2 or 3 feet but a whole lot more. I think is not too different to a car GPS in this regards. I also found that once you tap on the satellite signal in the GPS it will provide you the GPS accuracy which often displays a number between 30 and 49. To me this is something that requires urgent improvement. The mission of a GPS is ultimately let you know where your trails are, not providing accurate information is failing to its basic mission.

- MAPS AND PRELOADED MAP: The Oregon 550T comes preloaded with the US Topo 100K. This is a very low detail map. My experience tells me that many well-known park trails are missing, camp information is missing and basic routes are missing as well. It is just an awfully basic, high level map. I felt very disappointed to know that my over 500+ bucks didn’t give me anything better so I contacted Garmin regarding this. I wanted something with more details so they kindly recommended me to get the Garmin Topo US 24K DVD for my area (Southeast DVD) which is $129.99 or an BirdsEye imagery subscription for one year (more about this last one later in my review) but they require of purchasing an additional microSD Card. Expenditures continue.

- ADDITIONAL CARD: Technical support told me that the maximum microSD card supported by the Oregon 550t is 4GB so I got one. Make sure to review the microSD card speed before you buy it. There are several speeds, make sure to get the fastest possible to make sure uploading and downloading data doesn’t becomes mission impossible. Installation of the card is hassle free and it got it in quickly. There is very little you can do with the card and the GPS alone if you don’t have the necessary software tools to move maps around with your GPS. I’ll talk about that later in my review.

- OTHER MAPS, DVDS OR CARDS OR WHAT: If you have been browsing Garmin’s website you may have noticed an interesting assortment of products. They have the same maps in several formats: DVD, microSD and download. I contacted support and ask them what format is more convenient and why. Michael S from their technical team gave me this great answer: “Thank you for contacting Garmin International. I would be happy to assist you with this. For most of our maps there are typically 3 options: Getting a disk, doing the download or getting the preprogrammed data card. When you get the disk you have these on both the computer and the unit. You can load these Topo maps onto as many Garmin mapping handhelds that you own since it is not a locked product. With the preprogrammed data card, the maps are just on the card. They cannot be viewed on the computer unless the Oregon is plugged in and Basecamp is running. They also cannot be backed up. It can be put into any Garmin unit that accepts microSD/SD cards as it is not locked to a particular unit, but it can only be in one unit at one time. With the downloadable content, it is downloaded directly to your microSD card. The map can be backed up on the computer, but it cannot be viewed on the computer unless the Oregon is plugged in and Basecamp is running. The map is also locked to the unit you downloaded it to, and cannot be viewed in any other Garmin unit. As for the DVD version of the 24k Mid-Atlantic, the DVD is still forthcoming and will include both the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast regions. The part number for the DVD is 010-11319-00 and will be $129.99. If you have any other questions, please let me know. “
Well, as you can see from this answer you better get the DVD. If you have not purchased the GPS, you may want to plan on adding 130 bucks to your budget if you are planning to hike places you are not familiar with because the preloaded US Topo 100K is too high level.

- THE CAMERA AND DIGITAL ZOOM: When I read that the Oregon can geotag pictures with the location of the shot I got excited. For a minute I was thinking the camera can imprint this information in the picture itself like many digital cameras can do with the date/time stamp. I was wrong, there isn’t such thing as that. When you take pictures, information is recoded and kept in the GPS. You can download the pictures using BaseCamp and then upload the pictures to an album in Picassa, and then when you click the picture, geolocation information will be displayed in a text field but not in the picture. I think there is misleading information here, this is what Garmin claims in their website: “Each photo is geotagged automatically with the location of where it was taken”. Instead it should say: “Geolocation information is saved in the GPS every time you take a picture. No photo geolocation stamp is available”.
Well, aside this fiasco, I find the GPS camera not to be that incredible, just a little phone-like camera without real zoom or wide angle. It will take pictures but any other digital camera will be able to do a better job.

- SUN LIGHT READABILITY: I have been hiking at sunlight and under the forest. I prefer to create a little shade to better read the Oregon. I believe that still you can read it under sunlight. Yes it is not going to be incredible clear but what can be brighter that direct sunlight? The screen can be read better under shady conditions but can handle sunlight well enough to keep you moving and oriented.

- TOUCH SCREEN: The touch screen is really nice. It feels a little like an iPhone. You can tap on the icons and move the screens from side to side, reorganize the icons and move around. You also have buttons to do exactly the same so you can choose.

- DURABLE AND WATERPROOF: The unit is impressively light and it seems rugged but I don’t have any plans of testing its durability any further. I just feel that messing with a very expensive toy like this doesn’t meet the requirements of my curiosity. The unit also claims to be waterproof and I have seen some demos in YouTube where the unit is operated under the water. Well, the unit connects to a PC using a USB cable and the connector is at the bottom of the device. A little cap is all what will prevent your unit from getting wet. I’m positive the unit will endure some exposure to rain and hopefully will survive a fall to a river. Make sure to keep the USB connector cap well adjusted.

- DOWNLOADING DATA – MAPSOURCE: So you went for your first hike and you recorded your tracks in your GPS. But how do you download this data to your computer? The answer is MapSource. In order to get MapSource installed you need to have a Garmin product previously installed. So install Training Center and then install MapSource. Just Google these names and the word `download’ to find them. They are available at Garmin’s website and thanks goodness they are free. With this software you can download data from your GPS and review the details of your tracks, modify titles, waypoints and so on. Then you can export your file as .GPX for future use or upload it to some websites. MapSource can compute the profile of your hike and other interesting data.
If you want to see your track in Google Maps or Earth, try using GPS Visualizer [...]. These cool guys created this program that allows importing GPX files into Google and presenting it all together. I also like [...], you can download your GPX data, it will process it and get your the ascent profile, speed, etc. Your GPX data will become available to anyone and you can download files for your GPS as well. Try this example: [...]
While trying to find a way to create my own maps I found TOPO! a National Geographic Product. You can create the topo maps of your hikes and print them out or get the PDF version of them and send them to your friends or just save them for future reference. TOPO! costs 50 bucks. The quality of the Topo maps is so bad but I couldn’t find anything better. I hope one day you can merge your GPX files with Google Earth in terrain mode in one tool. Google Earth is still the best Topo maps I have found.
The last tool I want to mention is EasyGPS, a nice small program that will allow you to download and upload GPX files to your GPS and browse the tracks on the screen. It allows some basic editing. I find MapSource a lot better.

- BIRDSEYE IMAGERY AND BASECAMP: For those places where real maps are not available, Garmin offers you the BirdsEye Imagery subscription. It is 30 bucks a year and it only works with one device. BirdsEye imagery is just satellite images (like Google Earth) that you can download to your GPS. BaseCamp is the software that will allow you to download imagery to your computer and create a library. From your library of images you can right click images and upload them to your device. In your device and while hiking they will look like an additional layer. It is nice if the areas you will be hiking don’t have a lot of trees. The quality of the images is good but if you plan on downloading a lot of them make sure to get the 4GB microSD and some patience. You cannot download large sections but tiny sections and one at the time.

- BATTERIES AND CHARGER: I’m glad I got a nice couple of rechargeable batteries and the charger in the box. No complains here, I charge the batteries the night before hiking and they last all day long easily. I haven’t noticed them drain out because of lack of use. They go strong for long periods of time.
So as you can see it is a very expensive device and although it has some deficiencies it is probably the best of its class. I have compared my Oregon to other GPS devices of fellow hikers and the Oregon seems to be better in many aspects, not perfect but just better.

Well I hope you found in this review enough information to make an educated decision. Happy hiking!

This review is from: Garmin Oregon 550T 3-Inch Handheld GPS Navigator with 3.2MP Digital Camera (U.S. Topographic Maps) (Electronics)

I have suffered over handheld, off-road GPS for a long time. I tried a Oregon 400t which has many features in common with the 550t but the difficulty seeing the screen and the 2 axis compass made it difficult for me. Prior to that I had a Deloreme which was completely unreliable.

Pros

I found The 550t to be completely reliable when I needed it.

Satellites were picked up almost instantly.

The 3 axis compass and waypoints got me back to where I needed to go while cutting trails in the snow. (I certainly would have had trouble getting back without it)

Amazon price very good. You can find it a bit cheaper but Amazon is so reliable… And with 1 day shipping.

Battery life was a LOT better than expected based on some of the prior reviews. Not sure if this is due to newer firmware or what. But I used it for 10 hours with the included rechargeable batteries including taking a few pictures and was still able to use it for another 6 hours a few days later without recharging, and without hitting red on the battery gauge.

Cons

The user interface is still a little clunky, having to traverse so many screens, but much better with the addition of the dashboards.

The PC software, basepoint and others seem inadequate for managing tracks and waypoints… I started using EXPERTGPS which is for sale on the Internet instead.

Still some difficulty reading the screen in bright sunlight but a lot more usable than the 400t

I had hoped the lat / long would be superimposed on pictures but it was only stored in the file properties

UPDATE:

This thing is so good at picking up signal… I tried to turn it on and NOT get signal (saving a track) I hid out in a bathroom in the center of the house with no windows. Still got full signal in seconds. My old GPS wouldnt pickup a signal in the house even near a window.

My wife has a hard time seeing the screen in the sun. While it is not the brightest I can see it.

PS I also tried a Delorean pn-40 after the guy at REI raved about it. I returned it 12 hours later when I found the 3 axis compass varied by 45 degrees or so, spinning while being held stable… I had previously sworn I would never buy another Delorean. I was righter than the REI store guru.

This review is from: Garmin Oregon 550T 3-Inch Handheld GPS Navigator with 3.2MP Digital Camera (U.S. Topographic Maps) (Electronics)

Got my Oregon 550T approximately a month ago and have been completely reinvigorated to go geocaching. No more route planning, reviewing logs and printing out all of the potential locations to visit. All GPX files on [...]which are easily downloaded and updated (with premium membership).

Screen is still somewhat difficult to read in direct sunlight unless you have the backlight on fairly high which limits the batteries, but one observation I made the other day, it is nearly impossible to see with polarized sunglasses. I checked this out with my Vista C as well and it was still somewhat difficult with the glasses, but not as bad as the Oregon.

Took it ATV riding last weekend and it was GREAT for that as well. Topo’s really helped in the back woods and paths as well as the tagged pictures allowing for a quick Google Earch overlay of our route and pictures of the trip! Truely a unique way to record your trips!

I would highly recommend if you are new to geocaching as it makes it so much easier, as well as for hiking and biking as you can keep your camera at home for basic pictures. But I would NOT recommend this if you are looking for a vehicle GPS. I love my Nuvi and am obviously a Garmin fan, but this one would miss the mark in a car.

This review is from: Garmin Oregon 550 Waterproof Hiking GPS (Electronics)

My wife and I have heavily used our Garmin 76CSx and loved it for the last 2 years. Long story short, we sold it and bought this one after a lot of research. Even after the research, I was very surprised by how great the improvements were over the 76CSx.
* The touch screen made navigation a night and day experience, especially typing in addresses or other POI.
* The calculation time for routing is very much improved. The boot time is longer than the 76CSx but it can lock in satellites much faster and in areas with more interference (ei. in a basement of a house).
* One of the biggest improvements that I didn’t realize with my research is the resolution of the screen. Having twice the resolution made viewing maps much easier. You don’t need to zoom out to see the detail you need. This is very clear with topo maps.
* The coloring schemes are also much better for City navigation maps.
* When you take a pictures it marks it location on the map and comes with GPS coordinates which my dad would love for his snowmobile trips.
* Enabling and disabling maps is so much easier. On the 76SCx, when you loaded topo maps and CN maps, in menu under map setup it would list every image map that you loaded, which with topo maps there could be hundreds listed. To see the topo maps you need to disable/enable the CN maps, to do this you would have to scroll through a very small window to find the CN map image then disable it. This was a huge pain and time consuming. On the Oregon 550 it lists the maps in map packs, not images. This is a improvement.

Another point of information, the sdhc memory uses fat32 memory type which is the type of memory this GPS uses can hold can only have files sizes of 4 gigs. This is a requirement/limitation of the fat32. Also, Garmin has a restriction of only 4,000 (it might be just over 4,000) map images per map transfer. In topo maps, it is common to reach the 4,000 map images than the 4 gigs limitation. However, the Oregon 550 can handle at least 2 map packs images. I haven’t tested for more. You just load on map pack to the GPS or memory card. After it is done, rename it from gmapsupp.img to gmapsup1.img. Then transfer the other map image pack. It will read both map packs as one. So, you can have 8 gigs of maps on your GPS. You just need to do it the right way. You might be able to add more map packs, but I haven’t tested it.

The only down side is the battery consumption is noticeably higher than the 76CSx. But with a car charger it makes it much easier on the batteries. I also love how they include rechargeable batteries with the GPS.

This review is from: Garmin Oregon 550T 3-Inch Handheld GPS Navigator with 3.2MP Digital Camera (U.S. Topographic Maps) (Electronics)

I just recently got my 550t as a replacement for a Colorado 400t. The topo maps are the same, the user interface is similar, but that is where it stops. Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoyed the Colorado, but REI doesn’t carry it anymore. On to the Oregon. I love it. It is the simplest piece of electronic equipment I own (and I own an electric razor). I have not had the problems that other users seem to have had. It works great in all conditions, and mine works well under trees (light-medium). I think the geotagging feature with pictures is awesome. I have already used it to ensure I could get back to the exact same mud puddle in my Jeep. Speaking of vehicles, I also installed City Navigator for North America. The Oregon works seamlessly with the map-set, and directions are almost perfect. I guess my only suggestion would be to allow me to have a picture of a Jeep instead of an arrow when I am driving like you can do in the dedicated auto GPSr’s. Anywhoo, a great little unit, kinda pricey, but well worth the money, in my opinion.

This review is from: Garmin Oregon 550 Waterproof Hiking GPS (Electronics)

I have had this for a couple days now and have to admit, I’m “underwhelmed” by it so far. I had very high expectations of the 550 and ordered it with the 24K Topo maps from Amazon. Here’s my issues:
1. This is my first Oregon unit, but the screen seems small….I’m a big guy, it feels like my thumb covers half the screen when navigating.
2. Compass accuracy is questionable, or at least it seems very “jumpy”. If I move an inch, it rotates way more than I did.
3. Not sure why, but it’s hard to see in the shade. Outside on bright sunny days and it’s easier to see in direct sunlight than in the shade.
4. Having map problems….can’t display a 3-D view of my map (open case with Garmin support).
5. All the manuals are on CD and the CD had issues loading in my computer. Had to find a PC that would read the CD and copy to my hard drive.

What’s good about it…
1. The camera. While 3.2MP is not “hi-def” by any means, it is nice to only carry one device and have my pictures geotagged. The resolution and quality is respectable.
2. Unit feels very durable….I fish a lot so it’s nice that it’s somewhat weather / waterproof.
3. Comes with some nice accessories….I was surprised that Garmin included NiMH batteries and a charger.
4. Battery life is good. Although I’m using 2700mA batteries (not the included batteries) I get almost 20 hours from a set of AA.

Maybe I’m being a little too hard on Garmin and I generally like their products. However, for $600 (Oregon 550 and the Topo Map) I was expecting an iPhone like experience….an oohhh ahhhh kind of moment……hasn’t happened so far. Not sure if I’ll keep it…it’s not a “bad” device, just don’t know if it’s worth $600. I was on the fence about giving it two or three stars….I gave it two because of the price and some of the frustrations I’ve had getting the maps to work right.

** Update (8/16/09): I did get the map issue resolved….turned out to be a software glitch with the Topo maps, but I did get it corrected. Took this unit on a 3 day trip to the Pike National Forest in Colorado. I would upgrade my rating from two stars to three stars as the GPS was extremely accurate when geocaching….but I didn’t even get a full day from one set of batteries and the pictures I took with the 550 were hardly usable. It was cool that they were geotaged, but pretty poor in quality. Because of the price, picture quality and low battery life, it’s going back. There are better options for less money.