After using the Mio C520 for over 3 months now I truly regret I bought it. the device performs poorly in route calculation choosing the most bizarre routes you would ever imagine.

Fortunately also owned a Garmin 200W and the TomTom One. both outperform the Mio in suggesting much faster and more logical routes. THIS IS THE MOST BASIC FUNCTION OF A GPS DEVICE!

The bluetooth speakerphone is useless as there's so much background noise. besides, you have to pair the phone each time you turn the Mio on.

Overall nice feature/function but poor design, stay away!

For the money this is a great tool too have I'm a local truck driver and it hasn't let me down yet . Love the memory factor JUST PUNCH IT IN AND GO

I bought this product at X-mas time and am very pleased with it. It was ready to use right out of the box. Once you turn it on it links to the satellite within a minute and stays connected. So far the directions have been very precises and it quickly re-routes if you decide to follow a different route. It names the streets when giving turn by turn directions and the POI file is pretty huge and easy to use once you figure out how to use it - even has listing of restaurants that opened last year. The only thing that needs getting used to is inputting the directions, you put in the city first, then the street name and then the street number (backwards!!). I don't think anyone can beat the values of the features for the price of the unit. I think for the price concious person MIO-C520 is the way to go - forget the expensive Garmins, Magellan etc. I have not tried the MP3 and BlueTooth feature as I don't have the need for it.

Let me start by saying that I love the "idea" of this item. Tons of features including bluetooth and MP3 playability built in to a really advanced GPS navigator. Tons of mapping and routing options. Split screen control and more information displayed at a given time than any other brand of GPS. Great concept, but the Mio C520 is an absolute failure in execution.

Sorry, Mio lovers (is there such a thing), but it's the plain and simple truth. I did my homework after sampling a couple different automotive GPS units by TomTom and Magellan. I figured, okay, I'm ready for MY GPS. A GPS to satisfy the horribly obsessed "gadget-geek" that I am. I spent days pouring over internet reviews and customer testimonials. Then, armed with all the knowledge necessary, I navigated myself down to the local electronics superstore to see and touch the various models in person.

Then I went back to the computer and poured over hours and hours worth of additional info on my select list of top potential GPS candidates. Finally, after more than a few trips back to the local store to fondle the GPS's, I settled on the Mio C520. Heck, who wouldn't? On paper this thing looks like the end all be all of GPS navigation tools.

I took it home, carefully unpacked all of the contents in the box (nice, stylish packaging btw), placed the unit in its cradle, suction-cupped to my windshield, fired it up and started navigating! Then I got slapped in the face with reality. You know the saying, if it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is? Well that saying applies to the Mio C520.

First off, I do love the display on this product. The map is the coolest looking of any unit out there. You can really customize it too. But now let's talk about practicality. No matter how delicate a touch you have you, will ALWAYS (and I do mean ALWAYS) be hitting the wrong touchscreen items on this unit, unless you use a stylus. Who the heck is going to use a stylus in their vehicle? I mean, what are you going to do, keep it in a custom made sheath attached to the GPS mount? Please.

Now to actual navigation. After all, that's what its primary function is. I can let a lot of stuff slide if a product does what it's supposed to do, and does it well. But the Mio doesn't. It could barely find its way out of its box. After that it spent most of the time not quite sure where it was. Maybe I'm not being fair here. Satellite acquisition and route calculation were pretty darn fast. The problem was much of the information was wrong.

Outdated maps are kind of a necessary evil associated with GPS. But the Mio's maps were not only tragically outdated, but also glaringly wrong. There are freeway on and off ramps in my area that are decades old but were simply not "drawn" on the Mio's maps so basically they don't exist. Many times this means at least an additional 10 miles of driving.

Several of the POI's I checked in my area had completely wrong addresses. Not just wrong street numbers, wrong streets. The calculated routes this thing came up with were hilarious. It's a good thing I have a sense of humor because it was truly funny. I guess if you were not familiar with the area, you COULD eventually make it to where you were going (provided you knew the correct address) with the Mio. You would be certain to waste a lot of unnecessary time and fuel in the process though.

Now to the absolute biggest gripe I have about this product. This is the only GPS product I've ever used that has a really significant "lag" problem. What I mean by this is that it's telling you now, where you were about 2 to 3 seconds ago. You might say, 2 seconds isn't long. Well it is when you're going 70MPH. It's a couple hundred feet! Enough to potentially miss an exit. If you don't think that's a big deal, try thinking about the 300 plus bucks you shelled out for the thing, every time you hear it say "turn right on --- street", after you've already made the turn and driven half way down the next block! You think I'm joking? Go buy one and see.

I don't want to turn this in to a "I hate Mio" rant. Obviously there are a lot of people who like this product. I'm not sure why, but they have given it some pretty decent reviews. The problems I had were not the result of a "lemon" though. It's just simple poor engineering. The thing is just too dang frustrating to use.

I can be pretty stubborn. Once I make my mind up there's no changing it sometimes. So it was painful admitting I was wrong about the Mio. In the end, this product is just the result of overly ambitious engineering meeting lackluster quality control and execution. I returned it the day after I bought it.

I now have a Garmin Nuvi 260. And let me tell you, WOW! It is a marvelous thing when you see a GPS work the way the Garmin does. I go for drives now just to play with it and watch it work. It is impressive. And you simply cannot beat Garmin when it comes to product support and customer service. Save yourself a ton of time and headache and just do what you already know you should do. Buy a Garmin, there's a reason why they are THE name in GPS navigation!

I was introduced to the Mio brand by my friend who showed me his C320 and I loved its looks. I was able to purchase the C520 for just a few dollars more for what I could get the C320 so it was a no brainer for the upgrades of Bluetooth and TTS.

However the unit locks up when I try to make a connection with my RAZR V3i even though it is on the list of approved Bluetooth phones. This appears to be a common problem from the other reviews I have read.

Another issue is an "eye candy" feature in which it is supposed to show the sun rising/setting in the horizon when the map is in 3D mode. I have yet to see the sun set. Which brings up another problem; the automatic switch from daytime to nighttime colors is about 30 mins late. My friends Garmin changes much earlier and is easier on the eye.

However, my friend also bought the C520 after seeing how it lists ALL the street names where his Garmin would leave some streets unnamed... and his Bluetooth phone even connects properly! But, he says it is hard to hear the other party even at max volume.

Those are all my complaints! If not for those I would give the C520 a 10!

Battery life is so-so at around 4 hours. I think the screen looks fine but the Garmin my friend had definitely lookes sharper at least in day-time mode. Night-time mode looks perfect! I find the accuracy of the maps top shelf and the routes surprisingly accurate. It does have a tendency to route you to major highways.

Overall I think this unit is a GREAT value for the price you can purchase it for. While the extra features can be hit and miss the core navigation functionality is great!

This product is the best I've owned. I've owned Magellan, Tom-Tom, Nextar and others. The Mio is user-friendly and has streets and addresses that the others don't (including my own residence). I intend to stock my entire company's fleet with this navigation system.

The unit works fairly well, but could be improved. Gets me to my destinations, but sometimes via obscure routes. For instance, when I am returning home, even when I turn onto my street about 1/2 mile from my house, it still does numerous "route recalculations" to try to get me to use a parallel street until I am less than a block from my house. Next, the touch screen buttons could be a little larger - it sometimes takes several taps to get the screen to change. Also, receiving telephone calls via the MIO is a delight, but it's a much more complicated process to initiate a call - could have been made simpler. Lastly, having to disconnect the unit as recommended before starting the car each time is a drag. Overall, I like the unit but it sometimes seems like the designers didn't actually drive around with one in their cars at all. Otherwise, they would have corrected a few of these glitches.

I purchased this unit last week because I had kind of been looking at them and was preparing for a 1400 mile trip so I decided to go ahead and get it. I had read C-net's reviews and they ranked this as one of the top 6 GPS must have units. I was impressed by the looks and features offered. I wanted bluetooth capability which this unit had and not many others at this price point. I had a few days to try it out around town and on my trip and I am extremely dissapointed. First off and probably the biggest issue is the unit is very inaccurate, I would estimate about 1/2 mile off. Not a big deal when you know your destination but if looking for a specific address it is a major flaw. It does not tell you what side of the street your destination address is on, not sure if other units do. When exiting from one highway to another where you could go multiple directions it does not tell you the direction you need to go until after you exit. Once again not a big deal if there are two exits like 12A and 12B but if there was one exit with a split, this could be a major issue, especially if it were like a spagetti bowl where it was not a simple left or right deal.

Bluetooth performance, one of the reasons I purchased this unit because I had been considering a handsfree car device already, is almost unusable. The functionality of it is excellent and I had no issues paring it with my RAZR V3xx, or downloading my address book like many have mentioned, but the volume is so low you can't hear the person you are talking to over road noise and they can't hear you. There is also no way of adjusting the default volume, which is about 1/2, on the bluetooth so before I realized it was useless I found myself quickly trying to raise the volume on each call.

The unit has a couple of neat features like the ability to mark stationary traffic monitoring devices like red light cameras. The problem is that once marked it doesn't notify you in any way that the camera is there, it just places a tiny camera icon at the location you marked so unless you happen to be looking very closely at the map when you approached the location you wouldn't be aware. The unit is supposed to have many known devices already marked but after driving around a city with many of them, I have found none pre-loaded. Other neat features like warnings of your speed don't seem to work either. The device has the ability to show the speed limit of the road you are on, if known, but I have found no streets that show the speed limit, even major interstates that traverse the country. You can also set an "alternate" max speed and have the unit warn you if you exceed that speed by a set threshhold. I did this and exceeded that speed well beyond the set tolerance many times and it gave no warning. I did have the above features enabled in the settings.

Support on the device is horrible. There is no reference in the manual or on the company web site about when map updates, or expansions are available, how to get them, or if there is a cost involved. I have read on some forums that there is a cost for any map updates. The unit also had the ability to get live traffic updates when used with an optional cradle. Once again, no mention of if/when this cradle is available, the cost or of it at all actually on the website. You can subscribe to the traffic service though, ha.

The unit does have a farily extensive POI database, even compared to other units. After initially setting the POI categories I wanted to see, I could not figure out how to further alter them. I initially selected to show asian restaurants but I never knew just how many of them there actually are! There is a category for "my poi" and In the manual it says there is an application on the CD that allows you to import your own POIs from a spreadsheet, or to import up to date lists. My CD did not come with this application and of course, there was no download for it on the website.

The unit has some other negatives that may just be me nitpicking. Like it only comes with a quick setup guide, the full guide is on the CD. For a device like this that is used primarliy away from a computer, I expect a full manual so it could be referenced when you are on the road and have a question, like happened to me many times. I would also like the ability to set more than 2 favorite destinations. Currenly you can set home and work and unless any other favorites happen to be in your history you have to re-enter the address. I personally don't know any addresses other than work or home and would assume that most who would need a GPS would either. You can import your outlook address book including addresses but getting to them and back to the map is a pain. You have to exit the map application to get to the address book and once the address is found you have to restart the application which takes a minute or 2. Additionally the DC cord is a little short for larger vehicles limiting mounting options.

Bottom line, this unit has great potential, it looks great and has a great interface. It was nice to have on my road trip simply for the ETA and GPS speed functions (I have larger tires so my speedo is off). Most of the issues I have listed could probably be fixed with a software update but like I stated earlier the manufacturer gives no indication of if or when one is coming, or even acknoledges any of the issues in any of the FAQs even though most are being discussed extensively on the GPS forums. Since I don't know when or if my unit will be patched to function properly, I will be returning it and I can't recommend it to anyone else.

My partner and I had been looking for a car GPS receiver since moving to the Seattle area a few months ago and, after many hours of background reading on the net and plenty of "hands on" play with the competing models at CC, we decided on the Mio 520.

Our search included the Garmin Nuvi 350, Tom Tom ONE XL-S, Mio DigiWalker 520 and the upcoming HP iPaq 310 and Mio 620. While we liked the look of the iGo8-style 3D graphics on the iPaq 310 and 620 there were no models in the store to try so we quickly ruled out the last two as non-starters. To make our decision we looked at the criteria that were most important to us - GUI design, audio quality, routing, route control, POI quantity/quality/access, Bluetooth compatibility, product maturity, support, upgrade options and price.

Here are our ratings based on our own experience and background reading. Remember, these are highly subjective assessments. (1=best, 3=worst)

GUI design: Tom Tom(1), Garmin(2), Mio(3)- many buttons/fonts too small on map screen.

Voice quality: Tom Tom(1), Garmin(2), Mio(3)- more options needed for TTS

Routing: Not tested personally but online consensus seems to be Garmin(1), Tom Tom(2), Mio(3).

Route Control: Mio(1), Tom Tom(2), Garmin(3)

POI quality/quantity/access: Mio(1/1/1), Garmin(3/2/2), Tom Tom(2/3/3)- horrid access method.

Bluetooth: Mio(1(Nokia 5300, Moto Razr V3 both worked fine)), Garmin(N/A), Tom Tom(N/A)

Product Maturity: Mio/Garmin/Tom Tom - not much in it with current lifecycles.

Support: Garmin(1), Tom Tom(2), Mio(? but not expecting great support from Mio)

Upgrade Options: Tom Tom(1), Garmin(2), Mio(3 - seems to depend on user-base hacks at this time but might improve)

Price: Mio(1), Garmin(2), Tom Tom(3 - XL-S)

Features: Mio(1), Tom Tom(2), Garmin(3)

In summary, I think the Mio DigiWalker 520 has been a very good choice - for us. The Bluetooth worked perfectly with our phones and mp3's/video performed as expected - given its hardware limitations. Routes have been pretty good so far around the Seattle/Bellevue area but, then again, I don't expect miracles like some other GPS users. If I were to criticize the Mio 520 in any way, I would focus on the GUI and voice quality. I prefer a no-frills map when navigating and that's an area where I think the Tom Tom got it right but I can see that a few more street names wouldn't go astray. Oddly, the Mio has a terrific keyboard screen for data entry and all the other ancillary screens are fine but the buttons on the main map are simply too small for me and I have narrow fingertips! I also think that Tom Tom did a little better on the audio front - not too chatty, decent speaker and a wide-range of voices. I hope Mio works on that design element a little more in future models.

So ... to wrap up. Mio DigiWalker 520 is a winner in our view and I will be recommending it to my friends until, either HP/NavnGo irons the bugs out in its new design, or Mio brings the 620 onto the market in the U.S.

Happy trails!

This is my second GPS (I had my first one for about two years). I can say that with all of the people bad mouthing the unit, I was at first a bit worried about how it would perform. Anyhow, I didn't experience any of the bugs that seemed to be existent in the previous reviews. Just for your reference, i have a v3.3 map and its dated July 2007. I'm guessing they most likely updated all of the GPS knowing there were bugs with the ones they first came out with.

As with TTS, it was nice and clear. I can understand how people are saying its "robotic" but in reality, it all depends on which word she is trying to say. I live in Los Angeles and with some street names being in Spanish, of course it's not going to pronounce it the way local people would. But, with ordinary words like "Continental, Kentwood, Venice, Overland...etc" the TTS had no problem pronounciating the words just as a human would. Anyways, I wouldn't find it strange for some words to sound robotic. After all, "Samatha" the TTS voice is a robot. But its nothing that would really bother you if you heard her say 2 words out of 10 words "robotically." There was no stuttering (again this might be because they updated their software for the GPS sold now) and the directions were clearly understandable.

Some people had problems connecting their RAZR to the unit. I thought at first oh well I'll just have to give up that option, but to my surprise, I was able to pair my RAZR V3 to the C520. When you do the phone paring, it might help to select the button "Mobile Phone" (located on the main screen right when you start up your GPS from shut down mode) and do the connection with bluetooth in that menu option. Have the GPS "search" for your phone while its on discovery mode. A lot of reviews I read stated that the GPS freezes while trying to connect. However, I really think they just didn't wait long enough. It takes like a minute for them to pair so you just have to be patient and wait till it connects.

The battery life though really only last about 2 hours. I've read somewhere it's about 4-5 hours, maybe from a cnet review but at least when I used it (w/o Bluetooth powered on) it ran for about 2 hours or so. I'm not surprise and I wouldn't complain either. It's such a slim GPS that there is a limit to the battery capacity it can fit within its shell. Also, its lightweight. Thus, a longer lasting battery would only make the GPS bulkier and heavier. A lot of people had problems with plugging the unit in since it came straight out of the bottom of the GPS. I recommend buying an "L" shaped plug for the USB. I had one that came with my RAZR and now I use it for the GPS. It basically has the same male and female end of the usb but they are 90 degrees from each other, thus give the "L" shaped plug that would fix the problem for people who dont want their GPS situated too high off the dashboard.

The TTS and bluetooth problems were the most frequent ones I heard and I just wanted to state for the record that none of these problems occured in the one I got. I bought this on amazon (obviously) from a vendor named "6ave" or sixth avenue electronics. Perhaps they have ones that aren't defected anymore.

All in all, I think this GPS was a great deal. You simply can't find another GPS with all of these functions in it for under $300. Also, with its neat widescreen and slim form factor, it's super pleasing to the eyes and makes passengers admire your new high tech toy haha. People seriously complain too much about this GPS but to my opinion, I just think they are way too picky. With Mio putting out this product with TTS and Bluetooth for under $300, I'm surprised people still buy expensive models like Garmin Nuvi. Also, a lot of the past reviews were dated right when the GPS was first sold (I think around May 2007) which obviously had lot of bugs in it. However, I bought this unit in October 2007 which is almost half a year later and it seems to be in good shape now. A good lesson learned: never buy a product when it first comes out....companies know these bugs are there but they are forced to launch their product so they figure they'll fix it later since its covered in the warranty....however, I just dont think the shipping costs and time to send my GPS back to them would be worth it. It's smarter to buy a product after some time it has launched on the market...on a side note remember the Wii straps that kept breaking off?