The Mio C710 is a portable GPS unit that is just as much at home in your car as it is in your hand. This ultracompact system provides reliable navigation in a tiny package, and its multimedia capabilities add some entertainment to boot.

On the navigation side, the C710's 2GB of internal memory comes preloaded with maps of the United States (with Alaska and Hawaii) and Canada, including over 5 million points of interest. The maps don't appear to be as up-to-date as with some competitor units, but this is a minor complaint. The C710 is quick to lock onto your current location, and route generation is generally fast and reasonably accurate. If you make a wrong turn or purposefully stray from the plotted course, the C710 will automatically adjust your route to get you back on track.

The C710 provides visual and voice-guided turn-by-turn instructions. However, the vocal guidance consists of generic "turn left in 100 feet" cues, as opposed to the more advanced text-to-speech (TTS) guidance that speaks the actual street names.

The C710 is able to receive Traffic Message Center (TMC) information that alerts you to traffic jams and other delays on your calculated route. When such an alert is received, the C710 gives you the option to have it automatically reroute you around the trouble spot. You get three months of the TMC service for free with your purchase of the C710, but after that you must pay an annual subscription fee.

The C710's multimedia player has some unexpected features, including an equalizer and the ability to create playlists. You can play music, pictures and even videos saved to SD/MMC memory card, although the compatible formats are limited. The C710 supports MP3 digital audio files, JPEG images and DivX and MPEG4 video. Music sounds surprisingly good through the headphone jack, although a competent set of headphones helps considerably. The C710 has a basic mono speaker, but that is really only suited for the voice-guidance commands.

An intuitive user interface makes the C710 simple to operate. The 3-1/2-inch LCD touchscreen can display up to 65,000 colors, but even an average amount of ambient light makes the screen hard to read. This proves to be an annoying problem during drives on sunny days. The 5-hour battery life is respectable for a portable GPS unit.

One handy feature is the C710's Bluetooth function, which allows you to integrate your Bluetooth cell phone. Incoming caller information is displayed on the screen, and the C710's integrated microphone and speaker turn your system into a hands-free phone. However, the list of compatible Bluetooth phones isn't extensive, so if this is an important feature to you, make sure your phone is compatible before you buy.

Despite a few shortcomings, the Mio C710's effective navigation and surprisingly capable multimedia functions make it an entertaining and reliable portable GPS system.


Pros:  Extremely portable, reliable route calculation, multimedia playback, TMS-capable
Cons:  Screen can be hard to see in certain situations, limited Bluetooth phone compatibility, preloaded maps not quite up to date