There are so many GPS Units out there right now. I just wrote a review on a LCD tv and stated that many new upstart companies have jumped on the consumer bandwagon for that particular piece of equipment, well GPS units are the same way. Everyone has heard of TomTom and Garmin, even Magellan, but who had ever heard of the likes of Mio? Via Michellin? or Invion? Not many of us i am sure. Like most people i always tend to lean towards brand name manufacturers, but here recently i have stepped out of that box and have been trying products from lesser known companies such as Westinghouse, and now Mio!

I went to Circuit City to take a look at their GPS units and i saw the obvious brands, TomTom with their new One series, and Garmin with their Street Pilot, but there at the end of the display was this nice looking GPS unit made by Mio, even more attractive was the price, $199 a full $100 cheaper from the next cheapest which was the TomTom One at $299. On Impulse i decided to take the plunge and get the Mio C310X!

As soon as i got home i unpacked my new gadget. The C310X is small and measures about 4.3" in width, 3.2" in height and 3 quarters of an inch in depth! This little GPS unit can easily fit in your pocket. The C310X boasts an impressive 3.5" tft full color screen that can display 65,000 colors. It has built in memory of 1GB that can be expanded by purchasing any size SD memory Card, and it also has 64MB of Ram built in. It has a rechargeable Ion Lithium battery that will last for up to 4 hours, which is awesome, especially if you want to take it with you on walks.

The other great feature of the C310X is that it has a built in MP3 Player. This is where the additional memory card can come into play! Not only will this little baby tell you where you need to go, it can play your music selection too! So just how well does this unit perform??

The answer to the above question is very well indeed. I live in Oklahoma City, so obviously this is where the unit was tested. When you first turn the unti on it will calibrate itself to your current position and it will know exactly where you are in a matter of seconds! The menu screen is very easy to navigate around. The first screen you will see will be the main option screen. You can choose either Mio Map, or Mio MP3. When you select Mio Map you are taken to the main GPS mode!

The menu options from here are very straight forward. Select POI (points of interest) which i might add this Mio has 1.5 million pre installed. Dashboard (the main map screen) Address (where you enter the destination you wish to travel to). The touch screen is very sensitive and entering information is very easy indeed. When entering addresses a qwerty keyboard will appear on the screen so you can type in your address. If you find the keyboard too small you can enlarge the keys so that you can see them and hit the key you want first time every time.

There are many other options you can set as well! You can choose to display time traveled, distance traveled, distance to next way point or location, current speed you are traveling, you can even program the Mio so that it knows where speed traps are along the way! This is great if you travel particular stretch of road everyday and forget that there is a speed camera, the Mio will chime and will warn you that you are approaching the speed camera! Great Stuff!

Once you have entered the address the unit will calculate the route for you. You can tell it to find the fastest route, the most fuel efficient route or even the most scenic route. You can also tell it to avoid highways, interstates and toll roads! I have never had to wait more than 10 seconds for the Mio to calculate a route for me, that is super quick! You are ready to hit the road in a flash!

The wonderful thing about this Mio is that it is equipped with SirfStar 3! SirfStar 3 is the GPS receiver and it is currently the fastest receiver on the market, believe me you do not want to buy a GPS unit that does not come with SirfStar 3. The Mio knows exactly where you are in an instant and updating takes a fraction of a second with Sirfstar 3. I have never lost a satelite lock yet and i have been using this unit every day for 3 months now!

The maps on the Mio are quite excellent. It has never failed to find a route, it has always delivered me to the exact place i have been wanting to get to. I have even driven past my turn to see how fast it can recalculate. Recalculating routes takes just a few seconds! It will acknowledge that you missed your turn and will find the next quickest route for you, every time, guaranteed, it is very impressive indeed! The driving directions are spoken loud and clear by the male voice that is programmed into this unit, you are always given plenty of warning before you get to you next turn or road merge!

The speaker is very good and like i said can be quite loud, loud enough to hear over even the noisest engines! Now that we are talking about the speaker, lets also talk about the MP3 player! If like me you like music this is a great option. I purchased a 2gb SD memory card for $20 and loaded most of music onto it. I popped it in the Mio and hey presto i have an MP3 player. You can use the Mio as a stand alone MP3 player or you can play the music and use the GPS function at the same time. When you play the music at the same time that you are using the GPS, when you get close to your next instruction the music will stop, the voice guidance will kick in and will tell you your next move, then the song will start playing again from the point you left it at, absolutely awesome. It works great with a fm transmitter as well so you can hear everything through your car speakers!

The Mio comes with everything you need. In the Box you will find the Mio itself, a window mounting bracket, a dashboard mounting plate, and a car charger. You will also get a piece of software called Mio Transfer. When you connect the Mio to your computer via USB you can use this piece of software to transfer files such as MP3's or new map data (which just got released priced at $19.95) straight to your Mio!

There is one more cool thing about the Mio that not many people know. The Mio is Based on a Windows CE platform. If you so desire you can hack the Mio (you can find instructions on Mio forums) so that it first boots into Windows. Within Windows you will find, Windows Media Player, which is the driving force for the music, but it can also play video files. Mpeg to be exact. What does this mean? It means that you can copy your favorite movie right to that extra SD card and your Mio is also a portable movie player! Of course i would not recommend doing this unless you know what you are doing as it will void your warranty! I have done it and it plays back movies wonderfully! I might also add if you do attempt this, please do not watch movies while you are driving!

This is a great GPS unit that works just as well as the TomTom's and Garmin's of the world! The Maps are solid and have never failed me, and with the new maps available now it will work even better on that front. All the other features that this player has to offer make this a clear winner and the price is just right at $199!

Recommended:
Yes