The Mitac Mio 168 GPS system has something a bit special about it, that's because it was the first pocket PC based GPS system to have an integrated pop out GPS antenna, so no need for a jacket to slide your PDA in, no Bluetooth receiver to hide on your dash and most important of all no cables.

So when one of our good friends offered us the use of the Mitac Mio overnight we thought it would be a good opportunity to put this all in one unit through its paces. The Mio 168 looks very much like a HP Ipaq 2210 and is similar in size despite the little hump for the GPS antenna when its folded down, but unlike the 2210 you won't find wifi or Bluetooth on this PDA clone.

Instead the Mitac Mio 168 majors on its GPS system which is based upon the excellent co pilot live software, although this is the first device we've tested with co pilot several of our regular readers swear by it and even from our short time with the Mitac we can see why.

When you first fire up the Mio 168 and select the navigation option, you are presented with a co-pilot menu which allows you to start driving following your last trip or plan a new journey, we set in a new route to Buckinghamshire using the address lookup facility which seemed fairly easy to use. The system did seem to take a fair while to get lock on enough satellites to plot our current position with the average being about 2 minutes which is double our regular tom tom unit.

Once on the move the co-pilot live software really shows its pedigree with a crisp and efficient GUI with street names integrated within the instructions rather than a tune left / turn right style of navigation, this is much more reassuring when you are in unknown  territory. The variety of views means that you'll find one that best suits you, either with a split of a real map or just an arrow type readout, when moving at speed the system defaults to the safety screen with minimal information and will then switch to a more detailed map view at lower speeds or as you approach a junction.

As a navigation system co-pilot is very good but the software has a few extra tricks up its sleeve in the "Live" section of the co-pilot name, this refers to its ability to connect via a GPRS phone to download routes created on a PC or to send / receive messages. Designed for fleet managers or businesses that want to aid their drivers to find locations while on route the live section works well. Well normally yes but not on the Mitac Mio 168 as it does not posses a way to connect to our GPRS enabled phone, no Bluetooth and no wifi mean that a cable would be the only option which somewhat defeats the all in one argument.

As a PDA the Mitac comes equipped with the PXA 255 processor @ 300mhz, 64mb of ram and a spare SIDO slot, which could be used for a SIDO Bluetooth card to get the "live" data working, although our test unit used the SIDO for a 128mb card that contained the mapping data.

There is also a few pre installed applications on the MS pocket PC 2002 platform like and MP3 player and eMenu and backup programmes which could be the beginning of a useful PDA, but we can't really see that the unit would get any use beyond its primary GPS function.

The Kit comes complete with an external GPS antenna which plugs into the fold out one which is essential if you have a car with a heated front windscreen as these will block the GPS signals apart from one spot normally behind the rear view mirror. The rest of the kit provides for charging the Mitac securing it to your widow via a suction system but sadly does not stretch to a cradle for the PDA for desktop syncing instead you get a sync cable.

There is no denying that the Mitac Mio 168 GPS system is a neat offering and the bundle has everything you need to get navigating, the co-pilot software is very good and won't let you down although its a shame you can't use the "live" aspect with this bundle. But at £449 it is a little on the costly side when you compare it to another all in one system like Tom-Tom Go or the Navman PIN, perhaps if you are going to use the PDA function you can justify the price but we'd have to recommend you get a tom tom go unit instead.

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