 In
recent months the Lordpercy.com offices have become overwhelmed with
all in one SatNav devices and you could be forgiven for thinking
that the days of PDA navigation are numbered. However there are new
units being launched based on PDA platforms and ardent fans of the
portable handheld device and that’s why Mio bring us their latest
Navigation system the Mio A201.
Opening the package found the usual array of mounting options
and power cords plus the Mio PAD unit itself, based around a Intel
PXA270 312 MHz and running windows mobile 5 the A201 is powerful PDA
without even looking at the GPS functions. The bright 3.5” screen
can be switched between landscape and portrait modes with a single
click and best of this can be applied to the Mio navigator software
so you can choose the best orientation for your guidance.
On the GPS front there is an inbuilt folding antenna which clicks
into the back of the A201 case with a reassuring feel, it can be
angled either straight out if the unit is in portrait mode or
rotated should the PDA be in landscape, a nice touch. The big change
afoot at present in GPS world is the use of the new SiRFstar III
chipset and the improved accuracy and start-up times that it brings
to devices. We are very pleased to see Mio using this in a PDA
device and as you’ll see it makes quite a difference to the
navigational performance of the 201.
Our first task was to mount the Mio A201 in our test vehicle, as
normal we went for the suction mount which is on a medium length
gooseneck, this attaches to the clip in mounting plate which in turn
attaches to the holder. The PDA shaped A201 slides into this holder
base first and the top clicks back into place., it makes for a
secure mount and easy to fit and remove the unit but there is a
little more wobble at speed than some mounting systems we’ve tested.
Power is via a 12volt cable and the obligatory curly lead into the
mini USB socket on the base of the A201 which is left exposed by the
holder.
Power up the Mio A201 and the first test was passed with flying
colours a cold start in under 30 seconds, subsequent starts gave TTF
(time to fix) of less than 15 seconds, so no hanging around in car
parks for Mio owners. Laying in an address can be achieved by either
a postcode or start name and being honest the input isn’t as easy as
we’d have hoped, the Mio software tries to narrow down your options
as you type each letter, but it’s a little sluggish so you do feel
like your waiting for it to catch up a lot of the time. To get round
this you can store common destinations like home as favourites and
even navigate to a recent destination from a history list.
 Our
first journey was our now standard test route, the Mio didn’t do
anything wacky and chose the most logical route with no
intervention, route planning time was on a par with the TomTom 5
navigator software at around 12 seconds. Having selected the unit to
navigate we were off and the daylight screen layout provided a good
contrast and auto zooming map to guide us.
Spoken instructions are clear and concise although we quickly
noted that the voice always tells you the instruction before the
distance to turn. So you get turn right onto the A406, in 200 yards,
nothing amazing here but if you aren’t concentrating and here turn
right! You almost start to turn before you here that you could be
half a mile away from needing too! We guess you get used to this but
it did seem a bit back to front. A plus point is the use of actual
road names in the spoken instructions, so you get turn right onto
wigmore terrace rather than just “turn right” this can be very
reassuring and is something that very few units bother to do.
So time to try and upset Mio’s new toy and start ignoring
directions, at first it tried to turn you round but after a few
attempts it does re route although the Mio like every unit we’ve
tested does not seem to do this calculation as quickly or logically
as the TomTom software. That said the Mio is good and did get us
back on track quickly and without too many “U turn” instructions. We
did manage a bit of fun on one of those rare UK sunny January days
by just driving in the opposite direction to the Mio’s instructions,
this resulted in the screen just showing u turn after u turn and
shouting “now” as we passed the turn point.
Of course hit a traffic snarl up and you’ll want to get the A201 to
take you on a different route and for us this is a key feature /
benefit of GPS navigation systems. With the Mio you access the
navigation menu either via the touch screen or the thumb joystick
and can influence the route taken by the Mio Map software. There is
a rather nifty integration with TMC data, this is where free traffic
data broadcast over the air is available on your device telling you
of possible hold up's. This is available in over 30 European
countries, but before you go getting excited the UK although it has
TMC is not on the list. We'll try and find out why and if its likely
to become a subscription service but for now you'll have to rely on
the RDS radio and an eagle eye for the back of that queue.
 That
mention of Europe also serves to remind us that the Mio A201 ships
with UK maps that include the major road of Europe all bundled on a
512mb SD card, further cards for other countries are available on SD
/ MMC cards enabling your Mio to go on hols with you. Plus with the
PDA having an internal battery which charges via the USB connection
you can expect to be able to use the GPS navigation on foot or in a
car without power for around 4 - 6 hours.
We did make an effort to try and use two of the extra features
which the PDA base makes possible. Both rely on the inbuilt speaker
which we had found to be loud enough for navigation but would it be
loud enough for a handsfree conversation and MP3 replay. We paired
our iMate Jam with the A201 and sat it into its cradle ready for a
test call, 1st we took an incoming call, again the GUI slowed up and
there was a pause while the call was answered, during this the
navigation switched to visual only and we attempted to have a chat.
At low speeds this was fine although the callers voice was very
tinny via the PDA speaker and we sounded quite distant to the
caller. Up the speed and the handsfree suffered the same fate as the
TomTom Go 500 and became like shouting in a hurricane.
So would listening to an MP3 track prove a more viable
proposition? well from our tests Amy Winehouse sounded like she had
been miniaturised in a freak accident, but then we didn't expect
much more, perhaps Mio think we should use the 3.5mm output jack to
cable up to the in car audio, either way don't buy the A201 as an
MP3 player.
Sticking to navigation we continued our tests over a number of
routes and found that in general the Mio A201 got us to where we
wanted with the minimum of fuss, we did note that the swirling
windows CE logo that comes up when the PDA is busy was a regular
visitor and diving in and out of menus was a slow affair. We did
find that the improved chip set means that your A201 will keep lock
in town much better than before, even those pesky leafy streets
posed no problem for the Mio which managed to keep the minimum 3
satellites for all of our journeys.
Priced at around £200 the Mio A201 does represent good value for
money and considering you also get a fully functional PDA for the
money it's worthy competition onto a TomTom 5 package loaded onto a
PDA. The neat styling with its directional GPS antenna make for a
highly portable GPS system, its a shame that we have to hold back
our full recommendation due to the number of times the menu system
seems to slow up while you are trying to either enter data or change
navigation information.
Published - 29/01/2006
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