Mio Moov Spirit V505 TV Sat Nav with TV

After testing the previous MIO sat nav I was literally waiting at the door till the new version arrived, which wasn’t long.

The  Mio V505 Car GPS came packaged well in an Orange and Black box, with two pictures of Sat Nav units on the front, this threw me as it was early morning, it then dawned this symbolises GPS and TV, dohhh.

In the box

In the box was a smart, minimal slimline design Satellelite Navigation unit, TV tuner card very compact resembled a Flash memory card, Car cigar lighter charger with USB plug, TV aerial with suction cups, suction cup holder for the windscreen and finally a CD rom.

The look and ease of use

Looks great, and simple to use in a nutshell.

This latest Mio Sat Nav V505 TV, and like its predecessor the Mio Spirit 500 we reviewed last month was basically the same model with a digital TV receiver as you would expect its very stylish in cool colours black and silver with simple discreet buttons as well as being shaped perfectly, slimline and looking expensive yet modest, making the V505 TV sat nav unit a well designed solution making it a great a addition to any car windscreen.

The experience

As I was looking at the Sat Nav unit I realised owed this GPS a decent roadtrip for it’s first outing, and that was that organised – a road trip from Silverdale, Lancashire just outside the Lake District to Chiswick in London.

I fired up the GPS and just like the previous model I was presented with a menu of coloured boxes, however this Mio V505 had alot more features.

The first menu page has icons for Find, My Places, Explore, Travel Book, Map, Capture, TV  and a sub menu arrow, the second page has icons for My MIO, Petrol, Planned Trips, Home, Traffic, SOS, Food and one last sub menu arrow included in the final page is Tourist, Parking and Cash. Also displayed was battery life, and satellite strength as well as the date and time. Most of the features are self explanetary and after a little exploring the Spirit V505 car sat nav is a very simple gadget to use.

Time to test drive the unit as with all car GPS units, to add a destination is relatively simple either by using Postcode, Street, City, or Keyword, postcode, there were also a few other searches not usually found Find nearby, Find POI’s (Points of interest) along my route, Find a city/area, Pick on a map and the destination your leaving from. Postcode seemed the most apt, I was then asked to set a list of parameters to set, Tolls, Motorways etc and that’s it click GO and choose your map view 2D or 3D.  The screen displays on the right a plus and minus for zooming in and out on the map, there is also a tab where you can see ETA, Miles remaining etc. The voice was clear and precise, however like all GPS units it did confuse bear a direction and turn a direction and wrongly identified Speed cameras on roads it crossed, mind you of all the Car sat navs we have reviewed this is a common trait with all of them.

When on the road I could see my heading realtime and route updates, primarily which lane to be in. Periodically the GPS would ping and a Traffic Alert would pop up and  tell how far traffic congestion was ahead of me and the roads speed at that point, giving me the choice of re-routing or continuing.

A great option I found and this really assisted me in the centre of London, Picadilly to be exact was the fact that the Mio Spirit V505 TV doubled as a hand held GPS unit on foot and helped me find a club somewhere to eat and the car park.

The digital TV

As I expected this was the most awesome part of the Car sat nav experience, I was able to view extremely clear reception of various digital TV channels, including e4, Film4, BBC and ITVetc.

I will say that if you expect this GPS to allow to use the TV while travelling you will be disappointed, Mio have explained this is purely for the safety of the driver and keeping them focused, I found the TV receiver would work when crawling on motorways in queues or when stationary, it is quite clever how the car Spirit V505 TV cuts the connection when the car reaches a certain speed.

The verdict

A short and to the point verdict, a great improvement on the Spirit 500, and just as reliable with some new cool features, and the TV needs to be seen to be believed.

UK Car News