Garmin-Asus nuvifone M20 and G60: Sat-nav smart phones
Sat-nav maker Garmin has teamed up with PC maker Asus to create Garmin-Asus, which has announced two smart phones with sat-nav functionality
When you're up against tough competition, teaming up with someone else is often a good idea. Enter Asus, the PC manufacturer, and Garmin, the sat-nav manufacturer. The two companies have joined brands to create Garmin-Asus, a smart-phone manufacturer. To baptise this new partnership, Garmin-Asus on Thursday unveiled two smart phones: the nuvifone M20 and nuvifone G60.
The Garmin-Asus nuvifone M20 (pictured) is a touchscreen device that combines Windows Mobile (6.1 Professional) functionality with Garmin's navigation software. According to Garmin-Asus, you can use the M20 to search for real-time traffic information, weather updates and movie times, but it's the location-based features that are the cherry on top.
A service called 'Ciao!' allows you to see where your friends are, but we assume they'll need to use the app too. Other location-based services include the ability to geotag text messages, emails and photos, and integration with your contacts and calendar, but we need to test the M20 out to discover exactly what that means.
The M20 comes with HSDPA (7.2Mbps) and Wi-Fi. You also get 4GB or 8GB of memory, depending on which version you go for, a 3-megapixel camera, the Opera Mobile browser and an accelerometer. We'll be able to give you more details on the M20 when we see it at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona next week.
Click on the next page for details on the G60.
The G60 is a slightly different beast to the M20 -- it doesn't run on Windows Mobile, instead using Linux. This is most probably the same nuvifone that we saw last year. The G60 is still very much about location services, including a fully-fledged Garmin sat-nav offering and the Ciao! service that helps you see where your friends are. You can also geotag pictures, and it even lets you find out where you are during a call.
Boasting a large touchscreen, 4GB of on-board memory -- which can be expanded using a microSDHC slot -- HSDPA (3.6Mbps) and Wi-Fi, we're looking forward to getting our hands on the G60. Our only concern is that it could be a little chunky, but we'll wait until we've had a play with it to form our final judgement.
Make sure you check Crave every day next week, as we'll be providing more information about these two phones and many more from the Mobile World Congress. Hasta pronto amigos.