Windows Phone Thoughts: The Mio Digiwalker 339 - Multimedia To Go

In the hand, the m339 felt comfortable. The four buttons, located below the 3.5 inch transflective screen inside the 121 mm by 73 mm body, are well placed and responsive. On the unit I had, the buttons gave a reassuring click when pressed. The joy stick was responsive and felt far more comfortable that the dpad on my iPAQ 2210.


Figure 5: The buttons are well spaced and the joystick is very easy to use and responsive.

The stylus is a little thin but is quite comfortable to use. When you extract the stylus from its holder on the top left of the device, it extends telescopically to its full length.



Figures 5 and 6: The stylus fully extended and contracted.

The screen is one of the better ones I have used. It is very bright - far brighter than my iPAQ h2210. When viewing photos and videos it was very clear with great color saturation. In bright sunlight the screen was only just useable. I can’t see this device being used outdoors very much.

Start your Engines
The m339 is headlined by the popular Intel PXA 255 processor. In supporting roles there's 64 MB of RAM (57 MB is user accessible) and a 32 MB ROM. However, a notable omission from the cast is a permanent file store like many of the HP iPAQs and Dell Axims.

Benchmarking, using Spb Benchmark, showed the m339 to be a steady, if not brilliant, performer. Benchmarked against the iPAQ h2210 for comparison, I got the following results.


Figure 7: While the overall picture is not that great for the Mio 339, the details of why it scored low need to be looked.

OK, so the overall score is not that great for the m339. The iPAQ h2210/5 scores significantly higher. However, when you look at the next few graphs you can see where most of this difference is generated.










Figures 8 to 12: As always, an overall benchmark is not the best indication of performance for a specific device.

What the detail shows is the much of the m339's poorer performance is caused by its slower file system. What it also shows is that the m339's graphics performance is somewhat stronger.

Not surprisingly, the CPU scores are almost identical. But then again, they are running the same processor.