Garmin nuvi 500, 550: Whether Dirt, Pavement, Or Water You’ll Get Where You Need To Go

by Justin

Garmin’s nuvi 500 and 550 are the latest nuvi’s to pop up in the wild. How many nuvi’s are there now? Many, many. Garmin’s new nuvi 500 series, due out August 10 in the US, brings navigational capabilities to nearly any mode of transportation you can think of in one PND. Whether you’re in a car, on foot, on the high seas, offroad, or on a bike, either the nuvi 500 or 550 will keep you exactly where you want to be and lead you to where you want to go.

Garmin’s nuvi 500 is a rugged, waterproof portable with a 3.5-inch, 320 x 240 pixel QVGA color antiglare TFT display with a white backlight. A light 7.6 ounces, the nuvi 500 uses a lithium-ion battery that’ll run continuously for about 8 hours. It comes with preloaded maps specific to your region, with room for expansion thanks to internal solid state memory and a microSD card slot. Packed with navigational features, the nuvi 500 includes voice prompts, 3D map view, auto reroute, route avoidance, custom POIs, FM traffic compatibility, MSN Direct in the US, a picture viewer, and a few other cool specs. You won’t find any super high-end features with the nuvi 500 though. Don’t expect Bluetooth, spoken street names, speech recognition, or multimedia playback because you won’t find it here.

Coming August 10, the Garmin nuvi 500 is priced at $499.99.

Garmin’s nuvi 550 shares nearly identical specs other than more comprehensive road coverage of the United States and Canada, a country not covered by the nuvi 500. Plus the nuvi 550 will see an overseas release in September for £299, while like the nuvi 500 it’ll set you back $499.99 in the United States.

via pocketlint