After a controversial start, Mio Navman’s new Spirit interface has been shaping up much better, and we actually warmed to it considerably in the Mio Navman Spirit 300. The Mio Navman Spirit 500 is the widescreen sibling of the 300, offering a 4.3in display, but it’s still extremely keenly priced.
Fortunately, Spirit wasn’t just a new interface – it also signalled a more free-form way of accessing the underlying address database. The Find icon offers the usual options for locating your destination via address, or by name if it’s a Point of Interest. You can drill down from city to street with the former, and via category with the latter. However, Spirit also allows you to search by keyword. Simply enter one or more words, and a list of any matching results will appear. Best of all, the keyword search is across an entire country and includes Points of Interest. So if you don’t know what city your destination is in, you should still be able to track it down, whether it’s a street or a tourist attraction.
The main menu also offers a Capture button for storing your current location in My Places – handy for saving a destination which doesn’t have an obvious address listing. There are also icons giving you direct access to the most frequently used category of POI, including petrol stations, hospitals, restaurants, tourist attractions, car parks and cash machines. There’s a route planner for creating journeys with custom waypoints, as well.
The Spirit 500 also incorporates a Travel Book, which is a tourist guide based on WCities data. This is essentially a more detailed POI listing, so you can read information about potential destinations. Phone numbers are also listed, so you can (for example) phone a restaurant in advance to make a booking, then navigate to it using the Spirit 500. Our sample came preloaded with data for London, Paris and Rome, but more can be downloaded and installed.
