Garmin Street Pilot C550 satnav

Posted by T3 Online on Thu 5 Oct 2006

Garmin's latest is no mere TomTom RipOff

Anyone who knows satnavs will recognise the picture above as having a hint of similarity with market-leader TomTom's designs. But Garmin's latest has one killer feature the TomTom 910 lacks: free traffic alerts.

UK, Ireland and European maps are preloaded onto its 2.2GB hard drive, leaving 700MB of free space. There also an SD card slot. As with previous Garmin models, route-plotting is as easy as getting bad-tempered on the M25. Just punch in a full postcode, hit Go on the anti-glare touchscreen, and route calculation is done in about 30 seconds. Maps are clear and voice directions and street names blare from the stereo speakers.

Like TomTom's flagship 910, this is fitted with Bluetooth, letting you use it as a hands-free device with your mobile. Pairing up the devices can be done either on the satnav's screen or your mobile and once connected you can make or receive calls using the satnav's touchscreen.

So far, so TomTom - and the screen's half an inch smaller than the 910. However, as well as the expected POIs and an MP3 player, the C550 has free traffic alerts via the included FM TMC receiver and a paid-up subscription for the UK for the lifetime of the product - on a TomTom satnav, the same service will set you back �60 a year. When its computer brain senses jams ahead, the incident flashes up on the map and you are given the option of re-routing.

This is a great buy. The only problem we encountered was that the 12V adaptor kept falling out of the lighter socket. Whether you want this or a TomTom 910 is down pretty much to personal taste - do you want a bigger screen or free traffic alerts?