Mio MOOV 300 4.3-Inch Widescreen GPS
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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 300 with you. Preloaded U.S. Map of All 50 States and Puerto Rico. No PC download or SD card required. Preloaded with Over 3.5 Million Points of Interest. No More Waiting for GPS Signal with InstantFixII. Get fast and accurate GPS signal reception every time. No extra fees and PC connection required. 4.3¿ 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
- 4.3 TFT 480×272 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: 0 pounds
Steadily disappointing
This unit was purchased over 6 months ago. When first used, it was so much better than the MS Streets & Trips with GPS that we had been using for the last 3 years that Mio Moov 300 seemed to be the best value in electronics we had seen in ages. However, continued use has inspired a continued decline in satisfaction.
The InstantFixII technology is a farce. The sales description claimed “connects to satellites much faster”. The phrase “much faster” can only be considered valid if the previous version required the user to turn the unit on the night before a planned trip. We’ve suffered this device to take over 20 minutes to find a suitable connection in the suburbs of Atlanta far away from any legitimate obstruction. Usually, we have to resort to driving with the unit held out the window to get it to respond. This method remains necessary regardless of vehicle, so there is little chance that the car is producing the transmission disruption.
The notion of turning the Moov 300 on the night before to ensure connection when needed brings up another issue: battery life. We own 2 of these units and both of them have been known to last a full 18 minutes on a single charge. We have even managed to extend the charge up to 4 hours by not turning it on. Given that the product does not come with a USB cable to connect with the included software, the only out-of-the-box option for charging is to employ the included cigarette lighter adapter. This leaves one with little choice but to sit in one’s own vehicle whenever attempting to plot a route rather than relaxing in a comfortable chair in the comfort of one’s home. The alternative is trying frantically to race the battery life in an attempt to figure out why the road name that you can plainly see on the map won’t show up in the list of available streets for plotting an address or intersection.
great little item
This is my first GPS, I received it as a Christmas gift and I love it. I’m still figuring out all of the little things but it works GREAT! It lets me know ahead of time when to turn and at what street or road to turn onto, plus the POI’s is very good. I find this to be very easy to use; I would definitely buy another like it. I just wish that the home charger would have come with it.
Easy MOOV
This product lived up to my expectations! It was usable straight out of the box! Whenever I travel out of town, it will go with me.
Mio MOOV 300 – good “price performer”
Having owned a Mio MOOV 200, I purchased the slightly bigger brother when I replaced it. I looked at several competitors when I purchased the 200 and chose it because of the features and price. I’ve come to rely on the instructions, particularly when in an unfamiliar area. In Atlanta last year, we were driving in heavy rain on a very busy interstate. Visibility was very poor. The MOOV had me in the left lane and I was able to find my left exit without the “dramatics” of crossing 6 lanes of rush-hour traffic. It’s done that several times.
I like the slightly larger 300 screen. I’ve got it mounted with velcro on my dash. The top sticks up just slightly, but it never fails to “find” sufficient birds for a good signal. When we travel, I merely remove it from my own car and temporarily use velcro in my rental car…works every time and doesn’t leave any residue in the rental when I remove it.
Setting up motels and major sites on our trip is quite easy and I just erase this trip’s “Favorites” when we get home. My only “wish list” item is for a way to “see” more of the favorites list item. Trying to sort out which is the right favorite when you’ve got several items listed is a bit of a pain when all you can see is a list of the numerical portion of the address. It only requires a companion paper list of the favorites, and is really a “nit”. I’d certainly buy another MIO when the time comes.
Okay, poor battery life, bad routing, bad touch screen
This is the second GPS I’ve ever owned, but the first one was long enough ago that it didn’t do routing and had a tiny little monochrome screen.
I’ve used Garmin nuvi’s and the Asus R700.
Pros:
+ relatively cheap in the US (but cost me $300 here in Israel)
+ unlockable
+ English maps for Israel.
+ simple interface (but still hard to use, see below)
Cons:
- Not easy to read in bright sunlight, in my opinion. Impossible to read if the sun happens to shine on the face, even inside the car.
- scrolling map is difficult to master – works better with pen
- scrolling lists is extremely cumbersome
- Terrible routing in Israel (routes on backroads sometimes when 4-lane highway exists)
- Transliterations from Hebrew to English are unusual, which makes it impossible to search for an address.
- The battery life is terrible. After 8 months, mine lasts about 30 minutes.
- No routing in West Bank and parts of Dead Sea Highway to Jerusalem
- POIs in Israel are worthless
Mio MOOV 300 4.3-Inch Widescreen GPS
This is a great product. It gives a better way of going places than mapquest. Some of the new roads are not in its memory but, with an update it sould be fine. This is very easy to use.
Fantastic
I got this unit for $99 the night before leaving on a week long road trip up and down the East Coast. “Samantha” – the name of the female voice option on the Mio Moov 300 – managed to get us to our locations flawlessly everytime – including some backwoods dirt road intersections that barely show on a normal map. When we tried to find faster/better routes using Google Maps and Mapquest we were unable to. I would recommend this unit to my own mother – and in fact already have!
There did seem to be some weaknesses in the POI file – we were trying to get directions to the White House (as in THE White House in Washington DC) and it could only find the White House Dry Cleaners…. All the same, I’m not interested in having my GPS tell me where to go on vacation – I’m interested in having the unit get me where I want to go and this one did it in spades.
good price for that GPS
good product with good price. it wasn’t the cheapest i could find but it’s better to buy from amazon.com everything. they helps in any problem. this gps is a good one , recommended by me.
looks great, feels great, cheap and inaccurate!!!!
I live in san jose, and after buying this GPS, we took a drive to San Fran for dinner and shopping. We are basically at Union Square, coming home I was about to hop on 101 South, but the Mio say to take a left… so against my better judgement, I took it’s advice. another 5 mins later i was on oakland bridge, panic sets in a little… San Jose, Via Oakland? that’s insane. but at the time, i gave it the benefit of the doubt, maybe it is faster?
on the way home we had to get gas…. so in oakland i invoked the gas station finding… and chose one that was 1/2 miles away at our current location. It took us off the highway and in to some really rough Oakland hood! I mean, i can’t blame it for that, GPS can’t distinguish hoods from non hoods. used to live in New Orleans, so i know a thing or 2 about hoods. well.. the 10 min detour turns up empty. “200feet destination on your right”, and it’s just a dark corner with a dim light, this is about 9:30 pm. there is no gas station here… the Mio is on crack. so we follow the Mio back on to 880 south bound, and I found my own god **** gas station, thank you.
conclusion: the drive back through oakland was 4 miles longer than 101 south. it took us
so far so good
i bought this item a week ago and its my first gps got it for 130 and well i turned it on and got a signal almost instantly big wide screen also a plus hard to find another gps with that screen size for 130 easy to see day and night and text to speech is great warns you before getting there clear loud voice also pronounces street names no wrong routes yet but still only had it a week so well see read all reviews and was skeptical but turned out pretty good dont even need to read the manual, easy to use, also ready to use and cheap price maybe good for beginners like me but if you probably had a gps before you might want to have something more expensive but for me its good and im not a tech geek but i like to stay current on technology and well i like this product
Great price for disappointment
I have use a couple of different Nav units in my time. I thought that this was a good deal for the price. I used it for a trip from Philly to DC. VERY DISAPPOINTED. The interface was slow and not very user friendly. For the following additional reasons I would not suggest this model:
1 – It took about 5 -6 blocks before it even registered a GPS signal
2 – You could not elimiated a portion of the route if you did not want to take a road.
3 – If you did not use the road it suggested it simply stated it could not find a route and errored out (this happened multiple times). It happened when I took a unsuggested route that required only 1 turn.
I returned it after one use.
No Bluetooth. It is cheating or at least a trick.
It doesn’t have Bluetooth as advertised “…Bluetooth GPS Unit with Optional…” and price is pretty high. It is unbeliveable that Amazon, a famouse company, cheats customers. Amazon should let customers may return it with full refound (including shipping back fee) or refound some money for some customers. I need Bluetooth, but I was cheated, I can’t buy another GPS with bluetooth, except for, I return it with full refound.
Excellent value, excellent GPS
Bought one for my mother-in-law to try out for a bit first, make sure she would enjoy it and be able to use it. Wanted it to be easy for her, etc… Loved it so much, bought one for myself… but the journey only begins there.
Once I had it for myself, did some research and found some forums online that discuss unlocking the device through the SD Card port, turns it into a full-fledged PDA!!!!!
So not only do I have an excellent GPS, I have the ability to play movies, read PDF documents, store shopping notes and documents, information managers, play music, play games.
My favorite feature is being able to write with a stylus right on the screen and having that information put right into a text file for me to save, not having to type the word, actually writing the word, in cursive or standard writing.
By far in a way the coolest piece of technology I’ve ever invested in for such a low low expense!!!!
Highly recommended as a GPS, even MORE highly recommended for the “hackability” and ability to make it a full-fledged PDA.
No Bluetooth
if your looking for a GPS system that has it all, where all features work and everything is perfect then this isnt for you… other than that, this mio model does the work, at least for me… no wrong turns yet, no problems with the sunlight as some people reported, affordable 4.3 inches device… i’ll give it a 5 star except that it does not have bluetooth as advertised on amazon.com… i would highly suggest Amazon.com to fix the item description for it represents a false statement.
im disappointed it does not have bluetooth. other than that, i think it is alright for the money.
Good interface and design, poor data
I bought the Moov 300 because it was on sale for $150. At this price, its a bargain. The interface is excellent, its easy to use, and seems durable enough. However, my delight was gone when I tried to find some common points of interest (POI) and when I tried navigating from my office to home. Strangely, this unit had very few museums in it, which is strange because people like to visit museums when they are on vacation and more likely to use a portable GPS. It didn’t list either the Children’s Museum in Denver or the Denver Museum of Science and Nature, though it did list the Denver Zoo. This was a real deal killer. To top it off, it suggested 17-18 mile routes to my office, when my regular commute is 12 miles. I returned this unit after a few days and got a Garmin Nuvi 255W. Yes, it costs about $100 more, but it does everything I want, has every POI I have thought of, and gets me to work by the expected route. Bottom line: if having a lot of POI or appropriate routing are important to you, do not buy this unit. But if you want and easy-to-use, inexpensive GPS, this is a pretty good choice.
Arrived broken, stayed that way
This item is worthless.
It was broken when it arrived, totally refusing to perform any of its functions, or respond to it’s controls-it wouldn’t even acquire the needed satellite signals. It lit up, and that was all.
After several tries, I returned it.
Satisfaction?
None.
Move Over – MOOV300!
I purchased this unit today as a gift for my daughter. I had an older model Mio a couple of years ago. In total I’ve used Garmin and Magellan units and lean toward the Garmins. What got me to pick up the Mio was the $170 price tag and text to speech. Plus, it has a larger screen than most.That’s really where the good news ends! I have 3 big problems with the unit: 1) it is extremly difficult to see in sunlight; 2) while the text is sharp, it’s extremly small; 3) it took an absolutely ridiclous route to my home, (took me onto a circular road that dumped out onto the road it had me turn off of!) No, I think Mio has more to learn about GPS than what this unit brings to the market. I’ll have to spend a little more and get her a Garmin
Very easy to use
This is my fifth GPS. I pick up this gem not knowing what to expect. After the Navicon 5100, this is a joy to use. There were two time that the directions given were “unusual” but not inaccurate. We got to our destination at about the same amount of time, it just wasn’t the route I would have taken or thought of taken. But that was just two times out of hundreds so far. The POI menu is outstanding; more categories than you can shake a stick at. Also there are so many different ways to search. I’m never at a loss to find something when I’m in a strange city or town. I also like that I’m able to pick what voice is being used. I have mine set to British Female. It’s crystal clear and there is plenty of volume. I can also tune the volume up or down. The Mio Moov is absolutely an entry level GPS, but so is the price. I would definitely recommend the Mio Moov 300.
Simple as Mio but not so professional as Garmin or Tom Tom
I bought it and used it in CA. I got two errors searching after Walmart near SF and also trying to find a specific PoI in LA. I’m not so sure if this is because the map or the product itself.
It is also slow when you search through the menu or type an address.
Traffic Reports NOT Available At All (Aug ‘08)
I just got off the phone with Mio, as I tried to learn how to turn on the “optional” traffic report service I was told (by the salesman in the store where I bought it) I would have to buy a subscription to.
Mio says “The model 300 does not have the hardware built in for receiving traffic reports… but that feature will be available in the future.”
No date was given. But I was told that the Moov 310 has traffic reports built in.
If you want a unit that adjusts to traffic conditions, do NOT buy the Moov 300. (I am now taking mine back to Radio Shack.)