Portable Navigation

Mio C520 Navigation Receiver

The newest portable navigation system is reviewed from Mio Technology did not fare so well in our tests. It's a shame, because the Mio C220 had so much to your advantage – reasonable price, good performance, compact design – but its screen is a wash complete. Fortunately, Mio's latest GPS device, the Mio C520 offers a better experience and packs even more features at an affordable price to portfolio $ 399. For that money, you get a large 4.3 inch touch screen, integrated Bluetooth, multimedia capabilities, and precise instructions. It's certainly a better value the Magellan Maestro 3100. That said, the C520 has its downfalls: the Bluetooth integration is limited, and real-time tracking and route recalculations could be better. If navigation and usability is of utmost importance to you, and you can find a good deal on the Garmin Nuvi, I'd be better served by the device in place.

Design

The Mio C520 is one of the best-looking portable navigation systems we've ever seen. Coal charcoal-gray and silver color scheme is attractive, but even more attractive is the thinness of the device. With just 4.9 inches wide by 3.2 inches high by 0.8 inches deep and weighing 6.7 ounces, is very elegant, so much so that for all multimedia-capable GPS models we've tested, the Mio C520 is a nearly had to consider using a portable media player – almost (more on that later).

There is beauty in simplicity of design. Apart from a button on the top of the unit, no other external controls cluttering the device. Instead, all functions and text are entered through of the C520's spacious 4.3-inch touch screen. It shows off 65,000 colors at a resolution of 480×272 pixels, which maps and images are vibrant and text clear. Furthermore, both to our relief, the C520 could still read the screen under sunlight, unlike the Mio C220 whose screen washed to the point of being unreadable. We still wish there was a bit more brightness and contrast of the maps, but still a great experience is improved over the C220. Note that some list addresses and points of interest are difficult to read since the font size is rather small.

The interface and main menu system is easy to use with clearly marked and bubbly icons. For the most part, we have been able to use it without having to crack open the manual, but things get a little less intuitive than dig more on applications. For example, a number of tabs on the map screen that open and hide various navigation tools that require some time to learn and master. Moreover, some of the media player controls are hard to distinguish from their functions are not identified. Fortunately, thanks to the screen larger, the virtual keyboard is easier to use than the C220, and is also in the QWERTY format, for the family distribution of your computer keyboard. Moreover, and Magellan GPS devices, keyboard, the C520 has a prediction function, how dull any letters or numbers that do not match street names or numbers as they begin to enter an address.

Mentionable include an external antenna port and speaker in the rear, and a mini USB port and power connector 18-pin on the bottom. There is also an SD expansion slot and headphone jack 2.5 mm in the left column. We're a little confused and disappointed that the C520 Not equipped with a headphone jack 3.5 mm for a better multimedia experience.

The Mio C520 comes with a car charger, AC adapter, a vehicle mount (windshield and dash), a USB cable, and reference material. The windscreen did a good job of securely holding the unit in place, although we think the crib Plasticky and felt a little cheap, so take extra care when Attaching and removing the system.

Features

The Mio C520 is equipped with a 20-channel GPS SiRFIII chip and comes preloaded with Tele Atlas maps of North America and 6 million points of interest. Features basic navigation are similar to the C710. The system can create directions by fastest, shortest or most economical route, with or without toll roads, highways, U-turns, and so on, and in several modes, including automobiles, bicycles and pedestrians. Extras include route recalculation, 2D and 3D map with colors day and night, route simulations, and safety camera warnings. You can get read our Mio C710 review for a more detailed description of the system Mio navigation, but for this review, we focus on some of the unique and new features to the C520.

One positive aspect is the addition text-to-speech. This means that the Mio C520 now speak actual street names, allowing you to pay more attention to the road instead of the map screen, because you get more precise audible. You also have your choice of 14 languages and voices, but you can only get text to voice instructions in English. To complement voice guidance directions, there is a new division-screen view that displays various details about the trip. You can scroll through several views that give the distance and direction of your next turn, a list of upcoming turns, gas stations nearby, the current time, the estimated time of arrival, speed, and more. There is an option to hide this panel altogether if this is too overwhelming and just want to have the map and voice messages.

With integrated Bluetooth, you can use the Mio C520 as a hands-free speaker system for your Bluetooth enabled cell phone or smart phone to receive and make calls. For outgoing calls, Use the onscreen dial pad or select a contact from the device phone book. Also, if a POI has a listed number, there is a option to dial directly to this activity. Unfortunately, you can not wirelessly transfer contacts from the address book of your mobile the C520, and synchronization call history is not available on all phones. (See Performance for more.) A nice and unexpected bonus is that the unit works with Bluetooth stereo headsets (A2DP profile).

The media player on Mio C520 is essential (though you get equalizer settings and creating playlist) and as mentioned above, the interface is somewhat confusing and bare bones. However, you can learn to work with the player, the biggest problem is that the system does not always work with all supported formats. Mio says the C520 can play MP3, WMA, WAV, WMV, AVI, MP4 and music files video but were not able to see all the movies in WMV or AVI. Mio includes Ulead video converter software, however. Obviously, the most important function of this device is its navigation tools, but with the elegant and big screen, we saw ourselves occasionally using the C520 as a video player portable, so the limited support is disappointing.

Performance

We tested the Mio C520 in San Francisco, and a boot cold, it took about three minutes to get a satellite fix under cloudy skies. Subsequent starts from a few seconds to two minutes, but Once closed, the GPS receiver did a good job of staying in the signal as we went around the city. We realized, however, that the system was a half block behind of us when tracking our location. We also entered our standard trip from the Marina district headquarters to the city center from CNET, and the C520 quickly returned with precise instructions. The text-to-speech voice prompts are helpful and detailed, the female voice was a bit robotic but we had no problems to deal with she. He also missed several turns to test the rate of route recalculation, and while the system was quick to give us a new and precise itinerary, we found that is very efficient. There were times when we knew that a more direct route than that recommended by the C520, but if you're completely new to an area, the C520 can be a lifesaver, get back on track to its destination.

For Bluetooth compatibility, we connected the Mio C520 with the Palm Treo 755p and HTC S710 smart phones. We had no problems with the matching process, and we were able to make and receive calls. However, We can not synchronize our call list from any phone. Multimedia performance was mixed. Playing music through the speakers was surprisingly unit good, with plenty of volume and richness, but again, we wish the C520 had a 3.5mm jack so we can connect a good pair of headphones. Seeing a MP4 video clip is a minor satisfying experience, as images often looked pixilated. The C520 from Mio 1300mAh lithium ion battery is rated for up to 4.5 hours of GPS use and up to 8.5 hours of MP3 playback with the backlight.

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Pioneer AVIC-U310BT In-Dash Navigation with Portable GPS