Tomtom Xxl 550 Zip Code Instead
Tomtom Xxl 550 Upgrade Carried A
Tomtom Xxl 550 Series Of XXL

The lower-left portion of the screen shows the current time, speed, and direction.

Tomtom Xxl 550 Series Of XXL

TomTom has two series of XXL products with 5.0-inch screens, the XXL 540-TM and the XXL 550-TM reviewed here.

Tomtom Xxl 550 Upgrade Carried A

At one time, such an upgrade carried a huge premium, but no more: Now the premium can be as little as 40.

For those of you without the secret decoder ring, the T models include lifetime live traffic updates; the M models include lifetime map updates; and the TM models include both lifetime map updates and live traffic.

The basic feature set of the XXL 550 series of products matches the features discussed in the previously reviewed XXL 540-S ( ).

So whats the difference with the XXL 550-TM First, you find a somewhat revamped and simplified user interface.

The Options menu, previously called Preferences, now consists of only three screens of options.

The 540 series had six screens of preferences if you selected the advanced viewing option.

Individual option choices group similar configurable options together.

For example, the driving view preferences on the 550 products let you set status bar information and POI visibility.

On the 540 products, those were separate preference settings.

A tap of the map view still opens up the main menu, but on the 550 products, you now have two large icons: Plan Route and Browse Map.

Plan route gives you the additional option of specifying your departure point in addition to using the default, current location.

Your Navigate-to options include Home, Favorite, Address, Recent Destination, POI, or Point on map.

Individual icons for City Center, Zip Code, and Intersection have been eliminated on the 550s, but the functionality is still built in.

Tomtom Xxl 550 Zip Code Instead

Just type in the zip code instead of the city name, and it will find the city for you.

One icon missing on the 550 that I liked on the 540 is the one that lets you navigate directly to a latitudelongitude.

Other changes to the user interface also make some functions more easily accessible.

From the main menu, theres an icon to switch to night colors, to mute the sound, and to access a more usable Help feature.

A single tap of the Help icon shows your location on a map along with your latitude and longitude.

The same information is available on the 540 products, but it takes an extra tap to get the information.

Without an active route, two centered icons on the bottom of the screen let you easily switch between 2D and 3D views.

With an active route, the status bar that occupies the lower portion of the screen has been reorganized.