|
| Mio c230 3.5-Inch Portable GPS Navigator | 
 enlarge | Brand: Mio
Category: CE
List Price: $249.95
Buy New: $94.00
You Save: $155.95 (62%)
New (17) Used (5) from $94.00
Avg. Customer Rating:  115 reviews
Sales Rank: 1075
Color: gray
Media: Electronics
Tracks: Unknown
Native Resolution: 320 x 240
Display Size: 3.5
Includes MP3 Player: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.5
Dimensions (in): 3.5 x 0.9 x 3.3
MPN: C230
Model: C230
UPC: 841881002970
EAN: 0841881002970
ASIN: B000VZ3ADS
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
|
| Customer Reviews:
 Mio C230 GPS January 3, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Unit works well and located itself quickly. My only complaints are there is no written manual and a few times when I used it to go somewhere that I knew the location of it took me in a round about way to get there no matter what I had the route setting on. Once it told me to drive right past the location I wanted and then took me around two more blocks to get back to where I was from the other end of the road? The CD manual is quite complete but it will not even let you print sections of it so you can have them in the car with you for reference. That STINKS!!
Overall a good basic unit for the price MIO just needs to fine tune some
and give you a manual you can take with you in the car to make learning the operation simpler.
 Mio C230 Navagator is an excellent buy January 3, 2008
I bought the Mio C230 on a lark. Only cost $130 so what the heck. Well, I have a Garmin 330 and it beats the Garman hands down. The features I like are the huge database of PIOs that show up as icons on the map. Service stations, camera's at stop signs, pointer arrows etc are all new to me. The flexibility to add camera's at locations by a click of a button is a very useful innovation. The local speed limit by the cameras is a good idea too. The automatic views are very useful when driving in new areas. I used mine on a trip to DC (I live in Texas) proved invaluable when navigating the complex new freeways in the DC area. About the only thing it took some time to understand was the voice: It is European not American. Some pronunciations are funny but accurate. The touch screen is very sensitive but I happen to like that. I found the navigation through the many pages to be intuitive. You have to read the manual though to get the full benefit.
Mio C230 vs Garmin nüvi 350 January 1, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I bought a C230 as a gift and wanted to learn it to teach the recipient who is technology challenged. The comparison was during a trip from Colorado to Florida. I had bought my wife a nüvi 350 about 18 months previously. The nüvi 350 has several features not available in the Mio C230, but I did not mention them for the comparison. I would equate a nüvi 200 with my review as a more fair unit to compare with the Mio C230.
First impressions:
The icons and button areas are significantly smaller on the C230 plus there are more of them and thus it is more difficult to accurately select a function while driving especially if the road is not smooth. A stylus can help considerably, but you would need a place to stow it. I used a retracted plastic tipped ink pen and you almost need to be stopped to do much on the Mio or have a passenger do it. The menu structure seems less intuitive than the Garmin, but without previous experience for comparison I think you would learn and use it about as effectively. For example: Sound and screen brightness is 2 touches on the nüvi vs. 4 for the C230. (Then 2 vs. 4 to return to the map). The C230 has many features that compare to the nüvi 350 and some extras that I wish were in the nüvi 350 such as multiple vias with optimized routing. One feature missing on the C230 is an audio output jack which is in the nüvi 350.
Map data - NavTeq (NT) vs. Tele Atlas (TA)
TA maps occasionally showed minor road angles (curves) that were not always present in the real world. NT has smoother polygons and more terrain detail like lakes and rivers (with names) thus the Garmin terrain display looks more realistic. TA uses a finer detail which is more to an accurate scale and may be preferred by some users. NT roads are displayed in an exaggerated way which makes them show more prominently thus making it easier to see at a glance. However, once you zoom in enough the road detail tend to scale about the same between the two. I tend to prefer the Garmin NT map over the Mio TA map.
C230 will display some POI's as icons and street names in box frames that follow with the map as you drive. NT shows flags as selected navigation points and does not display nearby POI's from the database. NT street names are inside or alongside the street boundaries which I think makes for a cleaner display. Mio flags are animated (wave as if wind is blowing) while Garmin flags are not. Both will display more name detail as you zoom in. The Mio display can become a bit cluttered with all the info it can display, but it can be selectively turned off.
I was getting a small percentage distance difference for destination or via points which disappeared as you near the arrival points. TA reported more miles by 1-3% over NT in about 200 miles. It could be an accumulation of extra road details which the program includes when calculating the distance. My car odometer and road signs agreed more with the Garmin for mileage accuracy.
The C230 gives significantly more voice direction and often is unnecessarily verbose or redundant. Many times it would repeat the same direction twice. Often it would unnecessarily advise you about a curve while the nüvi 350 was silent. I preferred the nüvi voice directions because an excessively chatty GPS can become annoying. The C230 has 3 English voices, but only the Samantha (US) voice offers TTS. The nüvi 350 has TTS in all of it's voices and has more English voices. (2 each-(male/female) for US, UK, AUS)
I like the compact windshield suction cup mount design of the Garmin better than the Mio, but I had the Garmin suction cup bond to my windshield over months of leaving it on the windshield and it needed to be replaced. I have read that Garmin may have changed the cup material which could have fixed the problem. The Mio mount is much larger overall and the cup is made of a clear plastic which might not suffer the same problem. I have not seen any reports of problems, but I would caution against leaving a suction cup attached for long periods. Both mounts work well. The Garmin mount is a better design in my opinion.
Conclusions:
Mio C230 seems to be a very good GPS for the money with more feature adjustability than the Garmin. With active hacking sites for the Mio, techies may prefer the C230.
The Garmin nüvi would be a better choice for a novice user, but both do a very good job of getting you there. It seems you will find mapping errors and voice errors in both brands and I did not find either to be perfect. This is still a new enough technology that these problems are still being addressed by all manufacturers.
 Great GPS for the Price December 29, 2007
I've had this unit for about a week. So far, I've only used it in the city where I know where I'm going. The unit starts up quickly, gives clear directions, the text to speach is wonderful and the maps are clear. I expect similar performance on routes that I'm not familiar with. All I wanted was a good navigation system, since I already have bluetooth, MP3, video, web browsing, etc. in my iPhone. The unit is small enough to fit in a pocket and the mounting system is excellent. For the money, the Mio C230 can't be beat.
good basic GPS December 29, 2007
This is my first GPS, basically knows what I expected based on the previous reviews. I didn't want any extra features, just the basic GPS functions. The text-to-speach feature is great, the streets' names are pronounced surprisingly well. The route recalculation is done quickly and intelligently. Adjusting some features needs some navigation between menu points. It would be great to be able to load more points of interest from an optional SD card. Finding the satellite signal is usually fast, sometimes takes a while. I was thinking to give 5 stars, I would be more confortable with 4.5
I would recommend this little unit to any first time buyer who is not sure about the utility of such a device and doesn't want all the other bells and wisles offered by the more expensive models.
|
|
|
Copyright
©
2006 Adminpal LLC | |
