A GPS device with classic 80s Knight Rider styling and the original voice of KITT to show you the way: Mio could fill the box with rocks and still sell thousands of units to die-hard fans of the TV series. But Mio insists that behind the gimmick there’s a solid PND (personal navigation device); SlashGear strapped a wig to our chests, unbuttoned our shirts and released a hit record in Germany to find out.
First impressions are mixed. The Knight Rider GPS looks good, and perhaps the only time we can say that about the glossy black plastic, since it’s modeled after the original Trans Am coupe KITT was disguised as. What initially catches the eye is the 4.3-inch 480 x 272 touchscreen, but that’s quickly forgotten when the flashing red chasing LEDs start to light up. Mio worked with Universal Pictures to have KITT’s original voice actor William Daniels provide navigation directions, with lights flashing in sync as he speaks.
A mobile PND, it has a power button and SD card slot on the top and a mini USB port on the bottom. The Mio includes a car mount (for both dashboard and windshield), a USB cable and car charger, as well as an instruction guide and a CD with additional voice guides.
Replacing the voice guides is necessary because, while KITT will tell you which exit to take and when to turn, it doesn’t support text-to-speech (TTS). The Mio supports TTS, but Daniels didn’t record the necessary road names; instead, you have to delete one of the preinstalled voices (KITT, French, or Spanish) and replace it with a new voice profile from the CD. It’s a relatively simple process using a PC and the included USB cable, but it does dilute the Knight Rider theme.
If you can live with the absence of TTS, you can enjoy being called by name. That is, assuming your name is one of the 300 (half male and half female) preprogrammed into the PND. Once set up, you’ll hear a random phrase, such as “I’m going to boot all systems,” every time you turn on the Mio.
Address entry is via an on-screen keyboard (either ABC or QWERTY layout), and there’s no voice recognition, as we’ve seen in other recent PNDs. Mio has predictive text, which works well overall, albeit with some noticeable pauses, and route calculations are quick. Multi-stop journeys can be set up, with stops set at the start or added by tapping on the map, and there’s a list of favourites and a history of recent destinations. Mio can handle street addresses, postcodes, city centres or intersections, as well as routes that prioritise distance, motorway or toll road avoidance or journey speed.There’s also a database of around four million points of interest (POIs), organised in the usual categories. As the Mio Knight Rider isn’t a ‘connected’ GPS like the Dash Express or the new Telenav Shotgun, there’s no automatic updating of POIs. Also missing are traffic updates or a pedestrian mode; apparently David Hasselhoff never has to walk anywhere.
In use, the Knight Rider GPS lacks the visual appeal of other recent PNDs, but it does mark your location with a small picture of the KITT; whether that’s enough to make up for the lack of photo-realistic intersections, signs, and 3D cityscapes is up to you. There’s the option to switch between 2D and 3D maps, as well as the usual panning and zoom, with the current road shown at the bottom of the screen and upcoming turns at the top. A pull-up menu shows the estimated time of arrival, remaining distance and time, current speed and clock, as well as direction, GPS signal strength GPS Mio battery and volume status, and you can select an icon from each group to keep on the screen at all times.
The GPS uses SiRFInstantFixII technology. It acquires an initial lock in less than two minutes, and finds future “warm” locks in seconds. It also maintains a signal in densely built-up urban areas. The rerouting option is less successful, being slower than rival PNDs.
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Mio Knight Rider GPS Battery It’s a reasonable entry-level PND, at least in terms of the spec sheet. The obvious draw here is the Knight Rider theme, which fans of the original series may find appealing. However, you’ll pay a small price for it, making it a less than reasonable choice for those who aren’t too fond of cult 80s TV. Yes, it’s a fan’s choice, but others will get more bang for their buck elsewhere.
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