Garmin (leader in Global Position Systems or GPS) and Asustek Computers have joined forces to create a new SmartPhone brand known as Garmin-Asus which they launched earlier this month.
The new duo showed off their first two SmartPhones at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this week and I have to admit after a quick glance they both seem pretty impressive but as for the final verdict, well we’ll just have to wait and see.
One phone operates on Linux and the other on Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.1. Garmin-Asus have stated that they intend to create phones around all operating systems including the Google Android. Nice one!
The first phones to be launched by Garmin-Asus are the Nuvifone G60 and the Nuvifone M20. Both phones make use of location based services (Ciao), delivering maps and other useful information such as routes, points of interest, places to eat, location of friends’ whereabouts and so on. They will even update your social network location information. Hmm, not sure about this!
An interesting and useful feature is the geotagging for photos, so no more trying to identify just where and when you took that special photo as the date, time and location will automatically be recorded. I suppose if you get lost you could always take a photo of your surroundings and send it to someone who would then know exactly where to find you.
Ok let’s quit messing and take a closer look.
The Nuvifone M20 has a 2.8” touch screen with a 480 x 640 resolution. It runs on Windows Mobile 6.1 operating system and has 4GB or 8GB flash memory. Also pre-installed are outlook, excel, PowerPoint and word.
The 3.0 megapixel digital video/camera is passable but not overly great. It also comes with tri-band GSM and 3G as well as Wi-Fi. There has been no release date issued so we have no idea when this phone is going to be available.
The Nuvifone G60 was originally announced last year and is going to be available right away to mobile service providers but we still don’t know which of them are likely to take it up. It has a 3.55” touch screen with a 272 x 480 resolution.
This one runs on Linux and has a 4GB flash memory. Again the 3 megapixel camera is adequate but nothing special.
Altogether they’re not bad phones. The only problem is we don’t know what they’re likely to cost.
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