Strengths: Small, portable, good signal pickup, ready out of the box, price under $150

Weaknesses: Support, low volume, illogical menus, some 'touch' buttons are small, lots of features for a basic unit, power cord plugs into the bottom of unit and is awkward.

Summary: I just returned from a 2 week 2,500 mile vacation roadtrip with a Garmin c330. This was my first experience with a GPS. I never had to look at a map or take my eyes off the road. I fell in love with it and wonder how I got along without one. I purchased the Mio for my son who's off to college and figured he doesn't need to be fumbling with maps in a strange city. Having used both GPS units they each have their pros and cons. As everyone else said - low volume is biggest problem - I have a convertible, but it is still low if you want the voice prompts and want to listen to the radio with the top up. The touchscreen buttons are small even though the screen dimension is the same as the Garmin. There is no PC interface, so planning a trip is all done through the screen. The POI lookup is extremely quick and has a ton of POI's - i looked up my dentist for the heck of it, and he was in there with his phone number even though he moved to his new location just 2 years ago! On the other hand it did not find a golf course or a public swimming pool that are each located closer to my home than any of the ones it found? Some routes it plans are bizare. The Garmin was much better at this function. One trip to a relative was 32 minutes on the Garmin and 47 on the MIO and it was .7 miles longer at 23 miles vs 22.3 - I've done the trip 100's of times and the Garmin's time and rout is correct. Yes it would it get me there, but not the most efficient way - and I think it's time estimates are longer than reality. This unit does have the ability to plan a trip with various stop points and lets you avoid certain types of roads if you like such as unpaved or toll roads. It warns you of upcoming toll roads and will even tell you if you are exceeding the speed limit by a percent or mph of your choosing. All-in-all for the $140 this is a very functional unit and if you're using it to get around in strange areas, you probably won't even notice that it may not be the best route. At that price, it's somewhat disposable and if it gets lost or stolen, it's not going to break the bank. In a couple of years I suspect this whole market will come down dramatically in price like seems to happen with everything else I buy! For the reasons I just mentioned, I'll probably keep the Mio, but I like the logic and layout of the Garmin much better and if I were choosing between the two at an equal price point, I would go for the Garmin. Oh Yes... as others have said - Read the manual that is included on the DVD (not the printed mini-manual in the box) and plan to spend a day with the manual and the unit getting to know it! If you like to tinker with your electronic gadgets, this is the unit for you. UPDATE: I FINALLY gave up after trying to love this unit - I returned it - the volume is WAY too low and as a result I missed a number of turns. And that was in my SUV with the windows up and the radio very low. In my opinion, driving along and hearing an upcoming turn is a key benefit of a GPS. Also, I could not get accustomed to the illogical user interface. I'm going to try the Garmin Nuvi 350 - same compact size - more features - but $300+. Hope the sound is better!

Strengths: Compact, Stylish, Price

Weaknesses: Not good map software, not smart POI search

Summary: Overall this is a very good entry-level car GPS system for the price. Compare with Garmin streetpilot 330, this one is more compact and stylish. Its 20 channels receiver is definitely another plus. The biggest disappointment is the map software. Although this new product uses 2007 version of Atlas map, my 5 year old address is still not on the map. Also incorrect U-turn instructions are especially bothersome for NJ drivers. Plus finding POI can be difficult if you cannot remember or misspell the name. It also lacks of some useful high-end functionality such as announce street names, Bluetooth, and real-time traffic. But nonetheless, it function well as a basic level car GPS and get you to where you need to be. Its fast route recalculation can be very useful for the detour situation.

Strengths: low cost, great signal

Weaknesses: low volume

Summary: love it, bought it at $190 when it was on sale. work great so far. excellent GPS for the money, with great signal using SirfStarIII GPS chip, very update maps. only minor is volume is a bit low as others has said.

Strengths: Price, size, speed, accuracy

Weaknesses: volume, no other functionality

Summary: While it is not the best in the market, it is amazing for the $. people have some success in hacking it with C250 utilities, to play mp3 files. However, I think it is nowhere as hackable as 310x. Performance wise, it is very good. Takes a minute to receive GPS signal at startup. In few instances it lost GPS signal en-route but picked up signal with a second or two. POI database is wonderful with phone numbers. Routing is pretty good, so is the speed of recalculation if you miss a certain turn. There is no TTS, but the screen displays the road name and GPS unit gives voice guidance to turn left/right in certain distance.

Strengths: Small size; accurate; quick to get position fix; quick rerouting; screen easy to read

Weaknesses: Some quirks in navigation; some inaccurate driving time estimates, missing POIs; some routing options buried in menus

Summary: I've been using this for a few weeks. I can only compare to iGuidance 2.0 running on a Dell Axim X5. It is very portable, screen is easy to read, plenty loud for me, even with the radio on at normal volume. The windshield suction mount works very easily. It is a step up from the admittedly out of date software I was using before. But there are a few quirks, most of which I suspect relate to the map data and not the navigation program itself:1) estimated trip times can be off - e.g., it said that a different route than how I usually drove to work over back roads should take 22 min. instead of the half-hour it takes me. It was wrong.2) on a trip in FL, it kept telling me to "bear right" because it mistook left turn lanes for the road going off to the left. Repeatedly, one turn after another for 3-4 in a row at times. Also, there's one exchange on my way to work that cloverleafs to the right and it tries to tell me to turn left. Interestingly, iGuidance, which uses Navteq maps (the Mio uses TeleAtlas) does the same. Parallel devolution, perhaps?3) POIs - I had expected it to have the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge in its POIs (iGuidance 2.0 did) - I was wrong. But I don't use POIs much so I can't address general completeness.4) menus - some menu options one might use frequently are buried too deeply, require too many clicks to get there, and not always obvious whether some routing options are on the routing menu or require going back to home and then advanced options.5) only allows 2 "favorites" to be stored - "home" and "work", but has large memory for previous destinations. Nice feature of offering previous cities from which you can then find address, saving reentering city name.For those wanting to hack it for mp3 player, etc., it looks like people are making progress and that is now possible.Overall, I'm quite happy with it when going places I don't know, and it's a good deal, especially when frequently available on sale.

Strengths: Good brightness, fast calculation, excellent maps

Weaknesses: Screen is a little small, menu structure not easy to negotiate, really should provide a paper manual

Summary: I bought this as a portable GPS for my frequent business trips. Too many times I got lost in strange cities while trying to follow Google Maps printouts. Since I have a factory navigation system in my Honda Pilot, I didn't want to spend a lot of money for a Garmin or Magellan since I already spent over $1000 on the factory system. Compared to my factory system, the Mio's screen is brighter (as opposed to other reviews that say that the display is too dim) and the calculations much faster. The POI database searches and sorts much faster as well (flash memory based as opposed to DVD on the Honda system). I must say, though, that the menu structure is much less logical on the Mio system... I've read the manual and still have trouble figuring out how to move to the right part of the menu structure. The Quick Install Guide is basically useless; all it tells you how to do is to mount it on the dashboard or windshield. The hardware and software manuals are on a CD. All in all, it's a great little GPS. I only wish that I hadn't bought the factory navigation system. The annual DVD-ROM updates cost as much as the Mio C220! Great value.

Strengths: low cost, great GPS signal, can modified to play movies and songs

Weaknesses: low volume

Summary: low cost (around $200), great GPS signal (using SirfStar III, the same chip used by many higher cost GPS), can modified (just google) to play movies and songs (partial WindowsCE 5, no ActiveSync yet) low volume when using it with GPS, you can increase the volume when playing movie or songs but you may hear some static. Overall, I like it though not as much as Mio 310.

Strengths: Accuracy, features, size, responsiveness

Weaknesses: Some functions are not intuitive--READ THE FULL MANUAL

Summary: I needed a basic GPS and thought that for the price (Circuit City: $180), that's what the Mio C220 would be. I was wrong! This is more than "basic". It has all the key features I wanted and more. Accuracy is scary. It calculates speed, distance and time all in real-time and lets you know if you go off-route be even a couple of feet. (Of course, that's because of my geographic location--US Mid-Atlantic--and the number of satellites that are providing a signal.) It has a speed trap database that you can add to and will warn you if you are approaching a known speed trap location. It's the size of the new Garmin Nuvi devices. What's missing are the announcement of street names (big deal) and Bluetooth service. Because the voice prompts are sometimes hard to hear, Bluetooth would be great--but then again, the Mio C220 is under $200! The Garmin equivalent is three times as much. Recommendation: Print out the full user's manual from the CD. The included paper instructions are limited. Play with the device and get to know it before really trying to use it on an important trip. The Mio is a European product and doesn't always follow American logic. Some things, such as creating an address book, are not intuitive.

Strengths: small size, precise navigation, rather fast "cold start".

Weaknesses: none

Summary: Compare to the Garmin c330, which I used in the past, the Mio c220 provides the same great navigation in a much smaller box. The only difference is the "Menu" organization. It takes, however, just a couple of trips to get used to it.Overall - C220 is a great portative GPS system, which will not break your bank. Highly recommended.