Mio’s Digiwalker C520 is a huge step forward from the GPS receivers it released a few short years ago.
With a 4.3in, 480 x 272 wide-screen display and zippy 400MHz processor, it’s able to quickly calculate routes and show plenty of detail.
The mount is very sturdy so there was no perceptible wobble when driving. The default display provides a view of where you currently are on two thirds of the screen. The rest of the display shows a digital dashboard with route and other information. Speed limits are also shown on the screen where the maps, Sensis R14, knows them.
Entering a route is very simple and the on-screen QWERTY keyboard is easy to use. Once we were moving, the Mio Map software (now at release 3.3), used Text-to-Speech so that driving instructions included street names rather than the usual “turn left in 400 meters”. The only complaint was there was no easy way to change the speaker volume.
Running Windows Mobile 5, the C520 is more than just a GPS receiver. It’s also a Bluetooth hands-free kit for your mobile, a media player and a digital photo display. There’s an SD slot so that you can look at images straight from your camera.
Rounding out the package is Mio’s desktop software, called MioTransfer, for syncing contact information from Outlook to the C520 and moving audio and images from your PC to the device.
The Mio Digiwalker C520 offers great bang for buck, with features that, until now, have only been found in more expensive devices.