While on the outside it looks much like any widescreen GPS receiver it adds an all new feature as well — the Traffic Management Channel.

Traffic Management Channel, or TMC, is a new service that delivers real-time traffic information to the GPS receiver allowing it to automatically re-route you around potential time-wasters such as accidents, roadwork and other traffic congestion. The local version of TMC is the SUNA Traffic Channel. It’s developed by Intellimatics, which is a subsidiary of the Royal Automobile Club of Victoria. SUNA takes traffic information from traffic cameras on on-road sensors and known roadworks and relays those to the TMC receiver via FM radio.

The Mio C720t receives the data from SUNA through an FM receiver in the cradle, relies on a separate subscription and is dependent on Sensis Maps R14 or better. The service is live in Melbourne, with Sydney and Brisbane expected to come online in the middle of 2008. TMC cradles will be available as an option for other Mio units, including the C520 and C320 for about $200 (TBC).

Setting the C720t up in your car is straightforward. The mount sticks to the windscreen with a suction cup and there is no perceptible wobble while driving. To use the TMC you’ll need to have the cradle connected to a power source (the cigarette lighter in your vehicle) and connect its FM antenna meaning that you’ve got two cables leading from the back of the C720t. We had to tie off the excess cable as we ended up with a messy tangle of wires. Perhaps version 2 will integrate an antenna into the cradle.

Once we were up and running it took the C720t about 90 seconds to get a clear GPS fix from a cold start. TMC came online a few seconds after activation. Directions are provided as ‘text-to-speech’, so you’re provided with actual street names during navigation.

One of the C720t’s strongest attributes is its display. The 4.3in TFT touchscreen running at 480 x 272 was crystal clear, even in bright sunlight while we wore sunglasses. There’s a night mode that is automatically activated, if you set the appropriate options, which makes directions and other route information easy to see in darker conditions.

Route calculation was swift, with all of our test routes around suburban Melbourne calculated in well under a minute. This is thanks to a 400MHz processor which comes in handy if you choose to use the C720t as a mobile media player by loading videos and music through the SD slot.

Rounding out the C720t’s long list of features are Bluetooth and a 2MP camera. The Bluetooth’s a great feature that allows you to use the C720t as a hands-free unit for your mobile while you’re driving.

Why bother with a camera in a GPS unit? So you can shoot photos of places you visit and have the photos appear as you travel. You can also use the camera for taking pictures of business cards and saving them to the contacts application on the device.

However, no software is supplied for syncing route or contact information back to your computer. Given the device is running Windows CE, we’d have expected a copy of ActiveSync (and connecting to Vista using the Windows Mobile Device Center proved fruitless).

The C720t offers lots of potential. TMC is an awesome feature and the display is sensational. However, there are few rough edges that need smoothing to make this a sensational device.