Doug’s put up a review at our friend site, Gear Diary, of the Clarion MiND, what you may ask is that? I think most of you would only be familiar with Clarion as a car stereo manufacturer, so when they come up with a device like the MiND, [media, internet, navigation device], we are all probably left scratching our heads. The MiND is running a Linux based operating system, and is powered by an 800MHz Atom processor.

So what exactly is it though?

Somewhere between a personal media player, an internet tool and GPS device? Or is it More of a Mid, somewhere between a PDA and a netbook? Doug explores all of these possibilities, as well as giving us a comprehensive look at this somewhat perplexing device. I know Doug to be a fair and unbiased reviewer and his conclusions here are, well, I’ll let him tell you

Let me ask you how much you think this would cost.  Let’s go over the specs.  It has a roughly 1 hour battery, almost no internal memory (though it can be expanded through the USB or microSD), a free web browser (Firefox), free media player (Real Player),and GPS functionality.  Toss in a few extras and an extremely nice WVGA screen.  What are you thinking?  $100?  $200?  Yeah, that sounds about right…well, if that is what you are thinking, you are beyond cold.  You are going to have to shell out $650 for this one.  Let me say that again…$650.  Let’s just take a minute to put that into perspective.

I went over to Newegg to take a look at comparable devices and how their prices compared.  here is what I found:

– The Archos 7, with its 320 GB hard drive and massive battery will set you back $540, leaving you plenty of room to purchase the Archos GPS attachment.

– You could buy almost 2 iPod Touch 2G, with 32 GB of memory at $389 each.

– You could buy an MSI Wind ($399.99), Zune 8 ($139.99), and Navigon 2200T ($199.99), replicating all of the major features and leaving plenty of room for additional apps and improvements, all for right around $650 total (after various mail in rebates.)

Any of these options gives you top of the line variations of all the same features, plus an awful lot more functionality, for the same price.  The truth is, I could not recommend the Clarion Mind for $100, let alone $650.  It is simply an underperforming and overpriced device.  Hang onto your money, as you can see, there are plenty of better options available.

Possibly a scathing conclusion, but I would agree, I can get two EeePc 900′s for that money. Whatever the conclusion though you should have a read as the MiND just might fit your budget and be your next on car media, internet  and GPS solution!

Doug’s review of the Clarion MiND at Gear Diary

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