Mio P550 Portable Navigator
Mio DigiWalker™ P550 - Full Featured Pocket PC w/WiFi and GPS Navigation

Poor Battery life. Can't sync with Vista. Tech support said they not planning to put any drivers for Vista and told me I should change my OS. It doesn't play well with nav progrms other than Mio map. It is a good idea (pda/gps combo) too bad they couldn't pull it off
 
Was this review helpful?    

at first look, it promises to be a great product with all the cool functionalities you could wish for in a GPS especially at 299$. but it fails to deliver what it promises. GPS takes forever to sync up (sometimes as much as 15 mins but mostly around 3 to 5 mins). not to mention the dreaded dump. without warning, the MIO maps crashes and the only option is to do a reset and wait for it to sync up. Doesnt have bluetooth calling even though it has bluetooth interface. in few words...this is not reliable. would have given better ratings if only it was more stable and reliable.
 
Was this review helpful?    

Received Mio with in a week but it was broken. It took almost 3 weeks to get working item due to return policy. Everything they say about this device is true. It is a nice affordable GPS device. However, it does have quirks. DO NOT install power patch. It was meant for earlier versions. Item often freezes and requires a reset. Battery life is fairly short especially if using WIFI. GPS works good. Takes a few minutes to get signal and newer streets are sometimes off. The down side is that you can’t pull addresses from contacts. Overall, this is a nice PDA. You won’t find a better price on a PDA with all these features. If your looking for a nice PDA for a cheap price and are willing to tolerate a few bugs, this is the one. I would purchase again.
 
Was this review helpful?    

Bought it as my first ever GPS a month ago. I find the PDA good, and had no problem with the battery but the device would crash if set and left on automatic lock. Navigation sometimes erratic, you have to exit mio maps programme and restart it again before you put in new address otherwise it gives wrong instructions,names of roads in small villages are not listed, no choice of address by intersections and I have not figured how toto save a location for future navigation yet.
 
Was this review helpful?    

Overall I needed a ppc for work to put reference material on, and it does the trick pretty well. As far as gsp goes you can load the tomtom software onto it also, and have 2 gps devices in one. The problem I have had with it, and am not sure if it is all gps devices, is that it likes country roads better than main highways. And truck routes better than parkways. And yes I have adjusted all of the settings, and it seems to give fairly close routes with both the mio and the tomtom software. Mio crashes due to some memory chunk overflow and tomtom doesn't. Also tomtom uses celeb voices, which is nice. Also works great with the old skype software if you can find an old version. just turn off "kill backlight after 3 min" and just dim it.
 
Was this review helpful?    

I have used everyday for the last 30 days and rebooted it a couple times. But overall I thinks it works fine. The battery life is a about 1-4 hours depending on what your are using the unit for. I have a Slingbox and Slingplayer software installed so I can watch my Directv receiver. This works great at most airports that have free wi-fi. It's nice to be able to watch any Directv channel while waiting for a flight.
 
Was this review helpful?    

I was looking for a GPS first, and everyone told me that I should buy a Garmin or TomTom. When I searched around, P550 suudenly caught me eyes. Why spending so much money on a "pure" GPS while we can get a Pocket PC w/GPS with half price? I have my P550 for several days and totally love it. WM5 plateform is equiped with all the software you needed. And you can download sofewares (games, skins, adobe readers, etc) you want to the on-board 2GB flash memory. The processor is great and I can listen to MP3 using media player w/GPS navigation on! Overall, P550 beats Garmin and TomTom for sure. One potential problem is that the MioMap3.2 could be a little bit older compared to the maps in Garmin. The MioMap3.3 w/TTS is coming but I have not get it yet.
 
Was this review helpful?    

<p><b>MiTech Mio P550 DigiWalker</b></p> <p>Summary: inexpensive starter GPS navigator and PDA</p> <p>PDA type: PocketPC with GPS, WiFi and Bluetooth<br> <p>CPU: ARM - Samsung S3C2440, 400 MHz<br> <p>OS: Microsoft Windows Mobile v5.0 (5.1.195, build 14929.2.2.1)<br> <p>ROM: R05.3.0101.0331<br> <p>Map: Mio Map v3.2<br> <p>Program memory: 54 MB, free 31 MB<br> <p>Storage RAM: 2 GB, free 503 MB (mostly for preloaded maps)<br> <p> </p> <p>The P550 is a PDA with GPS, and is intended for office and car use. It is most useful for navigating to addresses and points of interest in the city (office to hotel to restaurant), and for traveling on the highway. For geocaching and hiking, use something like a Garmin eTrex. The P550 has WiFi for wireless internet access and Bluetooth (BT) for wireless device-to-device connections. Using BT, I was able to transfer files from my PC, and send Palm TX contacts one at a time to the contacts database on the P550. The maps are generally good, but I ran into some roads near home and work that were not on the map so they can't be used for navigation. Also, some rural addresses can't be set to navigate to, although a tap on the right spot on the map will set a point that can be navigated to. The route generation is good but not perfect, and the P550 will quickly recalculate when you don't follow its directions.</p> <p> </p> <p>PRO: Navigation is generally good. Can use other 3rd party GPS apps. It is a PDA, with synchronization with Outlook calendar, contacts, notes, and email. Also compatible with Excel, Word, and PowerPoint. It runs some commercial and freeware apps. Plays MP3s, and with extra software, will play ripped and compressed DVDs and .AVI videos. Package includes car cig lighter power adapter, AC adapter, and dashboard mount.</p> <p> </p> <p>CON: Map isn't current; streets a few years old near home and work are missing or incomplete and so those routes can't be used for navigation. Device will sometimes fail to turn on, requiring a reboot, if left unattended for a few hours. Needs frequent recharging, so can't be taken out in the field for long periods. A number of freeware WinCE/Windows Mobile apps won't launch, or they will crash/freeze, refuse to install, or partially work. Plays MP3s, but headphone connector is smaller than standard. Microsoft’s ActiveSync 4.5 is difficult to use; sometimes won’t detect that the P550 is connected to the PC and so won’t transfer or backup data, software, contacts, email, and Office documents.</p>
 
Was this review helpful?    

Navigation portion works great. Pocket PC has all of the Windows Mobile problems. Trouble powering up after sleep. Finally fixed this problem and device lost it's navigation license. Had to send it back. Customer service is polite and knowledgeable but hard to reach and some of the warranty procedures are odd. However device itself is good for those 6 days I had it.
 
Was this review helpful?    

Pros: Does everything. GPS is awesome. Spearker is clear and strong, NAV is fast. PocketPC is really quick as well. Bluetooth, WiFi and SD slot in a very sturdy small unit. I paid 300 bucks for the unit and then another 60 bucks for a 4GB SD card and I have an GPS, MP3 player that has excel, all my contacts, can surf the web, and take care of my busy calendar. Bang for the buck this is quite the deal. In a word - WOW. Cons: Does not have a standard earphone jack, but comes with a converter, does not support high capasity SDHC memroy card but does support 150x standard SD which you can get a 4 GB one at http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=202104570&loc=101.
 
Was this review helpful?    

My Mio P550 arrived two days after placing my order. Auto, AC & PC hookups is awsome. Had to reset to recognize my SD card but everythin else worked perfectly. Realizing the P550 is a comprehensive PC/GPS, am using Users Manual to get familiar. GPS worked great, located my office and my home w/o a hitch. Video and audio is fabulous. Will try Wi-Fi this weekend on my system and maybe Bluetooth transfers also. Great productivity product and fabulous new toy!!!
 
Was this review helpful?    

Pro.This product come with window mobile 5.0,Sumsung400MHZ, 2GB ROM. It is easy to use. No acessories buy additional. Wi-Fi and Bluetooth work excellent. PDA and Navigator work excellent. I tests the navigator with new place, it work precisely and sound clearly. I only got a problem to turn on, when I download update software from mio-tech.com, after that this problem was gone. Con. Battery is not longer, 2-3hr on software application of window mobile.
 
Was this review helpful?    

I have used delorme software and gps for years so when i started using miomap it took awhile to figure out how to get to the screen I wanted. The maps seem much more accurate and detailed than DELORME but you can't add streets or save multiple routes like delorme. So far my biggest complant is that I have to push the reset (which takes a couple of minutes) about once a day before i can use it again
 
Was this review helpful?    

The product is a very good value. The instruction book is a little "lite" in its directions, and a lot of the commands are not intuitive. Sometimes when you input an address in the GPS, the unit can take up to five minutes before it starts giving you directions. If you are in strange territory, and do not know what direction to travel, this can be annoying. I suppose it all depends on how strong the GPS signal is when you use it. Other than that, it is a great product.
 
Was this review helpful?    

I bought this item on a whim. I had looked at several GPS devices, but I got this one because it was also a PDA and my last one had bitten the dust some time ago. I still haven't figured out all the goodies on it yet, but this little jewel rides right below the rear-view mirror every time I get in the car. The screen is easy to read while driving, even entering a new destination address is easy while stopped at a light or in traffic. I have found that the most useful part is not just getting from point A to point B, but that I never have to try to find and read the street signs along the way. They are much easier to read from the screen as I drive past at normal speed! The interface is easy to use, easy to read, and on major highways, even warns me when I am speeding. And I have the use of a normal PDA once I arrive at where I am going. I have been exceedingly pleased with this unit.
 
Was this review helpful?    

Wasn't sure after reading some reviews but after using for a while, glad I bought it! Has few short comings - has a hard time staying connected via Wi-Fi using DHCP but works well if IP is set manually. Has plenty of internal memory. Installed TomTom and compared it to MioMap - hard to say which is better. MioMap has some good features that if were in TomTom would make TomTom A+. Overall - good purchase and I haven't regretted it.
 
Was this review helpful?    

Mio DigiWalker P550 This is a very interesting combination of devices. Having already had a Mio C-310x GPS and also an HP iPAQ rx1950 PDA, I purchased the Mio P550 to replace both devices. My observations so far: The P550 is virtually identical in performance and sensitivity to the Mio C-310x. Screen views and menus are virtually identical. If you know how to use one, you can easily use the other. The basic functionality of the P550 related to PDA functions is quite good. Windows Mobile is exactly what you have learned to expect, and Word and Excel file handling is also what would be expected. I found the unit handled WMV files better than the HP/iPAQ unit. Some disappointments: 1. Audio playback quality on mp3 files, etc is dismal, compared to the rich quality of the same files played back on the HP/iPAQ. 2. Audio Recording (thru the microphone) is also dismal. Unlike my iPAQ, There is no AGC, and the audio is smeared by digital noises probably generated in the PDA. The HP/iPAQ is light-years superior to the Mio unit in this regard. 3. Replaceable battery: The mio unit claims the battery is replaceable, but you will not find any information in their manuals explaining how to open the battery compartment for a replacement. 4. WiFi: My wireless router is configured to only accept pre-approved MAC addresses. The P550 apparently ONLY has a MAC ID for Bluetooth, but none for WiFi; thus I cannot connect the unit to my wireless network unless I am willing to compromise the security of the entire network, which I am NOT willing to do. 5. Support: I tried to use their Customer Support to explore the issue (4) above; was promised a timely response but never got any further response. I think their customer service is managed by the same Cave Men as seen in the Geico Insurance ads. Overall, it's a neat combination of functionalities provided you don't care about MP3 audio quality on playback, and don't care about MAC id's for WiFi. Last but least, don't plan on much in the way of Customer Support. Otherwise it's a great combinational unit for the price. All things considered, I would buy it again, knowing about the caveats; but I will not dispose of the HP/iPAQ unit yet!
 
Was this review helpful?    

I love it. Best Value. There is a patch on Mio website for P550, they released it in march'07. Do not install that patch, you will shot the GPS. GPS will not work after installing that patch. Customer service is poor.
 
Was this review helpful?    

I was looking for a WiFi Skype phone when I came across the P550, which I purchased here for $299. Already owning a Mio c310x GPS I was familiar with the mapping software and the value of their products. The P550 seems well constructed and loaded with features. The WiFi works well with an open network but took a little time to set-up a connection with my WPA network. Although it comes loaded with software, I found I had to DL the latest version of Pocket Skype and install with the easy to use ActiveSync software. Overall the P550 is a great value for a quality PDA and BTW Skype works great.
 
Was this review helpful?    

Positive Points *Excellent Value *Easy to use *Slick design and solid built *Clear, precise directions *for the money, this is probably the best GPS on the market *Many, Many features that are found in much more expensive devices *Amazing GPS reception Negative Points: *Must exit GPS software to use PPC functions *joy stick-style direction button very clumsy, overly sensitive and more recessed than necessary *No locking mechanism to prevent the ON button from accidental functioning
 
Was this review helpful?    

This device nicely merges a PDA with a GPS while not compromising the quality of either device. I've tried it up against TomTom and Garmin and it holds it's own nicely. The built in wireless combined with bluetooth helps it intergrate nicely with your existing equipment. People say..."well it's not a phone"...ah, but it is! Basically you can put pocket Skype on it and when you're near an unlocked wireless network you've got a phone basically. Tech support is good when you can get them and it's not an intuitive as the Garmin but other than that I think it's a winner.
 
Was this review helpful?