TomTom automatically updates you with the latest traffic information, recalculates your trip time, and suggests alternate routes. Since TomTom has the industry's most accurate and dependable maps you'll have access to one million more miles of roads than you would using other GPS brands.

Outsmart traffic with the TomTom XXL 550·T. With complete 5-inch widescreen navigation plus Lifetime Traffic Updates* you'll always outsmart traffic and avoid delays with real-time information via your TomTom

Features:

• Preloaded with maps of the US, Canada, and Mexico, complete with spoken turn-by-turn instructions and 3D graphics
• Lifetime Traffic Updates included--outsmart traffic and avoid delays for life with real-time information via your TomTom
• More than 7 million points of interest in over 60 destination categories--gas stations, restaurants, hotels, ATMs and more
• IQ Routes Technology calculates the fastest route possible based on time of day, saving you time, fuel and money
• Advanced Lane Guidance indicates exactly which lane to use, so you can go confidently

Navigate to any location in the US, Canada or Mexico--or directly to one of 7 million preloaded points of interest. Finding your way has never been easier, using TomTom's new EasyMenu and spoken turn-by-turn instructions including street names.

Eighteen percent of the nation's road information changes every year. With TomTom's exclusive Map Share On-Demand Updates, you have the ability to update your own map instantly or download verified updates from other drivers. Update your TomTom daily or whenever you wish.

7 million Points of Interest
Comes preloaded with more than 7 million points of interest in over 60 categories. Easily find millions of gas stations, restaurants, hotels and more on your route. Or, seek out a new tourist attraction, nightlife spot or shopping center and navigate directly to it. Customize by adding your own favorites.

IQ Routes*
Despite posted speed limits, traffic traveling along a road at 8 a.m. moves at a different pace than it does at 2 p.m. Actual traffic speed is affected by rush hour, traffic light changes, pedestrian traffic, day of the week, and more. Only TomTom offers exclusive technology that evaluates routes based on actual traffic speeds, rather than posted speed limits, and will recommend the fastest route for the time of the day.

[...] Nice June 19, 2010
Charles (VA USA)
6 out of 6 found this review helpful

I like this product. My basis of comparison is my old $600 Magellan GPS, which has died a long, slow, and infuriating (for me) death. I took a gamble buying this new Tom Tom without any user reviews to go on. It has nice looking graphics, starts up very quickly, and is light and thin, with a nicely sized display. It is able to pick up a traffic signal in locations where my Magellan didn't, indicating a superior traffic receiver operating successfully in weak signal areas. The graphics used to show traffic problems along your route seems very nice. When the car is changing heading, the map slews around quickly.

Connecting the device to my computer using the included UBS cable, I was able to ascertain available updates to the program and the map data (kind of odd for these to exist so soon since the product has just now been released), and get them downloaded and installed successfully, although the process online is not especially intuitive. The online system also has a very nice backup feature, that can hold an image of your entire system for you, but it takes a very long time, seemingly an hour or more (I didn't time it) to complete.

I'm red-green color blind and have a lot of trouble with existing color schemes in all kind of systems that can't be customized (somehow everyone thinks it's okay to discriminate against color blind people while going to great lengths and expense to accommodate people with physical limitations). Tom Tom has a process that allows users to contribute their own color schemes for the graphics, and I have found some that I can see better. I like this very much.

Some limitations:
The user interface is not especially intuitive and takes some experience to get used to.
When you enter an address on the onscreen keyboard, there is no audible feedback that you have entered each keystroke, only visual on the screen.
When I first got the device, after turning it on for the first time and viewing the canned intro presentation, for several subsequent uses (turned off power, turned it back on again) the device spontaneously put me back into sections of the intro presentation, making me get ready to take it back for a refund. Something made me hold the power button in while powering it down, then powered it back up, and the problem disappeared.
The graphics are a little hard to read in strong direct sunlight, but not terribly bad.
The POI data base is missing some establishments that it really should know about, and has at least one location nearby (a gas station) that has been out of business for at least five years.
When you complete a trip and the system acknowledges that you have reached your destination, it doesn't nullify the trip automatically like my Magellan did, but retains it until you do so yourself manually. If you start out again, retracing your path, it will still show that path as a route, with (now) backward-facing arrows. This goes away when you cancel the route.
Points of Interest icons on the map do not allow you to tap them to get information on their identity, address, and phone numbers, like my Magellan had. I miss this feature.
Although the product has been released for sale, they haven't posted the user's manual online yet, according to the technical advisor I was able to reach. I liked that I was able to get someone on the phone, though, fairly quickly, when I called, he spoke good English with an American accent, didn't mumble or scoff at my questions, but did seem kind of impatient.

These are just my initial impressions, having used the system for only a few days. [...] -- customer review

[...] TOMTOM 5550T June 27, 2010
Ascela R. Dominguez (VALLEJO, CA, US)
[[ASIN:B003FSTAHI TomTom XXL 550T 5-Inch Widescreen Portable GPS Navigator (Lifetime Traffic Edition)

For the GPS novice or beginner who desires to get from point A - B without overly complicated menus and choices, this is the perfect unit. Dead accurate and has never failed me in my travels here in Northern CA. Simple to operate. Big bright 5" screen. Use the built in computer voice to guide you with spoken street names and turns. Just make sure the combo car charger/traffic receiver works. Mine was DOA out of the box.

For the more advanced user who desires more choices, customization and programmability, the TT 540TM is the unit to get. Also dead on accurate.

Watch out when updating both units. Back up to computer, then remove extra voices you won't be using from the unit. Then update your map. The update should proceed with no problems. Those that have problems with updates did not follow this step.Good luck. [...] -- customer review

Buy New: Too low to display