From the Manufacturer
From the Manufacturer Take a ride on a new route and explore the open road with the zūmo 660. This motorcycle-friendly navigator was built to lead you on all of your two-wheeled adventures. Whether you’re on a weekday ride just across town or a weeklong trip to an annual rally with friends, the zūmo 660 is ready to show you the way. Whether you’re on a weekday ride just across town or a weeklong trip to an annual rally with friends, the zūmo 660 is ready to show you the way. Click to enlarge. The zūmo 660 GPS motorcycle navigator features 3-D buildings, lane assist with junction view and a 4.3-inch sunlight-readable, glove-friendly touchscreen display. Both a motorcycle mount with hardware and an [Read More...]
Buy Garmin zumo 660 4.3-Inch Portable GPS Motorcycle Navigator at Amazon
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 make to my 550.
Let me predicate my review as it is based on the 660 Firmware update 3.20 that came out towards the end of July of 2009.
1. The 660 doesn’t display all street names when browsing the map. 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 get into the habit of using waypoints.
3. Construction of the 660 is like a nuvi. In fact, I think it is a modified nuvi. The USB connection on the 660 can only be accessed by removing the battery cover (which then causes an annoying message to appear that the battery cover is off) There is no tether for the cover, so if you loose it, guess what? All GPS functions are disabled! The 660 only works in GPS mode with the battery cover attached. The screen feels like soft plastic when you touch it. In comparison, the USB connection on the 550 is behind a hinged door, and it doesn’t matter if the door is open or closed. So even if you break the door, the 550 still operates as a GPS. The 550’s screen feels more like glass to me. In my opinion - for fit and finish - the 550 is built like a brick house, the 660 - not so much.
4. The 660 doesn’t come 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 trip with your 660, you have a limited amount of battery power because if you plug 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 small 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 small, and inconvenient to get to, (you have to remove the 660’s battery to get to it) it’s hardly worth the trouble.
6. Never saw the lane change notice 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 problem. 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 screen 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 find that a very useful way to navigate around the system. I could not find an equivalent key or process on the 660 to do the same thing.
9. On the 550 - touching the turn in xx miles portion of the nav map screen, the unit repeats the last verbal instructions again. I could not find 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 support. The 550 will support XM and Weather if you get the GPX 30 antenna receiver and pay the subscription service.
CONCLUSION:
I still feel that after handling both units, the 550 is a true 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 interesting to me that Garmin is playing the field with the 660, the 550 is still a cataloged product, and is still for sale at most dealers. I don’t know if they plan to phase out the 550 if and when more 660’s are sold.
I do know that I’m very happy with my 550 for now and will watch Garmin to see 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 new. 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 good to point out shortfalls to a company that responds, otherwise they don’t know if there is anything wrong.
I presently own 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 buy. It is by far the fastest screen updating and most accurate GPS I own. Beats the 6 month old 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 display was the windshield, I could have used only that screen, it is that fast and accurate. The lane assist function takes all thought 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 screen. In checking the accuracy of the unit, I found that I was looking too much 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 see if the Garmin picked up the subtle differences, it did 100%.
I will now use the included software to plan a route with POI and see 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 trip.