Mio Navman Spirit V575 TV
Includes a TV tuner, but we’d prefer more useful features
Price: £165 (£198 inc VAT)
Supplier: www.pixmania.co.uk
Maps: One-time European update, £42 (£50 inc VAT)
Performance: ★★★
Features: ★★★★★
Value for money: ★★★★
Overall: ★★★★
With smartphone sat-nav software so affordable these days, manufacturers of dedicated devices have their work cut out setting their products apart from the crowd. Mio’s Navman Spirit V575 TV is the only sat-nav we’ve seen to include a DVB-T digital TV tuner.
Obviously, it’s a bad idea to watch while you’re driving, and for a reliable signal you’ll need to use the larger, external aerial supplied rather than the small telescopic one. But it works reasonably well as a basic TV.
As a navigation device the Spirit V575 TV fares better than the 500 HF Traffic. The menu system is snappy and more intuitive, and the bright 4.7in screen is easier on the eye.
As with its smaller sibling, the V575 TV boasts TomTom’s IQ Routes, which bases its routes on real-world traffic speeds logged by TomTom sat-nav users, rather than posted speed limits. The result is route selection that makes sense, and by and large gets you to your destination faster.
We certainly found that to be the case in our tests. It directed us via the Limehouse Link on our cross-London route, and chose routes in our local test that avoided traffic hotspots. Audio was clear and instructions well timed, and the maps were simple to follow.
However, the V575 TV can’t match the feature set of the Garmins or TomToms: traffic isn’t a patch on TomTom’s HD Traffic, there’s no Google search, and we found the resistive touchscreen wasn’t very responsive. Along with a high price, there isn’t enough here to earn this unusual sat-nav our vote.
