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I have a Zumo 550 and it was with interest that I helped a friend install his Zumo 660. After taking two road trips in the car and working with the 660 I have some comparisons to earn to my 550.
Let me predicate my review as it is based on the 660 Firmware update 3.20 that came out towards the extinguish of July of 2009.
1. The 660 doesn't note all street names when browsing the design. I found my friends house using where to? button and it showed the house but none of the street names (including his street name) surrounding his house. The zoom level didn't matter.
2. Won't follow the route you specify in MapSource custom route download. The 660 will recalculate the route you download so there is no guarantee that the route you enter on your computer will be followed by the 660. You have to really find into the habit of using waypoints.
3. Construction of the 660 is like a nuvi. In fact, I deem it is a modified nuvi. The USB connection on the 660 can only be accessed by removing the battery camouflage (which then causes an annoying message to appear that the battery cloak is off) There is no tether for the screen, so if you loose it, guess what? All GPS functions are disabled! The 660 only works in GPS mode with the battery veil attached. The shroud feels like soft plastic when you touch it. In comparison, the USB connection on the 550 is slow a hinged door, and it doesn't matter if the door is launch or closed. So even if you wreck the door, the 550 composed operates as a GPS. The 550's cloak feels more like glass to me. In my view - for fit and accomplish - the 550 is built like a brick house, the 660 - not so great.
4. The 660 doesn't advance with a 120v charger adapter like the 550 does. Both the 660 and the 550 will recharge with the USB connection but if you are planning a scoot with your 660, you have a small amount of battery power because if you swagger in the USB cable to recharge it - it enters the USB Mass Storage Mode. The 550 will operate as a GPS plugged into a 12v source (cradle in car or bike) or the 120v adapter (like at home or your hotel room.)
5. The 660 utilizes a micro-sd card. Geeze! have you seen how exiguous these are? About the size of your pinky fingernail. The 550 uses a easy-to-handle standard SD card. The SD card in the 550 can be plugged into your pc's card slot and read like a disk drive. Easy and convenient to do. The micro-sd card is so darn exiguous, and inconvenient to score to, (you have to assume the 660's battery to gain to it) it's hardly worth the concern.
6. Never saw the lane change observe feature. Apparently none of the freeway interchanges we went through were programmed into the 660.
7. Even at maximum volume in the car, the 660's internal speaker was barely audible. This is a serious jam. You have to have all other music in the car off in order to hear the 660 through its internal speaker when using the car mounting. The external speaker in the 550's auto mounting gives you plenty of volume and can be heard over other noises in the car.
8. 660 doesn't have the cloak change/flip/page button like the 550. You can toggle between screens by hitting the box button on the side of the 550 repeatedly. I acquire that a very useful draw to navigate around the system. I could not regain an equivalent key or process on the 660 to do the same thing.
9. On the 550 - touching the turn in xx miles allotment of the nav contrivance hide, the unit repeats the last verbal instructions again. I could not gain an equivalent key or process on the 660 do do this simple task.
10. It may not matter to you, but the 660 is not integrated to work with XM radio and weather. One of the few things it doesnt relieve. The 550 will wait on XM and Weather if you acquire the GPX 30 antenna receiver and pay the subscription service.
CONCLUSION:
I peaceful feel that after handling both units, the 550 is a honest motorcyclists GPS, it does everything I ask of it. The 660 can be, but as stated elsewhere, it got released before all the bugs were worked out of it. It needs work.
It is sharp to me that Garmin is playing the field with the 660, the 550 is peaceful a cataloged product, and is calm for sale at most dealers. I don't know if they understanding to phase out the 550 if and when more 660's are sold.
I do know that I'm very gay with my 550 for now and will view Garmin to gaze what firmware updates they provide to address the shortcomings for the 660.
As of 07-15-2009 Amazon does not have this unit listed for sale as recent. There is only one seller of this unit and it is listed as refurbished.
As of 7-31-2009 Amazon has taken this item out of the product catalog. It is not currently available.
Garmin has released software version 2.80 for the Zumo 660. The update states the issues brought up in the previous reviews and corrects them. Kudos to Garmin for acknowledging the previous shortfalls, and concerns, then addressing them in a software update. It is always suited to point out shortfalls to a company that responds, otherwise they don't know if there is anything outrageous.
I presently gain three Garmin's, a street pilot purchased 4 years ago, a Nuvi purchased 6 months ago, and now the Zumo 660 for my motorcycle. The Zumo is obviously one of the most expensive GPS units a consumer can acquire. It is by far the fastest veil updating and most right GPS I occupy. Beats the 6 month traditional Nuvi by a long shot. I recently drove (haven't mounted the 660 to the bike yet, wanted to test drive the unit) from central NJ to Baltimore. If the Garmin point to was the windshield, I could have ragged only that camouflage, it is that hastily and honest. The lane support function takes all view out of figuring which lane one should be in for the interstate lane crossover. It was as if the 660 took a snapshot of the overhead signage in front of me and had it on the cover. In checking the accuracy of the unit, I found that I was looking too distinguished at the Garmin and not the traffic, because I was amazed at the accuracy of the river crossings, the bridge crossings, the parallel service road vs. the interstate, to peep if the Garmin picked up the subtle differences, it did 100%.
I will now exercise the included software to thought a route with POI and look how well it performs. With the software update, I'll let Garmin if there is any shortfall because I know they'll listen.
So far, I would recommend this unit and am thinking of adding the traffic cable for the next road meander.
I am going on a 10-day motorcycle slouch from the Bay Residence to Colorado and benefit. So I decided to earn the unprejudiced released Garmin Zuno 660 to replace my TomTom Easy Rider. I received the unit last week and started using it in my car while I got the wiring done for my 1200GS. The unit is well built, the touch veil very responsive and the user interface easy understand to navigate. I also downloaded the latest mapping software, a free, one-time upgrade offered by Garmin.
Set up was straightforward and downloading the updated North America way was glowing, other than the fact that it is a 2.7GB file! I utilize a Mac and the mapping software for the Mac works well, very similar to the PC version. Creating custom routes on the Mac and downloading it to the Zumo is straight forward. So far so sterling. I spent the weekend exploring the Zumo, including browsing the plot. That was when I noticed that the Zumo does not prove any city names, no matter what the zoom level. Not the largest cities, and not the smallest ones; honest road names. I called Garmin tech back and they confirmed that the Zumo does not abet city names on the maps, saying that you can rep cities by doing a search by name if you want to procure any city. Garmin could not say when or if this feature will be supported! Unfortunately, I like to inspect at a mapI I like to peek where towns/cities are relative to each other and other points of interest and selecting the appropriate routes. So a way without city/town names is not a way!
Garmin Tech Befriend pointed out that cities can be located by doing the search function. Unfortunately Portland Oregon or Portland Maine, or Portland anything came support "no matches found"! Cramped towns like Gypsum CO came befriend "no matches found".
Finally, I tried creating a custom route, which turned out to be straight forward. I created waypoints on my Mac, downloaded it to the Zumo and created a custom route. Again the Zumo let me down; it was not able to complete the route calculation, impartial hanging at less than 100% calculated.
I do bear the Zumo has the potential to be a very profitable motorcycle GPS unit. I also have Garmin did a disservice by releasing the unit before it is fully baked! Hence the one star. Actually I would give it a zero star rating as this unit is not yet ready for commercial release and review.
05/08/09 Update: Must have been "pilot error" on my part; searching by "Cities" works for Portland or any other city/town, contrary to what I first reported (I have no view why or what I was doing horrible the first time) . Also, Garmin does now respond a dilemma with maps not displaying city/town names. According to their tech relieve, they are working on a fix but do not have a release date.
Creating a custom route on the unit works well except for a quirk: I cannot do the unit compute a route that goes over Tioga Pass Road (I route I am planning for an upcoming roam to Colorado), hanging up while calculating the route and never finishing. Another quirk: the unit will not allow me to add Ely Nevada to a custom route via "Cities", only giving me Ely Twp, MI as the option when typing in Ely. Impartial happens that Ely NV is also on my planned lumber to Colorado.
