Mio Moov 200 3.5-Inch Portable GPS Navigator with Text-To-Speech
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Turn-by-turn Spoken Street Name Voice Guidance. Never miss a turn with 3D indicators and auto-zoom views. Clear voice guidance lets you hear the directions so you can focus on the road. Stylish Design that fits easily in a pocket or purse makes it easy to take the Moov 200 with you. Preloaded U.S. Map of All 50 States and Puerto Rico. No PC download or SD card required. Moov 200 is ready to navigate straight out of the box. Preloaded with Over 3.5 Million Points of Interest. The Moov 200 makes it easy to find restaurants, gas stations, emergency assistance, hotels and more. No More Waiting for GPS Signal with InstantFixII. Get fast and accurate GPS signal reception every time. No extra fees and PC connection required. 3.5¿ Touchscreen Interface. The bright, anti-glare touchscreen makes it easy to type in your destination and easy to see while you¿re on the road. SD / MMC Slot for easy additional map loading.
Features
- 3.5 TFT 320×240 Resolution Display with Touchscreen, landscape orientation
- Samsung 2443 400MHz CPU, 1GB RAM
- Preloaded with Over 3.5 Million Points of Interest
- No More Waiting for GPS Signal with InstantFixII
- Easy to use SD/MMC Slot for additional map loading
- Dimensions (W x H x L): 0 x 0 x 0 inches
- Weight: 2 pounds
you get what you pay for
Buy the Garmin. This gps works but is not easy or intuitive to use. At least not when you’ve used a Garmin first… spend the money and get the Garmin. I returned my Mio.
If you are looking for lighting fast satellite acquiring – this is the one
What made me go w/ Mio.
I had Mio 310c before, that was a few years back. I loved it. But it was too old and time to upgrade. I was looking for other brands out there to give it a try.
I went w/ Garmin nuvi 200. It was okay. No big deal (IMO, I think it’s overly hyped), slow satellite acquiring, not many features and I don’t like ABCD type keyboard (you can’t change it to QWERT neither). The thing that bothers me the most was the super thick guiding line blocking street details (especially when there are 2 narrow streets right along side each other, the guiding line takes up all both street space. I don’t know what which on I was supposed to take.
The refreshing rate is also really slow. Too many bad things that I don’t want to spending my time writing here.
I had enough of Garmin so I decide to try another one (brand) hoping it would leverage me from over hyped Garmin.
I went with Navigon 2200, since it comes with free traffic report. Every was nice, lots of feathers for the price I paid for. However, I returned it 3 days later. Why? It took forever to acquire a satellite! some time over 20 minutes! gotta be kidding me. I couldn’t drive with this kind of GPS no matter how much I love the features.
Then, I realized the most important feature I need is the lighting fast satellite acquiring.
So I went back to the brand I love, Mio. Got it today and it didn’t disappoint me. Super lighting fast satellite acquiring.
The first (out of the box) initial start up took about 3 minutes.
Then vol la, it took about 5 seconds afterward every time I turn it on.
The most impressive thing to me is it detect satellite signal even inside my house!! Not Garmin and Navigon can even come close (they both lost the signal a second I step into the house.
Why you need this Mio unit?
1. cheap
2. lighting fast satellite acquiring (and super strength satellite reception)
3. come w/ text too speech
4. comparable features with other big brands at a higher price.
5. QWERT keyboard (don’t worry, you have option to switch to ABCD style keyboard as well)
6. Multiple stop routing
Why you don’t need it?
1. if you want to spend more money.
2. the unit looks cheap and boring design
3. You just simply like name brand products like Garmin
4. website support isn’t as good as other big brands like Garmin.
Then again what is the point to have the gps?
- To turn it on and get moving right away w/o waiting and cross your fingers of when your unit will find the satellite.
- Take you from point A to B or others in between.
Mio Moov does the job beautyfully!
some of the directions are ridiculous
pros: decent screen, fast pickup of satellites, directions for short distances were ok.
cons: the wrong directions are lulus! Here’s one example that makes it completely untrustworthy (there are others). Preferences were set to Route Type Fastest Time and Preference for Freeways More Often (which is the highest preference for freeways). Directions were requested from an address in San Francisco to an address in Truckee, CA. The result: a 326 mile trip, 7:46 hours! The Mio route started across the Bay Bridge on I-80 east, which is fine. But then it went to interstates 880, 238, 205, hwys 4, 89, 88, 395, 431, North-South freeway (no such thing, it may mean the North Shore Rd.) and finally I-80W.
Any sane person would continue on I-80E after they got off the Bay Bridge. Using the same addresses, Google maps online does that and the route is 187 miles, 3:08 hours.
Unfortunately, I didn’t try the longer trip route until after I had the unit for 30 days. Looking again at how absurd it is, I will try to return the unit.
Cost effective GPS
For the price this GPS is effective an easy to use. Without consulting the manual we were able to plan and follow a trip around LA. The pronunciation of some names can be entertaining, but always recognizable.
Slow Processor
Short Review.
I bought this to replace my mio digiwalker. I wanted to stick with Mio only because my first GPS was a Mio. My only complaint with this is that is works and moves very slowly. This makes it difficult when tying in addresses and POIs. I read that it was slow, but I thought that I could work around that. When I go to press a letter as I’m typing in a street name, it that’s the Moov about 3-5 seconds to respond. It may not sound like much, but its a nuisance when your just trying to type a name out and it doesn’t pick up on the other letters because its still trying to put in the first letter.
But this may not be a problem for other people, it was just a huge problem for me. I only bought this model because it was cheap. I still use it because its good for getting me from point A to point B.
A great GPS @ a great price
I have owned an earlier model GPS for a good handful of years up until I purchased the Moov200. The earlier model did exactly what I wanted it to do, get from door to door. I purchased the Moov200 mostly because it had a 2008 map card, and I needed that being that I travel to more than 30 different destination a day. The added features this GPS has over the old surprised me. It says the street names vocally and is very accurate in the city I use it in. I wouldn’t want to do my job without it. I highly recommend this GPS to those who want quality without breaking the bank for something that may have MP3 capability, bluetooth and all the other addons that I don’t want or need. Worth the money and then some!
Horrible customer service, cheap product
I bought this device recently, and within 2 months of purchase the AC adapter car charger exploded and caught fire in my cigarette lighter. I called the provided 1-866# for tech support and replacements, however I was never able to talk to an operator, I only got stupid FAQ tech question answers. I then used email tech support which provided a link for me to PURCHASE another car charger, when they should replace it for free as it is under my ONE YEAR warranty. Also, after about a month the GPS unit took 10-15 minutes to even find the satellite to map directions, and the device had to be reset daily because of that. This is a medium to low priced GPS unit, but be careful what you purchase as you will get what you pay for and much worse!
Cute and sweet, easy on pocket.
I own this for last 6 months. First few days it was difficult for me to switch from my older Garmin, I was so use to it. Entering a destination on this was bit tricky for me, but now got use to it. I use it regularly now. Cheap in price, but, not in looks. Easy to handle, text to speech is awesome. Re-routing is fast, but, it doesn’t states that it is re-routing; not a problem, but it confuses me a lot. Most of the time it shows/speaks wrong name of the street or exit, that’s not welcome at all.
Perfect GPS for the price I have paid for this ($89.99).
Started as a Great Unit, but…….
This is my second Mio. I found out before the Mio’s, any GPS unit is only as good as the map database. Mio’s database is accurate and very up-to-date. It even has streets that are not yet built. It is also one of the only units below $250 that allow you to Touch and Drag the screen. Having it say the street name as part of the instructions is very helpful. The only down side is the Zoom feature that requires several key strokes to get the level you want. But that is very minor.
It is a superb unit, and the British voice selection is really cool. I love it and use it both at work and home.
Update———
That was before! Now over one year later despite my best begging and pleading, Mio CANNOT produce a map update. They have been promising an update for the last eight months and it is no where on the horizon. What started as a great map database in now filled with missing streets, and changed routes. The unit itself is now acting quirky as well; losing its way on routes it has planned before, and sending us the completely wrong way on roads that have been around forever.
I am ditching this unit for a Garmin.
Best Price/Performance GPS You Can Buy
I own 5 GPS systems, including in-dash systems in 2 of my cars. But I’ve come to realize that more is not better when it comes to GPS.
Forget about MP3 capabilities, Bluetooth connectivity, photo storage, radio traffic reports or whatever else they’ll try to stuff into your GPS just so they can charge you an arm and a leg. I’m into lowest price/best performance GPS, and would never buy an in-dash unit again for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is that you can’t take it with you!
I had a cheap Garmin i5 that worked well for a year or so until it would no longer connect with the computer for updates. It also went through AA batteries like corn through a hog.
I bought the basic TomTom One last year about this time in an attempt at findng a cheap GPS replacment for the Garmin. The TomTom was used only about 10 times over the past year until all of a sudden the USB port broke off the motherboard for no reason It would cost more to try and get it fixed than buying a new GPS, and I needed one in 2 days for a trip I was about to take to South Florida.
I was looking for the cheapest GPS I could find, this time with text-to-speech, spoken instructions (“Turn left at Maple Street in 1/4 mile” instead of “Left turn ahead”) and I discovered the Mio Moov 200. It was on sale for an incredible price and a quick check of the Amazon reviews seemed positive. Since I didn’t have time to mess around, I bought it.
I’m now in the middle of that trip and I have to say that the Moov 200 has to be hands down the best bargain in all of GPS land.
There’s no other current GPS unit that will give text-to-speech instructions at this price, and the U.S. male voice is clear and steady.
Vocal instructions are more important than the map display because you really do NOT want to be taking your eyes off the road to study a tiny map that you can’t see anyway because of sun glare, and the Moov 200 has really surprised me with the quality of the voice and the instructions.
The voice tells me both the name of upcoming road I need to turn on to, along with the road number and the distance, then again when I get closer. I will say that I wish it would give the distance in tenths of a mile, because that’s what car odometers use, but neither did the TomTom or Garmin. The text-to-speech, spoken instructions is more information than I get from any other GPS unit I own, including the $2,000+ in-dash units in my 2 cars.
The Moov 200 is definitely a much better unit than my TomTom One, which did not have text-to-speech and only gave distances in yards. Yards?
The Moov 200 is so easy to use, you honestly don’t have to read the (very thin) instruction manual. It has a built-in tutorial that starts up when you turn it on. I first turned it on in my living room and it dropped down on the couch, and when I picked it up, I was very surprised to see that it synched with several satellites and it knew exactly where it was.
It picks up satellites almost instantaneously — much, much faster than any other GPS I own. And it seems very insensitive to positioning in the car, unlike my Garmin or TomTom, which very much need to be way up on the dash with nothing around them to block the view.
Even the window suction cup holder is much better than my Garmin and way better than the TomTom. It really holds on, something the TomTom never did, and it’s easy to pop the Moov on and off the mount to program a new address.
The only nits I can pick are that you can’t find a restaurant by cuisine, and if you pick one off the list but then decide to go backwards to find another, it goes back to the beginning of the nearby restaurant list rather than where you left off. But that’s a very minor inconvenience.
Other than that, it’s very accurate, super easy to use, easy to switch between 2D and 3D maps and easy to program. It can be set to speak the letters and numbers as you’re entering them in, which helps ensure accuracy.
Conclusion? There’s really no reason at all to spend more money on a GPS, this baby does it all, and my feeling is that it’s better than any of the other 4 GPS systems I own, and it beats the ultra-expensive dash units in both of my cars (both of which have a yearly CD map update feature that each cost more than the list price of the Moov 200!). Highly recommended.
A Solid Value
I have had this GPS for about a month and used it to drive to and around St Louis during the recent election.
The main cons people have against this device are the Points of Interests feature and the Enter a Location feature. Both are a bit odd, I guess because the database is larger than the processor can handle. I got used to it pretty quickly, but I was frustrated at first and suspect a lot of folks who hate it simply gave up before getting used to it. Now I find it extremely easy to use. You just have to remember that it needs to narrow downward (so it is going to ask for the Streetname, and then ask for the House Number).
The Points of Interests are disorganized. It has a huge database of things in it, and many of the comments here claiming that locations aren’t in the device are inaccurate. It’s that it’s very difficult to search for some Points of Interest… and they might as well not be in the database. It still works if you’re patient enough. I typically don’t care much that I can’t find State Historical Marker #43412.A.
It’s rugged enough to take a lot of abuse, it has great routes (and route options and corrections), it’s accurate and fast, and it names the street you need to turn onto if Text to Speech is on (which is far safer than looking at the screen sometimes). For the price, this is an excellent device.
I downloaded a file that I put on an SD card, and I boot mine into the hidden Windows environment, so mine doubles as a mediocre PDA.
—–
It’s been a while (I bought this and used it for working for one of the candidates in the 2008 Presidential election) and I wanted to point out that the unit still works fine. The power button accidentally switched on a couple of times when I was storing it, and that has caused the battery to be less reliable.
I bought a Garmin 1390t for my mother in law and it is so much better that I think I have to recommend against buying this model. Even the $99 Garmins seem to be much better in simplicity, functionality, and durability. I still use this Mio at least once a week and it’s still getting me where I need to go 100% of the time, but the competition is just too good.
Whatever GPS you get, make sure it featured Text To Speech for streetnames. It’s not hyperbole for me to claim that it could prolong your life to keep your eyes on the road in a busy and strange location.
Great for the price
For the price I paid, I think It’s a bargain. It does a good job of navigating. The reason why I gave it a 4 star rating, is the fact that it does not come with it’s own USB cable if you want to hook it up to your computer and charge it, or update it.I think you have to purchase it separately. I happened to have one at home that fit the port on the GPS. Also, It cannot locate the exact street of my home, so I have to save my home base as another street in the subdivision. Overall, it might not be the most detailed GPS, but it gets you where you need to go most of the time.
Garbage – buy ANY TomTom instead
TomTom is the absolute king of GPS, accept no substitution.
I tried this GPS and compared it to the TomToms I have tried, it was garbage.
The TomTom is worth it’s weight in diamonds yet it only cost $150 at WalMart.
TomTom !!!! I’ll never go on a trip without one!!!
Great function. Low Cost!
I have had my Mio Moov 200 for about 3 weeks now and find it to be quite easy to use; and more than I would have expected at such a bargain price! The device was easy to figure out and the MIO manufacturer website provides several easy to follow online video tutorials for the more “technically challenged” users out there. As with all devices, there is a bit of a learning curve.
For instance, one potential drawback is that if you are planning a LONG route with multiple stops, it’s better to break it into shorter segments so that when/ if you miss a turn or encounter an unexpected road detour, your device does not take too long to recalculate the route (the more “waypoints” you have the longer the recalculating route takes). When you have just a handful of “waypoints” the route recalculation works rather quick.
Using the device in downtown Washington DC has been very helpful, especially with the fast recalculating time since many of the streets in DC have “irregular” rules, some one-way streets that the device did not recognize and special turning lanes where one is not permitted (or able) to turn from the main roadway.
A really helpful feature of the device is that it will indicate in voice and onscreen the upcoming turn and let you know when to merge/ stay right or left. This is especially helpful in unknown areas (such as in St. Louis, MO where I went recently for the 1st time – knowing what lane to be in ahead of time was immensely helpful!)
Every once in a while the device would “freeze,” but a brief turn-off and back on of the device reset it. I like the auto-feature for day display to night and the POI’s (Points of Interest). Although, one small complaint I have for the POI’s is that it would be nice if you could select to view UPCOMING POI’s on your route rather than simply the closest ones which can make you back-track somewhat.
Overall, the functionality for the price cannot be beat. It is easy to get up and running.
Cheaper, Works just as well
I work for a TV station in a new area and needed to be able to find places I’ve never been fast. This was the best price I could find on a GPS that said the street names and so far it works great. No complaints.
Mio Moov 200: Limited USB functionality
While the 200 appears to be a reasonably nice
standalone GPS, MIO has chosen (for the US
market ONLY!?) to NOT allow you to maintain
a list of Favorites on your computer, then
upload them to the Mio 200. The included software
does NOT support creation and upload/download of Favorites.
Same with photos with lat/long info; you just can’t do it.
Contacting MIO support about this issue yielded no
useful work-around or other alternative.
the most hardest setting
This device has very hard software I ever know. Many times I could not find some addresses.
It happened to me several times. When you inter some addressee it will give you that tone to tell you this address is not exist. So I was printing my map distention from Google before I gone there. What the hick is this GPS. I was spending a time to know how is working. Moreover, it will give you a heart attack if you pass the street that you should make a turn on it. It will never re-calculate new road it will tell you to go back from where it was calculate first time. The nosiest thing when you type the roads name it will give all the roads with the same name in the state not in the city.
Feature Filled Bargain
Full fetured bargian of a navigator. On the plus side, gets me to where I’m going with choice of voices indicating street names at a very reasonable price. Has all the options of a friend’s $300 nav such as points of interest, updating the arrival time and computer connect for updating maps. Only minus I’ve found is while typing in the street & town names it is easy to hit the wrong letter as the letters are so small. I now use a plastic stylus which solved the issue (as long as I can find it). If I were using it every day that would bother me. For the occasional user this does the trick.
Mio Updates Available Soon
Just a note for those who have reviewed this product.
Moov 200’s will have updates available this fall. The product is brand new, no naturally they would not launch and update if they are brand new. Check again after Thanksgiving. Why would you need an update shortly after you bought it anyways?
buy a tom-tom
I bought the mio moov because the price was unbeatable for the text to speech feature. I was told by the clerk that I could update maps online – this is not true. When I tried to register my product on line I thought I was missing the product code to do so. I called the company and was informed that there are no on line updates for the product.
Tom-Tom has on line updates to pick up any road changes etc.
This product will quickly become obsolete.