Mio Navman M300 Deluxe satnav review

Mio Navman’s entry level M300 should prove ideal for newcomers to the world of satellite navigation with a low price tag and enough features to get you from A-to-B comfortably.

Indeed for £80 you do get quite a lot for your money. Inside the box for example you’ll find a mains charger, car kit and protective pouch which we certainly appreciated as even though the 3.5” PND is respectable in terms of its build quality we wouldn’t expect it to survive too many drops to the floor due to its plastic surround.

However the overall look and feel of the device is quite positive, with a light compact profile which partnered well with the small car cradle, aiding portability to and from the car.

Delving inside the UI was blessed with a selection of large and colourful icons which were responsive enough to the touch from either a hand held or driving position. Mind you while the interface was fairly straightforward to use some of its features, such as performing route simulations or detours, were handled from the map view by pressing down on the screen – rather than being under the main menu like the majority of sat navs – so there is a slight learning curve required to familiarise yourself with all the options.

A welcome touch is the text-to-speech support which pronounces letters or numbers as you type, but with its predictive text system in place (which also displays the closest address match as you type) we felt the process was a little sluggish.

In terms of driving, the map view wasn’t the most graphically endowed we have seen, with the number of POI being displayed kept to a bare minimum, but on the whole its armament of directional aids was good, with lane guidance and road speed warnings being joined by one particular highlight.

At the base of the screen you get the road you are currently on alongside the house number which automatically counts down as you pass each property, thus if you are unfamiliar with a given area this should help pin point houses which may be set back from the road. It’s a feature we haven’t seen before, and worked really well.

As mentioned above there is text-to-speech available for typing in destinations, but it does not work for speaking road names, however, apart from being able to pronounce motorway junctions (with reasonable success). We also had to experiment with the default voices as ‘Emily’ for example spoke in a rather mundane tone. Thankfully you have additional choices on the device, with more available to download from the supplied DVD.

Route efficiency was respectable, as were route re-calculations; though it does inherit the same annoying niggles as we’ve seen on models in Mio’s S series. For example if you go too far off route it has a tendency to simply prompt you to perform a U-Turn until you route safely back on track, rather than recalculate a whole new route.

A standard 12 month safety camera database was provided in the box, with both visual and audio warnings available that can be setup via the preferences option. There was nothing major to report here it has to be said with all cameras on our route being detected correctly.

We didn’t expect to find Bluetooth support as standard at this price point, but there is a handy trip logger to record and view back your mileage later in Excel (ideal for company drivers), as well as support for NavPix (geo-tagged images) and Infobel, which you can use to search and download additional POI to your device using the supplied MioMore PC Desktop software. While the latter was useful the only thing it does not seem to do is transfer the phone numbers across.

There is an upgrade path for adding an optional TMC receiver which will set you back around £62. Of course along with the continued safety camera subscription (it only lasts 12 months) this does make the base price seem less attractive, but at least you have the choice.

The M300 Deluxe is not perfect, it does have enough quality features to get you from A-to-B comfortably and at £80 it won’t break the bank in the process.

Price: £80
Web: www.mio.com
Map coverage: UK & Ireland

Verdict: 8/10

Written by Brett James. Originally published in Smartphone Essentials magazine.

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