Whistler WGPX-550 Handheld GPS Receiver

The soon-to-be defunct Comp USA was auctioning these and I got a refurb unit for under $90!

This is a unit that serves 3 functions: As a GPS used to navigate while driving a car, as an MP3 player, and as a JPG viewer. The main function is as a GPS, so first I'll review the other two functions:


MP3 Player:

Basically you swap out the mapping SD card that comes with the unit for any SD card that has MP3 music files on it and you then launch the MP3 player software on the unit so you can then play them on the GPS. It's kind of a "poor man's" way to have an MP3 player in the car. The
speaker is a mono speaker, but it will play the music pretty loud and clearly. There is an option to plug in headphones or external speakers, when you do this it will play in stereo. It mostly works as expected, but I wish it came with stereo speakers built in and let you play WMA format music files as well. It would also be nice if there were a way to hear the MP3 music files while using the unit for car navigation, but I guess that would mean either having the maps be built into memory or have a 2nd SD card slot.


JPEG picture viewer:

This is a neat little side feature. It pretty much works the same way that the MP3 player works, if you have an SD card with JPG photos on it, you plug this card into the unit, launch the viewer software, and can view the pictures in 2 different sizes. No problems here, I like this feature as the viewer on my digital camera is kind of small and I don't like viewing them at a huge size on a regular TV.


GPS Navigation:

This is the "bread and butter" of this unit. You attach the GPS to the included windshield bracket (you can buy from Whistler for $4 a special device that lets you install to your dash instead), flip up the included antenna (there is an option to plug in a separately purchased external antenna, but it's not needed) and turn it on.

After usually just a few seconds a map of your location appears. You then click on the Menu button with either your finger or the included stylus, and easy to use menus let you very quickly select an address to navigate to or a POI (Point of Interest).

Performance is the strongpoint of this unit. The GPS has EXCELLENT satellite reception (even kept a lock in a short tunnel) and cold start time, something that was lacking in Whistler's failed handheld unit, the Galileo. There are options for 2D vs. 3D viewing of the maps on a color screen at 5 zoom levels. And if you deviate from the route the GPS has calculated, it usually recalculates in only 1-2 seconds, much much faster that my old Lowrance iWay 100M or even my boss' Tom Tom GO 300 that I reviewed earlier. And most of all, I find the directions to be quite accurate.

The one performance issue I have is that the speaker volume is pretty low. Even at it's highest level, it is hard to hear the voice prompts if the radio is on or others are talking in the car.

Where this unit is lacking to some extent vs. the newest units (or even to some extent previous units I've reviewed) is in features and other weirdnesses:

1) After about 2 weeks use, the unit would often tell me that the GPS software is missing. But Whistler tech support is quick and excellent and they were able to have me download new firmware that fixed it in no time.

2) It is very important that you are back at the main menu before you shut the unit off. It is apparently the equivalent of not shutting down a PC using "Start-Shut Down", you run a major risk of corrupting/damaging the software. I have never seen or heard of this needing to be done on any other GPS unit.

3) It would be nice to be able to navigate to a set of lat/long coordinates. I know that many "automotive" GPS units don't do this, but some (Lowrance IWay series, Mio DigiWalker series) do.

4) The options are too simplistic and limiting for what roads to exclude and include. For example, you can either include or exclude toll roads, same for Interstates. My old iWay 100M customizes these features as a bar with about 50 different degrees as to how much you want toll roads or Interstates to figure into a navigation calculation.

5) There is only one voice, a robotic-sounding woman with a slight British accent. Many units now give you a choice of male or female voice and often more than one voice.

I do not think this is a bad unit at all, but considering that last year they initially went for about $350-500, I need to say that it does not compare to other units at that price range. But if you can get it for $200 or less, it is a great deal for a simple-to-use high-quality navigation system with some extras.