DFW_Warrior
04-14-2007, 09:19 PM
Click here for the Mio Tech website. (http://www.miogps.com/US/products_c310xfeatures.htm#1)
Well, it was a deal that I couldn't pass up. Fry's had the little Mio GPS units on sale for $199, so I had to pick one up. Now, I haven't had much time with it, but here's my opinions of it so far.....
On the plus side:
Sub $200 price tag.
Very nice color touch screen.
2D and 3D maps.
Many, many Points of interest!!
Built in MP3 player.
Small, and very, very light weight.
Comes with all the maps preloaded and ready to use.
Very fast satellite lock time when powering up.
Very fast recalculation time when you miss a turn, that's a big bonus.
Customize what data it's showing you at what times, i.e. distance to next turn, distance to destination, speed, current time, and so forth. It's up to you what you want to see.
Did I mention, its FAST!!! Zoom, scroll, and routing is fast on this little sucker. It made a route from the DFW area to some farm road in Ohio in less than 10 seconds. That's pretty fast to me.
On the down side:
No loading pre-made routes into the GPS. This is actually a big turn off for me. I love to load routes into my Garmin for little day trips and such. All this one does is route you to a specific point either by fastest, or shortest means.
The little touch screen buttons can be hard to hit while either driving or riding. The thing IS little after all. I carry a little stylus with me for easier button pushing.
Yes it plays MP3's, but it's a pain to skip tracks and adjust the MP3 player while in GPS mode. You must exit GPS mode and then enter MP3 mode to do it.
Not waterproof, but hey how many GPS units are actually waterproof for under $200?
The map set could be a little better updated. It doesn't have the exit by my house off of I-20 and that exit has been there for close to 7 years now.
If you're used to how the Garmin software is layed out, forget about it. It's much, much different. It's not that this is a bad thing, it's just different.
It's hard to mark waypoints as you're on the move. With my Garmin, I just hold down the enter button and it marks my current location with a waypoint. I love this feature on the Garmin so I can mark cool things that I want to go back and see. It's a royal PITA to do this on the Mio.
Bottom line, this won't replace my brick of a GPS (Streetpilot 3), but we're not going to return it. It makes a great GPS for Melanie's (my wife) car, and will keep her from getting lost. It will end up being a great around town in the car GPS. But if I had to have just one GPS then I would spend a tad more money and get a Garmin 2610 or something similar.
Well, it was a deal that I couldn't pass up. Fry's had the little Mio GPS units on sale for $199, so I had to pick one up. Now, I haven't had much time with it, but here's my opinions of it so far.....
On the plus side:
Sub $200 price tag.
Very nice color touch screen.
2D and 3D maps.
Many, many Points of interest!!
Built in MP3 player.
Small, and very, very light weight.
Comes with all the maps preloaded and ready to use.
Very fast satellite lock time when powering up.
Very fast recalculation time when you miss a turn, that's a big bonus.
Customize what data it's showing you at what times, i.e. distance to next turn, distance to destination, speed, current time, and so forth. It's up to you what you want to see.
Did I mention, its FAST!!! Zoom, scroll, and routing is fast on this little sucker. It made a route from the DFW area to some farm road in Ohio in less than 10 seconds. That's pretty fast to me.
On the down side:
No loading pre-made routes into the GPS. This is actually a big turn off for me. I love to load routes into my Garmin for little day trips and such. All this one does is route you to a specific point either by fastest, or shortest means.
The little touch screen buttons can be hard to hit while either driving or riding. The thing IS little after all. I carry a little stylus with me for easier button pushing.
Yes it plays MP3's, but it's a pain to skip tracks and adjust the MP3 player while in GPS mode. You must exit GPS mode and then enter MP3 mode to do it.
Not waterproof, but hey how many GPS units are actually waterproof for under $200?
The map set could be a little better updated. It doesn't have the exit by my house off of I-20 and that exit has been there for close to 7 years now.
If you're used to how the Garmin software is layed out, forget about it. It's much, much different. It's not that this is a bad thing, it's just different.
It's hard to mark waypoints as you're on the move. With my Garmin, I just hold down the enter button and it marks my current location with a waypoint. I love this feature on the Garmin so I can mark cool things that I want to go back and see. It's a royal PITA to do this on the Mio.
Bottom line, this won't replace my brick of a GPS (Streetpilot 3), but we're not going to return it. It makes a great GPS for Melanie's (my wife) car, and will keep her from getting lost. It will end up being a great around town in the car GPS. But if I had to have just one GPS then I would spend a tad more money and get a Garmin 2610 or something similar.