Things can move that fast – you’ve only just written an article about the Garmin Oregon 300 and Garmin is already announcing new units. The Oregon 550 and Oregon 550t come with a 3.2-megapixel camera, a 3-axis compass, a waterproof housing, 850 MB of internal memory, a microSD slot and USB.
A better touchscreen on the Oregon 550 and Oregon 550t?
The camera has a 4x digital zoom and geotags the pictures automatically. Whether the new models also have an improved touchscreen is not clear from Garmin’s pre-announcement: “…with a tough, 3-inch diagonal, sunlight-readable, color touchscreen display”. Readability of the display in sunlight is precisely a weak point of the Oregon series so far.
Oregon 550t with 1:100,000 topo map of Europe
The Oregon 550 only comes with the basemap already familiar from other Garmin units. The Oregon 550t includes a 1:100,000 map of Europe with 3D view.
You can store 2,000 waypoints, 200 routes, 5,000 geocaches, a track log of up to 10,000 points and 200 tracks on the device.
The Oregon 550 is expected to cost $499.99 and the Oregon 550t $599.99. The unit is said to weigh around 193 g. I couldn’t find any details on battery life.
Whether the built-in camera (whose quality will certainly only be good enough for modest demands) and the new 3-axis compass justify the extra cost over the Oregon 300 / 400t is something everyone has to decide for themselves. If there is an improved display, though, it is definitely worth considering.
Source: engadget.com