Mio guides new line-up into Christmas stockings

By Derek Fung on 02 November 2007

Mio is planning to release five new GPS-enabled products -- two in-car navigators, two PDAs and a smartphone -- just in time for Santa's physics-defying trip around the world.

With gift-giving season under two months away, Mio has renewed its three pronged line-up: the C-Series (dedicated portable navigation devices), the P-Series (Windows Mobile PDAs with built-in GPS receivers) and the A-Series (Windows Mobile smartphone-cum-PDA with GPS).

C-Series
Mio has slotted two new GPSes into its C-Series line-up. The new C320 occupies a half-way house between the price-leading C220 and the popular, Editors' Choice winning C520. It's almost a dead-ringer for the C520, losing out on the latter's Bluetooth hands-free and MP3 playback capabilities, while gaining a cheaper looking black bezel.

The range-topping C720t keeps the profile of the C520 while managing to fit in a 2-megapixel camera. It also comes equipped with all the TMC gubbins. So, once traffic messaging is available in your town, all you'll need is to sign up for the subscription service. The SUNA Traffic Channel is currently scheduled for launch in Melbourne this December, with Sydney and Brisbane due in mid-2008.

	C220 Read our review	C320	C520 Read our review	C720t
Price	AU$399	AU$449	AU$499	AU$699
On sale	Now	December 1	Now	December 1
Screen size	3.5-inch	4.3-inch	4.3-inch	4.3-inch
Bluetooth hands-free	No	No	Yes	Yes
MP3 playback	No	No	Yes	Yes
Text-to-speech	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Traffic support	No	Yes*	Yes*	Yes**
Camera	No	No	No	Yes

* TMC support via optional cradle
** TMC subscription not included

P-Series
Both models in the new P-Series PDA/GPS range, the P360 and P560, sport 3.5-inch touchscreens and quality-feeling brushed metal faces. Under the hood they are powered by 400MHz Samsung processors and run Windows Mobile 6 Classic. The P360 and P560 come bundled with the MioMaps navigation software. Those who already have MioMaps can purchase the AU$349 P360n and AU$549 P560n instead -- a saving of AU$150.

	P360	P560
Price	AU$499	AU$699
On sale	December 1	December 1
Screen size	3.5-inch	3.5-inch
Wi-Fi	No	Yes
Bluetooth	No	Yes

A-Series
Numerically speaking, the change from the outgoing A701 to the new A702 is pretty insignificant. Take a quick look and you'll see that the new GPS smartphone is quite a different beast. For one, it gains a numerical keypad while retaining the stylus-driven touchscreen. Wi-Fi (802.11b/g) is a welcome addition to the A701's Bluetooth, while the camera gets upgraded from one to 3.2-megapixels. There's still no 3G support though.

	A702
Price	AU$899
On sale	December 1
Screen size	2.7-inch
Bluetooth	Yes
Wi-Fi	Yes
Camera	3.2-megapixel

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