The Mio 269 has a fairly slim form factor compared to the rather rotund TomTom Go range and while it still weighs over the 200 gram mark it feels better in the hand and also very well constructed. The model we have to test is actually the latest Mio 269+ which features the SirfStar III chipset purportedly giving better accuracy and a faster TTF (time to fix).

Having wrestled the 269 plus out of it's packaging we set about securing it to our test car. We opted for the gooseneck type attachment with a strong windscreen sucker placed centrally next to our TomTom Go 500 unit. The power cord is of sufficient length but not quote long enough to allow us to hide it well. The unit also ships with a bicycle mount which while a good idea is hardly of much use in car and as it does not ship with any other mounting attachments like vent mounts or sticky pads.

After getting the Mio clamped firmly to the windscreen and powered up we entered navigation mode and got past the splash screen to start the first drive. The starting time to fix was around 3 minutes, which was about average for an out of the box lock which eventually gave us 5 satellites.#

Entering your address is a fairly straight forward affair with the large screen and four way control button with back step button. The system worked by narrowing down your choices as you give it more data, being a European mapping system you start with country followed by city / town or postcode. As you reach the point where the possible street combinations lessen you start to get a list of roads to choose from and this is probably the fastest address entry method we've used to date. It is also possible to store your home address on a  single button press plus a list of favourites and even importing these from MS outlook contacts.

We set in our first journey of this European test from Bucks to City Airport in Docklands, the route was calculated quickly and with what seemed to be the fastest time using the M25 and M11 to get into east London. Navigation n the Mio 269 is via a combination of a purposeful yet polite voice instruction which was certainly loud enough in our tests car and on screen directions. The screen layout is not as simple as some systems and can look a bit cluttered, however the map remains central with bold arrows to indicate the next turn required.

In fairness this version of the navigation software is improved over when we tested the Mio 268 and the interface looks a little less like some control screen from CTU in the TV series 24 and more like something we could use everyday. The status bar at the lower edge always shows the name of the next road and the distance to that turn, the left hand edge shows key information like satellite signal, traffic alters and battery . power status.

The 269 set about guiding us from Bucks to City Airport with the minimum of fuss and reduced stress levels as all good navigation systems should. There was a noticeable wobble from the gooseneck mount which we did find a little distracting and it could occasionally make reading street names more tricky. Our trip to city airport nearly over we took a few deliberate wrong turns to force the Mio 269 to re calculate which it did both speedily and accurately, one slight quibble is the click sound effect every time you press a button or touch the screen it cheapens the experience and annoyed us somewhat.

Parking up the car in short stay for a few days we always remove the unit and it's easy enough with this type of clip in cradle, but this time the unit was coming with us to Amsterdam.

Therefore it was time for one of the strangest gadget tests we've ever performed, persuading an Amsterdam taxi drive to let us sucker the unit to his windscreen for the drive into central Amsterdam and our hotel. He took a bit of convincing and a good tip but eventually he was ok with it and we set both his own on board Mercedes system and the Mio to find the hotel in Dam square.

So for part to of this test and this time using the maps stored on the Mio 269's hard drive we could start to pick our way from Schipol to Dam Square. The unit uses Teleatlas maps version 2005:1 and they seemed very up to date back in the UK and also according to our driver here in the Netherlands, in fact they new about a few junction changes his inbuilt MB system clearly did not. The depth of the maps available is clearly dictated by Teleatlas not Mio but currently the 269 now ships with maps for Greece, Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia and Hungary bringing the overall number of countries covered to 27.

However there should be a word of warning here, 27 counties does not really tell you of the level of mapping available for each, it's a bit like the old mobile phone coverage maps where different colours (hardly differing at that!) showed you the variability of coverage. Mio have a page reminiscent of the bad old mobile maps that shows the Teleatlas view of Europe with street level maps only being present in certain countries or major cities then dropping away to major connections only. Perhaps the big surprise for us was the lack of mapping for Ireland outside of Dublin and other large cities and Spain? well take a look here to see what we mean.

Once again our route was plotted very quickly using the upgraded processing power of the 269 (400Mhz) and the voice instruction were accurate, soon we were winging our way through the night right to the door of our hotel. Another good performance for the Mio and our driver seemed impressed too.

The Mio 269 plus has a few other extra features worthy of note. First up there is TMC the traffic system that can alert you of hold up's on screen but you'll need an extra receiver (not supplied) and it's not available in the UK. Then we at last have a decent facility for points of internets, Mio have maps of petrol stations, cash points and many more available for download, we managed to upload our favourite speed camera map without issue. We also note the ability to use the Mio with directly input coordinates for the first time, this means that it may be of use in the growing pastimes of GeoCaching where users hunt for treasure using GPS kit, this would also make use of the 4 hour battery life of the 269.

During all our trips over the next week back in the UK the only real problem we encountered was the occasional slowness of the interface where it took a while to exit a menu or access a screen.

Overall our test have shown the 269 to be reliable and accurate in the UK and where we tested in Europe, however the mapping coverage of  mainland Europe seems to be highly variable and not quite what we expected. This isn't Mio's fault but anyone who is intending to spend the extra on a system for travel outside the UK should not just check the list of countries but also the depth of mapping available.

The new Mio Map 2.0 software is actually a re skinned Navigon V5 application and it works well but is till a little less user friendly then the TomTom Go 700, there are plenty of extras including the ability to play MP3 tracks that may make the two system almost equal in overall features per pound.

At £389 versus the £500 for a TomTom Go 700 we do start to wonder if Mio are onto a winner here, in a device to device comparison we'd opt for the Go 700 but the difference in performance and in particular the  user interface is not worth £110

So until TomTom cut their price down to size it's a recommendation for the Mio 269, but please please do check the area you want to travel too is covered by the maps before you buy.

Published - 20/11/2005

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