Mio C210: Tiny greatness

Recent market survey figures have shown that Mio Technology takes the fourth place in the list of European PND manufacturers with the highest turnover. But Mio wants more, Mio wants bigger. And to enable that, product year 2006 has already seen some nice new Mio products: the C210, the C510E and the C710. Each and every one good-looking, compact devices which sell for very sharp prices.

But nice looks, a small price and tiny dimensions alone simply won't get you there. The consumer -rightfully- also wants quality, speed, accuracy and user-friendliness.

And so, after our recent review of the Mio C510/C710, the time has come to test Mio's smallest PND. The time has come for a test of Mio's C210...

Inside the box

The C210's package is above all pretty small. But if we look at it's contents, we soon find out why. Because besides the PND itself, there's not much more in the box than a suction cup with holder, a small self-adhesive plate to stick on top of the dashboard, a USB cable and a 12/24 volts power cable for in-car use.

The lack of an in-house 220 volts adapter can be explained by the fact that the C210 functions on four AA penlight batteries. What is strange though is that Mio doesn't include four of these batteries with this set. This is a classic case of so-called 'misplaced stinginess', because this makes the C210 less than a real out-of-the-box solution. Shame. The unit can be powered inside the house by means of the USB connection. This saves batteries when updating the unit's software and/or maps via the shipped Mio Transfer software.

The device

Back onto the C210 itself. The first thing we notice is that this Mio doesn't really have a very macho look. It's look and dimensions call for other descriptions, like 'nice', or 'cute' even. But despite the Mio's modest dimensions (59 x 85 x 40 mm), it won't really fit snugly inside your pocket. This is because of the non-removable stand which is used to click the device onto the car holder. Also, with a weight of almost 250 grams, the unit isn't exactly what we would call 'particularly light'.

When we look at the C210 from all angles, we notice multiple connections and buttons: a headphones connection (1), a main menu button (2), a mini-USB connection (3), an SD/MMC card slot (4), an external antenna connection (5), the battery cover (6) and of course the button to open it (7), the on/off button (8) and the reset button (9).

On the inside, the C210 meets all modern PND specifications. It's got a 400 MHz CPU, 64 MB of RAM, and the very powerful and already much renowned SiRF Star III chipset. The C210's touch screen has a diagonal of 2,7 inch, which is significantly smaller than the 3,5 inch screen most other PND's use nowadays.

Mounting

For the mounting of the C210 in the car, Mio has chosen a very simple solution: a suction cup with a flexible arm and a mouting plate, on which the C210 is clicked. In essence, this works ok. The suction cup is very solid and so is the flexible arm.

But what we didn't like very much is the way how the C210 clicks onto the mounting plate. This requires a lot of force and doesn't make the mounting or unmounting of the unit very simple. It required so much force even, that at one time or another, we thought we were going to break the holder or something.
Fortunately, this didn't happen, but still...

Software and maps

Mio latest personal navigational devices run on a combination of Windows CE.NET and MioMap v3.1. The latter is variant of the navigational software by iGO, which was especially adapted for Mio. And we already mentioned it in our Mio C510E review: we like this Mio software very much! Not only is it lightning fast, it also looks very good. A true feast for the eye!

In general, all settings and options are easy to find and placed logically. If necessary, the recalculation of a route is done in mere seconds. Thanks to the SiRF chipset, the satellite reception is always top-notch, and that makes for a stable satellite fix with which it's worry-free navigating, also under difficult circumstances.

Another important part of the whole navigational experience are the voices. And in this department, the C210 lacks somewhat. Not really in quantity, eventhough there are only 16 voices -one per language- to choose from, but more in quality. The UK voice (Thomas) and US voice (Jason) are overall better than the voices of some of the other languages we've heard (eg. the Dutch voice is dreadful), but still we aren't really blown away by them. They sound a bit lethargic and slow, and sometimes the fragments of the commands they give aren't 'connected' well together, which then results in strange pauzes. Overall it's still do-able, and the commands can be understood correctly, but we would still urge Mio to do something about this fast!

Screen

It's probably clear already that the small size of the Mio C210's screen doesn't make the operation of the unit via touch screen any easier. It uses the same 320 x 240 pixel resolution as the 3,5 inch screens of the C510E and the C710 and thus everything ends up a lot smaller on the C210's screen. Especially the on-screen QWERTY keyboard is a bit harder to use because of this, but overall we found it still acceptable. Persons with really thick fingers will probably end up using a PDA stylus though...

The C210 is shipped with the regional maps of the area of purchase and the major roads of Europe. These maps are supplied by Tele Atlas, and based on the 2006-1 release.

TMC

For this review, Mio also sent us the optional TMC module, with which free traffic info can be pulled from the ether. This module sells for 75 € (50 £), and consists out of a receiver which is connected to the C210 through USB, and a loose antenna with two suction cups. To still be able to connect the unit to the car's power source when the TMC antenna is plugged in, the TMC receiver also features a USB port. Even more, connecting the TMC module to the car's 12/24 volts power source is a requirement for it to work. Simply connecting it to the unit when it's powered by it's batteries won't do. Some might see this as a limitation, but it's really not that bad.

The C210 works flawless in combination with the TMC module. Within half a minute, the first TMC station is detected and the traffic info is downloaded to the unit. In case traffic jams are reported onto the planned route, an alternative route is quickly calculated. Very nice, and exactly as it should be really.

Don't be fooled by the Mio C210's exterior, because underneath the nice, small and cute shell there's a very powerful navigational solution which we -in general- are very much impressed with. The software is of excellent quality, and with an estimated retail price of 280 euro (190 £), this PND is priced razor sharp.

On the other hand, we do have some reservations with regards to the C210's car mount, and the spoken instructions are also not amongst the best in it's class. Also, not including a starter set of batteries counts as miserly and sloppy in our books.

We would also like to mention the C210's bigger brother again, the C510E. Ok, so bigger brother is about 40 euro more expensive, but on the other hand, for those 40 euro you get a bigger screen, a flatter shaped unit, a handier mount, and the detailed maps of Europe shipped with the unit on DVD. Extra money well spent if you ask us...

But those who are swepped off their feet by the C210's looks might not care for all that. And even then, rest assured that even without all these 'better' features that the C510E has, the C210 is still an excellent basic navigational solution which will lead you to all your destinations worry-free.