I live between two large cities – Sacramento, California, and San Francisco. I travel to either city infrequently, but I often would get turned around and lost in San Francisco. I’ve known for the longest time that my only saving grace from frustration and money wasted on gas would be to finally buy a GPS system for my car. I’m still rather fickle about paying for such devices, but I went ahead and bought one anyway: the Mio Moov M400.
I bought the Mio Moov M400 at Radio Shack on Black Friday, so I only paid $79 for it; it normally retails for $149 and many places offer it for $99. I knew just enough about GPS systems that I wanted one that could get me from point A to point B with an accurate map, lane guidance and a screen big enough for me to see. After two weeks of use, the Moov M400 does just that, and not much else.
Ease of Use. It’s difficult to say whether the M400 is too complex or too simple by industry’s standards. For me, there’s just enough technology to do what I need it to do. The 4.3-inch screen is large enough for me to use the touch-screen features without becoming too distracted or pressing the wrong feature. I can choose from 2D or 3D views of where I am in conjunction with where I’m going. It takes the M400 anywhere from a few seconds to a minute to locate where I am at on startup. The roads and directions are very accurate for my travels; I tested the directions to familiar places, and they were accurate. It’s more handy to use when you learn what all the icons and symbols represent. For example, once you program your destination, you can press an icon on the right-hand side of the screen that tells you how fast you are going and how much distance or travel time is left.
What gets complicated is trying to use the various menu screens while driving. Granted, you shouldn’t be using your GPS while driving (there’s a pop-up warning for that), but even the passenger can get confused. There are several screens you must navigate through to set up destination points, find points of interest or establish preferences. Once you get into the menus, you’ll find some convenient features like locating the nearest ATMs or gas stations. There’s one place in Sacramento that always gets bogged down in traffic; there’s an M400 feature that lets you avoid that area when planning your routes. In fact, the icons for more popular restaurants and businesses will show up on the map screen as you enter their vicinity.
Software. If you use the accompanying MioMore computer software (my package didn’t come with a USB connector plug, unfortunately), you can add your own pictures (via NavPic) to the points of interest. I would suggest spending time with the M400 at home navigating and programming your destinations rather than trying to do them on the fly. MioMore allows you to update your M400 with up-to-date maps for all 50 states and Puerto Rico. If you are looking for Canadian and Mexican maps, sorry: those aren’t included. I have no problem spending the time to learn all the menus and computer software in order to maximize my M400’s features. There are some nice options like avoiding toll roads or implicating alarms for going over the speed limit that I discovered. For the more technophobic, this could be an issue.
Extras. There aren’t too many bells and whistles with the M400, but I’m not concerned with some that people expect in their GPS devices, such as Mini-SD cards, MP3 capability or Blue Tooth hook-ups. The M400 comes with none of them. But the text-to-speech is great, and the lane guidance is a handy feature for those who must navigate places like downtown San Francisco. The packaged mount it comes with was easy to install. Battery life is around 2 hours, but a plug-in car charger is included. The car is where you’ll be using the M400 the most anyway.
At less than $100, you’ll get a good deal. Overall, if you want a simple, reliable GPS system, the Mio Moov M400 is just that. It appears to be great for people like me that are first-time GPS users and take day trips; maybe not so easy for people who do frequent trips to multiple destinations outside the local area.
