Mio has really started to make a name for itself in the GPS industry. I’d say it is right up there now with top companies like Garmin and TomTom. Their newer line of navigational devices has become a favorite because they are feature packed and affordable. They all use 20 channel SiRF star III GPS receivers and TeleAtlas maps.

Released earlier this year in the DigiWalker series is the C520. For a mid-priced device it sure packs in a lot of nice features like Bluetooth technology, text-to-speech, a full multimedia viewer, and about 6 million POI’s. There’s a little more to the menu system on this C520 so if you’re brand new to GPS navigational devices and not so good with computers you might want to stick to the cheaper C230. It also has a larger than average 4.3″ widescreen that is a bit brighter than earlier devices in the series and is very lightweight and portable which makes it also great in pedestrian mode.

Getting Started with your Mio C520

Your Mio DigiWalker C520 portable navigator will come with the the actual device, device holder, windshield mount, AC power adapter, DC in-vehicle power adapter, USB cable, CD/DVD with MioMap, CD/DVD with user’s manual, license agreement, information booklet, mount installation guide, quick start guide and warranty information.

To initially turn on the device you will need to hold the power button for five seconds. After this initial turn on you will just have to tap the button unless it freezes or something where you will have to hold it for five seconds and you will be able to choose to either shut it down or restart. When you turn it on you will need to charge it completely for at least eight hours. Make sure the charge indicator is amber so you know it’s charging. On first use you will be asked to chose your language and enter the date and time. After this you will be taken to the main menu and you will be able to start using your device. Initial setup is that easy.

From the home screen or main menu there are eight options. You can use the MioMap which is the actual navigation software on the device. You can play videos, audio, or look at pictures. You can use your mobile phone with the Bluetooth technology. You can access the stereo system which will allow you to search for Bluetooth headsets. There is a list of extra tools like a contact list, a calculator, and a file manager to manage files on your memory cards and the internal storage. The last option is a settings menu where you can customize your device.

You might want to play with the settings before you start navigating anywhere. Your general settings from the Mio Map menu are shown in the picture above. Your options in the settings menu from the main menu include the backlight brightness, volume, screen calibration and alignment, power saving features, date and time, language, Bluetooth/auto-answer preferences, and restore which will resort manufacture defaults.

Design and Technical Specs of the Digiwalker 520

The Mio C520 has a great design. The color scheme is a cool charcoal grey mixed with some silver. There is only one button on the whole device which is on top. Unlike the Mio C230 which has an on/off switch on the back and a power button on top the power button can be held to completely turn it on and off or just pressed to put it into a sort of hibernation mode. There’s no little reset button that you have to jam something small into to press. On the front of the device there is a charge indicator that glows amber while charging and green while fully charged and a Bluetooth indicator that glows blue when Bluetooth is on. On the back of the device there is a spot to connect an external antenna just incase there is some reason like your window tint that could block the internal antenna from getting a signal. The headphone connector can only support a 2.5 mm jack which is a bit smaller than average.

The mount this device comes with is very nice. It has a suction cup for the windshield or if you live in California or Minnesota where that is illegal you can use the dash mount to stick it to your dashboard. This kind of sucks because it is a little more permanent but what can you do, the law is the law. There are some add-ons you can purchase like the Bracketron Nav-Mat Portable GPS Dash Mount that make it so you don’t have to put that sticky pad right onto your dash. It comes with a non skid surface that you can stick the suction cup to.

With an extremely small size of only 4.9 inches by 3.2 inches by 0.78 inches and a weight of only 6.7 ounces the C520 is extremely sleek and having a built in antenna makes it even more portable. Its large 4.3″ LCD widescreen with a 480 x 272 resolution is very easy to ready and the speaker is nice and loud which are two important features while driving. It runs with 64 megabytes of SDRAM so you should have no problems multitasking with things like the mp3 player and Mio Map which is its navigational system. The lithium ion battery has a 4.5 hour life and can be charged with the AC adapter, the car charger or even by connecting it to a computer with the USB cord. There is 2 gigabytes or internal flash memory along with a SD/MMC memory card slot. The device is backed by a one year warranty.

Navigation and Performance of Mio’s C 520

The Mio C520 offers a 20 channel SiRFstarIII WAAS enabled receiver along with TeleAtlas maps of the USA, Canada, and Puerto Rico. The SiRF chipset is extremely accurate. As of now it is the best on the market. It is said to be next to impossible to lose your signal and able to acquire a fix in only a few seconds. From personal experience the first time I turned it on it did take about 3 minutes but it has usually taken under ten seconds ever since.

The map can be shown in a bunch of different views. There is the regular 2D and 3D views but then they also have these 2D and 3D views that are called north up. Instead of always following your car from a behind view it will always keep north at the top of the screen. If you turn the auto-zoom on the perspective will flatten out to 2D when you approach a maneuver. The map can either cover the full screen or you can have a split screen where the other half is used to display a variety of information you can customize. It will always show the distance to the next turn and the direction of it along the top but there is a few choices as to what else can be over there. There are four little buttons along the bottom of the right side that control this. You can choose to display relevant information such as distance and time so far of the route, the current time, and the arrival time. They also show your current speed just in case you can’t read your speedometer maybe? You can choose to display the nearest POI’s to your current position. You can choose which categories or subcategories make this list. An example would be showing all the nearest gas stations so you never run out and have no idea where to go. The last one is a list of the next four turns coming up as shown in the picture below. It’s not really the next four turns because the next turn is at the top but I guess turns two through five. The list is scrollable so you can check out all the turns on the list. You’ll notice I named three but said there were four buttons. The last one is for an optional traffic receiver add-on. Last I checked it is coming out soon but not quite available yet.

To start your trip you can enter a specific address, select your destination from a list you have made in your “My Favorites” or a list of recent destinations, or just tap a spot on the map you want to go to and press the “Route To” button. Routes can be calculated by the shortest, fastest, or most economical route. You can also add waypoints to your route to make stops along the way. There isn’t a limit to how many you can fit on there, it’s just however many your memory can hold so if you’re using your Mio C520 as a storage device it won’t be as many. Along with saving waypoints you can actually save you routes with the track log. Also, will hold as many as your memory will allow.

Features of the Mio C520 GPS

The Mio C520 is jam packed with tons of really cool features. I absolutely love all the stuff this thing comes with for under $300 now! To list them there is text-to-speech, Bluetooth (also headsets which is rare), contact list, calculator, music, pictures, video, and a huge POI database.

Text-to-speech for those that don’t know is software that will take text written out and speak it. You might not really realize just how handy this can be on a navigational assistant. It makes it so you truly never have to take your eyes off the road to check the device where you are supposed to go. Instead of being told “right-turn in 300 yards” you will be told the actually street name like “right turn in 300 yards onto Waverly Street”. No looking at your map to be sure of the street’s name you are turning on or just guessing by the distance.

Connecting your phone to your Mio C520 will allow you to make and accept calls along with access your phone book from your phone or your device and view your call history. This makes talking on the phone while driving hands free which is a lot safer. You can also connect a Bluetooth headset to listen to the audio.

The contacts tool allows you to create a contacts list that is saved right onto your device. You can add new contacts and save their address and phone number which the device can later use to navigate to their house or call them. Additional contacts can be added from your phone via Bluetooth or Microsoft Outlook via the USB cord.

The built in calculator can act as a regular calculator, a currency converter, or a measurement converter. The currency converter must be updated manually with the current exchange rate between currencies.

There is an amazing multimedia player in this thing. It plays music and video and can show pictures too. It supports both JPEG and BMP file formats and you can look through thumbnails for pictures to show or just play them all through with a slideshow feature. The music player plays MP3 and WMA files. Playlists can be created and saved right on the device. It has an equalizer with some preloaded stuff. Also you can download lyric files online that it will play so if you want to sing along and do a little karaoke you can. It would be great for long trips. The video player would also be great for long trips. As far as I can tell it only plays the MP4 format although they say it should play others. Not a huge problem though because included when you but a Mio C520 is Ulead Video Toolbox Home Edition Version 2.0 which will convert any files to the MP4 format. The sound quality on the music and video is great although the video playback can be a little pixilated at times.

There isn’t a navigational device on the market that has more points of interest preloaded. I understand there are over six million packed in there. POI’s include things like gas stations, atm’s, hotels, restaurants, and pretty much anything else you’re interested in going to. It’s like they took the yellow pages for the continent and stuffed them all in there. They even have speed trap cameras listed with warnings given when you are near one. This alone can make the device worth it if you get lots of speeding tickets. The database can be searched by name or category with most categories being broken down farther into subcategories. Once you’ve got a list you’d like to search they can be ordered by closest to your current location or destination, near an address, a location in your history file, or your cursor position on the map. Along with searching for them through the menu system you can chose to display certain categories or subcategories directly on the map so you can pick what is important to you and see what’s close. The POI loader program can load either homemade POI’s or lists you downloaded off the internet. They can be in either .xls or .csv format.

Closing thoughts on Mio-Tech / Mitac’s C520 unit

Mio is well known for making extremely affordable navigational devices. What they have packed in here for under $300 is unbelievable. You’d think there has to be some sort of catch like they are using inferior parts or something but you look what they use and you’ll see this isn’t true. They can even fit it into a smaller case then some of the other heavy hitting companies. It’s true the TeleAtlas maps are not always as up-to-date as the Navteq ones and they are a little less expensive but they are still high quality and continuously updated. Who knows, TomTom’s Map Share technology allowing people to share map corrections with their TeleAtlas maps might just benefit Mio if TomTom does end up buying TeleAtlas and continues to supply Mio with maps.

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Review By: Donnie

The Mio Digiwalker C 520 uses a smaller 2.5mm jack which is similar to most cellphones. Also I found the speed warning option wasn’t working. Looks like you gotta keep watching your speed by yourself. I guess it can’t do everything for you. As far as performance goes it has improved routing algorithms it seems and the SiRFstarIII chipset works amazing, I haven’t lost a signal yet.

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Review By: Ron

Really cool, now I’ll never lose my contacts if I lose my phone. Only thing that is missing is a carrying case! I don’t understand how they didn’t include one, very strange. I mean, it’s a portable device, they could make it a little easier to bring with you without breaking it.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Review By: Jerry

There were no issues with this even when my cell phone couldn’t pick up a signal. I found that a little strange, maybe I just have a crappy cell phone. Signals were picked up quick and it always stayed very accurate to where we actually were relative to where the device said we were. I’m extremely happy with my purchase and can’t believe I paid under $300 for it!

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Review By: Hilda

The 4.3” widescreen is great. I don’t think I would be able to manage anything smaller. I think the keyboard would be too cramped and I’d be hitting wrong buttons. Also with the keyboard I like that it greys out any keys that wouldn’t form a name. An example would be say I’m trying to type in Main Street. When I type Ma it would only let me press keys like I to continue spelling Main or say y if I was trying to spell May. I couldn’t press Z because no streets contain maz. Only problem it gets a little lost in parking lots. You’re pretty much on your own until you leave the lot and get on a real street.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Review By: Hank