Review compliments of Shaun McGill at  PDA24/7

I recently obtained a Mio Digiwalker P550 for review and it would be fair to say that I was not exactly over excited at the prospect of reviewing a non keyboarded PDA with no phone capabilities. I admit to being sold on the Smart Phone idea but at the same time have suffered more than my fair share of issues with Treos, KJAMs and various other overly complex 'smart' devices.

First impressions

I opened the box and expected a standard Windows Mobile PDA and that is what I got (sort of). The P550 has a nice black design which makes a change from the now almost standard boring grey/silver look. It's hard to explain how the outer covering looks except to say that it appears to be bomb proof and highly resistant to scratches. The front covering is almost shiny with the sides and back having a matt finish and the shape works well in the hand- it has nice sharp edges at the front and a curved feel at the back.

The most surprising aspect is the weight- at only 170 grams for a device that is not small makes for a super light feel with the weight distributed evenly. I tried the balancing it evenly on one finger test and it did not topple over which is a good job as I am only borrowing it.

Build quality is also very good with a solid feel and no rattles at all from the buttons, even during good shake! There is a small silver hole at the top left which I presume is for a lanyard to be attached but it maybe part of the GPS receiver. Either way it is a nice bit of style on an otherwise conservative machine.

The screen is one of the best I have seen on any mobile device. I initially presumed that Mio had done the old trick of setting the default to brightness to maximum on first use but it was only set to half. It really is super bright and makes for great eBook reading and movie watching.
Even though it is only QVGA (VGA would have been nice considering it's 3.5" size) it is a joy to use and makes something like the QVGA XDA screens look poor in comparison.

The buttons were the first part of the device that I was not too keen on. There are 4 main buttons below the screen plus a joystick and that's about it. Whilst they are sturdy and react well to presses the joystick is a bit over sensitive and I found myself selecting parts of the today screen when I did not want to. To be fair, after a few minutes that issue went away with practice but I am not a fan of joysticks when navigation buttons tend to do a better job. It would be nice to have a button on the side that could be customised as a scroll down button for eBook reading. That is very much a personal preference as I understand that most people read eBooks in landscape and thus the joystick is in a good place for that.

So what else do you get in the box?

The standard CD software- ActiveSync 4.1 and a CD user manual, a windscreen holder plus detachable holder for the Mio itself, cigarette lighter charger, AC adaptor and USB sync cable- basically everything you need for power whether at home, the office or in the car.

It's actually positive that Mio don't patronise the purchaser with a rubbish case and awful screen protector like some other manufacturers do...

All in all my first impression are much better than I expected and you need to remember that the P550 retails for £249.99 inc VAT which is superb value considering what you get for your money. WiFi, a SirFStar III GPS Receiver, 400Mhz processor and 128MB of space is not to be sniffed at.

Now it's time to see what it can actually do. Remembering that this is a 'cheap' device, retailing at £250, expecting a lot would be cause for immediate let down but...

The first test for speed in my opinion is to see how long it takes to switch from portrait to landscape. On my MDA Vario there is a definate delay when pulling out the keyboard but when using the switch button on the front of the P550 it happens with no delay at all and this is an example of the general snappiness of the device. It all seemed to good to be true for a Windows Mobile 5.0 device so I loaded up PocketWeather, PocketBreeze, Wisbar Advance and iLauncher along with some games (big ones) alongside eReader and TCPMP.

I did my now standard 2 hour test- one round of Hexacto Links, setting up 3 panels of shortcuts in iLauncher, fiddling with PocketBreeze to get it looking how I like (50 billion options), watch an episode of Without a Trace on TCPMP and read a few pages of an eBook. At NO point did the device slow down or freeze during this test and it hasn't since.

The Mio has more memory available than I have seen on the first Windows Mobile 5.0 devices and it took me back to the days of my first I-mate JAM running Windows Mobile 2003SE. It had 64MB RAM and was a nightmare to multi-task and often crashed when pushed. Enter the QTEK s100 with 128MB RAM and all was OK again- it would appear that WM5.0 also needs the doubling of memory to become a stable workhorse throughout a busy day and the Mio fortunately has that built in (for £250 remember).

The quirks I mentioned have been forgotten somewhat- it is quite easy to get used to the joystick although I do still accidentally push it at times when I don't want to.

So far we have discussed the P550 as a PDA but that is not its main selling point because it is the first one to include the new SirFStar III GPS receiver as part of the unit. I tested it with TomTom 5.0 and TomTom Traffic via a Nokia 6310i and it worked perfectly on a 3 hour journey. Not once was the Traffic or GPRS connection lost unlike with my Treo when the connection will drop at least 2 or 3 times during a long journey.

The receiver works as you would expect a SiRFStar to- location acquired in a matter of seconds and the signal up 100% of the time. When you consider the price of a standalone GPS unit you can purchase the P550 with included UK and Ireland maps on an SD card plus the whole of Europe on DVD for £309.99 inc. VAT. You would be hard pushed to buy a standalone unit with all of Europe included for just over £300 and when you consider that you get a very good Pocket PC as well this represents one of the best value options for navigation and general organisation.

The plaudits do not stop there though- WiFi is included for email collection and web browsing and again I found the performance to be above par. The Vario struggles to get a connection a lot of the time where I work because the Hot Spot is not particularly strong whilst the P550 was a lot more successful at acquiring a link in most locations in the building. I tend to use GPRS for email collection but the P550 showed me that with good coverage WiFi is a much quicker and cheaper option.

Is there anything wrong with this device? For the money not really because you are getting a lot more than could reasonably expected for the price. The battery life is acceptable but a little bit more would be useful and a few more buttons would be a big help for easing general navigation around the device.

The stylus is one of the best I have used- despite being an extendable unit it is big and thick and reminiscent of the Tungsten T3 one which is a bonus. I did not expect to like this device so much but it really is an excellent unit which does the job without over extending itself. It has not crashed on me at all, is super quick to use and the GPS side is as good as any I have tried to date.

Pros

Value for money!
Build quality
Excellent GPS integration
High quality recessed screen
Speed
Bundled accessories

Cons

Only 4 buttons and a small joystick
Battery life could be better

Conclusion

I have used more than enough superlatives in this review but it is such a good machine that- it could go to hell and back and still come out working without a hitch. It is so good it has shown Windows Mobile 5.0 in a whole new light to me. Because of my Smart Phone obsession maybe I need to look at the Mio A701 again and see if I can live without a keyboard after all. If you need GPS and want a good quality powerful PDA I can think of very few other places to look than the P550.