Smartphone Thoughts: Fast & Powerful: The Mio 8390 Smartphone Reviewed

A Bundle Of Goodies
The software bundle that came with the phone included: TaskManager, PhoneExplorer, PhoneReader, PhoneCity, an MPEG4 Plug-in, and Mio Assistant. The first two applications are pretty self explanitory. PhoneReader allows you to read books in TXT, HTML, PDB or PRC format. PhoneCity gives you a glance of the current time in different cities. There are three different skins for you to select from. The MPEG4 Plugin allows you to use Windows Media Player on your desktop computer to view videos that you have created with the Smartphone's camera. The Mio Assistant is a wonderful program that should almost be bundled with every Smartphone. It is the kind of software my mother could use to manage information on her phone. It's very handy and easy to use, even if it is a little slow. :) Here's a list of what information you can manage using the Mio Assistant:

• Contacts;
  
• Pictures And Videos;
  
• SMS's;
  
• Mobile Operator Settings;
  
• Owner Info;
  
• Pocket IE Settings;
  
• Backup System Settings.

Figure 19: A simple interface to manage all the important settings from your deskop. Click on the image for a higher resolution image. (225KB).


Figure 20: Mio Assistant allows you to easily move pictures or video to and from the phone. Click on the image for a higher resolution image. (308KB).

Java, Java, Java. All the Java fans out there will be happy to hear that Java comes burned in. The bundled games are ok, nothing amazing or incredibly addictive. Personally, I would rather not have Java burned in, but that's just me. I don't care for Java, and I have yet to see any compelling Java-based programs. So I would rather have the memory freed up for something else.

The sounds quality from the phone's speaker was better than I expected. I loaded up my SD card with some MP3s and was surprised by the sound quality when I played them on the phone. I didn't experience any skipping or stuttering during playback. However, I didn't have time to burn any tracks at 196 bit-rate or greater to try it with.

Conclusions
The Mio 8390 is solidly built, very sleek looking phone with fairly good battery life and a nice dose of speed. 8) The lack of Bluetooth is regretful, however, Bluetooth is not a requirement for everyone. If you don't require Bluetooth, and the small external screen is not a concern, then I highly recommend you look into this phone.