Customer Reviews

Mio C520 4.3-Inch Widescreen Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator

5 star:		(51)
4 star:		(37)
3 star:		(22)
2 star:		(12)
1 star:		(18)

 

 

==== UPDATE October 2, 2007 ====
I bought a Nav-Mat Portable GPS Dash Mount for use in trips to California, where it is illegal to attach a GPS to your windshield. The Nav-Mat bean bag mount simply works great with the Mio C520 and is very stable. Check out the picture under customer images.

==== UPDATE August 21, 2007 ====
The following statement was in my original review and has been removed: "If you plan to use it in Europe, just Google "MioMap V3.3 Western Europe for Mio C220 - C320 - C520" and you should find some UK vendors who sell the SD card."

The fact is that although there are vendors in UK who sell the Europe map, the current Europe maps cannot be used in US/Canada models of C520 due to a license issue. Sorry if this caused confusion. Please read the forums at mionav dot com for updates on this issue.

==== UPDATE August 16, 2007 ====
I updated MioMap to the July 5, 2007 version, still v3.3, following the directions in MioNav dot com, which is linked to the Mio topics in the gpspassion dot com forums. (Search for the topic "Updates for miomap V3.3 are available" and you will find a link to download "MioMap V3 Updater for C320 and C520" from Mio's European website).

This update cures the stuttering problem reported in some earlier versions of MioMap. It also adds a Mute button on the map screen under the Bluetooth button. It does not update the maps or POI data, and leaves the History intact.
==== END UPDATES ====

OVERVIEW:
After doing tons of research to find a competent GPS navigation system under $350, I narrowed down my choice to two models - the Magellan Maestro 3140 and the Mio Digiwalker C520. I would have also considered the Garmin Nuvi 250, but it lacks both text-to-speech and Bluetooth capability which I wanted. If ease of use is most important, I would say the Magellan Maestro 3140, which is a huge improvement over its predecessor, the Maestro 3100, would have been an excellent choice. But since I was not gadget shy, the Mio Digiwalker C520, with its widescreen form factor and advanced capabilities was the unit for me.

The Mio C520 packs in US and Canadian maps with text-to-speech routing instructions, Bluetooth, an MP3 player, a video player, a picture viewer and a contact manager that synchronizes with MS Outlook. The installation is pretty painless. The suction cup holder, which is precision made in Germany, works very well and easily installs onto the windscreen of any car (contrary to what the previous reviewer claims). The Mio works right out of the box with instructions in the tiny manual. If you are willing read the full manual located in the supplied CDROM, and go through a very minor learning curve, you will find the user interface most satisfying and will profit from its awesome capabilities.

It has some cool features, like the ability to display map coordinates and altitude, and has the ability to automatically synchronize time and date with the satellite. It's signal pickup is lightening fast due to the state-of-the-art 20-channel SirfStarIII receiver. It actually picks up the satellite signal from inside my house. If you are further geek-inclined, visit the forums in gpspassion dot com - which show you how to unlock the GPS operating system (Windows CE 5.0) and install custom applications and utilities.

Now consider that the street price of the equivalent widescreen Garmin (the Nuvi 660) is $300 more than the Mio C520, and you can understand why the Mio tops MobilePlanet dot com's current popularity list. The Mio is perhaps among the best GPS' out there at any price!

EXPERIENCE:
On a recent trip to San Francisco with my wife, the Mio turned out to be a real trip saver. It listed our hotel in its point of interest (POI) database and got us to all our destinations without ever getting us lost. Needless to say, it saved us about a couple of hours each day on the trip, even though we were pretty familiar with the Bay Area. Not once did we have to stop for (or argue over) directions! The POI database listed all the major and minor points of interest, including museums, concert halls, gas stations, car rental agencies, seven-elevens, hospitals, etc. It also included hard to find, hole-in-the-wall restaurants. It has restaurants categorized by cuisine, which includes "Japanese", "Greek", "Indian" and so on.

While the routing capability is excellent, it is not 100% perfect. (None of the portable GPS models are perfect). While driving on 101 southbound to SFO airport, it asked us to "bear left on Bayshore freeway southbound" seconds before asking us to take the San Bruno exit to the airport on the right. While this was not a navigational glitch per se, it did have the potential for causing confusion. (Of course, I later understood that "bear left" meant the freeway bears left, not "get on the left lane", duh!). A couple of times it asked us to take left turns in downtown San Francisco that were not allowed. When we ignored it, it recalculated the routes in a matter of seconds, without forcing us to take U turns (which some other GPS models make you do).

Now lets put that in perspective and take, for example, a day trip to Monterey, Pebble Beach, Carmel and back to San Francisco (consisting of, say, 100 routing manoeuvers). On such a trip, the Mio would give confusing instructions perhaps two or three times in total, which meant it was perfect approximately 97% of the time. This is excellent performance in my book. I am perhaps looking at this with a more critical eye than warranted. The important thing is that Mio C520 recalculated the route the moment it realized we were off route, and always got us to our destination quickly.

By considerably reducing the planning chores, the Mio immensely improved the satisfaction of our holiday. We will never go on another trip without it!

TEXT TO SPEECH
The text-to-speech (TTS) feature, which causes the Mio to speak the street names, turns out to be valuable, especially when there are a lot of quick turns to make. The TTS ("Samantha") voice on the Mio C520 is perhaps a bit brusque but pleasant enough. There is a chime before each voice instruction, which alerts you to an upcoming manoeuver. (The TTS voice is in no way "HORRIBLE" or "VERY" chatty as described in the previous review. With all due respect to the previous reviewer, his review is pretty opinionated and unfair). The TTS voice did not stutter even once. The version of Mio Map on my unit is dated May 18, 2007. Note that some earlier versions are reported to have a TTS voice stuttering problem.

SCREEN:
The the 4.3-inch touch screen with 480x272-pixel resolution is vivid and sharp. (The screen is not washed out, as the previous reviewer claims). And it goes without saying you can easily adjust the brightness to your desired level. The touch-screen keyboard is in QUERTY format and has a predictive function, making it easy to enter an address quickly. The automatic night mode feature is pretty neat and wow inducing. It switches to night mode based on time of sunset for the current date, time zone, latitude and logitude!

NAVIGATION PERFORMANCE:
On the subject of navigation mapping data, the conventional wisdom is that in North America, Navteq data is more accurate than Tele Atlas - which the Mio uses. However, the recent buzz is that Tele Atlas has significantly narrowed the gap with Navteq, especially with its latest map versions released after the fall of 2006. A recent comparison of Navteq versus Tele Atlas in gpsreview dot net actually shows the Tele Atlas' mapping data to be slightly more accurate than Navteq's, while another study in gpsmagazine dot com has the results the other way around.

In my own tests, which included comparing the Mio C520's routing with online maps by Yahoo, Google and Mapquest, showed that none of the routing engines were perfect, with Google coming out perhaps slightly better than the others. To my delight, I found that the routes chosen by the Mio C520, which uses the latest Tele Atlas data, is pretty close to those chosen by Yahoo. Rest assured, the navigation performace of the Mio C520 is indeed excellent.

ROUTING FEATURES:
Typically you would enter an address or POI around the current city. Or you can change the destination city, state or country and enter an address or select a POI for that destination. The Mio also has the ability to route to a contact (an address you entered in the contact manager, under Tools->Contacts).

There is a peculiar way you need to enter North American addresses into the contact manager in order for the "Route to Contact" feature to work. For example, consider the address: 111 FIRST STREET, APT# 101, FREMONT, CA 94533. You have to enter 'CA, 94533' in the 'State:' field, 'FREMONT' in the 'City/Postcode:', 'FIRST STREET' in the 'Street:' field and 'Apt 101, 111' in the 'House number:' field. (Note that you need to enter the state and zip code separated by a comma in the 'State:' field). Once you enter the contact address as the Mio expects it, it creates the route to the contact address super fast (usually in less than 10 seconds).

The Mio has a decent job of position error filtering, which attempts to accurately estimate your car's position on the map. Even when driving at 70MPH on a freeway, the Mio is off by no more than 10 yards. It also estimates the car's speed within 2MPH of my car's odometer reading. When driving on regular streets at around 30MPH, the display of the car position is spot on. There are several split-screen views which you can cycle through, giving you the distance to the next manoeuver, the current time, the estimated time of arrival, etc. If you find the display too busy, you can turn off the panel, giving you a full widescreen routing map.

FINAL NOTES:
While I have not tried the MP3 or the video player, the Mio has no problem pairing with my Nokia E61 phone with Bluetooth for placing and receiving handsfree calls. There's a whole lot of features I am yet to try out. But I must say that this is a really powerful, well designed GPS Navigation system. There are no gimmicks. So, in conclusion, I highly recommend the Mio C520!!

PROS:
* Excellent routing engine
* Excellent, bright and vivid display
* Great, satisfying user interface. (After you get past the initial learning curve).
* Huge, well categorized POI database. (6.5 million points of interest!)
* Accurate display of current speed, map position and coordinates
* 20-channel SirfStarIII receiver which can receive a satellite fix from indoors
* QUERTY touch-screen keyboard
* Fast text entry by graying out keyboard characters as you type
* Text-to-Speech voice that does not stutter (MioMap v3.3, dated May 18, 2007)
* Automatic night mode based on current time zone, latitude and longitude
* Can be unlocked and tweaked (read the user forums in gpspassion dot com)
* Split screen display of itinerary, estimated time, arrival time, next move, current speed, etc.
* Track logs
* Ability to add via points
* Automatic and fast route recalculation
* Automatic time and date settings (through the satellite Time Sync feature).
* Graphically displays neat info like altitude, GPS signal strength, etc.
* Pedestrian mode
* 2D & 3D views with flyover and other modes

CONS:
* There is a slight learning curve to learn the advanced features
* Does not include carrying case. (I use a Sony Vaio power supply case for mine)
* Needs reboot after days of heavy use
* Does not tell you which side of the street your destination is on
* Delete History feature does not allow you to selectively delete an address
* "Route to contact" feature requires peculiar way of entering the contact address.
* Only one TTS voice

The Mio C520 is my first standalone GPS. I've used others on laptops, cell phones, PDAs and the like, but this is the first dedicated unit I've tried.

I was sorely tempted by the Garmin models, but figured that I really didn't need a more expensive unit for my relatively limited needs, knowing that I could return it to Amazon if it wasn't suitable.

I don't think I'll be returning the Mio C520.

Physically, it's a very attractive unit, about 3 by 5 inches and perhaps a half-inch thick. It slips easily into a shirt pocket. (Mio, by the way, does not provide any kind of case or protecetive sleeve. I would strongly urge you acquire a screen protector immediately and an inexpensive belt case.) This portability is a major plus because the 6 million item POI (Points Of Interest) library is truly blowaway caliber. If you've ever been a stranger in a city, particularly with a sign restriction, finding a place to eat can be a major hassle - not with this little hummer. Just about any category of goods, services and conveniences are represented. Some of the listings can be strange, such as the inclusion of McDonald's under Mexican restaurants. But on the whole, the POI catalog is a major selling point for the C520.

The 4.3 inch display is excellent. Like almost all devices, it is difficult to read in direct bright sunlight, but performs quite well in all other situations. The information display, if you choose to use it, is excellent.

Even indoors, I had no trouble getting quick satellite fixes. As I write this, I am sitting indoors about ten feet from the windows and have solid fixes on six satellites. Outdoors in obstruction free areas, there is no problem.

Route calculation so far has proven to be quite good. I took it out for a test today as a passenger, while the driver took a very, very circuitous route to our destination, ignoring the unit's suggestion. Recalculation was acceptably fast. The C520, by the way, doesn't as many mapping programs do think that a U-turn is the first remedy and sometimes only remedy.

All the menus are accessible. I really have no complaints about about the hierarchy.

The video, photo, audio and Bluetooth functions seem to work okay, though I haven't spent a great deal of time with them.

Overall, I am very pleased with the C520. I am looking forward to being able to slip it into my shirt pocket on my next out-of-town trip and being to depend on it as a handy and accurate guide.

Jerry

I have had my Mio C520 for 3 weeks and driven over 3500 miles with it---from Rochester, NY to southern West Virginia to Topsail, North Carolina and back. I also used it on a trip from Rochester, NY to Washington, D.C. and back. This is my second GPS. My first was a Navman ICN 510.

I researched this purchase very carefully. I read practically every review that I could find of practically every GPS model currently on sale. I also spent at least a couple of hours "playing" with the various models in Circuit City.

This review is only of the GPS functions. I have no need of the bluetooth or multimedia functions and have not used them.

I am very satisfied with my purchase and highly recommend the C520. I believe it to be the best GPS for the money currently available.

I was amazed when I found that I could get a GPS signal inside of Circuit City (I was nowhere near a window). Acquisition of a signal was always relatively fast (I always shut it down to "standby" mode). Route recalculations were very fast. The unit never once locked up. (My Navman did all the time).

The Mio C520 easily beats all competing GPS models in terms of the amount of information readily available onscreen. Its split screen has Garmin, TomTom, and Magellan beat hands down. I particularly liked being able to view the map and the next 5 turns at the same time.

The navigation menus are intuitive, quick and very easy to use. I highly recommend reading the 9 page paper manual. It will get you up to speed very quickly. The predictive keyboard (a feature Magellan also has) is wonderful! The menus for various settings are not as intuitive or easy to use. Mio could clean these "settings" menus up some more. Speaking of settings, you can set this unit up almost anyway you want it. I particularly liked being able to change the "distance to go" settings to be in miles and feet rather than the default miles and yards.

The Points of Interest database is very extensive and seems to be up to date and accurate. (I did run into a problem on a stretch of NC 17 near Topsail, North Carolina where the locations of several POI were miles off). It is very easy to save your favorite destinations in customized folders in the My POI folder.

The maps seem to be relatively up to date and routing was almost always efficient and accurate, but it was not perfect. For example, some routing around Charleston, WV (in "fast" mode) was absurd. I found the same routing in "economical" mode to be spot on. The unit also will sometimes give you different directions on the return trip from a destination. Also, some information given was occasionally inaccurate. For instance, the unit would indicate a left turn toward Poca. The "turn left" part was accurate for where I wanted to go, but going to Poca would have required a right turn.

The text to speech feature was very nice and not available in any other wide screen model at this price. "Samantha" occasionally stuttered somewhat, but these occasions were infrequent and the stutter was slight. I never had any problem understanding what "she" was trying to tell me.

The screen is bright and clear and legible in the car in any light conditions. The screen is hard to view in bright sunlight when using it as a pedestrian. It would be nice if the fonts were a little larger. (I have since found out that it is easy to find "hacks" online that make it very easy to enlarge the fonts).

Also, it would have been nice if Mio had included the ability for it to tell you which side of the street your destination is on. My Navman, which also used TeleAtlas maps, had this feature, but it was sometimes inaccurate. One thing that my Navman did (which thankfully the Mio does not) was to instruct me to "return to the highway" every time it thought (inaccurately) that I had left it.

To sum up, I believe this to be the best GPS for the money. I am very pleased with it.

My wife and I purchased a mio C520 GPS for a trip the next day from St. Louis, MO to Denver, CO thru Estes Park, down to Colorado Springs, CO , over to San Diego, CA up to San Francisco, CA via US highway 1 then to Napa Valley, CA then to the Grand Canyon and back the southern route thru AZ, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma and St. Louis.

The mio C520 GPS did a great job, although not perfect. I'd give it a 95% job. From street address to street address it did 100% job of getting you there. A few times it plotted a zig-zag route on a three mile strech to a restraunt that i would have preferred to go a little longer and slower on a straight away, but i guess it was shorter.

What is the great feature is knowing throught the trip how far away gas stations are as they can be sparse in the desert and remote parts of the trip. the Mio also found some great restraunts just a few miles (4) off the interstate. It also has the phone number and address of the points of interest in addition to showing it on a map. It even had a sandwich shop overlooking the pacific on Highway 1. Even though the last update to POI was April 2007, some restraunts had closed, we only has two we found. which i can't fault the mio on. Hotels listings were great as my wife and I would drive until we felt like calling it a night.
We could use the mio to gauge distances of further out hotels. The main screen tells you if the gas stations are ahead of you, behind you or to the side of your current location, very nice. On the logding listing, the mio tells you the distance but not the direction. So you have to know the citites you have passed and what's ahead. There were a lot of hotels and restraunts in the Grand Canyon that the mio did not even list which was surprising. Overall it did a great job finding places if you want more than fast food off the highway. The mio did list just abount every small street that we encountered which was especially helpful since many did not have street signs where we turned.

The graphics and map with 3-D are cool, it makes it seem as if you are driving a futuristic "Jetson's " car or spacecraft.

You can adjust the brightness down at nighttime, it can do it automatically too. The display was always readable even in the sun. The battery did not seem to last long (a few hours) so make sure you use the included auto adapter. It also comes with an a/c plug and usb cable.



The English (UK) quite realistic British accented voice Thomas made the trip quite enjoyable with his style and pronnunciation to add a touch of elegance. Althought Thomas only give distances for turning as in turn right in 1/4 of a mile. You have to look at the screen for the street name. Announcing street names (Called text-to-speech) is only available in Englishg (US) Samatha voice.

The English (US) voice samamtha gives street names although her voice is somewhat robotic, I guess I was expecting a southern belle voice after the great job mio did with Thomas' voice.

A solo driver can follow the navagation directions, however you must for safety have the passenger use the other features aside from gas stations distances which can be chosen as an option to display on the split screen.
Other split screen are mileage remaining on trip and distance to next turn.

Several other languages are also included. I did not use any of the bluetooth capabilities.

I would recommend the mio C520 strongly.

After doing much research, I had narrowed down my selections and went with the Mio C520. It features a 4.3" widescreen display, text to speech, bluetooth, plays mp3 and movie files -- all at a great price. The unit has a beautiful charcoal grey casing and is the better looking ones in the market. Very sleek and simple looking. Most importantly, the Mio C520 had provided accurate directions and great POI (over 6 million) -- definitely had saved me on my recent family roadtrip.

The interface is pretty easy to follow and simple to use. For me, receiving the Mio C520 on the first day, I had started using it without reading the manual. For the most part, it is pretty straightforward in operating it. From reading about other competing units, the display can be difficult to see during daylight. Not the Mio C520. The widescreen display is bright and is great in daylight and in the evenings. There are color choices to accomodate your taste. Love it!

Some user had complained about confusing routing / directions. To make the routing less confusing, choose the 'Economical' method as it makes it less complicated. I had experiemented with the other methods and it had made my wife and I begin scratching our heads. The one big issue I had with this is its bluetooth function. Those who have Treos or other pda phones you may have to prepare for some disappointment. I called Mio tech support and had requested if they can provide a firmware update to include more compatible bluetooth phones. If you can overlook this, this is a great GPS unit, hands down. Overall, I am pretty happy with my choice and would recommend this to others.

Pros:
4.3" widescreen display
Text to speech
Plays mp3 and movie files
Accurate routing
Sleek looking housing
Great price

Cons:
Bluetooth.. limited capability
Accessores.. limited and hard to find

Having owned a Mio product for over a year (C310X), the C520 caught my eye for several reasons, including some of the extra features.

First, the good. As a GPS, it does the job just fine. Mio's map feature is, for the most part, pretty accurate. Unlike it's little brother which only offers one, the C310X, the C520 offers a couple of voices to choose from in American English, as well as a number of foreign voices. Mio added "Samantha" in addition to "Jason" to the voice library. They should have left Samantha in the can, as that is what she sounds like.

GPS setup is simple, since it just wants some basic information (time zone, etc.). To find an address, just enter the city or the ZIP, then the street name, then the street number. If it finds the street after three, four or five letters, it pops the names up for easy entry. The touch pad is superb. If you need to find an address you've been to before, simply enter the History screen, scroll through previous entries, select the address and click "Route To" and boom, it begins the GPS process.

Some of the extra features included in the C520 include a MP3 player, a photo player, a video player. The MP3 player includes a feature that displays the lyrics. Since I did not purchase the C520 for playing MP3, video or showing photos, I did not experiment with these features. By the way, unless you put your music, photos and videos on an SD card, it's a moot point anyway. The unit has a 2 gb internal memory with 1.9 gb used by the pre-loaded software.

Now on to the part where it gave up two stars. Mio states the following: The C520 will import your Outlook contacts and your phone contacts. Once these contacts are imported, they will display on the Mio when they call and routing to their address is simple. My unit did not import from Outlook or from the phone (T-Mobile Wing running Windows Mobile 6.0). Since I purchased the C520 for GPS and for Bluetooth interoperability with my phone, I was very disappointed when the contacts did not import.

I contacted Mio support using the phone number listed in the box. Getting through was surprisingly quick. Within five minutes I was on the phone with Mio support. The company is Taiwanese. So is the support. When the language barrier becomes too much, there seems to be a person hovering over the CSR's shoulder ready to give language support. After 90 minutes (no joke), it was determined that the Outlook contacts would not import.

Bottom line: GPS- Five Stars. Extra Features (Audio/Video) - Four Stars. Bluetooth - Two Stars . Customer Support - One Star. Overall - Three Stars.

As being a previous owner of the Mio 310x, I thought an upgrade to the 4 inch model would be nice to try. Well I was right, this just adds to my excitement of the Mio brand and format. Overall, I just love this GPS unit. My favorite part of the C520 is the voice guidence, same voices from the C310x but it includes one more... Text-To-Speach, a womans voice, which gives it the ability to be more precise, telling you road names(not always perfect pronounciation but works well) as well the distance. 3D mapping makes it sweeter, as you get closer to you next turn or change it zooms closer in, when you turn, it zooms back out and arrows point your direction out, 2D is a option too. The unit can display your distance, speed, time, and time to arrive at your destination. Since it has a larger screen, it will display either your speed and time or you can have it give you the next four Points of Interest, like gas stations and points a arrow compass from your current location to them. Night mode is a great feature, it turns the screen dark black, roads blue and guide in red, very cool.

This unit also has 2GB of memory built in as well a SD card slot, so you can add and play videos, music or load pictures to view, Calculator and Currency exchange tool. Bluetooth included to, havent tried since I dont have it on my current cellphone.

My only negitive part of the unit, same with the C310x, is if you turn it off at night and go back to it in the morning, it can take 30secs to a minute to link back up to the Satallites, not a huge issue but enough to point out.

Maps very accurate in my area, upgrade from the C310x, I would recommend this to anyone looking for a GPS.

The Mio c520 GPS unit is the full featured unit at a reasonable price. Compare this unit to the Garmin Nuvi 660, and the Mio is by far a better unit for half the price. The C520 comes with updated 2007 maps, which are very accurate. Routing is great, and Mio has increased the number of POI's to 6 million compared to the 3.5 million on the c310x. The 4.3 inch screen is great. The bluetooth function works well, and it has the ability to dial numbers from the POI database as well as from the phonebook feature. If you make the call private, it has a feature to send the call to the handset. Routing is much better than in my c310x, and the text to speech with street names is a nice feature. While not perfect, the digital voice pronounces street names pretty good. I noticed one reader asked about the brightness of the screen, it is not as vivid as the 310x, but is more than adequate (about the same as the Nuvi 660). I checked out several other GPS units before buying the MIO, and found none that compared with the exception of the Nuvi 660, which sells for $799 compared to the Mio at $399. That alone made it a no brainer.

This unit looked impressive and gorgeous when I played with it in Circuit City. The first time I used it on the road, I noticed the street name of the next turn was hard to read especially when the road is a bit bumpy. I needed to glance at the street name often because Samantha's pronuciation is robotic and at times hard to understand. Well, with some hints from the forums of gpspassion.com and about 5 hours of experimenting and poking at the code, I finally succeeded in changing the next turn street name from a measly 16-point to a much more readable 25-point bold font. I also changed the current street name from 16-point to 19-point bold. You can see a picture with the new display as a "customer image" above.

I also recommend that you choose one of the "skins" offered by Phi38, Therock, or Riks in the Gpspassion forums. I am using the Phi38 skin. Now I can tap the current street name to switch between day and night display, tap the next turn street name to display the entire route, tap another button to mute, tap yet another to switch between 2D and 3D; all that right on the main display. Ask questions on the forum if you need help (but do read the posts first because people there don't like newbies asking questions already answered previously).

I was a bit disappointed that the US model does not have the standard European power cradle with the power cord to the side. The US version has the power cord to the bottom making mounting on the dash much harder (in California, you are not supposed to mount the unit to the windshield).

I applied a screen protector to my unit. It was called "Screenguardz". I ordered a pack of 15 for about $11. To find the right size, search for Nuvi 650 because it has the exact display size as Mio C520.

(edited 8/13) - added content - left at 4 stars.

I did a ton of research, trying to find a great GPS with all the features that I needed. At first, it looked like the Garmin Nuvi line was the right way to go, and I nearly had settled on the 360 (like 350 but has bluetooth).

However, the more that I read up on the 360, it seemed to me that it wouldn't really suit my needs - I travel for work a lot throughout NY, NJ, and PA. The Garmin line - even the higher end ones - merely have one Via point, and lack all sorts of history-oriented features. Granted, if I was to buy a GPS for my parents I would absolutely buy them a Garmin for ease of use. But I wanted more bang for the buck.

So I read a lot more and came across Mio and others. Mio really blew me away with the combination of features for the money. For $300 I got a BRIGHT wide-screen, bluetooth, and lots of advanced features. I spent an extra $30 for the 3 year additional Mack parts/labor warantee - usually I don't do this but with a gps I figured it would be worth while.

Lots of other folks have already gone over the details of the phone so I won't revisit this ground - except to say that - YES - it is one great gps. One thing I can add is that when I went to a local Best Buy to check out different models to see how they looked in person, the Mio line were the ONLY models that had a signal. All the others without exception: garmin, magellen, tomtom, etc had NO signal at all in the back of the store. So, I figure if the Mio will work 200' inside a store that it will keep a good signal anywhere.

I'm driving from NJ to Rochester and back this week, and can't wait to put this thing through more paces. So far the few trips I've done with it have been excellent.

8/13/2007. Drove to Rochester from central NJ today. The GPS came in handy big-time. There was a total mess around 80/380 near Tannersville. I jumped off the highway, figuring that 611 would be ok - and could see on the gps that it parallel'd the highway. It was also horribly congested.

So, I just hit a few points on local roads that would take me around for a few miles, hit "add via", and Voila! In seconds I had a clear route on local backroads that took me entirely around the congestion. Having multiple Via points is very helpful indeed - it's my understanding that the Garmin Nuvi's only have one - one would NOT have done the trick for me here - I needed 3.

Here are some other thoughts based on my trip:

- Yes the unit is a just a bit chatty (and yeah I knew this going in). It's not really all that bad but if the chatter was cut down by 33%, this would be pretty much perfect - it should give one advance warning and then the "exit now / in 400', etc" type. Instead you'll often get 3 times in 1/4 mile for the next turn (or even bearing this way or that).

- Sometimes it will give you "bear to right" instructions - with 1 or more warnings when it really shouldn't be needed. On occasion, this DID make sense - when the highway I'm on separates into two major highways, and it lets me know to bear left or right - ok that's cool. But when I'll be staying on a divided highway and it intersections some "other" - LESSER road, then there should be no "bear this way or that".