Review: Memory-Map Mio P350 Navigator Sat-nav

One of the handheld computer flavours of the month is the Mio P350. This neat little handheld has a built-in GPS receiver, making it ideal for digital map makers to bundle their software with.

Memory-Map, purveyors of Ordnance Survey (OS) maps, has bundled together the Mio P350 and maps (your choice of region), to come up with the Memory-Map Mio P350 Navigator.

The Mio is a neat handheld computer with a 9cm screen and an integrated GPS. There's no need to connect a separate GPS through Bluetooth, and you don’t even need to flip up a little aerial.

There’s a suction-based mount to stick it to the inside of your car windscreen, but OS maps are generally too detailed to be safely read while driving.

What the package is crying out for is a specific starter’s guide. While there's such a thing for the Mio device, the mapping software and a help file for the Navigator pack, there's nothing to tie them all together.

For the £300 price tag, you get the Mio P350 plus your pick from of any of the three 1:50,000 Landranger sets: GB North, Central or South. Explorer maps, covering popular walking areas at larger scale – mainly National Parks – are also available and choosing these instead of the Landranger sets can drop the price to £270.

In any case, maps are loaded onto your PC and then sections are copied to the Mio before you set off.

Once working together, the Mio shows your current position on the reassuring OS cartography and you can mark way points and plot courses. The map can be easily scrolled, either with the stylus or the mini joystick in the centre of the four Mio buttons.

As well as the mapping function, you get all the features of a modern handheld computer, with Pocket Office applications, right down to the fiendish Bubble Breaker game.

This isn’t the ideal solution as a GPS for your car, but it’s a very good way of not getting lost when you’re walking in the wilder parts of Britain.

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Overall: With good sound and a straightforward interface, the Tom Tom One is almost everything a navigation system should be.
Rating: 4
Price: £280

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