Customer Reviews

Mio Moov 200 3.5-Inch Portable GPS Navigator with Text-To-Speech

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I bought the Mio Moov 200 as my first automotive GPS a couple of weeks ago. I've had the chance to use the GPS for one long 4 hour trip, as well as around the city here in Minneapolis, and these are my first impressions.

How it looks:
The Mio Moov 200 GPS is a tiny little thing, at less than an inch deep and about 4 inches wide by 3 high. It can easily fit in your pocket if you don't want to leave it in the car. It has a black plastic casing with a brushed metal surface around the touchscreen. It really does look nice sitting on the dash.

The unit has a on/off/reset switch on top of the unit, making it easy to turn on and off whenever you need or reset if it freezes (this hasn't happened to me yet). The left side has a port to insert your SD card with additional maps, or whatever else you need. There are also rumors that the unit is hackable through the SD port to become a small PDA of sorts. The bottom of the unit has a small USB port that allows you to charge the unit, as well as connect to your home PC. On the back of the unit is a small speaker.

How it works:

So far my impressions of the unit are pretty good. Keep in mind I don't have much to compare it to, but so far it does everything that we've wanted it to. We set up a route to go from our house here in Minnesota to a resort at the Wisconsin Dells - about 4 hours away. It got us there without any problems, clearly announcing any turns we needed to make along the way - with clearly spoken names of the streets themselves - not just a "turn right" or "turn left". The speaker is reasonably loud, even when in a loud car - and we had no problems hearing it. In fact if you're in a quiet room by yourself - it seems almost too loud.

We have noticed a couple of quirks/problems with the unit.

1. Funny pronunciations: the unit will sometimes pronounce street names incorrectly, or call them something they aren't. For example there is a "Dean Lakes Trail" near our house, but the unit calls it "Dean Lakes Triangle". There have been quite a few of these types of instances, but overall it does a good job. Definitely not a deal breaker - just more of something to give you a chuckle every once in a while.
2. Incorrect POIs: The unit does have a pretty good sized database of points of interest, however, we have found that some of them aren't quite right. For example, on our trip to the Wisconsin Dells, two or three times that we tried navigating to a point of interest (Walmart and a restaurant), the unit didn't get us to quite the right spot. In both cases we were a block or two away. It may be that the POI was old, or something along those lines, I don't know. There has also been a couple of times we searched for a gas station or other POI we knew was there, but the unit doesn't show it. Not sure why that is.
3. Strange routes sometimes: The unit will sometimes take routes that you may not have thought of, or that aren't really the quickest way to take. It DOES get you there, but not always in the way that you thought it would.
4. Keyboard is hard to type on if you have big fingers like me. Kind of annoying, but again, not a deal breaker.

Conclusion:
We've been happy with the unit so far. For the cheap price and the features you get - it does the job, and it gets you where you need to go. I'd buy it again.

I purchased the Mio Moov 200 for a long road trip from Illinois through Wisconsin. Simply put the product works exactly as advertised. The text to speech directions are fairly good with pronunciation that is accurate for most streets. Routing is fairly quick and the device is good at re-routing you if you miss a turn generally within three seconds. This model does not have any of the bells and whistles of other devices like mp3 player functionality or blu-tooth, and to be honest they aren't really missed.

The major draw backs of the device are few, but their are a few. First the touch screen is not always responsive to your touches. I believe it is a sensitivity issue with the large surface area of one's figures. Using the touch screen with a stylus offered much better performance. The other major drawback is the refresh rate of the screen. The distances and directions generally appear to update on your screen about once per second. When you re driving slow this is perfectly fine, but I often times found myself blowing right past a turn when in excess of 50 mph on a highway because the screen didn't update fast enough to tell me my turn was coming up. I often mis-judged 1/8 of a mile and under distances.

Other then that the device works great. The voice is clear and very adjustable. The maps are generally very good and the routing functions are simple but effective.

This unit does practically everything well; its display is clear, it's pretty easy to enter addresses, and it gives accurate directions, saying things like "Turn right on Thompson Street then make the first left" which is really helpful for knowing what lane to get into ahead of time. And having it say street names is very helpful.

TIP: The GPS only says street names if you use one of the "named" voices (example, English: Samantha) and not just a generic (like English female). Also, there's more voices on the CD you can upload into it. Mine's now Karen (Australian accent - very cool.)

Along with those features are some neat things like "Avoid Area" (where you just swipe your finger over an area on the map, and the route avoids it) and Multi-stop trip, where you can swipe your finger to drag-and-drop-reorder the destinations on the list. All very good.

But most importantly, it gets me where I want to go with rarely a problem. The couple of glitches I recently had both involved State parks: It found the way there, but to an odd entrance instead of the main entrance. Not a big deal.

Overall I highly recommend this one.

Just a note for those who have reviewed this product.

Moov 200's will have updates available this fall. The product is brand new, no naturally they would not launch and update if they are brand new. Check again after Thanksgiving. Why would you need an update shortly after you bought it anyways?

I own 5 GPS systems, including in-dash systems in 2 of my cars. But I've come to realize that more is not better when it comes to GPS.

Forget about MP3 capabilities, Bluetooth connectivity, photo storage, radio traffic reports or whatever else they'll try to stuff into your GPS just so they can charge you an arm and a leg. I'm into lowest price/best performance GPS, and would never buy an in-dash unit again for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is that you can't take it with you!

I had a cheap Garmin i5 that worked well for a year or so until it would no longer connect with the computer for updates. It also went through AA batteries like corn through a hog.

I bought the basic TomTom One last year about this time in an attempt at findng a cheap GPS replacment for the Garmin. The TomTom was used only about 10 times over the past year until all of a sudden the USB port broke off the motherboard for no reason It would cost more to try and get it fixed than buying a new GPS, and I needed one in 2 days for a trip I was about to take to South Florida.

I was looking for the cheapest GPS I could find, this time with text-to-speech, spoken instructions ("Turn left at Maple Street in 1/4 mile" instead of "Left turn ahead") and I discovered the Mio Moov 200. It was on sale for an incredible price and a quick check of the Amazon reviews seemed positive. Since I didn't have time to mess around, I bought it.

I'm now in the middle of that trip and I have to say that the Moov 200 has to be hands down the best bargain in all of GPS land.

There's no other current GPS unit that will give text-to-speech instructions at this price, and the U.S. male voice is clear and steady.

Vocal instructions are more important than the map display because you really do NOT want to be taking your eyes off the road to study a tiny map that you can't see anyway because of sun glare, and the Moov 200 has really surprised me with the quality of the voice and the instructions.

The voice tells me both the name of upcoming road I need to turn on to, along with the road number and the distance, then again when I get closer. I will say that I wish it would give the distance in tenths of a mile, because that's what car odometers use, but neither did the TomTom or Garmin. The text-to-speech, spoken instructions is more information than I get from any other GPS unit I own, including the $2,000+ in-dash units in my 2 cars.

The Moov 200 is definitely a much better unit than my TomTom One, which did not have text-to-speech and only gave distances in yards. Yards?

The Moov 200 is so easy to use, you honestly don't have to read the (very thin) instruction manual. It has a built-in tutorial that starts up when you turn it on. I first turned it on in my living room and it dropped down on the couch, and when I picked it up, I was very surprised to see that it synched with several satellites and it knew exactly where it was.

It picks up satellites almost instantaneously -- much, much faster than any other GPS I own. And it seems very insensitive to positioning in the car, unlike my Garmin or TomTom, which very much need to be way up on the dash with nothing around them to block the view.

Even the window suction cup holder is much better than my Garmin and way better than the TomTom. It really holds on, something the TomTom never did, and it's easy to pop the Moov on and off the mount to program a new address.

The only nits I can pick are that you can't find a restaurant by cuisine, and if you pick one off the list but then decide to go backwards to find another, it goes back to the beginning of the nearby restaurant list rather than where you left off. But that's a very minor inconvenience.

Other than that, it's very accurate, super easy to use, easy to switch between 2D and 3D maps and easy to program. It can be set to speak the letters and numbers as you're entering them in, which helps ensure accuracy.

Conclusion? There's really no reason at all to spend more money on a GPS, this baby does it all, and my feeling is that it's better than any of the other 4 GPS systems I own, and it beats the ultra-expensive dash units in both of my cars (both of which have a yearly CD map update feature that each cost more than the list price of the Moov 200!). Highly recommended.

I have had this GPS for about a month and used it to drive to and around St Louis during the recent election.

The main cons people have against this device are the Points of Interests feature and the Enter a Location feature. Both are a bit odd, I guess because the database is larger than the processor can handle. I got used to it pretty quickly, but I was frustrated at first and suspect a lot of folks who hate it simply gave up before getting used to it. Now I find it extremely easy to use. You just have to remember that it needs to narrow downward (so it is going to ask for the Streetname, and then ask for the House Number).

The Points of Interests are disorganized. It has a huge database of things in it, and many of the comments here claiming that locations aren't in the device are inaccurate. It's that it's very difficult to search for some Points of Interest... and they might as well not be in the database. It still works if you're patient enough. I typically don't care much that I can't find State Historical Marker #43412.A.

It's rugged enough to take a lot of abuse, it has great routes (and route options and corrections), it's accurate and fast, and it names the street you need to turn onto if Text to Speech is on (which is far safer than looking at the screen sometimes). For the price, this is an excellent device.

I downloaded a file that I put on an SD card, and I boot mine into the hidden Windows environment, so mine doubles as a mediocre PDA.

-----

It's been a while (I bought this and used it for working for one of the candidates in the 2008 Presidential election) and I wanted to point out that the unit still works fine. The power button accidentally switched on a couple of times when I was storing it, and that has caused the battery to be less reliable.

I bought a Garmin 1390t for my mother in law and it is so much better that I think I have to recommend against buying this model. Even the $99 Garmins seem to be much better in simplicity, functionality, and durability. I still use this Mio at least once a week and it's still getting me where I need to go 100% of the time, but the competition is just too good.

Whatever GPS you get, make sure it featured Text To Speech for streetnames. It's not hyperbole for me to claim that it could prolong your life to keep your eyes on the road in a busy and strange location.

For the price I paid, I think It's a bargain. It does a good job of navigating. The reason why I gave it a 4 star rating, is the fact that it does not come with it's own USB cable if you want to hook it up to your computer and charge it, or update it.I think you have to purchase it separately. I happened to have one at home that fit the port on the GPS. Also, It cannot locate the exact street of my home, so I have to save my home base as another street in the subdivision. Overall, it might not be the most detailed GPS, but it gets you where you need to go most of the time.

I have had my Mio Moov 200 for about 3 weeks now and find it to be quite easy to use; and more than I would have expected at such a bargain price! The device was easy to figure out and the MIO manufacturer website provides several easy to follow online video tutorials for the more "technically challenged" users out there. As with all devices, there is a bit of a learning curve.

For instance, one potential drawback is that if you are planning a LONG route with multiple stops, it's better to break it into shorter segments so that when/ if you miss a turn or encounter an unexpected road detour, your device does not take too long to recalculate the route (the more "waypoints" you have the longer the recalculating route takes). When you have just a handful of "waypoints" the route recalculation works rather quick.

Using the device in downtown Washington DC has been very helpful, especially with the fast recalculating time since many of the streets in DC have "irregular" rules, some one-way streets that the device did not recognize and special turning lanes where one is not permitted (or able) to turn from the main roadway.

A really helpful feature of the device is that it will indicate in voice and onscreen the upcoming turn and let you know when to merge/ stay right or left. This is especially helpful in unknown areas (such as in St. Louis, MO where I went recently for the 1st time - knowing what lane to be in ahead of time was immensely helpful!)

Every once in a while the device would "freeze," but a brief turn-off and back on of the device reset it. I like the auto-feature for day display to night and the POI's (Points of Interest). Although, one small complaint I have for the POI's is that it would be nice if you could select to view UPCOMING POI's on your route rather than simply the closest ones which can make you back-track somewhat.

Overall, the functionality for the price cannot be beat. It is easy to get up and running.

I bought this device recently, and within 2 months of purchase the AC adapter car charger exploded and caught fire in my cigarette lighter. I called the provided 1-866# for tech support and replacements, however I was never able to talk to an operator, I only got stupid FAQ tech question answers. I then used email tech support which provided a link for me to PURCHASE another car charger, when they should replace it for free as it is under my ONE YEAR warranty. Also, after about a month the GPS unit took 10-15 minutes to even find the satellite to map directions, and the device had to be reset daily because of that. This is a medium to low priced GPS unit, but be careful what you purchase as you will get what you pay for and much worse!

Full fetured bargian of a navigator. On the plus side, gets me to where I'm going with choice of voices indicating street names at a very reasonable price. Has all the options of a friend's $300 nav such as points of interest, updating the arrival time and computer connect for updating maps. Only minus I've found is while typing in the street & town names it is easy to hit the wrong letter as the letters are so small. I now use a plastic stylus which solved the issue (as long as I can find it). If I were using it every day that would bother me. For the occasional user this does the trick.