New Garmin Zumo XT2

bdalameda

bdalameda

PaleoCyclist
Joined
Jan 13, 2009
Messages
1,992
Age
67
Location
Salinas, California
Bike
Africa Twin
A new Garmin Zumo XT2 has been announced and is available to order. Similar to the XT but is a little larger at 6" vs 5.5" and supposedly brighter screen. The mount and charging connection have been changed slightly as well, probably due to some weaknesses reported on the XT charging connections that have had some improvements made to them. The screen on my XT is great but it is a little small for my old eyes.

www.garmin.com

Garmin zūmo® XT2 | Motorcycle GPS Navigator

zūmo® XT2 is a motorcycle GPS with a bright 6” glove-friendly display, visual route planner, group tracking, & a design built to withstand all kinds of weather.
www.garmin.com www.garmin.com
 
cf-lg.jpg

I couldn't find a similar pic of the XT's display, but this might be enough for me to consider watching for a sale on the XT2.

This looks to have more real estate available for the map and route compare to the XT. The latter seemed to me to have a lot of the display taken up by other data in larger typeface than needed. There's still significant wasted space but it seems less so than before. This is definitely worth an up close eyeball when the opportunity comes 'round.
 
I thought they were going in the right direction when the XT was priced at $500, but the XT2 is $600. How do they justify the extra dollars?
 
Un_F_believable...

With the XT software and connectivity still not debugged they actually dare to introduce a successor... :rolleyes:

www.garmin.com

Garmin zūmo® XT2 | Motorcycle GPS Navigator

zūmo® XT2 is a motorcycle GPS with a bright 6” glove-friendly display, visual route planner, group tracking, & a design built to withstand all kinds of weather.
www.garmin.com www.garmin.com

One can only guess how much grieve this model might give you...
 
I looked at the screen on my XT, and yes, it measures 5.5" diagonally. If I put the 6" mark of my ruler on the lower right corner of the XT's screen, the other end of the rule (0 mark) is on the upper left corner of the face of the device. That extra 1/2" diagonal of screen real estate amounts to a roughly 1/4 to 3/8" wider and taller screen on two sides. Unless they use different software, it will not make a huge difference in the fonts or info displayed. Brighter? I can read the XT in direct sunlight. What would be nice is a non reflective screen so I don't see my Turtle 2 vest reflected by the zumo xt.
 
Well I went ahead and ordered the new XT2 and received it last Saturday. I went to set it up and had issues. It would pair with my phone but it not play music from my phone and had an error message: "You must enable media services on your phone." I tried everything to find out how to do this on my Iphone with no luck. It also would not pair with my headset. I finally tried doing a reset and then everything worked and it paired with my headset and phone and the music would play through it from my phone. Now comes another problem - as soon as I disconnect the charger it blanks out and dies. It works plugged in but won't operate from or charge the battery. I tried many different USB chargers and cables without success, I even connected it to the mount with a 12v battery and it would turn on with power but not charge the battery on the unit. I left it plugged in overnight with no success. Finally it just quit and would not operate at all and got stuck in a loop where it would start to boot up and about halfway through the startup on the progress bar it would blank out and start booting up again. It continued to do this and I could not stop it. I contacted Garmin on Monday as they offer no support on the weekend and the tech and I tried several things without success. They said they would send me a new one. I received the new unit overnight on Tuesday and returned the defective one. The new unit worked fine right from the start. I have not used it on the bike but a couple of things I noted. The screen is noticeably brighter, I mean really bright! The regular XT is bright but this one is amazing. It is also fast as far as downloads. Being new it needed a firmware and map update and I don't think it took even a minute to update with a direct wifi connection to it. The mount also fits better than the XT I have and is very solid when it clips in. I am still playing with it as far as functionality so I will report back after using it a while. I don't use Basecamp and I am not into doing complex trip planning as others enjoy doing so I probably won't have much to say about those features or lack thereof.

Dan
 
That's disappointing about the DOA unit you got, but encouraging that Garmin stepped up right away with a new replacement.
Garmin provides the GPS for BMW's Nav6 and prior, and there's a thread hundreds of pages long about replacing the Nav units, especially the Nav6. Some have had Garmin replacements SIX times, and they just keep replacing them. It's based on the Nuvi600 or thereabouts, I believe, and "supposedly" the Nav7 will address and resolve the current gremlins.
Seems the touchscreen sensor delaminates, or some such, so there is a "ghost" effect as if someone is touching the screen at random points, and at random times. BMW marks up their GPS to around $8 or $900 for the same thing sold previously by Garmin for about 5 to 6 hundred bucks.
I doubt I'll get a Nav6 for my GS/A, although it would be handy to control it from that magic Wonder Wheel on the left grip.
My XT, and others' as well, don't have this delamination problem.
 
It is interesting that the TFT touch screens on the Africa Twin since 2020 are made by Garmin for Honda.
 
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One question, will it fit on the XT mount and vice versa or do you have to use the mount it comes with....... (in case you wanted to use it on another bike with XT mount).
 
RaYzerman said:
One question, will it fit on the XT mount and vice versa or do you have to use the mount it comes with....... (in case you wanted to use it on another bike with XT mount).
Click to expand...
The power cable is different but the mount body looks the same. The power cable runs 12vdc directly to the unit without having the small voltage converter as part of the cable as the XT model has. It also has more contact pins in the mount, probably for the optional Ride Radio if installed.
 
It would be cool to show both units side-by-side to see the difference in size/brightness if that's possible.
 
Since you have both the XT and XT2, can you post a pic of them side by side? Does any of the info on the screen use a larger font - is it easier to read? This was touted in their description.
 
RaYzerman said:
One question, will it fit on the XT mount and vice versa or do you have to use the mount it comes with....... (in case you wanted to use it on another bike with XT mount).
Click to expand...
I thought I'd read somewhere (comments at Garmin?) that there were some complaints of the XT falling out of it's mount and that this was corrected in the XT2. But it seems like the mounts aren't interchangeable anyway. Yes/no?
 
Here are some pictures of the XT and XT2. The XT2 will clip into the XT mount but the older XT will not fit into the new XT2 mount. The XT2 is a bit looser when clipped into the XT mount and very tight and solid in the new XT2 mount. The power cables are different as the XT2 has one additional contact on the back. The power connection seems more substantial on the XT2 mount as well as the back of the unit and fits more precisely than the older XT. It does not look like a newer XT2 power cable will fit in the older XT mount. The rubber covers over the USB C port and SD card are a lot better on the XT2 and fit well and are more secure feeling. I like the USB C port better than the older USB mini port on the XT and I like the fact that the ports are both located on the bottom of the unit. Bothe units were set at 100% brightness. The brightness difference does not seem so apparent on the pictures but it is quite noticeable in person. The menu layouts are a bit different but easy and similar to operate and find things.
 

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Over here they now offer a handlebar remote for the XT2 & Thread units (haven't found it on the US site though...)

www.garmin.com

Lenker-Controller | Garmin

Control your zūmo® XT2 motorcycle navigator or compatible Tread® device without taking your hands off the grips of your motorcycle, snowmobile or ATV.
www.garmin.com www.garmin.com

IMO would such be highly useful for every road navigation satnav; [zoom +/-] and [audio] (triggering the next navigation notice) are things I miss dearly...
 
bdalameda said:
Well I went ahead and ordered the new XT2 and received it last Saturday. I went to set it up and had issues. It would pair with my phone but it not play music from my phone and had an error message: "You must enable media services on your phone." I tried everything to find out how to do this on my Iphone with no luck. It also would not pair with my headset. I finally tried doing a reset and then everything worked and it paired with my headset and phone and the music would play through it from my phone. Now comes another problem - as soon as I disconnect the charger it blanks out and dies. It works plugged in but won't operate from or charge the battery. I tried many different USB chargers and cables without success, I even connected it to the mount with a 12v battery and it would turn on with power but not charge the battery on the unit. I left it plugged in overnight with no success. Finally it just quit and would not operate at all and got stuck in a loop where it would start to boot up and about halfway through the startup on the progress bar it would blank out and start booting up again. It continued to do this and I could not stop it. I contacted Garmin on Monday as they offer no support on the weekend and the tech and I tried several things without success. They said they would send me a new one. I received the new unit overnight on Tuesday and returned the defective one. The new unit worked fine right from the start. I have not used it on the bike but a couple of things I noted. The screen is noticeably brighter, I mean really bright! The regular XT is bright but this one is amazing. It is also fast as far as downloads. Being new it needed a firmware and map update and I don't think it took even a minute to update with a direct wifi connection to it. The mount also fits better than the XT I have and is very solid when it clips in. I am still playing with it as far as functionality so I will report back after using it a while. I don't use Basecamp and I am not into doing complex trip planning as others enjoy doing so I probably won't have much to say about those features or lack thereof.

Dan
Click to expand...
I have to say, in my experience that Garmin support are very helpful - they replaced my XT well past it's warranty (was a non-fault really, but they wanted to replace to rule out an issue with Garmin Express on Mac).

The refurbed replacement unit (no cables etc etc) they sent, not surprisingly, had same issue but also would not update maps. In the end they sent me a complete BNIB retail box with all accessories - nice to have spare mount and power cable (XT power cables seem to be in short supply with retailers as of late).

While on the subject of Garmin feedback, I do find that Garmin BaseCamp a really awful user experience - I use aftermarket planning software which is much more user-friendly, the only downside is that you can't upload routes from a Mac, only a PC (to do with storage not being visible on the Mac).
 
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