Mio DigiWalker P550 – Poor battery life

When you are traveling frequently it carrying too many gadgets can be a hassle and this is why devices like these can be very handy for mobile professionals. This device lets you organize your appointments and information of trip and also can provide you tools to work while you are traveling. This is handheld GPS gadget and it comes preloaded with North American maps and there is also a GPS receiver built in which helps you with you appointments. This seems to be a great travel companion on paper but the performance is disappointing. Times of satellite acquisition is really slow and the routes which are prescribed aren’t always efficient. All these features also charge the battery heavily so you will need to be near a power socket all the time. Mio DigiWalker P550 costs $399.95 but we will recommend you to spend a bit more and get the HP iPaq rx5900 Travel Companion which has better performance.

The Mio DigiWalker P550 is 0.6 inch deep, 2.4 inches wide, 4.1 inches high and weighs about six ounces. The design is quite similar to the aforementioned HP device but it is not as attractive. The edges are rounded and the casing is glossy silver and orange which isn’t appealing. We wouldn’t call it ugly but it is just a bit pedestrian and frumpy. Apart from that, the device is easy to carry and easy to use while on foot. The construction is solid and at the back, the device gives a cheap and plasticky feel.

On the front of the Mio DigiWalker P550, there is a three and half inch display which gives a resolution of 240×320 pixels along with 65k color support. The display is colorful and bright, maps and text had a bit of pixilation and they didn’t look that sharp as we’d have liked. On the bright side, the screen is readable in lots of lighting conditions which includes even bright sunlight. Below the screen there are four quick launch buttons which includes search for Points of Interest, Power, Contacts and Maps. Except for the power button, all the rest are user programmable to bring up your favorite applications. The buttons are roomy and large and you won’t have much problems pressing the incorrect button. We didn’t like the five way navigation array with the joystick in the middle. It is very delicate and needs light touches to move it around.

Mio DigiWalker P550 has a SD/MMC expansion slot and 2.5 mm phones jack and on the bottom, you get a master on/off switch, reset key and mini USB jack. On the back there is a car connector for antenna.

Mio DigiWalker P550 comes with reference manual, ActiveSync software, MioMap DVD, 3.5 mm adapter, vehicle mount (dash and windshield), USB cord, car charger and AC power adapter. It is easy to install vehicle mount holds the device securely in the place when you are on the road. The cradle of the Mio DigiWalker P550 is designed in order to hold the device horizontally. This lets you switch the screen’s orientation to get your maps optimal view.

Mio DigiWalker P550 can be used both as a handheld GPS and PDA device. For navigation, the gadget has 20 channel SiRFstarIII receiver for GPS and it comes preloaded along with TeleAtlas maps of Canada and US. The gadget has similar MioMap navigation application which we had on the manufacturers standalone portable devices for navigation like Mio C520

Mio DigiWalker P550 lets you enter your destination through address, point on map, or select from recent history or Favorites list. The device can calculate directions by fastest, shortest or cheapest route and also without or with toll roads, highways, etc. The PDA features a big POI database along with all major attractions and plenty of specific categories.

The maps are there in 3D or 2D with colors of night or day. Zooming in and out of maps is possbie land you can also route to the points or the destination along way and also use Add Cam tool in order to see where the cameras of safety are placed. You also get your streets name on the screen, remaining distance, next turn, estimated arrival time, etc. All the regulars such as text and voice guided turn by turn directions are there but it doesn’t have support for text to speech functionality in order to speak the names of the street. You get options for preview of Fly Over of route which is prescribed or itinerary’s detailed view. The device supports the automatic recalculation of route if you get lost.

Apart from the application of mapping, Mio DigiWalker P550 has subscription for 3 years for the WorldMate 2005 Standard Edition. It is old version than the one in rx5900 but it does give you handy tools like world current times, international codes for dialing, weather info, packing list and also converters for measurement, clothing size and currency.

Mio DigiWalker P550, for PDA, runs on old Windows Mobile 5 Pocket PC Edition. You get Microsoft Office Mobile Suite along with mobile models of Windows Media Player 10, Outlook, Internet Explorer, PowerPoint, Excel and Word. Apart from that, there are PIM tools like notepad, task list and calculator. The device has 2 GB of flash ROM and 64 MB of SDRAM. There is also SD card expansion slot. The device comes integrated with Wi-Fi (802.11b/g) and Bluetooth 2.0

The Mio DigiWalker P550 has 1200mAh lithium ion battery but the charge was lost really fast in our lab tests. It only lasted a couple of hours of tooling around.

Pros

GPS-PDA combo device, comes preloaded with North American maps, has Windows Mobile 5, free 3 year subscription to WorldMate travel.  Integrated Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS reciever

Cons

Doesn’t generate routes efficiently, initial satellite acquisition takes a bit of time, low battery life, screen not that sharp.

Outcome

The battery life is poor and the navigation skills are subpar and hence we won’t recommend you this device.

Specifications

• Mio DigiWalker P550
• Included Accessories – Cigarette lighter adapter, Car holder.
• Processor – Samsung S3C2440 400 MHz
• ROM – 128 MB – Flash
• RAM – 64 MB – SDRAM
• Supported Flash Memory Cards – SD Memory Card, MultiMediaCard
• 3.5 inch TFT LCD
• Display Resolution – 240 x 320 pixels
• Microsoft Windows Mobile 5.0 – OS
• Software – Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0, Windows Media Player 10 Mobile, Microsoft Pocket Outlook, Contacts Synchronization, Microsoft Pocket Office, Wireless Manager, Picture Viewer, Calculator, Mio Menu, Calendar, Eviewer, Inbox.
• Supported Audio Formats – WMA, WAV, MP3