Mio A201 GPS unit with rotating antenna

Navigators in Europe will be able to pick up the latest GPS PDA unit offered by Mio this holiday season. The new A201 sports a 312Mhz Intel Bulverde processor and 64MB of RAM, and perhaps best of all, it improves on the old 12-channel receivers by featuring the latest 20-channel SirfStar III GPS chipset. This will aid in signal pick up and reception.

Speaking of reception, somewhat unique to this device is its rotating GPS antenna. This allows the user to use the A201 in either portrait or landscape mode (with a simple push of a button) without any loss in signal strength. While the A201 does provide Bluetooth connectivity and Outlook synchronization, it is surprisingly lacking WiFi and GPRS capabilities.

The less reflective screen on this TMC-capable (Traffic Message Channel) GPS unit is a definite plus, but it shipping without any GPS maps or mapping software is a definite minus. Running on the Windows Mobile 5 OS, the Mio A201 can be had for £239, or about $418 USD.