Mio debuts flagship sat-navs
With so many products flying down the GPS superhighway it can be hard for sat-navs to stand out, but Mio has just announced a promising fleet of produ
With so many products flying down the GPS superhighway it can be hard for sat-navs to stand out, but Mio has just announced a promising fleet of products which we’ve just had a play with.
The most interesting of the trio was the A701 (left), which packs GPS software into a desirable smartphone form factor, and has a 1.3MP camera, Bluetooth and the latest speedy SiRFstarIII receiver.
The other two products are more like the conventional sat-navs we know and quite like. The C710 (right) and C510E both feature maps of the UK and 24 European countries – the latter has them stored on a DVD rather than internal storage – and offer TMC traffic alerts.
Both are well built with the emphasis on simplicity and as few buttons as possible, while the touch screen input is responsive and works well. Although the emphasis was on user-friendliness, both models have all the features you could want from a GPS device, including audible directions, speed restrictions and hands-free calling via Bluetooth.
What really caught our eye, though, was the ‘in development’ H610 – a small sat-nav device with 2GB flash memory. This ambitious member of the Belgian company’s family plays music and video – which sounds slightly dangerous – and has the option of customisable faceplates. From what we saw it looked impressive, and the concept of combining sat-nav with a portable entertainment device looks like a shrewd move.
Check back here and at Mio’s site for updates.
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Dan Grabham
Editor-in-Chief 
