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.
Navigating in general will be the same as the C520. This is good if you like the customization you can do with it and don’t mind taking a little extra time to figure it all out. One difference with the C720’s routing methods is it will take traffic into account with the built-in TMC traffic receiver that is currently unavailable for the C520 model.
It looks like you’ll get the split screen with the map on the left and important information on the right. On the map side there will be buttons to zoom in and out, change the map view, check on the TMC receiver, check the battery life, check Bluetooth, change the volume, and switch the map between a full view and the split screen. On the other side the direction of and distance to your next turn will be displayed along the top with four buttons along the bottom to change the other information it shows. Your four choices are showing important information like arrival time and total trip time, showing the four closest points of interest, showing TMC data, and listing your next four turns. For the information about the points of interest you can customize which categories or subcategories are shown. The information about the next four turns is scrollable so you can actually check out the whole list of turns.
The actual map has a few different views to choose from. There is the regular 2D and 3D views that follow behind your car as you make turns but then there is also 2D and 3D north up views. With the north up views it keeps north at the top of the map no matter which direction you are actually going so you can tell directions easier. The 2D version has been around for a bit but I really like the new 3D view.
Routes can be made by entering an address or intersection you’d like to go to; picking one off your “My Favorites” list, the POI list, or your contact list; or just pressing a spot on the map and hitting “Route To”. There’s a lot of options for customizing your route like picking between the fastest, shortest, or most economical route; avoiding things like toll roads, highways, or unpaved roads; and changing the type of vehicle you are in. You can also add as many waypoints as the memory capacity can allow if you need to make some stops along your route. The track log will allow you to save your entire route for using again.
Cool & Innovative features on Mio’s Digiwalker C720
The Mio C720 comes with all the features of the C520 but with some really cool additions that are well worth the extra money. Cool features carried over from the C520 are Bluetooth technology, text-to-speech, contacts list, calculator, music, pictures, video, and the huge POI database. New features that make the C720 better than the lesser C520 are the camera, business card scanner, and TMC traffic receiver.
The camera is built right in and is the highest quality available in any GPS device on the market at 2 megapixels. Not only can you take pictures but they are geotagged, which means that the GPS coordinates of exactly where it was taken are embedded right in there. This means when you share photos of a trip with your friends they can use something like Google Earth or their navigational device to see the exact spot it was taken. This is a pretty neat feature that I have never seen before.
The business card scanner including in the device ties in with the camera. You just take a picture of somebody’s business card and software on the device can extract information like names, phone numbers, and addresses and save them in your contacts list.
The contacts list is also really cool and although it is not exclusive to the C720, I haven’t seen any other devices besides the C520 that have this. Contacts can be added by inputting the information manually, downloading your contacts from your phone with Bluetooth, or downloading them off of Outlook Explorer with the USB cable. Once on the contact list you can either phone them or route to their address with the push of a button.
The Bluetooth technology on these devices seems like it might be a step ahead of the rest. Along with linking to your phone it can also link to a headset so you can get around the sub par 2.5mm headphone it uses. For the phone you can make and accept calls, access your phone’s contact list, and view your call history.
Text-to-speech is really cool software that reads text and is able to pronounce it relatively well. It comes in really handy because now you don’t have to look for street names on the screen. It reads them to you so you’ll never have to look at your device while driving again unless you didn’t hear it or it sounded weird which sometimes happens for hard to pronounce street names. The street name will still be shown along the top of the map screen just in case.
The built in calculator is not only a regular calculator, it also is a currency converter, and a measurement converter. The currency converter must be updated manually with the current exchange rates but this extra stuff can be useful while traveling.
I don’t know much about the music and video player but I assume it will support the same file types as the C520 which were MP3’s and WMA’s for music and MP4’s and AVI’s for video. You can create playlists and save them and there was also an equalizer to get the best sound.
The traffic message channel (TMC) receiver uses the FM radio broadcasts to deliver traffic information to your device. This means your C720 will be able to use timely and relevant information about traffic information to help route you around things like traffic jams or road closures. If time is money than the traffic receiver definitely pays for itself.
Closing thoughts on the New Mio C 720 portable GPS device
I’m very excited about the Mio C720. With all it has to offer it looks like it will be an exceptional device and tough competition against the top competitors like Garmin and TomTom. It’s hard to really conclude anything about it before you actually have one in your hands but all the evidence I’ve collected and having used the C520 I can say that it will be a surprise if it is anything less than what it is built up to be. I’ll review it again when it is finally released.
