Mio reveals Explora K85

Satnav phone announced

8 June 2009 11:53 GMT / By Lars-Göran Nilsson

Mio launched a new smartphone with built-in GPS navigation during Computex called the Explora K85, and as with many new devices these days, it has borrowed at least some inspiration from the iPhone.

The Explora K85 looks quite smart with clean edges and only a couple of buttons on the front of the handset.

It has a large 3.6-inch touch screen with a WVGA resolution on 800x480 pixels. It's powered by a 528MHz Qualcomm processor and it's also using the gpsOne GPS chipset from Qualcomm.

It's of course a HSDPA handset and it also offers Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. Mio has also added a 5-megapixel camera with auto focus, but it lacks a flash.

Mio has created its own UI on top of Windows Mobile and the company has also overhauled its mapping software and added a couple of new features such as the "Explore Mode" which allows you to browse around the maps looking for interesting things. There's also support for 3D landmarks and a better overview of junctions to make it easier to stay in the right lane.

Overall this looks like a decent enough device from Mio, but we're still wondering how many people actually use their phones as their main navigation device. Asus-Garmin is hoping for this market as well, at least if the company ever manage to get their devices into the
market.

Mio didn't reveal a launch date or pricing for the Explora K85.