Mio is known for its cutting edge GPS (Global Positioning System) products. The company’s repertoire has numerous quality examples of car navigation products and PDA navigation products, all leveraging the technology of GPS. Last year the company announced that they would be diversifying a little and were in the process of building a new mobile phone handset. The navigation products are extraordinarily popular, so there was a great deal of anticipation for the mobile phone that would undoubtedly be a market leader in terms of its inbuilt GPS capabilities. 

Finally, after a year-long wait, Mio has released the Explora K70 on the 3rd of March. The phone definitely does not disappoint, as it is an attractive model with quite a few unique features. 

Appearance of the phone

In keeping with the current mobile technology trend, the mobile phone is a touch screen phone. The casing is very attractive with a shiny cover. The touch screen stretches across a decent 3.5 inches, while packing in a decent 3 megapixel camera. There is a jog dial on the back to enable quick scrolling functions, and there are the standard hard buttons on the front. The phone is a slender 13mm, and weighs in at a lightweight 113gms only. 

Connectivity packs a punch

The connectivity features of the phone are completely phenomenal, with multiple options all designed to be most effective in quality and efficient communication, and data transfer. The connectivity features are the latest in the respective technologies, as well. There is a quad-band GSM and triple-band HSDPA/HSUPA, apart from the standard features like Bluetooth. The phone also has WiFi, and, of course, state-of-the-art GPS capabilities. The GPS is implemented using the gpsOne chip manufactured by Qualcomm.

The GPS is as magnificent as can be expected from a Mio phone. Earlier versions of GPS enabled mobile phone handsets did not have the intricate and extensive detail of the information that is available on a car navigation system, and the Mio Explora K70 addresses that issue very well. The GPS functionality actually offers a turn by turn navigation on the phone, surpassing all other attempts at integrating GPS into phone handsets by far. 

The company has also installed its own GPS access software application known as Mio Spirit. 

Miscellaneous features

The 3 megapixel camera has 4X digital zoom, and since the phone has such powerful connectivity and GPS functionality, it makes geo-tagging photographs much easier. The menu is entirely customizable, with definite emphasis on ease of use and convenience. The phone runs on Windows Mobile 6.1 at the moment. 

Pricing and Availability

The phone is unfortunately not going to be available in US, however UK consumers are much luckier as the phone has been launched there. There is no word as to the pricing at the moment, but the GPS smart phone is sure to demand a fair amount in the market. 

The phone comes with two different SKUs; the standard one with a charger and an USB connectivity cable, whereas the second one has a car charger, a device mount and carry case to boot.