An introduction to the Mio Digiwalker C720 GPS
With the release of the Mio DigiWalker C720 coming up in the next few weeks I’m expecting it to be one of the top sellers for the Christmas season this year. It is packed with more features than I have ever seen and the price looks like it is going to be quite affordable. Mio has recently become everybody’s favorite manufacturer with their quality navigational devices at a lower than average price. The Mio C720 is a guarantee to succeed with specs very similar to the current hit, their Mio C520. They both come with Bluetooth, a multimedia player, and over 6 million POI’s. In addition to everything you get with the C520 you will also get a very nice 2.0 mexapixel camera and a TMC receiver built in.
Design and Technical Specs of Mio’s 720 unit
Along with the DigiWalker C720 you will get a windshield mount with a cradle, a sticky pad if you have to mount it to the dash, a USB cord, a car charger, a CD/DVD with MioMap, a CD/DVD with user’s manual, the license agreement, an information booklet, the mount installation guide, a quick start guide, and warranty information.
- Camera Button
- On/Off Button
- Bluetooth LED
- 4.3″ LCD Screen
- Speaker
- Cradle Connector
- Mini USB Port
- Earphone Connector
- SD/MMC Slot
The device itself looks really nice. It has a nice glossy black finish and it is extremely slim even with the built in 2.0 megapixel camera and large 4.3″ widescreen. The screen is LCD and very bright with a 480 x 272 pixel resolution. It runs on a Samsung 2443-400Mhz processor with 2048 megabytes of ROM and 64 megabytes of RAM. It is a little taller than the C520 at 5″ but it has the same width of 3.2″ and the same depth at 0.78″. The small size and a weight of only 6.7 ounces makes it very portable which is important if you are going to be taking full advantage of that camera. Something also important for its portability is the rechargeable lithium ion battery that has a 4.5 hour life before needing to be recharged. The device can take SD and MMC memory cards and has a 2.5mm headphone jack which is a little smaller than the standard set of headphones, but the Bluetooth capabilities of it allow for headsets to be connected that way as well for higher quality sound.
It comes with a nice mount. There is two pieces to it, the suction cup part that goes on the windshield and the cradle that connects to the mount and holds the unit. The cradle connects to the car charger so you can keep this part connected and just pop the C720 in and out so it isn’t a hassle every time. Like most car units now it has the sticky pad to stick it to your dash if you live somewhere like California or Minnesota where putting stuff on the windshield is illegal but I might suggest buying something like the Bracketron Nav-Mat Portable GPS Dash Mount if this is the case for you because it won’t leave a sticky mess on your nice dashboard if you ever want to remove it.
Performance and Navigation experience with the Digiwalker C720
It looks like the Mio C720 is going to take most of the C520’s menu system and make a few additions to it. It will also use the 20-channel SiRFstarIII WAAS enabled GPS receiver but the maps will include some major cities and roads in Mexico along with the full maps of the USA and Canada. If you haven’t heard much about the C520 either the SiRFstarIII is the best chipset on the market right now and they are using TeleAtlas maps which are very up-to-date and accurate although they might be less accurate than Navteq’s. TomTom has recently came out saying they are planning on purchasing TeleAtlas which is interesting because TomTom has developed new software called Map Share which lets people share map corrections on these maps. If this is the case that they but TeleAtlas and they continue letting Mio use their maps they could very well be the best on the market with this Map Share technology.
As a business man I do lots of traveling and as such can take full advantage of these expensive but very versatile toys. This Mio C-720 looks like the perfect device for me with their contact list and other cool utilities I haven’t really seen featured on other companies units (some are truly unique and innovative - I can’t believe that Mio-Tech doesn’t have more of a following then Magellan/Garmin). I can save all my business contacts on there and it can take me right to them or use the Bluetooth to call them. The business card scanner is just icing on the cake. It will save me hours of inputting information I’m sure. Something else I like is the TMC receiver. Living in New York hopefully it will be able to avoid some of the huge traffic jams but they are everywhere so they might be hard to avoid. It’s nice they let you try it for three months before you have to decide to pay for it
Review from: Terrance G, USA.
I can’t wait to even just preorder this baby. Ha ha, the Digiwalker C720 looks simply amazing! I really like the camera. They could have probably used something a little more than 2 megapixels but whatever, it’s a pretty powerful camera. With 2 gigabytes of memory and the SD card slot I might just replace my digital camera with this thing. I’m using a Garmin Nuvi right now and it has a TMC traffic receiver and it seems to be pretty good at using the information to avoid traffic jams so I’m hoping this one will do just as well. I like the look of Mio’s menu system a lot more than Garmin’s. Garmin’s interface is too simple, not enough customization for me. Mio’s new system seems a lot better and I will come back when I get my hands on Mio’s Digwalker 720 to give you a more in-depth review of my feelings and impressions. ~ Rodney Hart, Chicago
Review from: Rodney H, USA
I really like the look of the Mio 720 portable gps unit… It’s much nicer visually and feature wise than the C520 which indeed is already attractive and innovative little gadget in itself. I’m a little confused because both weights are said to be 6.7 ounces but I heard somebody say the Mio 720 was heavier. I guess that’s not a huge deal though. It’s still only like half a pound; I think I can manage that. I also heard that the 3D maps might run a little slow because the CPU isn’t powerful enough, anybody know more information about that? If it is the same as the Mio Digiwalker C520 then I don’t see how it could be a problem.
Review from: Tanner S, Canada
I saw the Mio Digiwalker C720 at Digital Life around the end of September. It looks really nice. They told us the TeleAtlas maps will have full maps of 3 major Mexican cities plus major roads for others along with the US and Canada. They also told us about the geocoding photo technology they got from when they bought out Navman. The TMC traffic receiver is going to come with three free months of traffic information and then you are going to have to subscribe annually. They said it will be available end of October, beginning of November.
Review from: Brad H, USA
Mio-Tech’s C720 has already come out in Taiwan, I don’t get why though. Mio always seems to release their devices in Asia and Europe before they get over to the USA. Maybe they use these other places to get the bugs out before they release in the US? One can only hope I guess. I read about this Tomb Sweeping Festival in Taiwan where they visit their ancestors. They have had cameras on GPS devices for a while now so they take pictures of their ancestor’s tomb when they find them because they don’t have an address to find them at. This makes it easy for them to find the spot next year. Not any real info on the digiwalker C720 but I thought it was interesting and I’m sure that when this thing is released in Europe and North America that mio c720 reviews, information and lots of people chattering will give us some more insight into these neat features and changes to pre-existing older such gizmos
Review from: Neil R, USA
