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Wanted to give a quick list of thoughts on the new Rino 655t vs the 530hcx. I was an avid 530hcx user, I probably have 4000 hours using the device on river trips, Burning Man, hunting, sailing, snowboarding, and traveling. The ability to locate another person without them having to make any action is an invaluable feature of a 2-way radio. Although the radio was not as powerful as some consumer radios (like the Motorola distance DPS) the polling feature and the ability to leave my old GPS at home was well worth it. The 530hcx however did have its problems. Plenty of issues like antenna rubber separating from the unit and complicated menus/software were drawbacks.
When I caught wind of the 655t being released I picked up one up just in time for Burning Man in August. I used it 16 hours a day trying to learn the unit inside and out. I then took it camping in September and used it biking and hiking other days. After that I did an hour long test of functions with other 530hcx radios about 2 miles away. Here are some of my observations:
Radio:
I did my comparison talking 655t to 530hcx and then 530hcx to 530hcx.
Despite the new labeling, the radio can transmit about the same distance. Sometimes the 530x was better, sometimes the 655t as it had more had to do with the position of the radio in the users hand than the unit itself. This was the same while receiving and transmitting. Not in either way was the 655t superior when talking and when it came to polling another 530hcx I found the 530hcx to be superior by a wide margin. I could have 10 minutes of testing go by with the 530 updating at every possible opportunity and the 655t never getting a single hit. I am not sure if similar units talk better with each other or whether the 530 is just far superior. I am a little scared to spend the money on another 655 to see if that was the issue.
Maps:
I love having built in maps on the new unit. They are all the detail I need for hunting as I still carry a paper map for detail and large area viewing. The 655t offer the ability to see the topo maps with shading but I found that option made the maps dark and harder to read
I found the ability to overlay personal maps over the built in topo maps to be fairly straightforward. Using a Fish and Game website I overlaid all the private property maps onto an area I hunted a while back. This is a great feature for those that hunt in and out of private land. This process is done through Google Earth and take about 30 40 minutes on your first attempt.
Construction:
Housing is much better. I do not yet see a part or seam that might fail unlike the 530 which had issues. If you are not sure what those were give them to a 7 year old for 30 minutes and you will figure it out (antenna separation).
Screen: Larger screen is a plus and seems a bit more scratch resistant. It is a touch screen and not as good as the one on my iphone but still works well. It is however not as crisp as the 530hcx and when compared to the 530hcx I found it to have a bit less resolution in almost all lighting conditions and not as bright. It almost reminds me of a smart phone with a cheap screen protector on it. When looking at photos on the radio it is pretty pathetic but it is a radio/gps, not a photo viewer.
The radio feels good in the hand and the manual buttons on the size require looking at to find but are not accidentally pressed.
I was also happy that Garmin got rid of the poorly designed 2 part charger. Thank you.
Software:
The ease of use cannot be overstated. This is much easier to navigate and important functions are much easier to find. On the 530 there is a screen telling you time since last contact with all your friends but it was impossible for most to find. On the new unit it is just 1 or 2 logical screen presses away. I can teach someone to use the 655 in 5 minutes.
The 3 axis compass works much better in the new 655t and was not available on the 530hcx.
When sending notes the new radio saves the last note sent. Much nicer than the 530hcx but why cant you save conversation? Please? What about return receipt saying your note was received? That would be so awesome. Also, put a notifier up letting receiver a note is in the inbox. That would be next level and I think we have the technology.
The camera takes decent pictures once viewed on the computer. Not SLR quality but it will work to remember a place you have been or give you that in field photo of game you would have missed otherwise.
Downfalls in Software/Wish List:
I think they got rid of the scramble feature in the radio. If not I at least can't find that option.
When polling another person, FCC only allows one poll per 30 -60 seconds. The 530 would tell you it had to wait, the new radio doesn't say a thing. You don't know if the poll went out with no reply or if it was blocked by the FCC requirement. Garmin..BIG fail. Can you change this just for me in the next software update? Funny thing is is that this feature is present when sharing waypoints, it even does a countdown letting you know when the next piece of data can be sent. Really confused why polling is not done the same way.
The alarm clock did not work for me on one occasion. It has worked the other 10 times I tried it but, one failure makes it so I can leave my old alarm at home. I will continue to test it.
Only 2000 waypoint capacity. Garmin, some of us are heavy users and have lots of waypoints. Can you give us less space for photos and more space for waypoints. How hard can it be to make a radio for 10,000? Would like to hear thoughts on this.
There are some weather alert features that I am still exploring but found out that it is easy to kill your battery if you leave it on while the radio appears off. I will spend some more time on that function and report back. Garmin, can you put more in the manual as to how the weather alert works?
Tweak On sun and moon put how long until sunset/sunrise please.
I am glad to see that a person can see their GPS altitude as well as barometric altitude on this GPS (530 was barometric only). It can be found on the satellite display page. I only wish it could be used as a regular field on other screens.
Summary:
I would say that if you are really competent with your 530hcx and have taken care of it you probably don't need upgrade unless you really like the camera, screen size, and topo map function of the 655t. If you have never used any Rino radio save yourself the learning curve of the 530hcx and just move to the 655t. You will be happy and won't notice that the polling distance is less. If I find that a 655t 655t polling operation is better than a 530 530 operation I will start switching over more rapidly. The 655t is still a great piece of technology for outdoor communication.
Additional Review: I just got back from 4 days of Elk Hunting in the mountains and have more observations and Garmin "wish list" items:
Belt Clip The belt clip is horrible. There was definitely a break down between the design team and the end user. The belt clip only opens enough to fit a playing card about 3/4 of an inch. This unit will not fit on a belt, maybe that is why the included the carabiner this time. I also found that changing the clip from the standard battery pack to the alkaline batter pack is a bit tricky. Not hard once you get the hang of it but yes it does transfer, it just requires you to have to open the clip as much as possible and then slide the clip down.
GPS Accuracy Amazing. I consistently had 9 foot accuracy and it was actually better than that. When following trails and track logs in the dark through brush I found the GPS to be better than my headlamp. I could see quicker on the display where the actual trail was quicker than I could by looking around. I was in and out of trees and it did great.
With a standard day of use, 12 ours on and x-mit about every 15 minutes I got 2 days of life out of the battery. I used battery saver mode which actually shuts off the screen saving power. Startup is instant as soon as one touches the screen or controls. With the AA battery pack I found that I got about one day of use and the unit defaults to 2W power. One thing Garmin needs to update is the notification schedule the radio gives you as the battery gets low. Currently it send multiple messages multiple times reminding me that the battery is low and transmit power is reduced. It seemed to do this every couple of minutes. I would like it more if the messages were sent only once when the battery got low or no more than every 30 minutes.
Charging Forgot to mention this but you can not charge the batteries unless they are in the radio. The 530hcx let you charge a spare battery while you were using the radio somewhere else. Bummed that the new unit does not allow that. Maybe the off radio charger will be an accessory that is offered in the future It really makes no sense to buy 2 batteries and expect to cycle through them back and forth.
Wish item (Project waypoint function) Project waypoint allows one to create a waypoint some distance from the actual location of the radio. I wish that one could set a bearing line and then view the map touching the map where they want to the new point. It is a bit of a more complicated feature but imagine you see a person on a ridge some distance away and you want to mark their location. Currently you need to take a bearing and then enter a distance. I don't know the distance, only that it is on the next ridge. I currently have to project a line to a very long point away, create a "go to" to that point, then review map to see where the line crosses the ridge, then make a waypoint, then cancel the waypoint far away, and start a new go to. Even better, allow me to draw a bearing line on the map screen that doesn't move once created. Imagine this scenario.... You just shot your elk an unknown distance away but a huge field of brush is between you and your animal. Why not be able to instantly create a bearing line and walk that line through the brush to find the animal? Take a round about trail for the first 100 yds then know where to pick back up. I just think it would be cool. Many other uses, that is just one.
Clock or time displays Why can you only check the time by going into the alarm clock? Why not on the satellite page or sunrise/sunset page? Can you find a couple more places to jam it in. It is really good information. I know I can add it to my map screen but i like to leave that uncluttered.
Range of radio I was hunting on some ridges that descended at a quick pace to a river below me. Ridges were 300 -500 feet taller than average slope of the land. The mountain peaks I hunted were 7500 feet tall. That being said I found that on average I could only get about .4 .5 miles of range with the standard battery in place if there was earth between us. On another note if I had line of sight with other radios I could get up to 80 miles range when on a mountain peak. Yes Eight-zero miles. I was picking up Rinos regularly in the 12-15 mile range and carries on conversations and polling with no problem. Expect that only with line of sight. When a tree or brush got in the way the range dropped off dramatically.
Screen I would consider it near scratch proof. I beat the heck out of it in the brush for several days. Case is beat up, screen is the same as it was when it came out of the box.
Camera After reviewing 20 pictures of hunting area I would give the camera 2 out of 5 stars. focusing on the correct object was tough, color was off at sunset, camera is slow to use, and it did poorly in low light. It works in a pinch but take your point and shoot with you.
Polling Still hit or miss. I noticed that periodically while polling there was some deep sounding static on the radio and I am not sure of the cause. When I heard this the poll did not go off successfully. Some type of garbling between the units. I don't think it was an outside source as channel was relatively clear of other users. Polling still only about 70% when within radio range.
Compass recalibration Expect to have to do this 2-3 times a day. Not sure what causes it to go out but it happens regularly. As soon as you see the map not turned the way you expect or a lack of smoothness in the compass rose recalibrate. Big bonus is that even though it is a 3 axis compass, it only takes about 45 seconds to recalibrate.
Map load time When moving maps onto the 655t, the time for transfer is about 1/10 the time of the 530hcx. The maps that use to take 45 minutes to load now take 3 4 minutes to transfer. Very nice.
I will add more as I take the radio sailing for 4 weeks starting in mid November.
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