Customer Reviews

Mio MOOV 310 4.3-Inch Portable GPS Navigator

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

True, I have only had this item for a little over a week, but am finding it to be very easy to learn and use. The only "down" side is that much of the time it initially takes what seems to be lengthy time (2-3 minutes) to find the satellites. Once it has locked on to the satellites it works very quickly. It configures routes quickly and accurately. I can use it in the house to set up routes, etc., with no problem. (It doesn't always note the exact house address as the locale from which I am working, but is usually within a door or two.)

On the road the speech is clear,and the map in motion is wonderful to watch as the car is moving. Occasionally Samantha will cut it pretty close before telling me to turn, but she has warned of the upcoming turn far enough in advance for me to deal with it. I do wish it would routinely warn which lane to stay in when coming to a "y", etc. At this point I have used it for trips to places I know. I will be taking a 12 hour trip to unknown areas, and will report back about how it works for me then.

Before buying I researched the Garvin and the TomTom. I ran across the Mio Moov accidentally and liked what I saw. I was a little leary because of the extremely limited number of reviews available, but it is a new model. I had settled on the TomTom XL S before I decided to take a chance on this "new, unknown" model. So far, I am very happy with my choice. It is a great value for the money with all that it offers. (Let's see what I say six months down the road!)

JUNE 1, 2008:
I have now had the product for just over a month and I still love it! It has worked beautifully on two lengthy trips to unknown areas and on several trips to known areas. My husband has tested it by repeatedly taking his own out-of-the-way route and has been amused by Samantha's persistence in rerouting us. He said they should make one that says, "Look, Dummy, I keep telling you where to go!" She kindly and quickly reconfigures and gets it right every time.

It still takes two to three minutes to find satellites when it has been "rebooted" or often when I fire it up while in the house....but that is not an issue. Once on and running, there is no delay in routing. I still find the advance warning of upcoming turns to be adequate, even on the occasions when Samantha doesn't actually say "turn" until we are nearly on the turn. Also, remember...the visual is constantly in front of me. I know by looking at the arrow on the upper left if I will be turning left or right LONG before the turn comes.

My 32 year old daughter is directionally challenged and used my Mio Moov 310 for an extended day trip out of state. She and my granddaughter were sold! My granddaughter couldn't believe when Samantha said to turn right, my daughter didn't have to ask "driver's side or passenger side?" The visual was right in front to complement the verbals. She does a great deal of traveling to out of the way places and uses map quest constantly. She is thrilled with this GPS, and we have now purchased one for her for a college graduation present. The only thing I REALLY DON'T LIKE is the fact that my battery does not last ever over 1 hour.

My sister just purchased a TomTom 720go for significantly more than my Mio. When reading the "improvements" of the TomTom 720go over the TomTOm XL, I was pleased to see that my Mio Moov 310 has many of the features that the TomTom 720go considers "improvements".

I still rate this as a four (4) star item, and would recommend it to anybody.

I researched GPS systems for hours before choosing this unit as a Father's Day gift for my husband. It is his 1st tracking device, but he has repeatedly commented on how much he loves it. He travels approximately 4 days per week, making stops along the way to see customers on a daily basis. A large portion of his territory is new for him, and he is unfamiliar with the locations of his customers' offices, so he is delighted not to have to pull over to consult a map, or sit in a client's parking lot mapping out his next stop. He found programming it simplistic, and it only took a few hours to put in his entire customer base. He loves that he can find Hooters along the way, as well as his hotel locations easily. He thought he could live without one, but now, he doesn't how he managed with only a map. I am just tickled I found a gift that not only surprised him, but one he actually likes! I plan to buy another for our son, and possibly one for myself.

I was concerned that this model had only 3.5 million POI's (points of interests), as opposed to 6 million which seemed to be more common among the other brands, but thus far, everything he was looking for has been stored within the unit. (Knock wood.)

If your husband/boyfriend has large hands, the 4.3" screen is a must. He barely has room to type as it is. (He wears a size 13 ring.)

We live in Florida, and he has no problem seeing the screen in the bright light. He does take it out of the vehicle when he's not in it, though, to prevent theft, so I cannot say how well it withstands heat. It does fit in his pocket. If you have never owned a GPS before, this one is a great one to try. It has only misled him 3 times out of perhaps 250-300, and it does have a "mind of its own". It thinks he should take an entirely different route home from certain locations than he prefers, and he said it does get quite insistent when you don't follow directions and turn around!

And one other feature it has that he really likes: It knows ALL of the breaks in the highway. It down't know which ones are illegal U-turns, but it alerts you to a break before you drive up on it, in order to double back, should a U-turn be allowed and needed.

I've used a lot of different GPS units, Tomtom, Garmin, and the prior Mio units. Got the Mio Moov, and returned in a couple days. Too slow, none of POI's compared to the previous C520 and C310 series. I personally don't like the new map design and interface, the C520 series had very good onscreen info. The Moov has it too, but you have to keep pressing the green button on the right corner to see details. The thing also takes too long to "think" and search for POI's or just to get to the next step when entering addresses.

I don't get what's wrong with these companies. You spend thousands on R&D and come up with a product that's worse off...

I purchased the MOOV 310 to use as a "commuting" GPS to help with traffic. It was a big step up from the Navigon 5100 that I returned to the store after a few days. I basically have two ways I can traverse the 45 miles into Boston; the highways or back roads. The MOOV 310 allows you to put up a map of a large region that shows traffic issues in addition to the normal 3D/2D maps. It works pretty well, not perfect, but accurate enough to offer some guidance. What's nice is you do not have to be in a route in order to see traffic. If you are on a route, then it will show you traffic alerts that are only on your route (if you chose). When you are on the "traffic" screen, you can drill into individual traffic alerts to see a closer map of the area or read text on the problem (slow traffic, accident, road work, etc.) One thing you cannot get by just looking at the map is the direction of the problem (ie. eastbound or westbound), so you must look at the text. Device comes with a year of free traffic and you can sign up for a free map upgrade slated for spring '09.

Some gadgets fit your eye and others don't. The Navigon 5100 device had a more washed out screen to me, the text and detail was too small, traffic didn't come up on it's own screen, took 8 seconds to turn on everyday by holding the "on" button, etc. That's just me, other people rave about them and I'm sure they are right, it works great for them. As a GPS, the MOOV 310 works fine. Routing is great, screen is great, usability is great, POI's are very good, speed is fine - no real complaints. It does what I bought it to do and I can see the next generation by Mio being even better.

This was to be my first GPS. Right from the box...after charging...I experienced frustration. Addresses that I typed in were not found. POIs gave limited choices in my home area when I know that many more places existed than shown. This unit was also very sluggish at startup. I was uncertain whether the problems were my inexperience with GPS technology or the unit so I ordered a Garmin 650 to compare with. It arrived yesterday. My initial intention was to use both side by side for 1 week then decide which unit to keep and which to return. However, the Garmin WOWED me right off. Found addresses that the Mio didn't. It's much easier to use...keypad on the Mio is either too light or too hard...not sure which but I was constantly hitting double letters. This unit did give very accurate directions while moving...once you got your addresses into the system...and I did like that it didn't announce that it was re-calculating when you turned from it's path...it just did it quickly and gave new directions. However, great directions are only good if you can get your destinations into the unit to begin with. Mio needs to get better maps and more POIs if they want to compete with Garmin...especially since the price is coming down on the Garmins. My Garmin 650 was only $20.00 more than the Mio 350 and well worth it. This unit is going back.

I can understand when a GPS makes mistakes in a city. Roads change and stores move. These changes are not something a GPS can keep track of every day.

A GPS should not, however, give poor directions between two established (been around for a while) cities. I was recently traveling from Indianapolis, IN to South Bend, IN. South Bend is about 120 miles north of Indianapolis and there is a highway (31N) that connects the two. This is THE road to take if you want to get from Indianapolis to South Bend or vice versa. This is the route Google maps suggested.

For whatever reason, this GPS decided that I had to stick to the Interstates. The route it plotted was an extra 70 miles. It recommended taking 65N (goes north-west towards Chicago) and then 80E to get to South Bend. Had I not known about 31N I would have spent at least an extra hour on the road.

While I was in South Bend (looking for restaurants, book stores, other attractions) the GPS repeatedly gave me directions that would take me on a toll road even though there were plenty of non-toll roads that ran parallel to the toll road.

Beyond that, the interface is very clunky. It's not particularly intuitive and it requires a lot of clicks.

I had borrowed this from somebody so I pointed out these problems to him. He said he had tried to go into the configuration to fix it but the GPS kept giving him these poor directions.

I would give it 1 star, but it has a fairly good database of shops and locations and it does get you from point A to point B, even if it does it poorly.

I had to buy a GPS for work. I am an EMT. This product is not very accurate. It will tell you to take a left but the left could be a one way. If my intentions of buying this GPS was for personal use I'd give it three stars. The screen however is perfect size. Its big enough to read yet small enough not to compromise driving safely. I had to buy another GPS for work and went with a tom tom. I keep the mio for my personal vehicle, and the tom tom for my ambulance. I would not recommend this if you are buying for an ambulance,firetruck or police car. As for personal use if you do purchase this item be prepared to make tons of U-turns. And have a map as back up.

This was one of the first things I bought on Amazon--sorry, I'm a Luddite when it comes to shopping online--and I'm really quite happy with it. A couple comments noted the lack of instructions and having to sort of find your way to get it set up, but it isn't all that difficult, particularly if you have a clever teenager who can help you through some of it. I've had it about 3 months now and I love it. There have been a couple of routing choices I've scratched my head over, but the end result is that it always gets you there. For the price, you can't beat it. I looked at several other brands with the speech feature and they were just too expensive for my budget.

This is the first GPS I bught, and I must say it was easy to use right out of the box. The tracking tends to be a little slow, but it gets the job done. Takes no time powering up and no time finding the location you are looking for. Slim and a nice design. I have priced others that are 50 to 100 dollars more and this one does the samething for less. I am happy with it.

We love this GPS. It is accurate and easy to use. We chose Karen, the Australian, and she is so polite -- not like the voices on other brands we have heard. We did a lot of research before choosing the Moov and don't believe we could have found a better GPS in this price range.