Garmin intros c510/530, C550 and screenless Mobile 20 with Bluetooth

Garmin has unveiled three new GPS devices at CeBIT, all intended for in-car use, and two of which sport Bluetooth for interacting with your cellphone. The c510/530 (Europe/North America) and c550 (pictured) are the latest generation of the company's well-received c-series, and both new models feature 3.5-inch QVGA touchscreen displays, a "high-sensitivity" GPS receiver (which we're assuming refers to a SiRF Star III), configurable vehicle icons (focus groups must have been hating on that little triangle), some amount of preloaded content  (expandable via SD), and an anti-theft system with either PIN or -- get this -- location-based codes, where the unit will only turn on if you drive it to a predetermined spot. The c550 adds Bluetooth and a speaker/mic into the mix, allowing it to do double- triple-duty as your in-car hands-free setup with bonus MP3 playback, as well as a traffic receiver integrated into the power cord (also available as part of the c510D/530D deluxe package) and more maps for the Europeans. Even more exciting (from a gadgety perspective, at least) is the upcoming Mobile 20 Bluetooth GPS cradle for Nokia, WinMo, and Treo smartphones (pictured after the break), which performs nav and hands-free duties, as you'd expect, plus some extra fun like SMS integration for texting your coordinates to pals and Garmin Online, which provides a mix of free and pay traffic, weather, and webcam services. (On the down side, it lthough it seems to be BYOMCS: Bring Your Own Memory Card Slot). We know release dates on all three models -- Q2 for the new c's and July for the 20 -- but only the price of the c550, which will set you back exactly $857.13.

Read- c510/530 [Via GPS Gazette]
Read- c550 [Via GPS Gazette]
Read- Mobile 20 [Via GPS Gazette]

[Erik Olufson @ Mar 9th 2006 9:51AM]

Great post. Seems they'll have even more news from CeBit on the Garmin blog http://garmin.blogs.com throughout the rest of the week.

[Zadillo @ Mar 9th 2006 10:35AM]

Interesting. I currently have a Treo 650 (mounted with a ProClip USA mount), and I'm using it with a Globalsat BT338 bluetooth GPS unit (Sirf STAR III) and TomTom 5. I've actually been really happy with this combination, but I'd certainly consider this Garmin Mobile 20 thing - I've heard people say that the Navteq maps Garmin uses are better than what TomTom uses. Any opinions on the merits of TomTom vs. Garmin? The fact that this Mobile 20 thing also would seem to double as a handsfree unit seems kind of cool to me too.

[raza @ Aug 27th 2007 12:09AM]

Using tom tom for the past 3 years but you are right Navteq maps are much better than the tele atlas maps that Tom Tom uses.

[Allory @ Mar 9th 2006 11:08AM]

There are also updated nuvi models (http://www.garmin.com/products/nuvi360/), and yes, if you go to the Garmin page they do specify SiRF.