Mio H610 DigiWalker GPS – Texas Ranger

By Ken Sander

Mio H610-GPS

Mio H610-GPS

The Mio H610 DigiWalker GPS is perfect for pedestrian use. Its display is a touchscreen, with 65,000 colors and 320 x 240-pixel resolution. It may be small, but it’s bright and clear, though I did have some difficulty with glare in sunlight. The Mio H610 DigiWalker uses the newest 20-channel SiRFstarlll portable GPS receiver and is preloaded with TeleAtlas maps for North America. To use the Portable GPS Navigation Systems you must bring up the onscreen keyboard, which could stand for some magnification. Apparently Mio realized this and included a stylus of sorts.

Enter an address or POI (point of interest) and the Mio H610 will calculate directions by the fastest or shortest route. You can even set preferences like avoiding toll roads or highways. Once you program a route you can activate the Fly Over feature for a bird’s-eye view of the chosen route. Of course, you get turn-by-turn voice and text prompts. The functionality is intuitive, but as you get into other features its gets harder to figure out. A neat feature is the customizable shortcut key,  and there’s a reset hole in case it ever freezes up.


Doing What Is Custom

Viewing angles are available in 2D or 3D, and you have the option of switching between day and night modes. Activate the Tilt/Zoom function and the Mio H610 automatically zooms and flattens the 3D view as you come to a turn. You can program in avoidance preferences such as dirt roads, ferries, etc. A neat automated feature is dynamic sound, which increases volume as your speed increases. POI (points of interest) is extensive and well organized.

Unique to the Mio H610 is the Travel Kit option, which has a compass and a complimentary three-year subscription to the WorldMate travel application. WorldMate has built-in clocks that can display local time in four time zones, a currency converter for 233 different currencies, a clothing converter for international sizes, a measurement converter for weights and distances, and more.

On the entertainment side, the Mio H610 DigiWalker has a full-feature MP3 player. How fully featured? Try a graphic equalizer that has 11 presets. It can also play video and display pictures. Additionally, they’ve loaded games onto the Mio: Fireball, Gem, Plumbin, flux, etc. There’s an SD slot, even though the H610 has 2 GB of internal memory But since those 2 gigs are used for maps and POI data, I suggest that it would be prudent to use the SD card for your entertainment apps.

The Voyage Home

The Mio H610 DigiWalker definitely has some way-cool features. I especially had fun with the Mio cruising around New York City on my bike. With the H610 I have my music and video along with the portable GPS. Some of the applications are really useful and creative, though finding a few of them can be difficult. The only drawback is the small screen, but it’s still quite serviceable. Being a guy, I wouldn’t dream of asking directions so I always liked the whole portable GPS thing. Generally, when I’m flying somewhere I leave my portable GPS at home. The Mio H610 is definitely coming with me on my next trip.