msmobiles.com/f

[msmobiles.com_robot]

Apart from E-TEN G500, Mitac Mio A701 is one of few Pocket PC phone with built-in GPS. Here comes very detailed review of this phone, that however lacks any original photos (it looks like The Register can't afford ...

Read more at http://www.msmobiles.com/news.php/5162.html

[kvee]

Err, what "Microsoft Bashing"? In 5 review pages nothing is said about Microsoft or the way WM5 runs on this phone. The comments are confined to phone features. You are creating more inflamatory bullshit headlines again. I put this down to pure jealousy and envy of a decent website. Very childish !!

Plenty is said in a factual reasoned way about why this phone has certain shortcomings. That's what I want to read about in a review - how the phone features work in practice. If the camera is rubbish I want the reviewer to say that and why.

And talking of photos, has this site ever published any ORIGINAL photos??? All you have done is blag photos from other websites and had the cheek to stamp "MS Mobiles" on all of them. Its you who needs to invest in a digital camera, not The Register. Your site should be called The Magpie not MS Mobiles. You know what Magpie birds do don't you??? Yeah that's you!!

[RICOUK]

I think someone got out the wrong side of bed!!!

Anyway, It seems a perfectly decent phone to me.
Crap camera, don't use it anyway.
No hardware buttons for the softkey, theres a big touchscreen right in front of you.
Small bugs, will probably be fixed with ROM updates.

I can't really see anything majorly wrong but I would rather test it myself just to make sure. Seeing as the Atom or RW6828 don't seem to be released here a GPS phone would go down nicely.

[robbyb]

It IS a decent phone. I've had mine for about a week now and I can't see what is wrong with the review. I agree that there is no MS bashing too, and all the points the author has made are mostly valid. It's clear that the author has played with one for a bit and Mr M.S. Mobiles hasn't.

He does need to take a chill pill and stop bashing other website efforts and increase the quality of his website.

But I'd like, if I may, to take some of the author's points and augment, or counter them, as necessary:

Yes, it is 'only' Bluetooth 1.2 but I already have it working with my Motorola Bluetooth car kit without a problem. I was a sad muppet and bought one of those Oakley BT sunglasses, but they are useful for ski trips and I'm off soon for my final trip. I'll pair it with my A701 and let you know.

Yes too, the camera isn't the best in the world. But then I wouldn't send a boy in to do a man's job. When you absolutely, positively have to take a picture, you need a proper camera! So I'm not at all bothered by the A701's camera.

The stylus is thin and a little awkward to get used to at first - but I wouldn't call it flimsy.

I agree with the author that the A701 needs two hardware buttons - that's one of my wishes for the next model.

He's right too on the battery. As a phone, as a PDA of sorts, the battery is more than good. But try to use the phone's GPS feature without any external charger and you probably are only good for two or three hours.

But the GPS is handy and good. I tried it in 'pedestrian' mode and it took me all the way to the office without much of a hitch. It was probably a bit confused to find that a pedestrian can travel at 45MPH (I was on the train). I tried the A701 in 'fast car' mode (I've got a Focus 2.0 but I drive fast!) and I'll agree with the author, it does seem to find odd routes compared with my existing GPS, but it gets you there. And that's the main job of a GPS. The A701 has four options that govern how the GPS behaves that I can play with so I'm sure that I can get it to perhaps route more directly.

I get that same weirdness when it comes to postcode navigation too. The second part of my postcode also begins with 1 but the MioMap has moved me to a 2. But even with 4 character postcode entry and the missing 1, it got me home.

His comment about the speed of the phone in GPS mode? It seems fast enough for me in real use. I haven't used the A701 just to browse the maps. I'll have a go at that.

The Mio says "Beware!". It says this when you are driving over the speed limit.

My verdict?
I think it's a great phone! I wasn't expecting it to be the best GPS, just as I wasn't expecting it to be the best camera. I found it a little fiddly to get the GPS settings right but once that was done, all has been well with it. One feature I think will be useful is the ability of MioMap to navigate straight from a Contact. You can hold-click down on a contact and MioMap will pop up and load the address into its software. But if the address isn't formatted just so in Contacts, then MioMap becomes unable to understand the address. But it could be worth adjusting my contacts...


RobbyB

[RICOUK]

So is it worth the £440 price tag? (including map software version)
Is it actually released the because I cannot find it for sale in the UK.
Any more info on your opinions would be great.

[robbyb]