Reviews of the Garmin Oregon 550t 

Real Reviews Submitted by Real Users!

I've had my Oregon 550t for about a month now and I've become an avid geocacher since. Now I don't have to plan out my route ahead of time and print out lists and maps. All the GPX files used by the unit can be downloaded and updated with ease (as long as you spring for premium membership).

The downside of the Oregon 550t is that it can be hard to see the screen under bright sunlight. However, this can be countered by turning up the backlight - though this tends to shorten the battery life. I also noticed that when wearing polarized glasses, it is almost impossible to read the screen. I took this unit with me on the ATV last weekend and it worked perfectly for my outing. The topographic features were a big help when riding in hilly terrain and the tagged pictures allowed us to quickly do a Google Earth overlay of our route with pictures from our trip - sure beats a slideshow!

If you're a newcomer to geocaching, then this is a great unit for biking, hiking and other outdoor activities. However, if you're in the market for a GPS unit for your vehicle, then this may not be the right choice.

After having the Garmin Oregon 550t for a few weeks now, I like it, though I have found some problems with the unit, including one which I've had to contact the manufacturer about, namely the track file seems to become corrupted from time to time and quits showing the tracks or elevation plots on the map. You can fix the issue temporarily by connecting it to a computer and replacing the corrupt track file. The compass also seems to need recalibration from time to time and tracks can be off by as much as 100 feet at times.

However, I haven't had any problem with accuracy in wooded areas, which is something which can be a problem with using GPS units in areas with heavy tree cover. I also like the built in camera and photo tagging. It's not at all a bad GPS, but there are some problems which users need to be aware of.

Update: After doing some research, I discovered that it was actually the 2008 topographic maps which were the problem, not the unit itself.

I recently got the Garmin Oregon 550t and have been very happy with it so far; however, I'll admit to being something of a GPS newbie, since I haven't bought a GPS unit since my old Lowrance around 2000 - so of course, the Garmin looks amazing by comparison.

The Oregon 550t is easy to use, easy to see even under bright sunlight and works great under tree cover and in hilly areas. As far as I've seen, the unit has been very accurate and better still, easy to connect to my Mac to download maps and other data and load them onto the unit. Since I live in rural Indonesia, having a solid GPS unit with the level of accuracy provided by the Garmin Oregon 550t is a necessity for hiking and visits to other villages. I'd recommend it to anyone based on my experience with the unit.

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