The C720t is the latest in the Mio range and as far as value for your money goes, the Mio has everything you could want at a relatively good price. But in saying that, there a few basic problems with the Mio that set it back slightly.

The unit comes bundled with a good deal of accessories right out of the box. The USB charger and the soft leather case are great additions - we wish competing brands would provide them in the box too. The TMC antenna for traffic updates is also a fine addition, if only because we can’t wait before the TMC service finally kicks into gear later in the year. When it does, the C720t will be ready to roll.

The actual unit is small and light. It’s one of the sleekest units you’re likely to find on the market, and looks identical in shape and form to the last model, the Mio C520.

The C720t has a large 4.3 inch widescreen, big enough to see what’s going on, until you realise the menu directions are placed in a column in the far right hand corner and tend to take up a further quarter of the screen landscape. This is a real pain - if you’ve ever used Garmin and Tom Tom menus you'll know they feature the critical direction and speed data at the bottom of the map, an area that doesn’t compromise on mapping data.

Mio have added an array of useful extras in this unit like mobile Bluetooth connectivity, a photo album, mp3 player, a video player and a tool box which features a business card scanner, calculator and file manager. We'd question whether people wanting just a simple GPS to get you around town would really need all these added functions.

The card scanner in particular jumped out at us in one of those ‘what the?’ moments that we regularly have, but upon further investigation, we can reveal that it’s just an appropriation of the 2.0MP camera that comes built-in to the camera. We tried to take a few pics of some business cards and while they looked adequate, they weren't very clear and looked a little blurry in parts.

The 2.0MP camera is worth having though, because apart from being able to take half decent pictures for personal use (although very susceptible to vibration and poor focus), there’s also a function on the C720t known as ‘geotagging’, primarily for taking photos of places you might wish to remember later on and get directions to. The feature automatically attaches a GPS coordinate to the picture, so you can access the file later on. The geotagged data can then by synced up with the internet and you can go get software like Google maps to display where you’ve been on your last holiday or day around town.

We experienced a couple of problems trying to get the geotagging feature to work easily. It separates the C720t from the older generation Mios, but it could of been a lot simpler to use.

The mapping system is particularly fast at processing searches and displaying the topography of mapping areas. It looks like a mix between a 3D and a 2D representation and moves really quickly around without making you feel lost. POI’s (point of interests) are handily located in the mapping data section by clicking a single button, but like the models before it in the Mio range, it still feels a little annoying that so much the screen needs to be taken up to tell us where the closest petrol station is.

While the mapping is fast, the navigation instructions are the unit's biggest problem. While the lack of realistic human sounding voices might be a little disconcerting for some (anyone remember HAL from 2001?), the Mio confuses with too much complicated data showing on the screen at once.

If for example you want to change directions quickly, the Mio requires you to perform a series of back clicks and forward clicks which may easily confuse you. Driving with the Mio just doesn’t feel as intuitive as other units we’ve tested and the menu could be better labeled for clarity. The clickable map is interactive and useful, though we’re hoping that one day GPS manufacturers will allow directional changes to be keyed in to work with our voice prompts.

On the plus side, telling the C720t where you want to go is a streamlined process. Unfortunately Mio doesn’t includes the state name, so you’ll have to navigate through every town in Australia instead – which is a little frustrating. But we liked that the unit included a full list of streets in a particular town, so if you can’t quite remember what the street is actually called, it’s easy to scroll and find what you’re looking for. The POI’s are adequate and sorted into useful categories including shopping, entertainment and transportation. There are also pre loaded safety cameras, which are a good bonus that some of the other GPSs don’t include.

While the unit is an adequate step up from the C520 and is fully-featured, despite the menu problems and clunky interface, it’s not something I would particularly recommend over the more user friendly Tom Tom and Garmin devices.