Lobster 575

The Mio 575 as a unit is pretty average, with some good potential, but if you own a Mac and not a PC you will be in for a very bad deal. Mitac do not support the Mac platform, and from the day I bought my 575 unit the maps were out of date. This may seem a small problem - just update them - and the unit came with guarantee that if the maps it contained were out of date I could update them free of charge.

BUT, I could only take advantage of this facility and update my maps if my computer was a PC and ran a Windows operation system. When I took issue with them, they informed me they were considering producing a Mac version but could not tell me when this might be available.

My Mio 575 although generally OK in the UK constantly gets lost, especially in France because the map software is so out of date. I cannot update it because I don't own a PC and their only response was basically, tough luck, get a PC.

So my advice is, if you don't run a Windows PC don't buy a Mitac sat-nav. My other sat-nav is a Garmin and it works fine, I can get updates through my Mac and I am not treated like a second-class customer my their tech support. Unfortunately my Garmin is in my other car in the UK and I am in Switzerland with a duff Mio 575.

This review is for the Lobster 575 The 575 is a basic camera clamshell phone with a SubLCD, available in pink or black. My phone was a black 575 before I switched to a black Samsung Z500.. The 575 is the phone for those who don't need Bluetooth, MicroSD etc. but want a decent camera and Video recorder. It has a MP3 player and can access the Internet if you are with the correct service provider. The camera is 1.3 Megapixel. The internal memory of the Lobster 575 is decent, I'm not sure how much it is though. What I didn't like about the 575 is the default wallpapers. Without adding your own because there is no slot for a MicroSD card, you are stuck with only around 7 different options for the wallpaper, screensaver and SubLCD displays. This disappointed me a lot - I wished I could've known this. Overall, those who want a cheap phone with a decent camera and not much else, the Lobster 575 is for you. Those who want the major features like Bluetooth, MicroSD, Java World etc. this isn't the phone you are looking for. I was quite glad when I switched to the Samsung Z500.