NaviGadget

a couple more GPS navigation system deals

Oct 13, 2008 gps navigation, mio, navigon Leave a comment

The Mio C220 has been a good value since its inception coming in at under two-hundred dollars. At this point it they are practically giving them away. We saw them listed at $74.99 plus free shipping at Circuit City today.

The Mio C220 is rumored to be one of the best deals on GPS units for this upcoming black Friday, but this price beats even the best rumored price we’ve seen.

The C220 comes pre-loaded with maps of all fifty states on an SD card. It features a decent, easy to read, 3.5” touch screen display as well as turn by turn spoken directions in sixteen different languages and a huge database of Points of Interest including gas stations and restaurants.

The Navigon 2100 went on sale for the amazingly low price of $77 dollars. This price is great and can’t last for long. The Navigon 2100 has a brilliant 3.5” touchscreen display, US maps pre-loaded, turn by turn directions with spoken street names, and also has a 3D feature which shows complicated turns as you approach them. We have seen other GPS units with all of these features, but never at a price this low. You can even add on a subscription traffic update feature.

Pick one of these up today and you can thank us later. You’re welcome.

Mio Moov 200 review

Apr 14, 2008 gps navigation 17 Comments

Mio’s new lineup “Moov” was recently announced and now we have a review for Mio Moov 200.

The new Moov devices run on an in-house navigation software developed by using Navman technology, a GPS company Mio bought out last year. As a result, user interface on Mio devices has changed quite a bit. Although the reviewer likes some of the differences, such as Moov’s text-to-speech conversion, multi-segment routing, and multiple language support, it looks like Mio has taken a step backward when it comes to presenting POIs.

Like Mio’s previous entry-level product, the DigiWalker C220, the Moov 200 features a 3.5-million-entry POI database, but the way it handles POIs is disappointing. You can search for POIs by name or by city/area, or search for nearby POIs by category (parks, restaurants, and such). By contrast, all three of the DigiWalker devices offer more search choices, so it’s easier to find your POI. Additionally, when you search by name with the Moov 200, results are presented alphabetically by city name rather than by distance, which isn’t as useful. And there aren’t any POI subcategories, so although I could search for nearby restaurants, I couldn’t specify Italian or Chinese.

However not doing so well in terms of POI does not make Moov 200 a bad product. Priced under $200 this GPS navigation system still adds features that are not available in closely priced competitors – such as the text to speech feature and multi segment routing. Mio Moov 200 currently sells for $180 Amazon. It is a bargain… Read More …

Jeep GPS RT 300

Dec 9, 2007 gps navigation 2 Comments

Jeep is going to introduce a self branded GPS navigation system called Jeep GPS RT 300 which …

encompasses all the qualities consumers have come to expect from a Jeep vehicle – durability, reliability, ruggedness and style.

We’re not so sure about style but RT 300 sure looks rugged – and very basic. It has a 3.5″ touch screen, 1 million POI’s, built-in audio player, video player, e-book, and a $300 price tag. It is expected to come out in January 08.

Unless this device is really dirt, shock, or water resistant we don’t see why you can’t just put a used bicycle tire over a Magellan 3100 or a Mio C220 and pay about 1/3 the price… via

a few black friday GPS deals

Nov 8, 2007 gps navigation, magellan, mio 3 Comments

All of the deals below are for in-store purchase at Office Max. While Mio C220 will only be available for 5 hours on Black Friday, the Magellan deals are good for two days.

Mio C220 for $100

Mio C220 has a very simple design with only one power button on top. All other user interface operations are taken care by the 3.5″ touch screen. Speaking of the screen, it is easy to see even under the AZ sun – unlike what other reviews may say. Oh, and we should also mention that it switches to night mode automatically depending on the time of the day.

Other important hardware spec you may be interested in a sat nav device is the battery life. Mio C220 comes with a 1200mAh rechargeable battery that Mio claims will last you about 4.5 hours. We haven’t tested the battery to its limits but we didn’t see the battery indicator go down after 1 hour of driving at mid range brightness.

Magellan Maestro 3100 for $140

It seems like the Maestro 3000 series is going to be step-down from the 4000 series but only in terms of screen size. Maestro 3000 series will have the same slim body as the 4000 series but will come with a 3.5″ screen. This could be a plus for you though if you are more into smaller and lighter gadgets.

Magellan Maestro 4000 for $250

Turn-by-turn directions in the continental U.S., built-in AAA travel information, including member roadside assistance details, 1.5 million POIs, 2D and 3D views, customizable address book, 4.3-inch WQVGA, anti-glare touch screen, measures 5.0 x 3.75 x 0.88 inches (WxHxD) and weighs 8.5 ounces.

Mio getting ready to release C230

Aug 7, 2007 gps navigation, mio 1 Comment

Mio is getting ready to introduce a new personal navigation device called the C230 at the consumer electronics show IFA in Berlin. The new Mio C230 will supplement the C220 that we’ve reviewed here on Navigadget. C230 will feature a 3.5″ touch screen, a new exterior design, however it will keep using the same navigation software. The maps, provided by TeleAtlas, will include 22 Western Europe countries.

Mio C230 will use the highly popular SiRF Star III GPS chipset, and a 400Mhz Samsung processor. via

Mio announces C220s for Canadians

Jun 13, 2007 gps navigation, mio 13 Comments

Mio C220, which we recently reviewed and gave a thumbs up for the great value, is now available up north, for Canadians. The new model is named C220s – where ’s’ stands for Canada. The specs of C220 are exactly the same as C220s’ which are as follows:

• Display: 3.5″ TFT with touch screen/65k colors/QVGA-320×240 pixels/landscape orientation
• Memory: On-board 256MB flash memory
• GPS: 20 channel SiRFstarIII
• USB: v1.1
• Speaker/Earphone: Built-in speaker/3.5 mm headphone jack
• Battery: 1200 mAh Lithium-lon
• Dimensions 4.21″x3.15″x0.91″(107×80x23mm)
• Weight 3.88oz(110g)

Mio C220s sells for $289 Canadian dollars which is about $271USD. You can read more about it at Mio C220s product page… and if you figure out what the ’s’ really stands for let us know.

Mio C220 review: good buy

May 25, 2007 gps navigation, mio, reviews 14 Comments

We’ve been testing the Mio C220 for a while now and it’s been working great. Recently we added the Mio C220 to our GPS navigation systems for $200 list. You can pick up the Mio C220 from Amazon for less than $190.

Our short review:

Hardware: Mio C220 has a very simple design with only one power button on top. All other user interface operations are taken care by the 3.5″ touch screen. Speaking of the screen, it is easy to see even under the AZ sun – unlike what other reviews may say. Oh, and we should also mention that it switches to night mode automatically depending on the time of the day.

Other important hardware spec you may be interested in a sat nav device is the battery life. Mio C220 comes with a 1200mAh rechargeable battery that Mio claims will last you about 4.5 hours. We haven’t tested the battery to its limits but we didn’t see the battery indicator go down after 1 hour of driving at mid range brightness.

Another important feature of car navigation systems is their windshield mounts. Mio C220 comes with a really sturdy mount but it failed provide me with the exact angle I wanted when I tried to attach it on my driver side window. On the windshield it works great though. After a few tries you’ll be able to remove it with only one hand. At the time of this writing we were still trying to perfect the one handed mount.

Before we finish off the hardware section we should mention the GPS fix times were really impressive.

Software: One of the things I liked the about the software was its speed. There was almost no delay between screens or even during POI searches. The graphics, even in 3D, were rendered quite fast including when you zoom in and out.

The menus were easy to get used to, except the volume control was not easy to reach.

Mio C220 lets you just tap on any point on the map and add it to your route immediately. You can also get directions for home after 3 taps.

Other software features of the C220 lets you get warning when speeding, or when approaching speeding cameras. However the map that comes in the SD card does not include the locations for these. You are going to have go to their website and download or add these as you discover them. Camera updates are free for a year.

16 different languages are offered on this machine. One of these has to be yours: English (US), English (UK), Dansk, Deutch, Cesky, Espanol, Francais, Italiano, Nederlands, Norsk, Polski, Portuges, Suomi, Svenska, Turkce, and Vlaams.

Bottom line: Mio C220 does a good job at all the features it promises. It is easy to use and has a great value for the price. We strongly recommend it.

gps navigation systems for $200 or less

May 11, 2007 gps navigation 11 Comments

Lately we’ve been seeing a lot of GPS navigation systems going below the $200 mark. Most of these are from manufacturers you’ve probably never heard of before but that’s not necessarily bad. The hardware is usually standard and the software is sometimes identical in these machines. Here is our roundup:

Magellan Maestro 3100 for $200

Evesham Nav Cam 7700 for $160

InVion GPS-4v106 for $200

Aytobe for £100

PIVA PNS350 for $190 or L100 for $175

JVC KV-PX9 for $180

Mio C220 for $180

UPDATES:

ViaMichelin X930 for $198

NaviBlue NBC3500 for $155

Navman F20 (refurbished) for $158

FineDrive 400 for $190 or $99

Holux GPSmile 52 for $170

Sanyo NVM-4030 for $200

MORE UPDATES:

Lowrance iWAY 250c for $190

Jensen NVX-225 for $190

Nextar HGPS35 for $156

Navman iCN 330 for $130

Evesham NAV-CAM 7000 for $181

Are we missing anything? Even if it’s after rebate, let us know. We’ll update the list.

UPDATE: July 2008 – We now have another list cheap GPS navigation systems.

Mio unveils C317 (for Korea)

Apr 23, 2007 gps navigation, mio 6 Comments

Mio unveiled a new GPS navigation with a DMB receiver for watching TV. But they didn’t stop there; they also threw in DMB recording capability. The new Mio C317 has a spacious 4.3″ screen and it features a SiRF Star III GPS receiver for navigation. As far as TV goes, you can, thanks to PIP (picture in picture), view it while navigating. The only downside is the fact that there’s no HDD on board so you’re gonna have to rely on some high capacity SD/MMC cards (supports upto 8GB) to store your favorite show.

Mio C317 integrates a 2100mAh battery that should last around 5.5 hours for navigation, and 4 hours for TV watching.

Then only Mio’s available on Amazon these days are the Mio C310x, Mio H610, Mio P550, Mio C220, Mio C710, and Mio 269. No news on whether C317 will ever make it to North America or Europe… via