CES 2007: Hands on with Mio's personal media sat nav system
Although this has been out and selling like hot cakes for a while in the US, the Mio H610 hasn’t yet made it across pond. However, what with Mio’s increasing presence in the UK, there doesnt seem to be any reason we shouldn’t be getting our mitts on these sometime soon. The H610 is a exciting, personal navigaiton and digital entertainment unit that, while perhaps a little small for the car, can also be used on foot and on your bike to let you watch movies and listen to music as well as get you where you’re going.
I managed to get a brief hands on with a demo unit and I was pretty impressed. The design is very tasty – all white and minimalist (I can’t imagine where they got that idea from) and the navigation features are pretty good too. I did pick out a few flaws though; firstly that the screen wasn’t incredibly bright and so might be hard to read in direct sunlight and secondly that the less than perfectly user-friendly navigation menu layout is still in use.
The design just reeks of fashionable consumer gadget, although the basic combination of just GPS and DAP is a little too limited to stand up to what mobile phone manufacturers are starting to do. With increasing amounts of phone incorporating GPS, as well as their existing multimedia, personal organiser and mobile computing abilities, personal Sat Navs of the future may have to push themselves a long way to keep up.
They currently sell for a pricey $499.99 here in the US, but there’s no telling what it will cost if it ever hits the UK.
