The basic problem would be getting the 'route plan' off the phone/tablet and into the GPS.

You can route plan on the phone/tablet .. but not with the garmin maps/software. For Android I use Osmand, Mapsme ... they both use OSM data but display it differently. Having them do the route planning is a 'guide' to me ... same with the GPS .. if I think something looks interesting .. I'm going there .. my holiday not the GPS/Phones!

Thanks for the info PanEuropean.

Will be placing an order for the SMH10R as a first step.

I just invested in £450 in a Garmin 590LM and the only thing I can say positive about it is that, compared to the cheapo Chinese units with IGo Primo, the unit itself is much, much better (if you ignore connectivity). But you'd expect that at, given the x10 price difference! But the navigation software is an altogether different story...

If you ride on paved roads only IGo Primo is streets ahead of Garmin. As standard you get a selection of voice prompt levels, hi-viz graphics as a default (not the near useless pastel shades of Garmin), multiple map themes, multiple voice characters, differentiation between dual and single lane roads, auto audio warning when you deviate off route, destination arrival confirmation, variable 3D-view-ahead distance, editing of saved favourites... the list goes on and on.

If Garmin ever consulted a biker when designing their software, or listened much to feedback when they've had it, I'd suggest they just ignored it.

I'm a bit confused by your post above... this because I'm not really sure what it is that you are trying to say.

After having read your post several times, it appears to me that you are saying "for paved road only navigation, the IGo Primo is a good device." If that is what you meant to say, great, thank you for letting us all know about this inexpensive device as an alternative to Garmin devices. I like Garmin stuff, but like you, I'm not exactly happy either about the $800 price tag on the 590.

What I can't comprehend from the paragraph you wrote (quoted above) is your statement "IGo Primo is streets ahead of Garmin". The Zumo 590 also offers every one of the features you cited. I know this because I have owned a 590 for about 6 months now, and have ridden over 10,000 miles with it in Canada, the USA, Europe, and North Africa.

Garmin does listen quite carefully to their users. I know this from personal experience - back in 2001, I bought a StreetPilot III for use on my motorcycle, this back when the idea of using a GPS on a motorcycle was considered quite novel and exotic. I wrote Garmin with some suggestions, and this evolved into Garmin providing me with prototype or new model GPS units to test while riding. I did this for 6 years, from 2001 to 2007, riding over 100,000 miles testing the SP III, 25xx, 26xx, 27xx and early prototype Zumos. I gave them a lot of feedback specific to use on motorcycles, often on a daily basis, and some years they would supply me with new build software as frequently as once a week to test while riding. They did listen quite carefully to what I had to say, and often I would see my suggestions incorporated into public release software. The only reason I stopped doing this beta testing was because I had to enter into a NDA with Honeywell due to paid work I was doing on aircraft navigation systems, and that conflicted with the NDA I signed with Garmin for my volunteer work.

The Zumo 590 is a very capable device, but it has a steep learning curve if you want to be able to take advantage of all the features it offers. My respectful suggestion to you, in light of the fact that you "just bought" the unit, is that you re-read the manual about once every 3,000 miles of riding, and you will then discover how to use each and every one of the features you enumerated above.

Please appreciate that I'm not saying this in a sarcastic or condescending manner. One of the disadvantages of contemporary consumer electronics is that they pack hundreds of features, but it's difficult for the end user to discover them all unless the end user puts a fair amount of time and effort into learning how the device works. By way of example, I have had 3 different iPhones (4S, 5, and 6) over the past 3 years. I went into the Apple store in Zurich last week to buy a cable, and saw one of the employees dictating a SMS into their phone. I was amazed, I didn't know the phone had that capability. The employee explained to me that not only has the phone had that capability for about 4 years now, but if you changed the language setting with one button push (only) from the main screen, you could dictate to it in any number of languages, and the phone would properly comprehend and spell the messages.

Michael

It's a very useful tool but, unless I missed something, one thing it doesn't facilitate is changing the colours of the countryside outside of urban areas. This remains a pale, pastel green for all themes, default and modified.

Thank you for taking the time to give a detailed response.

Whilst I'm pleased to hear Garmin do listen to feedback I'm still of the view that a device costing this much money should come with default settings that a typical biker wouldn't feel the need to change.

For example my previous post about not being able to change the default countryside colour... Really, why is it the same pale green for all the themes that come with the unit? There's not even an option to change it by editing the theme files themselves.

I will have a re-read of the manual to discover some the settings mentioned so far but one I'd really like some help with is changing the 3D distance view.

On iGo Primo you can choose - I seem to remember it was 5km, 10km or 15km together with on/off for zoom-out when there are no turns within the chosen distance view. When set to 5km it gives an excellent and detailed view of the road ahead allowing the rider to accurately assess bends.

Use the two small controls that appear on the left hand side of the screen (at least, that's where they are when the device is in portrait orientation). They will let you zoom in and out.

Garmin doesn't assign a scale to the 3D view because the map is drawn logarithmically, with quite high zoom directly in front of the rider, fading away to a more compressed view at infinity (the horizon at the top of the display).

I don't use 3D view myself, hence I don't have a lot of experience with it. I expect, though, that you will need to select the 'autozoom' control to 'off' if you want the zoom level you have manually set to persist.

It is possible that the + and - controls on the left of the screen may disappear after a few moments of riding. If this happens, it is by design, to automatically declutter the display. Touching the screen should bring the controls back.

For what it's worth, I find that using the device in portrait view presents me with much more useful map information that using it in landscape view. I don't care much about what is beside me, it's what is ahead of me that counts.

Michael

Zumo 590 - Portrait View

I had a suspicion the persistent LAND colour maybe a fault. I just installed the latest updates for my device and now the LAND colour changes with each theme selected. Toggling 3D Terrain on/off changes the colours as well. With it off the LAND colour set in the kmtf file (this is the file that holds the colour them parameters) is a match.