Review: Mio Digiwalker 520t sat nav

Recent additions to Mio’s range of in-car sat nav devices take the form of a new slimline design, and in the case of the C520t include a cradle with integrated TMC unit for traffic updates.

Utilising the same Miomap3 software found in all of Mio’s latest range, there’s not a lot of difference in terms of the mapping, menus and navigation.

Instead, the main upgrades involve the slim design and tweaks to the interface. The 520t sports a very impressive 4.3in widescreen display and is a little over a centimetre thick, making it one of the slimmest on the market. There’s also a pretty powerful integrated speaker that means spoken directions can be heard over the radio as well as giving the built in mp3 player a bit more appeal.

Although the map software is effectively the same, the large widescreen design has allowed Mio to experiment a little more with the interface. You’ll now find a more advanced cockpit view with tabbed shortcuts switching between a speedometer display, configured POI (points of interest) categories, traffic warnings and the route itinerary.

When being directed en-route you’ll find the more traditional distance/ETA information found on previous models in this series. This allows you to view a lot more without trawling through menus, but in practice it’s often quite frustrating (and potentially dangerous) to use on the move.

The tabbed controls are extremely small, as are the menu shortcuts tucked into the corner of the map display, making it a bit too easy to hit the wrong button by mistake. We also noticed that skipping between menus to access settings or other applications often involves quite a long pause which can be frustrating.

There are a some good features such as Bluetooth support for phones, a photo viewer, contacts list and mp3 player, which you can now use in map mode or when opening other applications. Unfortunately you need to exit map mode completely when accessing any of the other features which, as mentioned, can involve quite a long delay.

Other niggles such as the lack of a volume control on the exterior make adjustments more awkward than they need to be, rounding of a rather disappointing performance, particularly from a usability point of view.

The highlights of the unit, including the excellent display, slim build and improved interface on the main map, aren’t really enough to help the 520t stand proud in a market that has moved a long way over the last six months.