Mio C520

Bad – This GPS was a giveaway when I bought my car at the beginning of 2008. Initially I was thrilled. Having never owned a GPS before, it was certainly better than nothing. After a very short period of time, it only worked plugged in - the battery did not hold a charge at all. It gave some very strange directions. If you want the street names spoken,… Read more

there is only one voice you can use.

When I wanted to update the maps I discovered it would cost me only a little less than buying a new GPS so after almost 3 years I have replaced it with a Garmin and they are worlds apart. Where the Mio was hard to use, the Garmin is intuitive. Good size screen. Poor battery life, Only one option for TTS voice, inaccurate maps.

Good – Good system, would recommend especsially the unit that i have i looks exactally the same as picture shown, but has a camera built in to the unit, overall: great 4 dough ! 4.3 widescreen, i must be talking about the wrong model, because mine has a camera at the back, can anyone help me with my model number please ?Steve None really, gps seems… Read more

reasonably accurate, screen washes out not even in direct . I do like the bluetooth feature alouth i have a Nokia $500, in car hands free system, i use the gps for my bluetooth.

Excellent – The best nav on the market which other unit has bluetooth, split screen, speed and red light cameras you have day and night mode 2d and 3d mode Ease of use

Excellent – Despite the Cons I think the Pros far outweigh them and I like it very much. Its nice having a large screen, it was heavier than I expected, and find when I remove it and put it in my pocket it is definately on the large side. Despite it being a less popular make its very good. Crisp display, the standard (female)voice is very clear, nice… Read more

windscreen mount that is fully adjustable. Love the speed camera and red light warnings (and the bell changes to a clang if you are speeding), and facility to add in any others that you find in your travels. Like the way it changes automatically from day to night mode and vica verca, though sometimes I'd prefer it to do this earlier or later, but it is good. You can progam it to take the fastest route, or the most economical route, to use or avoid dirt roads. And very importantly to use or avoid tolls. It has a nice calculator and other calculating functions I don't use. Nice being able to shift the map orientation (eg. N always to the top, viewing directly downward, or like the road ahead). This one got a good wrap from Choice. The specs seemed quite good. It was also on discount. It responds well to roadworks (ie. where the new road doesn't exist on the map) and picks up the threads again quite quickly. It is okay coming out of tunnels, but it does suffer a bit from high buildings and the steep hillside valley syndrome, but I gess they all do. On the freeway it keeps telling me I'm entering the 'freeway' or the 'motorway' when for all practical purposes its the same thing. You can switch the sound off though. It does the job well, but once it told me to go straight across an intersection, and then right in the centre of the intersection, it said turn right. That may have been a satelite issue, i don't know. I find the battery goes flat quickly. So, despite it having a non vehicle (ie. walking) facility I doubt it wouid be much good as it goes flat within about 3 hours, and looses its charge when not in use. I would rather it came with a paper manual rather than a PDF file. You can't easily take the PDF in the car with you. Don't lose the well made, soft, wallet as replacements are about $30. I find roundabouts a bit odd; rather than saying something like "drive straight through" it says "take the second exit." This works fine in so far as the direction is correct, but it is a bit weird.

Bad – Generally a good unit but service department needs to thoroughly check unit after repairs. I will not recommend this unit to any more friends especially when the service is poor. Generally a good unit however I have found the map is not correct. I find the display good, the language spoken is clear and easy to understand as well as being precise.… Read more

The cradle supplied allows me to locate the unit on the windscreen without it creating problems as far as viewing both the road and the unit. It is compact and can be used for out of vehicle navigation as well. I had an experience travelling north from Sydney, the unit was set for highways only yet at Coffs harbour, it was telling me to take a back road to Grafton. I have also found it on 4 different occasions telling me to do a right hand turn in Sydney when left turns were the only ones allowed. I know these turns had been in place for about 3 to 4 years so the map was out of date on these occasions.

The battery does not hold its charge. I have sent the unit back for repairs and it has been replaced. After 20 hours of charging, no use for 24 hours, when I turn it on again, I get a message the battery does not have sufficient charge. I find that the service department did not fully test the unit after repairing it.

Now I have to send the unit back again for a further battery replacement. I hope you can get it right this time.

I did recommend this unit to a friend not long after first purchasing mine. He has similar problems with the battery not holding its charge.

Bad – Now I'm not sure if this is a Mio or Whereis problem, but the number of incorrect no right turn direction is sooo frustrating. Some streets have had no right turns for 30 years yet Mio still tells me to turn right! The biggest gripe is some streets are NOT located in their supposed suburb but either in a neighbouring one or a derivative of that… Read more

suburb. EG try and locate Byfield street in North Ryde Sydney. Its actually in Macquarie Park a sub section of North Ryde. If you could do a search of neighbouring suburbs it would make life so much easier. Means I still need to carry the paper directory around. Large Screen, easy for big fingers Nowhere as easy to navigate through menus as TomTom. Slow in loading contacts from boot, especially if you have over 500 business contacts can take up to 15 mins to start up. System crashes frequently for no reason then reboots whilst driving. I've given up on the bluetooth, too erratic. No street search function!

Good – Overall it's a good unit easy to read, good bluetooth easy to use, battery dosen't last long so mine stays on the charger all the time. Gets lost a fair bit missing a lot of streets and invents streets that were never there reasonable value for money. Great bluetooth function (saves on fines) easy to read love the speed camera warning feature.… Read more

Loses it's way on highways or country roads lots of roads missing that have been there since the start of time shows roads that don't exist and some of the way it pronounces the names of the street you wonder if you are on the right street!

Bad – should have saved my money and bought the magellan like I planned I suggest other people do the same or have the same regrets as myself and the other people with the same problem It was helpful when charged. and when we had it. Bought it 3/07/2008 . it is now 27/05 2009. We have had it operational for about 3 of those months. HA HA....the… Read more

numerous trips to the retailer to see where it is... the phone calls to MALAYSIA we think. flat batteries, poor servive MIO AUSTRALIA.

new update that wipes everything , oh and please i am not completely computer eliterate nor are the technicians that couldnt update the retailers gps.update has reduced units volume and the mapping seems to be out of date.

Terrible – Dont buy a mio if you wish to keep your sanity, worst buy ive ever made, try another brand, avoid at all costs Easy to read screen Tries to take you on exits that dont exist or up one way streets the wrong way, can be at a destination & it will still be telling you to go back where possible & go another way, voice navigator speaks some form of english but hard to understand & impossible to decipher some street pronunciations.

Good – We have other GPS's but borrowed a Mio recently when staying with family, we prefer this Mio to our GPS at home as the screen size is much bigger, the buttons on screen are larger and so easier to press for big fingers it is more user friendly. The pronunciation is a little strange on some suburbs or long street names. Very easy to use, love the… Read more

big screen. Very limited battery power when not plugged in, maybe 10 minutes at best - not sure if that is all Mio's or just this one.

Good – I did a lot of research and decided this unit was the best available for the low price. I have not tried the Bluetooth option yet. Although I am presently surprised I am a little concerned with the incorrect directions as per above. Great price at $337 at Myer. How can it tell me to take the third exit on the roundabout and travel back along the… Read more

motorway for 12 Klms and turn left, when in fact the correct way was turn left at the first exit on the roundabout? If i had listened I would have done at least an additional 25 Klms...I can't work that one out!

Terrible – I can not use the useless thing because there is no product support for Australian maps. A simple sd plug in card that my 5 year old niece could load in 5 minutes is not available. It was a give away for products sold earlier in the year in Australia, but if you bought one overseas then there is no hope. The first contact I had with MIO resulted… Read more

in a promised release date of August, then October, now unknown. The latest excuse from the no help at all help line (laughingly refered to as customer support) is that the shipment was held up. A shipment of 2-gig sd cards held up. Oh help me.

No support, no help, no use. One of the worst experiences I've had in a long time. It was given to me as a gift It was purchased duty free in Thailand, and came with Thai mapping software. The Australian maps are not available online, or for purchase. This renders the product useless in Australia

Excellent – I spent a very long, long time looking for a GPS navigator. Navman and TomTom seem to be the market leaders, but Mio offer the best value for money and features. The bluetooth handsfree is excellent quality and the windscreen mount has a powered speaker built into it that gives very good audio quality. Take some time to read about (google) this… Read more

unit online and see that other people have installed custom voices, skins, points of interest and also enabled enhanced features. If you are moderately technically minded, you can install a media player and use it as a portable movie/MP3 player.

This is the best money I have spent in years.

Go and see the guys at Bing Lee and ask for a cash discount as well! Best features vs price when I purchased

Big screen

Text to speech - Spoken street names and overspeed warning

Bluetooth Handsfree

Audible Speed Camera and School Zone warnings

Excellent windscreen mount, with easy clip in connector (no need to unplug fiddly cables). Suction cup is rock solid and easy to detach. Can give confusing speech directions at some major motorway turnoffs and cause you to miss an exit or take wrong exit. But to it's credit is very quick to recalculate a new route and get you back on track.

New Zealand map not available (yet).

Does not know what "School Times" are, so will warn you every time you enter a school zone that you are speeding(weekends, evenings etc.). This is only if you are over 40kph. Better to be on the safe side, I guess.

Excellent – I think this unit is real bang-for-your-buck. This unit can be highly configurable, although the interface at first is quite clumsy and not immediately intuitive. Once over the learning curve of the menus and features however, it is a good unit to use. The unit actually says the individual street names that you need to turn into (eg. "In 200… Read more

metres, turn right into Burke Road") which is surprising, given that this text-to-speech feature is usually only available on more expensive units. For this full text-to-speech option though, there are limited voices (more voices are available for the less chatty "In 200 metres, turn right") option. The unit seems to navigate well, although this is usually based upon how good the maps are, which in this case is Sensis. The display whilst driving is highly detailed, colourful and even changes to a darker shade of colours during night time if you set it up correctly. A powered cradle is supplied, which is great for installation within a vehicle, and this cradle includes a larger external speaker which provides additional volume. I have noticed that direct sunlight upon the screen can wash it out more than perhaps other units, but most brands and models suffer this at least to some degree. Overall it is feature packed, with a great price to boot. Text-to-Speech (unit actually says street names). Highly configurable. Powered cradle supplied. Good navigation choices and options. Bluetooth for mobile phone handsfree. Unit is capable to be used as a MP3 player and picture viewer. Screen can "wash-out" in direct sunlight more so than other units. Clumsy interface that is not immediately intuitive. Limited voices for full text-to-speech. When arriving at desitnation, unit is unable to declare if place is on left or right.

Excellent – one of the better purchases i have made i would have to admit! with the recent price drop on these machines they have to be the best value units for specification on the market. the bluetooth is a great help (though useless to me with a bluetooth hands free already). speech-to-text gets rid of the greatest problem with these units whcih is the… Read more

always looking down at it for specific names of streets. means the stress levels of operating the machine are infinatly lower.

definitly reconmended this little gem. speech-to-text

large screen

price

sturdy mount

nice graphics nothing yet

OK – The factors that drew me to purchase this unit were the strong mounting bracket, 4.3 inch touchscreen and more importantly the bluetooth. I am so dissapointed in the bluetooth operation that I do not use this anymore but rather purchased a separate bluetooth unit.In all it has been a handy addition but I still question whether I may have been… Read more

happier with a better known and more established name. I suspect many of my issues here could be sorted with firmware updates. Price was quite good for a 4.3 inch screen. Windscreen fixture is brilliant, easy to secure and remove. Many attractive features including SD Card slot and easy to read screen. Compact width compared to some bulkier opposition models. Volume sounded ok in shop but is very low, particularly when using bluetooth. Volume is very low when using bluetooth and adjusting this to full means you can hear it ok if stereo off and windows up to eliminate as much background noise as possible. This volume however resets to low for every call which means taking eyes off road to adjust volume every call. This defeats the purpose of handsfree bluetooth. Interface is not very user friendly. Red Light camera alert often sounds once have already passed through lights. Red light cameras are usually on only one corner of intersection and alarm sounds if you enter from that side but if entering from opposite direction it sounds too late. Often calculates routes other than shortest possible route, and on one occasion wanted to take me around 8km further than required. Possibly the biggest flaw I have found is the inaccuracy of speed calculation. According to Mio Website this is very accurate once speed is stable but after testing in different vehicles, I found it to be approx 5Kph out per every 50 - 60 Kph. Speeds limits preset on many roads I travel are incorrect and many of these limits have not changed in many years.