Mio Digiwalker A501 Review
The Nokia N95 has set the benchmark for smartphones with sat-nav features and unfortunately the Mio DigiWalker A501 gets nowhere near it. The device packs plenty of features into a small space, but its sluggish performance, ugly design and lack of 3G and Wi-Fi support are just too off-putting to make it a success.
While Nokia has recently been muscling in on the GPS market with the N95, big names in the sat-nav world such as TomTom and Navman have shown no interest in creating phone-enabled GPS devices.
Mio, however, has been brave enough to step up to the plate with the DigiWalker A501. It brings all the features of a GPS unit, phone and PDA together in a single device that will set you back around ￡320 SIM-free.
The designers must have been on holiday when the A501 was developed, because it’s one of the ugliest devices we’ve seen for a while. The plasticky exterior doesn’t help its cause, but really it’s the stubby and chunky dimensions that are the real killer. Design-wise, it sits in the no-man’s land between a PDA, a sat-nav and a phone. It’s too stubby to feel like a phone, too small to feel like a PDA and is too fat to fool you into thinking it’s a sat-nav.
Full marks to Mio for trying, but the A501, at around ￡320 SIM-free, is a disappointing attempt at shoehorning a sat-nav, phone and PDA into a single device. Its sluggish performance, ugly design and lack of 3G and Wi-Fi support will leave most people cold. If you’re after a device that has similar functionality we’d advise you to take a look at Nokia’s N95 instead.
Tags: benchmark, designers, fi, gps devices, GPS Guide, gps market, gps unit, killer design, Navman, no man, nokia, nokia n95, real killer, sim free, single device, smartphones, TomTomRelated posts
Posted on August 23rd, 2008 by admin
Filed under: GPS Guide
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