Mio C230 3.5-Inch Portable GPS Navigator

by Mio

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 3.5 x 0.9 x 3.2 inches ; 2 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B000VZ3ADS
• Item model number: C230
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (144 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #37,026 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)

Product Description

Mio Digiwalker C230 is a stylish, affordable, and easy to use solution. Featuring pre-loaded maps of the U.S. (Including all 50 states and Puerto Rico), and real time Text-to-Speech, the C230 delivers incredible performance at an unbelievable price point.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

163 of 163 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars *****Great GPS for an unbeatable Price*****, November 8, 2007

By 

Sarwat Ezzeldin "PrinceAly" (Irvine, CA, United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Mio C230 3.5-Inch Portable GPS Navigator (Electronics)

I have the Mio C230 for about a month now. I have to say it was not very easy to use, but after a couple of hours, I was able to find my way around it. This is my third GPS, I have a Garmin C340 for almost two years, and a Nuvi 370 for about eight months; so I can say that I have a bit of experience with the Garmin products which considered to be one of the best GPS in the market. The only reason I got the Mio is the ability to add multiple stops to your final destination (Via Points), and the Mio's ability to optimize the route for you, a feature not available in the Garmin products. My girlfriend is a realtor, and she makes numerous stops to show houses to her clients; with the Garmin, she had to enter one stop at the time, which means that she might be going back and forth or zig zaging around; with the Mio, all she has to do is to input as many addresses as she needs to, and then the Mio will optimize the route and guide her around, cool.
You can enter address either by state / city / street; or you can use zip code / street; very nice feature. Any address you input will be automatically stored in the history and you can retrieve it at any time; you can also copy everything to the SD card and store it in your computer or use the data in another Mio, cool. If you don't have the address but know where your destination is on the map, you can touch that point on the map, and the Mio will take you there.
There is also an icon for "Home" where you can store your home address, by clicking it, the Mio will take you home, a similar one is for "work". You can rename both if needed.
The detailed information available on the screen in "cockpit mode" is impressive, on the upper left corner it shows the next maneuver (an arrow going right or left), below that it shows the distance to that maneuver and the estimated time of arrival to your final destination. Next to that you have four icons to zoom in and out on the map, and to change the view from 2 to 3 dimensions and vise versa. Another nice feature is the pedestrian mode, in that mode; the Mio will take you thru the shortest route ignoring the traffic direction of one way streets. You can customize the Mio for brighter screen or to get louder if you reach a specific speed; routing can be customized to shortest, fastest or economical. You can avoid Toll roads, U turns, unpaved roads, Highways, etc.
The Text to Speech feature is also a definite plus. The only thing that I really don't like in the Mio C230 is the very limited number of POI's (about 900K), you will hardly be able to find anything in there, Mio needs to do smoothing about that limitation. However, you can add you own POI's to the data base if you know the address.
In short, if you don't need the MP3/Photo player, or the blue tooth; then the Mio C230 is the one for you. It is a great basic GPS, loaded with features that may not be available on other big name brands. Impressive signal reception, bright screen, clear TTS voice, nice design, pocket size, at an unbeatable price.

111 of 112 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mio C230 does what I need it to do, November 13, 2007

By 

Jason Bourne - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mio C230 3.5-Inch Portable GPS Navigator (Electronics)

Mio c230 Portable Car Navigation System Mio DigiWalker C230 GPS Portable Car Navigation Mio C230 Digiwalker Portable GPS

I picked the C230 for the following reasons:

1. The price was right. It was on sale for $175 at Circuit City plus I had a $15 coupon.
2. It's the cheapest unit with the "text to speech" feature that I could find.
3. It improves on C220 with a better brighter screen and is louder.
4. All the GPSs on the market (expensive or not, "name brand" or not) have mixed reviews, so I figured I'd take my chances...
5. I like the way you can "tilt" the view between 2D and 3D and stop in between.
6. You can set up multiple waypoints between point A and point B. Not sure how many you can have but it's better than a similar model, say Garmin 300 which you can have a start and a destination with one via point (3 waypoints total).
7. It has a "map panning" feature so you can draw the map on the screen in any direction for a what-if scenario planning.
8. Maps are August 2007 Tele Atlas.

This is my first GPS so I have nothing else to compare it to.

Pros:
1. Responsive. If you don't follow the driving directions the unit's given, it will recalculate fast.
2. Enough features for a basic GPS.
3. Suction cup is excellent! I installed it on the windshield. It's not going anywhere. The unit snaps on and off easy without much effort.
4. SD memory slot for future expansion.

Cons:
1. Not very user-friendly. Need time to learn how to use it.
2. Doesn't have Canada maps.
3. If you have large fingers or can't program a VCR, it won't work for you.
4. No Bluetooth connectivity, no MP3, no pictures.
5. Map upgrades seem elusive and/or expensive. With some digging, I found the 2008 North America map upgrade (includes both U. S. and Canada) for ~$180 on the official website.

http://www.mio-tech.be/shop/product_info.php?cPath=34&products_id=703

6. POI is on the low side. But I don't go shopping at A GAP or go to a post office out of town.
7. User manual could be better. But I learned how to "program" it without reading through the manual.
8. Lack of a USP cord (or charging via a pc)

I was playing with it really hard to see if I could "break" it. The only time that the unit restarted was when I:

1. Set up with the "Pedestrian" mode but I drove on the high way. It kept on recalculate (because a pedestrian can't get on the highway so it kept on taking the frontage roads) then finally gave up and restarted. And
2. Keep tapping on screen fast and don't wait until the recalculation is finished.

Other than these two scenarios, it works fine. I've owned it for only 2 weeks. I purchased a two-year service plan for $25. Thought it was a small investment in case it goes down for whatever reason plus I may buy a different unit anyway in about 3 years.

Tips:
1. Check off "unpaved" roads so the unit will recognize roads that were unpaved by the time of mapping but now maybe paved anyway.
2. Tilt the unit a bit downward so the sunlight won't shine on it directly.
3. Adjust the distance when the overview changes (between 2d and 3d etc. default is 1 mile and 3 mile) to make gas stations/food etc. show up quicker.
4. Set up a round trip via waypoints and try the "optimize" bottom.
5. Change the color schemes to fit your fancy.
6. Make sure all POIs are not hidden but shown.
7. Change GPS reference point for POI location or trip planning.
8. For planning an out-of-town trip, make sure you have "Home" as the base, then add stops or tourist spots along the way.
9. Understand the difference between the "Map" view and the "Cockpit" view. "Map" is for planning. "Cockpit" is for driving.

Hope this helps.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars So far so good. Minor problem experienced, October 20, 2007

By 

Q. Chen (CA, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Mio C230 3.5-Inch Portable GPS Navigator (Electronics)

I have owned it for about 10 days. Everything seems working fine. Signal reception is great. I had a Garmin StreePilot c340 for a few days more than half a year ago. Garmin c340 could not receive signal as soon as I took it away from the dashboard. In contrast, Mio c230 has no problem at all wherever I place it in the car.

Mio c230 is thin, much lighter than Garmin's c340. Touchscreen works fine. Menu is generally good (it took a little bit time to figure out what is what since I did not have much experience with GPS in the past).

Used it today to go to Gilroy Garden (in northern California). The address given at Gilroy Garden's website is 3050 Hecker Pass Hwy, and Google's maps found it easily. When I input the address into Mio c230, it said there was no such address, but nonetheless calculated the route for me. I decided to follow its route, and it led to me to a county park on the same Hecker Pass Hwy, about 3 miles away from Gilroy Garden. So, it was not as accurate as I wished, but not terribly wrong either. A possible excuse might be that the particular address is in the rural area. For the price and all the features I wanted (such as text-to-speech), I hope Mio c230 is a worthy trade-off.