Mio 268 and Mio 269 Navigation Systems

It’s now over five years since we covered car navigation systems. Back in 2000 the CD-based VDO Dayton system was state of the art, incorporating a quality LCD screen, fixed GPS aerial and a navigation computer normally mounted in the boot. In fact, I was so impressed with the system that I bought one at AUD$3000 and installed it in my car. It then got transferred to another car and has been in daily use ever since. It’s accurate, has very clear instructions and seldom makes a mistake. (See The MS5000 VDO Dayton Nav System - Part 1)

But current nav systems have the potential to make the VDO Dayton system look a little silly. At least on paper. The Mio 268 and 269 navigation systems use mapping software that’s contained on a single SD memory card or is preloaded on an internal hard drive, are completely portable and in addition to being supported by a cigarette lighter power feed, have inbuilt rechargeable batteries. Swap the 268’s memory card for a card with MP3 files instead of maps, and you can play music through either the small in-built speaker or earphones. The 269 does even better with its built-in 2.5GB hard-drive that can also show video.

And all at a price that starts from a RRP of AUD$899.

So how good are the current systems? We put the Mio pair to the test and were disappointed. Simply put, the Mios are not even in the same ballpark as the old VDO Dayton system – and are much worse than the factory nav systems we’ve experienced in any car.

The Mio 268 and 269 are visual twins. Both are a compact (138 x 72 x 26mm) size and have a light mass. The small size and weight lets either be easily supported on the supplied suction cap windscreen mount that has a bendable wand to allow you to angle the screen how you want. However, when compared with a built-in nav system, this location straight away causes problems.

Despite being brightly backlit, the screens aren’t a match for the intensity of the Australian sun shining straight on them. Yes, you can still see the display – but only just. Their readability is also made more difficult by the very small font size used on the screen. Especially in current cars with steeply sloping windscreens, the Mio is often too far away to read the information (like actual speed, direction, etc) placed along the top of the screen.

And there’s another downer in having to mount the Mio on the windscreen. At night, the display reflects terribly in the glass. You can’t move the Mio to the interior of the car – not without buying the optional external GPS antenna, anyway. At night the display – and its reflections – were so distracting that we ended up mounting the unit in front of the passenger... which causes yet another problem. In cars with a passenger side airbag, having the Mio literally sitting on top of it is a recipe for crash danger.

In addition – and again unlike fixed in-car navigation – the Mio doesn’t know whether it’s day or night, so the display doesn’t auto-dim. Changing the backlit level is a fiddly proposition (none of the external buttons do it) and compared with a car system that dims (and/or changes to less bright colours) when you turn on the lights, the Mio is awkward. And because the Mio can be mounted in any orientation, it doesn’t appear to use an internal direction sensor, something which has important implications for navigation (we’ll come back to this).

So what looks like one of the Mio’s greatest advantages – its car to car portability – has some major downsides.

Unlike a traditional handheld GPS, the Mio 268 has full street-by-street (and even house number by house number!) navigation software built right in. The map data is claimed to cover all of Australia and the navigation instructions are by both voice and display. So what’s the navigation like? After all, at these costs you wouldn’t buy either of the units just for their MP3 and/or video player functions ...

In summary, the navigation doesn’t live up to the promise.

Firstly, the navigation logic appears to have a few glitches. Punching in the destination (the screen has full touch capability and there is a remote control) is easy and the system takes very little time to orientate itself and plan the route. Time and distance to destination are nominated and a variety of displays can be picked to indicate how to get there. At its simplest, the system shows a map of where you are and a pop-up box appears within the screen to indicate turns. There’s little chance of missing the turns because the system gives a lot of oral instructions. In fact, the number of times the instructions are repeated is downright irritating, as is the system’s propensity to state “keep to the left” or “keep to the right” even when you’re on a single lane road...

But what was that about navigation logic? Well, several times in the period we had the Mio it suggested a left turn, then immediately a U-turn, then immediately another left turn. Which takes you back to heading in the same direction along the road you were already on...

And despite requesting that the Mio take the most direct route, at times it literally sent you around the block to get to a street you’d just gone past. The Mio also added a 1-kilometre detour to get to an airport (ignoring the traffic light controlled intersection that took you straight from the main road to the terminal!) and at other times got confused on what should have been straightforward tasks. The lack of internal direction finder showed in the fact that you have to be moving before it picks where you were heading – although it must be said that it thinks quickly on its feet so in practice this isn’t a major disadvantage.

Despite using (very good) Sensis mapping software, geographical features present in other navigation displays are missing from the Mio maps. These include rivers, which can be important if you’re trying to orientate yourself and not just blindly follow the instructions.

And what about the other Mio functions? The MP3 quality is excellent through headphones (although the inbuilt headphone amplifier needs more power) but the built-in speaker sounds pretty much as you’d expect a tiny speaker to sound. A trip computer function (speed, average speed, distance travelled, max speed) is accurate and clear and the ability to quickly locate your latitude and longitude (not to mention street and suburb) could be very useful in emergencies.

But a navigation system has to navigate – if not flawlessly then at least at minimum with only rare mistakes. But the Mio – either of them – made more mistakes in a few days than the VDO Dayton system I have in my car makes in a year.

www.mio-tech.com.au

The Mio 268 and 269 were made available for this review by the importer.