Mitac Mio 8390

I've been looking around for a good Smartphone for a while now, well since I sold my e100 6months ago. I've had no idea what to get until I saw the new mio8390, I had to get one! So I emptied out the piggy bank and got the baby so here is my review! Let's start with the box, it's a nice big box, looked bigger the than the box that my e100 came in!

Mio 8390 - Box Open

The contents of the box are as follows:

• Mio 8390
• Battery
• Cradle
• USB cable
• Mono headphones
• Charger
• American plug adapter
• Manuals and CD

I got an extra battery with it; this was bought separately and does not come with the original package.

The cradle is very interesting, it's like a separate unit on its own, not physically attached to a USB cable, instead the cable just clicks into place, just as if you were plugging it into your phone, and the charger plugs into the cradle so it powers it! The cradle has an extra bit on the back which allows you to charge the battery separately. This is great if you have two batteries as you can leave one to charge and swap it when you need to.

I like the charger; it's more like the Nokia type, not like the spv/e100/e200 where you had an attachment to charge the phone, this make everything much simpler.

Mio 8390 - Box

Mio 8390 in Cradle

Mio 8390 Box Contents

Mio 8390, Panasonic GD87 - Front

Hardware

• Operating system - Windows Mobile 2003
• Java application environment - meets Java MIDP 2.0
• Processor - 200MHz Intel 'Dalhart'
• Memory - 16MB, expandable to 128MB
• Display - 2.2-inch TFT LCD; capable of displaying 260K colors
• Expansion slot - accepts SD/MMC cards
• Multimedia - plays MP3, MPEG4
• Communications modes - GPRS with GSM 900/1800/1900 extension slot
• Built-in digital camera
• Weight - 125 gm
• Dimensions - 99 x 51 x 24 mm

The phone is a clamshell design with external antenna, built in camera and mirror for self-portraits. When you open the flip it has a soft click, not like the gd87 which makes a pretty hefty click when you open it! When you open it the layout is fairly common with the incorporation of the back and the home buttons as standard on Smartphones, the keypad has a solid feel to it with English letters on it as well as Chinese. The Mio brand is clearly visible on the front of the phone just below the screen.

The left side of the phone has the volume buttons along with the SD card slot which has a protective plastic cover.

Mio 8390, Panasonic GD87 - Back

The back has a large 'Designed for windows' logo on it and the top has an infra-red port along with headphone jack which also covered by a plastic cover.

Under the hood:

The SIM card is located under the battery clip as with other Smartphones. The external screen is small and monochrome and shows basic information and has the Mio name and logo below it, the camera can then be found on the bottom left of the outside of the flip which is a great position for taking photos.

Panasonic GD87, Mio 8390 - Open

Mio 8390, Panasonic GD87 - Side

Software

The Mio comes pre-installed with some custom software...

Applications

• Java application
• Chinese MMS application
• File Explorer
• Task Manager
• Phone Viewer
• Video Player
• Pocket MSN (not sure how to use this yet as its all in Chinese!)

Games

• Jawbreaker
• Mio Burning Rush
• Metal Strike
• Solitaire

Conclusion

After using the Mio for the last two weeks I think it's an amazing phone, pretty quick (quicker when I use the 'Smartphone turbo app' to over clock it to 300 MHz!) and a lot more responsive than my e100. The phone build is a bit 'plasticy', it doesn't feel as solid as the GD87 unfortunately. The front LCD is very useful; it shows the time in analogue format as well as your signal and battery level.

A few drawbacks are:

• Not all programs will run on it
• The phone is a little large
• Chinese MMS and MSN software is irritating as most won't be able to read it!
• The battery life is not great, I tend to swap battery's everyday
• No Bluetooth?