Mio A701 review

Features
Intel's 520MHz PXA 270 provides the processing power for the Mio A701. A utility is provided that lets you change the processor speed depending on your battery life requirements. We left this on the 'auto' setting during testing, but there are three other settings that trade off performance against battery consumption. The integrated mobile phone is a tri-band GSM/GPRS unit.

Despite the headline figures of 128MB of ROM and 64MB of RAM, internal storage memory is at something of a premium on this device. After a hard reset, we had just over 34MB of storage memory free. After installing the provided Mio Map software, this was reduced to a shade under 25MB. You'll probably need to expand this with memory cards if you want to install more applications or store a significant amount of data. If you choose a version of the A701 with navigation software, the maps are provided on an SD card, which should have some free storage capacity.

Most of the software Mio adds to the standard Windows Mobile 5.0 bundle utilises the A701's GPS capabilities. For example, Location Call can be set up to send an emergency text message to pre-defined recipients that includes your latitude and longitude co-ordinates. It does not require any navigation software to be installed, and is invoked simply by holding down the volume-down button for six seconds.

The Mio Map software is a version of Navigon, which in the past we have not found particularly intuitive or easy to use. Things have not improved. When trips were underway we had little trouble, but entering destinations is unnecessarily troublesome. In particular, when entering an address as a destination point, you have to start with either a town or a postcode, or data from a contact saved to the Windows Mobile contacts database.

Postcode finding runs to just four digits rather than the full seven, so you can't simply enter the postcode and then a building number -- you have to enter a street name too, which rather defeats the purpose of using postcodes in the first place. Working with stored contacts proved patchy, too -- if the information is not saved precisely as Mio Map likes it, the software won't find the address.

All this is a pity, because once destinations are entered and navigation begins, Mio Map performs well. There's plenty of on-screen information, and we like the way you can tap a small icon at the top right of the screen to turn on and off a bank of additional icons that provide access to features such as switching between 2D and 3D modes and getting a bird's eye view of your entire trip. Spoken instructions are clear and precise, and often indicate the road number you need to take, which is helpful.

The software includes a 'linear distance mode', which calculates a route in a straight line and does not provide driving instructions. Instead, a compass is overlaid onto the map to indicate if you are travelling in the right direction. This may function as a pedestrian or cyclist's mode in some situations, although it will depend on the nature of the terrain.

Performance
The Mio Map software is a mixed bag. It can be difficult to set up destination points, but during trips the software performed well. Integration with the Windows Mobile 5.0 contacts database is a real plus in theory, but in practice the accuracy of destination-finding is patchy.

The integrated phone worked well, and it was easy to use the A701 in hands-free mode while it was directing us on a trip.

Mio estimates four hours of talk time for the A701. Our battery test, as usual, involved forcing the screen to stay on and playing MP3 music as loud as possible for as long as possible. In this case we got 6 hours 30 minutes of battery life and music, which is far from outstanding but certainly acceptable.

Overall, the Mio A701 is a decent GSM/GPRS/GPS handheld with some nice features, although it does lack Wi-Fi. We aren't the biggest fans of Mio Map, but you can buy the A701 without the navigation software and install something else if you like.

Edited by Charles McLellan
Additional editing by Nick Hide