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| Mio C520 4.3-Inch Widescreen Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator | 
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| Brand: Mio
Category: CE
List Price: $399.95
Buy New: $207.98
You Save: $191.97 (48%)
New (22) Used (2) from $207.98
Avg. Customer Rating:  122 reviews
Sales Rank: 1263
Media: Electronics
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Native Resolution: 480 x 272
Display Size: 4.3
Includes MP3 Player: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 4.9 x 3.1 x 0.8
MPN: 526216470101
Model: 526216470101
UPC: 041881002431
EAN: 0041881002431
ASIN: B000MWNJPE
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 Best value for the money July 20, 2007
27 out of 27 found this review helpful
I have been using a GPS receiver with a laptop for a couple of years. Therefore I am a little picky on my first handheld GPS. I did a lot of research and almost decided to buy Garmin Nuvi 350 which has great reviews from hundreds of users, when I went to a local Fry's and saw Mio C520. I was overjoyed by my finding because Mio C520 delivered all functions and more I considered missing on Nuvi 350 at about the same price (online). A 4" LCD is also a big plus. Now I have been using it for about two weeks and my experience is mostly positive. Below is my review, plus some tips on how to use this great gadget. I will not repeat common features such as voice instruction, 3D map view, night display mode, etc.
The good:
1. Tons of convenient functions - almost everything you can ask for from a car GPS. This is the biggest advantage over the easy-but-over-simple Nuvi. To name a few,
- Mio C520 allows virtually unlimited user points of interests (POI) which can be organized in user defined folders.
- It supports virtually unlimited vias (comparing to only 1 for Nuvi).
- It tells you your coordinates (longitude, latitude, altitude) together with a nice satellite chart showing each satellite's signal strength; you can also enter your destination or POI location using coordinates without a street number. This truly blows Garmin Nuvi away! Many GPS beginners may think such coordinates have no use. I'll just give two examples: One application is for emergency - either roadside on a lonely highway not close to any exit or on a mountain trail, as long as your cell phone still has signal, you can call for help with your exact location. The other is for difficult POIs such as the McWay Fall near Big Sur - try finding its street address! My approach: find the tag on google earth (thanks to google community), read its coordinates, input them into your Mio, and you are set! In fact google earth + Mio can be a very powerful travel planning tool as you can see the surrounding of your destination, read reviews, or even watch guide videos, and input any interesting spots you find as a POI into Mio without worrying about the street address at all! In this way, I "discovered" Hollywood Bowl for my southern CA trip (hey, what's that funny round architecture?).
- The history function is great - if you lose track of your POI in the process of zooming/panning, just find it back in history. If you find on Mio some place you want to visit tomorrow but do not want to bother saving it as a custom POI, no problem. Just find it back tomorrow in the history.
- The POI database is great! I can even find my company name (a small start-up). The ability to change the "reference point" while searching a name is fabulous - you can search near your GPS location, near the cursor, near an address, near a history point, near a coordinate, etc. One tip for searching: computer prefers exact spelling. I once tried finding the closest Walmart and got shocked that none had been listed. It turned out that the correct spelling is Wal-mart. Mio does not allow you to input "-", but you can simply use a space as substitute.
- It can record your trips in track logs and replay - i.e. the popular "bread crumb". This would have been perfect for a casual hiker if the battery life was longer. In reality, you cannot afford having your Mio on all the time, but I imagine with the custom POI function you can still plan your trail ahead of time by storing waypoints or track your location by occasionally turning on Mio and saving the current GPS location as a POI. However, serious hikers should buy GPS designed for hiking and outdoor.
- Worried about losing your whole custom POI data in an accident? With one button you can backup your precious data onto an SD card, or restore it after such an accident.
2. A slim nice build with amazing visual presentation. The map looks very nice, even better than Nuvi. Details are just right. Want to see the big picture before following the GPS? There's an easy overview mode. The large 4" LCD provides enough space to display extra info if you like - either your current status (speed, time to arrive, etc.), or the list of turns ahead, or nearby gas and food, etc. I found these very helpful, but with one click you can also hide them and use the whole screen to show map.
3. Extra value by integrating bluetooth, media player, and expansion card slot. I didn't use bluetooth, but I can imagine if you have a compatible cell phone it'll be very convenient to find a restaurant and tap one button to call them directly from your Mio. Picture viewer is great with 4" LCD - I already used it to describe hard to find items to the assistant in an office store. A picture is more than a thousand words! If you have a digital camera with SD card, Mio would be a great photo preview tool so you don't have to take your laptop out. Your SD card shows as an external drive when you plug Mio into your computer, so you can even save a card reader. Not advertised, but you can play music while voice guidance is on, and when Mio wants to tell you an instruction it will mute the music temporarily just like Nuvi.
4. GPS receiver sensitivity is good - if initially locked ouside, I can still get signal indoor, sometimes even far away from any window. Re-locking satellites when resuming from stand-by mode is super fast, as long as you have not travelled far from the location where Mio has entered stand-by, and it is the same day when you turn Mio back on. Mio support says some programs are still running in stand-by, but my experience shows almost no power consumption in stand-by. So, you do not have to shut it completely down unless you are done for the day. The only disadvantage about stand-by is that the power button can easily be accidentally touched turning the unit on and wasting power.
5. GPS antenna is beautifully built in. In contrast, Nuvi users must flip the antenna out to enable the GPS, which is neither convenient nor robust.
6. The price is very good. Much much better value comparing to Nuvi 350/360/650/660.
The bad:
1. Battery life is tooooo short. With GPS initial locking + GPS guidance on + LCD backlight always on + full volume, a 30-min trip consumed about 40% of a fully charged battery. The advertised time is longer, but that may require you allow it to dim the LCD when no turn is coming up soon, etc. This is the main reason I don't give it a 5 star. Luckily Mio can be charged by cigarette lighter in the car, by 110V wall plug, or by a computer (cannot use it when plugged into a computer). So for a prepared trip it won't be a big problem. Just it's a pity it cannot be conveniently used for casual hiking.
2. Mio's instruction simply says "arrive at your destination" without saying if it's on the left or right. Other uses have pointed this out before. It's very inconvenient if you have to look left and right and either change lanes in the last minute or miss it. Luckily, most of the time you can see which side your destination is on by zooming into the map. Sometimes Mio will also guide you to make a U-turn to access a POI on your left. So it's not too bad.
3. Picture viewer and video player do not have very good resizing algorithm. So if your photo or video do not fit the LCD pixel size exactly, they will appear somewhat grainy. Don't misread - the LCD resolution is good; just there's not enough computing to make the resized photo or video still look nice. It's merely a little annoying, but OK for the price. If I have to pay $500 or more I would have expected iPhone experience. J
4. Audio output phone jack is smaller than 3.5mm, so normal stero headset does not plug in! This is bad design.
5. The unit does not come with a carrying case (Mio C520 sold in Europe includes one, but not in the US). I bought a very nice leather case on eBay for $25. It's a little annoying but OK.
6. No way to mute the master volume in one click.
7. The operation is a little complicated, and you need some learning time to master all the wonderful functions. Not for grandma/grandpa or technically-challenged users.
The wishlist:
1. Wish the European maps can be available to the US users soon. Hope by a reasonable price I can purchase future updates to US map, as well.
2. Wish the live traffic service can be available in the US soon.
3. Nuvi has a nice feature which can trigger corresponding audio playing when you move very close to a preset location. This has been used in creating audio tours. Nuvi also has other travel kits that're nice, such as dictionaries, travel guide, etc. Mio should add these as well - they are purely softwares and by adding these this wonderful gadget will be more attractive.
All-in-all, Mio C520 is the best value I found in handheld car GPS. Enjoy!!
The most for your money! July 16, 2007
40 out of 41 found this review helpful
I have had my Mio C520 for 3 weeks and driven over 3500 miles with it---from Rochester, NY to southern West Virginia to Topsail, North Carolina and back. I also used it on a trip from Rochester, NY to Washington, D.C. and back. This is my second GPS. My first was a Navman ICN 510.
I researched this purchase very carefully. I read practically every review that I could find of practically every GPS model currently on sale. I also spent at least a couple of hours "playing" with the various models in Circuit City.
This review is only of the GPS functions. I have no need of the bluetooth or multimedia functions and have not used them.
I am very satisfied with my purchase and highly recommend the C520. I believe it to be the best GPS for the money currently available.
I was amazed when I found that I could get a GPS signal inside of Circuit City (I was nowhere near a window). Acquisition of a signal was always relatively fast (I always shut it down to "standby" mode). Route recalculations were very fast. The unit never once locked up. (My Navman did all the time).
The Mio C520 easily beats all competing GPS models in terms of the amount of information readily available onscreen. Its split screen has Garmin, TomTom, and Magellan beat hands down. I particularly liked being able to view the map and the next 5 turns at the same time.
The navigation menus are intuitive, quick and very easy to use. I highly recommend reading the 9 page paper manual. It will get you up to speed very quickly. The predictive keyboard (a feature Magellan also has) is wonderful! The menus for various settings are not as intuitive or easy to use. Mio could clean these "settings" menus up some more. Speaking of settings, you can set this unit up almost anyway you want it. I particularly liked being able to change the "distance to go" settings to be in miles and feet rather than the default miles and yards.
The Points of Interest database is very extensive and seems to be up to date and accurate. (I did run into a problem on a stretch of NC 17 near Topsail, North Carolina where the locations of several POI were miles off). It is very easy to save your favorite destinations in customized folders in the My POI folder.
The maps seem to be relatively up to date and routing was almost always efficient and accurate, but it was not perfect. For example, some routing around Charleston, WV (in "fast" mode) was absurd. I found the same routing in "economical" mode to be spot on. The unit also will sometimes give you different directions on the return trip from a destination. Also, some information given was occasionally inaccurate. For instance, the unit would indicate a left turn toward Poca. The "turn left" part was accurate for where I wanted to go, but going to Poca would have required a right turn.
The text to speech feature was very nice and not available in any other wide screen model at this price. "Samantha" occasionally stuttered somewhat, but these occasions were infrequent and the stutter was slight. I never had any problem understanding what "she" was trying to tell me.
The screen is bright and clear and legible in the car in any light conditions. The screen is hard to view in bright sunlight when using it as a pedestrian. It would be nice if the fonts were a little larger. (I have since found out that it is easy to find "hacks" online that make it very easy to enlarge the fonts).
Also, it would have been nice if Mio had included the ability for it to tell you which side of the street your destination is on. My Navman, which also used TeleAtlas maps, had this feature, but it was sometimes inaccurate. One thing that my Navman did (which thankfully the Mio does not) was to instruct me to "return to the highway" every time it thought (inaccurately) that I had left it.
To sum up, I believe this to be the best GPS for the money. I am very pleased with it.
 Bye bye Garmin July 13, 2007
5 out of 9 found this review helpful
I have been a long time Garmin user with experience with several Garmin models such as C330, Nuvi 350, etc. I was not too happy with Garmin but seemed there were no better solutions available. I also tried Navman, Mallegen 2200T, etc. They all have their own goods and bads until I got a chance to use Mio C520. I would say Mio C520 beats nuvi in every area, price-wise & feature-wise. Nuvi does not have querty soft keyborad and trip planner. Nuvi always guides to run across a big building having been in downtown Charlotte, NC for long time. Nuvi's widnow suction cup keeps falling all the times. I need to touch the right corner on the screen to see if the next turn is a left or right one. These glitches bother me a lot. I spent $560 on nuvi 350. At that price, it should have been better. But now I am glad Mio C520 is a far more superior unit. I saw another review stating it is better than nuvi 680 and I would not doubt it. Mio C50 is fun to play with. The only complaint I have now is that the bluetooth can not connect to my Motorola Razr cell phone, which I hope could be fixed soon.
Great GPS / POI Finder / Bluetooth Speaker / Media Player July 5, 2007
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
This is the best device you can buy within the $350-$550 category. It has it all. Quick routing, quick satellite fixes, quick recalculations, great display and sound. The size is perfect. Routing is good but sometimes a little outdated in construction areas, which is understandable and fixable with future updates, not a major issue as it will get you where you have to go either way. It is a very accurate unit, within feet I estimate.
Very good job Mio!
Mio C520 was great on a 4,500 mid-cross country trip ! although not perfect. July 4, 2007
12 out of 12 found this review helpful
My wife and I purchased a mio C520 GPS for a trip the next day from St. Louis, MO to Denver, CO thru Estes Park, down to Colorado Springs, CO , over to San Diego, CA up to San Francisco, CA via US highway 1 then to Napa Valley, CA then to the Grand Canyon and back the southern route thru AZ, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma and St. Louis.
The mio C520 GPS did a great job, although not perfect. I'd give it a 95% job. From street address to street address it did 100% job of getting you there. A few times it plotted a zig-zag route on a three mile strech to a restraunt that i would have preferred to go a little longer and slower on a straight away, but i guess it was shorter.
What is the great feature is knowing throught the trip how far away gas stations are as they can be sparse in the desert and remote parts of the trip. the Mio also found some great restraunts just a few miles (4) off the interstate. It also has the phone number and address of the points of interest in addition to showing it on a map. It even had a sandwich shop overlooking the pacific on Highway 1. Even though the last update to POI was April 2007, some restraunts had closed, we only has two we found. which i can't fault the mio on. Hotels listings were great as my wife and I would drive until we felt like calling it a night.
We could use the mio to gauge distances of further out hotels. The main screen tells you if the gas stations are ahead of you, behind you or to the side of your current location, very nice. On the logding listing, the mio tells you the distance but not the direction. So you have to know the citites you have passed and what's ahead. There were a lot of hotels and restraunts in the Grand Canyon that the mio did not even list which was surprising. Overall it did a great job finding places if you want more than fast food off the highway. The mio did list just abount every small street that we encountered which was especially helpful since many did not have street signs where we turned.
The graphics and map with 3-D are cool, it makes it seem as if you are driving a futuristic "Jetson's " car or spacecraft.
You can adjust the brightness down at nighttime, it can do it automatically too. The display was always readable even in the sun. The battery did not seem to last long (a few hours) so make sure you use the included auto adapter. It also comes with an a/c plug and usb cable.
The English (UK) quite realistic British accented voice Thomas made the trip quite enjoyable with his style and pronnunciation to add a touch of elegance. Althought Thomas only give distances for turning as in turn right in 1/4 of a mile. You have to look at the screen for the street name. Announcing street names (Called text-to-speech) is only available in Englishg (US) Samatha voice.
The English (US) voice samamtha gives street names although her voice is somewhat robotic, I guess I was expecting a southern belle voice after the great job mio did with Thomas' voice.
A solo driver can follow the navagation directions, however you must for safety have the passenger use the other features aside from gas stations distances which can be chosen as an option to display on the split screen.
Other split screen are mileage remaining on trip and distance to next turn.
Several other languages are also included. I did not use any of the bluetooth capabilities.
I would recommend the mio C520 strongly.
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