Zumo 595 thoughts after 1500km (1000 mile tour)

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Zumo 595 thoughts after 1500km (1000 mile tour)

Post by Sleuth »

Hi everyone.

I recently switched from a BMW Navigator IV (Zumo 660) to a Zumo 595 via the 396, here are my thoughts based on a 1500km (1000 mile) trip.

As with most things it is not easy to say it is good / bad. There are a number of things which Garmin have done nicely, and others where you say "Why?"

Preamble why I switched & chose the 595. My Navigator IV was starting to show signs of stress & old age. Very slow to find satellites, map during routing suddenly disappears etc. It also started to have trouble in playing music, at that point it was time to jump ship. I selected the 396 on the basis that it was the latest Garmin, had a similar screen size and could play music. The Bluetooth function worked wonderfully, it was able to connect to the smartphone & (aging) headset without issues. However I had a number of issues with it, and the dealer switched it for the 595.

My initial reaction is - it is big. The screen display is nice, it finds the satellites very quickly, and the routing is not too bad. The menu structure is reasonable, although it would have been nice to be able to detour with just a two buttons. (The 660/Nav IV was able to do this.) There are a number of map themes which will suit most people, although I wish they had made the roads a little wider - it is difficult to see some of the roads at times due to their width.

Thoughts
It is very easy to focus on the negative points of an item, and give the impression that it is bad. However I am happy with it, it does what it should be doing correctly: namely finding where you are, where you want to go, and how to get there.

There are some bad points I noticed. Whereas the 396 Bluetooth function worked without issue, the 595 does have issues. I have unpaired the smartphone as it caused the connection to the headset to be dropped on a regular basis. It still drops, but at a significantly lesser rate. This could be that I am using a Sena SMH10 device which is 5-6 years old and using an old Bluetooth version, or it could be Garmin not doing Bluetooth very well! :lol:

The autozoom function is as bad as ever, and why they have not made it hard coded I will never know. It was working sort of, and using the old trick of adjusting the zoom while on the move on the two settings, I was able to temporarily adjust it. Now it sulks and does not want to zoom. This happened after I arrived in the UK, perhaps the switch from KMpH to MPH confused it. Perhaps I will hit reset and start from scratch again.

The music player is reasonable, so far it remembers which song I left stopped at, and plays from the beginning. Garmin claims that it can handle 1000 songs, (the 660 / Nav IV could handle 2000 songs) I have placed on an SD card 1300 songs. So far it has shown none of the instabilities that the Nav IV had shown. The only issue is the dropping of the Bluetooth connection, most of the time it reconnects quickly so you can press play and enjoy the music.

Favourites no longer have the Basecamp icons transferred, they all obtain a nice friendly heart. This makes life interesting when you have a number of favourites close by, and are looking for the different favourite to all the friends.

Profiles are transferred from Basecamp though, as well as the Travel details, arrival time, stay etc. This makes keeping an eye on what you planned and the reality much easier. The downside is that although placing the routes on the device are listed alphabetically, when imported they are listed in an almost random manner. I would only import a couple of planned routes each day, and delete them when I have completed that segment of the journey.

The POI's are extensive, although not always accurate. I was looking for a cash machine, in the Telford area (between Telford & RAF Cosford) I needed to go East, so I did not want to travel West. A couple of the listed machines did not show any sign of their ever being a bank there. I knew this issue was with the Petrol Stations, but it now apparently includes other POI's as well. You have been warned! :)

The choice of routing is reasonable, and the ETA seemed to consistent with the traffic conditions.

Take care when mounting the beast. Although the mount looks like a 660 mount - it isn't. The mount has been supersized to hold this giant of a GPS. As a result of it being mounted on the dashboard bar, I am unable to turn the 595 too far forward and avoid some of the glare from the sun.

The last negative thing I will say about it, is you need to buy a case. It does not automatically come with a case. The hard case from Garmin was on back order fro about 5 weeks, and the soft case I ordered did not seem strong enough to protect it while in the glove compartment. I compromised by buying a BMW case. It was slightly more expensive than the Garmin one, but it was available immediately.

I am very happy with it, it does what I need of it to do, I am glad I moved up from the Nav IV/660.
GPS: Garmin Zumo XT, BMW Navigator IV
Maps: Europe NTU 2024.10
Software: Basecamp (4.7.4) & Mapsource (6.16.3)
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Motorcycle: BMW R1200GSA (2020)
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Re: Zumo 595 thoughts after 1500km (1000 mile tour)

Post by Oop North John »

Sleuth wrote: 01 Nov 2018 07:40 There are some bad points I noticed. Whereas the 396 Bluetooth function worked without issue, the 595 does have issues. I have unpaired the smartphone as it caused the connection to the headset to be dropped on a regular basis. It still drops, but at a significantly lesser rate. This could be that I am using a Sena SMH10 device which is 5-6 years old and using an old Bluetooth version, or it could be Garmin not doing Bluetooth very well! :lol:
Is your smartphone a Samsung A5? I'm about to return my second 595 due the Bluetooth issue you describe, when Garmin say the unit is faulty, like the first one!
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Re: Zumo 595 thoughts after 1500km (1000 mile tour)

Post by Sleuth »

Oop North John wrote: 01 Nov 2018 18:05
Sleuth wrote: 01 Nov 2018 07:40 There are some bad points I noticed. Whereas the 396 Bluetooth function worked without issue, the 595 does have issues. I have unpaired the smartphone as it caused the connection to the headset to be dropped on a regular basis. It still drops, but at a significantly lesser rate. This could be that I am using a Sena SMH10 device which is 5-6 years old and using an old Bluetooth version, or it could be Garmin not doing Bluetooth very well! :lol:
Is your smartphone a Samsung A5? I'm about to return my second 595 due the Bluetooth issue you describe, when Garmin say the unit is faulty, like the first one!
Hi John,

No, I use a One Plus 3. The 396 Bluetooth connection was fine, (however the screen sensitivity was not!) Here the screen sensitivity is fine, yet I get dropped Bluetooth connection. I am willing to pay that price. As I am looking at replacing the headset with a wired connection there will not be the issues of 2 Bluetooth connections as listed elsewhere in the forum.

I would find it surprising that the device is faulty when on the second replacement. It would indicate more a production / design fault than a bad unit.

I did not mention the a few other items perhaps of note.

The route line is now split into sections, each section is an instruction. The route until the next turn / instruction is of a brighter purple than the following sections. This way it is easy to see where you should be heading.

The junction view is now a split screen, which allows you to see the route and the surroundings at the same time as which lane to be in.

The instructions are much better. It gives instructions such as "At the lights turn left" etc. Also when exiting a motorway or dual carriageway it will (sometimes) link the instructions. e.g. "Take the slip road on the left, and then turn right"

The travel edition has now been stopped, and a European version is available. The downside of the Travel Edition was that you could not install a map on the computer. (There are workarounds but that involved copying the maps to a USB drive.)

Edit:
Today, we were in the car and the AutoZoom worked, so I was prepared to reset and start from scratch. When I looked at the Motorcycle setting, I noticed the AutoZoom box was not ticked, whereas for the car it was. Oops. Isn't that surprising disabling the AutoZoom means it does not work! :shock: :oops: I have now corrected that oversight and I will see if it makes a difference. (It did! I think this counts as a IDTenT error -ID10T)

If I get a chance, I will take a picture of the 595 & 660 car mounts side by side to show the difference.

Best regards
Sleuth
GPS: Garmin Zumo XT, BMW Navigator IV
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Re: Zumo 595 thoughts after 1500km (1000 mile tour)

Post by tojjer »

I would say your 396 was definitely faulty as the sensitivity on my 346 is spot on
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Re: Zumo 595 thoughts after 1500km (1000 mile tour)

Post by Sleuth »

tojjer wrote: 03 Nov 2018 18:29 I would say your 396 was definitely faulty as the sensitivity on my 346 is spot on
The 396 developed a very annoying habit of suddenly becoming silent. No noises, clicks or announcements. The first time it happened was when my wife was in Germany doing a bit of shopping. No problem there, but she had left me to do some work in the North of The Netherlands. So she was in an unfamiliar place, relying on a device that was not speaking to her. She managed to get back to me, but it was rather tense.

It happened a few times, but a day later it would work without issue. Intermittent problems are the hardest to find, it was only when the SD card holder came away that I had had enough and said to the dealer that I wanted to change.

I think it was a nice device, when you ignored the lack of glove sensitivity, silent bouts, and Incident Warning.

I feel that the 595 is a better machine, although there are issues with it as well.

Perhaps Garmin will produce a true GPS made for Bikers, designed for what bikers need not what a designer thinks they need. (Although I still think it is better than the competition! ;) )
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Re: Zumo 595 thoughts after 1500km (1000 mile tour)

Post by tojjer »

I hope you have better luck with the 595
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Re: Zumo 595 thoughts after 1500km (1000 mile tour)

Post by Sleuth »

tojjer wrote: 05 Nov 2018 06:44 I hope you have better luck with the 595
So far it has proved to be pretty reliable, other than the IDtenT error :D . However I can't complain that the machine doesn't realise that I want the autozoom to work!

It would be nice to have the autozoom levels to be hardcoded so you can select them at the side of the road, rather trying to set them while moving.

I doubt that there will every be a device that works for everybody.
GPS: Garmin Zumo XT, BMW Navigator IV
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Re: Zumo 595 thoughts after 1500km (1000 mile tour)

Post by Oop North John »

With reference to the autozoom, it would be nice to be able to configure the speed at which it zooms out from slow mode, into normal road, as for example in France the speed limit for non-dual carriageway roads is 80 kph which means accepting a restricted view, or busting the limit :?
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Re: Zumo 595 thoughts after 1500km (1000 mile tour)

Post by rbentnail »

I recently took a 1225 mile tour with my 595 and it performed as expected except for one thing- there was a section of road it simply would not route me down. BaseCamp wouldn't either, it was like they both thought the road didn't exist when clearly it did. For the next 50 miles or so the 595 kept telling me to make a u-turn. In times past when I physically bypassed a shaping point a screen would pop up asking me if I wanted to skip said point but this time not. I tried several times to manually bypass the point but then the 595 completely recalculated the route taking me on high speed roads I did not want to travel. Since it would not bypass the point satisfactorily I turned the useless POS off and got out the paper maps and highlighter and for that day the 595 was a very expensive paper weight, literally, on my gas tank. For me, having 20% of my routing plans suddenly become useless is unacceptable. This never once happened with a nuvi I used for 10+ yrs. Progress? Meh.
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Re: Zumo 595 thoughts after 1500km (1000 mile tour)

Post by sussamb »

Sounds more like a map issue and nothing to do with your device. Can you post which road?