Garmin-Asus announces Windows Mobile-based nuvifone M20
By Chris Ziegler 
posted Feb 12th 2009 9:26AM
posted Feb 12th 2009 9:26AM
[Via MarketWatch]
- APAC/EU: 3G 900/2100; 2G 900/1800/1900
- NA: 3G 850/1900; 2G 850/1800/1900
- Other Connectivity: 802.11 b/g WLAN; Bluetooth 2.0+EDR; mini USB 2.0
- OS: Microsoft Windows® Mobile Professional 6.1
- Dimensions: 95.3 x 52.5 12.8 mm
- Weight: 99g (including battery)
- Display: 2.8", VGA 640 x 480, 65K, TFT with touch lens
- Display Resolution: 640 x 480
- Camera/Photos: 3MP camera, JPG format with auto-focus and geotagging. View photos in JPG/PNG/GIF/BMP format
- Flash Memory: 4 GB or 8GB
- Audio: Built-in microphone & speaker; Ring tone supported formats: MP3, AAC, AAC+, WMA, WAV, and AMR-NB
- Headphone Jack: mini-USB
- Video Playback: MPEG4/H.264/H.263/WMV @ 30fps VGA
- Video Recording: MPEG4/H.263 @ 15fps QVGA; Streaming Audio/Video
- Messaging: SMS / MMS / Email / MSN / Push Email (POP3/SMTP/IMAP) / Microsoft Exchange Email
- Internet: OPERA browser, HTML, WAP 1.2.1/2.0
- Sync: ActiveSync® for Outlook contacts calendar, media and documents
- Productivity: Document viewing: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF
- CPU: Qualcomm 7200A 528MHz
- Battery: 920 mAh Lithium (replaceable)
- Talk Time: 3G: 3 hours / 2G: 2.8 hours
- Others: Accelerometer
Uh... why is one side of the phone yellow?
I like it.
I think it's to let you know which side is the bottom when you hook it up on the portable/suction cup mount.
The whole back is i that color!
http://www.garminasus.com/garminasus/cms/site/home/lang/en/nuvifone-m20
NOW THAT IS A DPAD!!!!! Nice.
Hey its the nu ifone!
I think I want one
Dude, I think I just filled the cup.
Screen is too small.... I want big screens about 3.2-.4.2 inch...
A phone in pee yellow? What were they thinking?
Because every time I see yellow I remember pee...
Ha! Ha! Ha! Don't worry, they have different colors (blue, red and black, I think)
Zane, you should probably start hydrating more often if that's what you think pee looks like.
I'm really thirsty. When I was a kid I used to dehydrate, and my piss came out like snot. I mean, it was all thick and gross.
i like this to, to bad it doesnt have a slide out keyboard, it doesnt look like it.
"The nuvifone M20's full QWERTY soft keyboard makes it easy to send and receive SMS, MMS and emails. "
so yeah you're stuck with one of those crappy on-screen things OR unlike another touch-screen device you could use a bluetooth keyboard.
WinMo - just say no .. be a hoot to get Android onto it
Nice, but where is my Today's screen(or something that makes me glance at my PIM data). How about the memory expansion slot?
Smells like team spirit.
maybe it will be announced on march 31st like the date on the phone!
WinMo = fail
Garmin managed to kick out a Windows Mobile phone in the quarter of the time it took them to develop their G60 version. Thats why companies do Windows Mobile phones. Its easy, fast and cheap.
Look at all the delayed Android phones - Google is clearly not making it easy to develop those devices.
And at the end of the day a Windows Mobile phone will have more built-in features than any of the newer prettier OS's.
Clearly you don't own a WinMo phone or don't know how to use it.
While I do think that the basic WinMo UI is hard to use without a stylus, HTC, Samsung, and many other manufacturers have created amazing UI on top of the OS that make their phones awesome to use.
Plus, most of the cooked roms and themes are really cool to use as well.
It's good if a phone is good out of the box, but some people prefer tweaking their devices and making them perfect for them. I think WinMo is the most open and the easiest OS to develop and install stuff onto.
God, I'm sick of iPhone users (and others) who just say WinMo is fail. They don't know anything!
Anyway, I'm looking forward to this phone and its location based services. Hopefully these apps will be made available for other WinMo phones as well. Yay for Garmin!
no 3g?!???fail
You fail! triband HSDPA up to 7.2Mbps
oh yeah how many carriers offer 7.2mbps.? Oh that's right ZERO.
Isn't 3G on the very first line in the specs?
Is this supposed to be real competititon to the iPhone?
Haha you are joking right???
No....i think thats all that needs to be said.
Do all puppets suffer from piles?
"Is this supposed to be real competititon to the iPhone?"
Um, maybe it's supposed to be a CHOICE for consumers.
Or are we suppose to all just want the iPhone because all of the kids in your class think it's cool?
No of course, this phone or even better the nuvifone G60, or the Archos/android smartphone,or the toshiba /Win mob, belong to a far superior class of devices.
The iPhone belongs to the dustbin of history, an overhyped , underperforming gedget, which is currently being abandoned even by the cheapskates that form its biggest market because even in that price class far better and versatile dumphones can easily be found.
The two new Garmin/Asus are smartphones: its competitors are to be found among the devices I just mentioned and among the HTC whitestone, and tungsten or even the Nokia N97.
Apple will never be able to produce anything in this class , or if it will it would be obliged to sell it at 3/4000 $ because it would need to outsource all its components and obviously it would be pushed out of the market.
Honestly, I think WinMo is still better than Android. I don't think Android is a real competitor in the Mobile OS market. I'm not trying to make a fight here, I'm just stating (well, more like typing) what I think.
It doesn't look bad at all. I mean it. It looks better than a lot of other phones.
Question, though: How do I reply to a reply?
:))
WinMo IS better than Android. It IS better than the iPhone and it IS better than the Pre.
The only problems i can think of that are holding it back are intuitiveness and an App Market.
WinMo has all the connections, a library of countless apps and is pretty much open to do anything you want with.
Its a shame the graphics are circa 1995, that it still requires a stylus to do anything and there is no "conformity" between apps.
Alderz,
Agreed.
In terms of powers, capabilities, and features, WinMo is 2nd to none and untouchable.
However, in terms of interface out of the box on most WinMo phones, don't expect much.
HTC has pretty much changed all of that though with TouchFlo 3D, and when tweaked even further via custom ROMs by way of XDA-devs or PPCGeeks, a WinMo phone's interface can be made to look much slicker than that of any other phone.
I love seeing how simple and clean the main screen is. Hopefully garmin re-engineered the winmo extensively(ala-palm), not just slap some "theme" on it.
It would just be a today plugin similar to HTC's Touchflo.
I doubt its as extensive as touch flo, Asus/Garmin mobile division wouldn't have the time/money/expertise HTC has.
the iPhone can multitask. You have to jailbreak it first, which takes about 5 minutes. then every app you install is free! The iPhone is one of the top 3 phones available, if not the best.
winmo blows chunks it is slow unreliable have any of you tried a g1 its GUI is much slicker faster and much more user intuitive also the apps they are coming out with are more web 2& 3.0 than winmo could ever be. Winmo is on its way out and this is the year of Android.. wait till the mobile world conference, you'll see I'm right. Besides which Garmin has already said that they are releasing an Android based phone later this year q3 I believe.
BS.
You are ostensibly living in the past.
My Touch Pro running Mighty Rom says that you are wrong.
It can run more apps, perform more tasks (multi task as well for that matter), and perform more quickly than virtually any other phone on the market, especially the iPhone which lags by comparison, can't multitask, and is missing over a dozen features that are considered to be standard for any self-respecting PPC owner.
I hope your G1 has a goddamn grammar check somewhere for the next time you post, which hopefully will be never.
WinMo makes sense because most GPS devices run WindowsCE 5.0. Porting the navigation software from those devices to a WinMo 6.x phone probably doesn't take much work.
Does it have GPS as good as the standalone Garmin units? My Pearl 8130 has GPS, but it's inaccurate as hell... at least 1000 feet off.
Won't be seeing this on Verizon. God forbid a phone run some kind of GPS navigation other than their own VZnavigator that you have to pay for.
I think I'll wait to see an actual production model. Because these renderings make the phone look insanely thick. Almost like carrying a regular Garmin Nuvi in your pocket.
WinMo=Fail
Windows Mobile is dead
Considering all the new Windows Mobile phones coming out, it cracks me up to read stuff like that on some of these comments. Acer, Asus/Garmin, Toshiba, iMate, Gigabyte, Samsung, Dell, Motorola?, Palm or HTC sure don’t think windows mobile is dead.
Face it, some of the newer mobile OS’s might have improved UI’s, but you gotta wonder why they lack in capability compared to Windows Mobile. There are also enough 3rd party interfaces and the pending 6.5 release to remedy the UI complaint.
"WinMo=Fail
Windows Mobile is dead"
Two months ago:
Palm=Fail
Palm is dead.
How about doing yourself a favor and not act as if you know anything about the future until it's the past.
Did you read the entire comment, or just the first 2 lines?
I like David.
looks like an n95
Headphone jack: mini-USB?
Seriously??
Yeah, I think the G1 does this too. It would require an adapter in a similar way that some other devices use proprietry ports with their own headphones (and chargers, computer cables etc).
Yeah I know it would require an adapter, but in this day and time when most manufacturers are moving to 3.5 mm jack, it seems like an odd decision to go with a mini-USB jack.
Not so bad about Windows Mobile... at least it connects to Exchange, but honestly, a 2.8" screen? What are they thinking? We expected so much from this device based on the prototypes and all we get is a 3 mp camera, 2.8" screen, USB headphone jack, and 4 to 8 gigs of memory? In other words, everything we HATE about the Sprint Touch! What about a 3.8" or 4.0" screen, 5-8 mp camera, 8 or 16 gigs of memory? This is completely do-able for them but they chose to take the "been there, done that" route and basically this is a HTC Touch with Garmin Nav Software. Who needs it? Sprint's Navigation Software on the Touch is AMAZING. Welcome to last year with this new phone. Message to Garmin-Asus: don't bother... we have the Palm Pre coming. In the neantime, HTC would you please bring your Touch HD to Sprint now?
The G60 has the larger 3.55" screen you are looking for.
http://www.garminasus.com/garminasus/cms/site/home/lang/en/phones
Looks decent enough and a well-specced Windows Mobile phone, although I don't see how they are going to differentiate themselves from other WinMo phones with GPS. Presumably there will be some discount to getting this phone with its all-in-one approach rather than another phone and the GPS software separately.
The other area of concern is the small (but admittedly replaceable) battery. 940mAh is not going to last long with GPS, 3.5G and a VGA screen running simultaneously.
@ZSX - How are they going to differentiate themselves from other WinMo phones with GPS? How many of those phones are running the Garmin UI with the mapping they provide? I have a feeling that might be part of it. There's probably not going to be a monthly charge for GPS service and you will get all the functionality of a nuvi with your smartphone, so no buying some extra app to get access to GPS functionality.
Regarding the battery life - I think the big thing there is going to be the fact that you're presumably using the GPS when you're driving - so you'll have it on the included charging mount.
I have an HTC Touch Diamond with TomTom7, which is a viable and potentially competitve combination, although it lacks some of the features which Garmin's service offers (the Ciao! service mainly). I suppose I could just as easily purchase an O2 Zest (also Asus) and even run Garmin Mobile XT which I presume they will also be upgrading to offer the same functionality as this. The point is there is a lot of choice in the Windows Mobile world, and the Garmin brand would not attract me per se unless there were a cost saving.
Then again I am, perhaps, not the target for this device, which will sell on the strength of the Garmin name, and the convenience of a combined software-hardware package. What I really think Garmin should be doing is trying to get their software pre-installed on as many GPS equipped phones as possible. At least Garmin is entering into a joint partnership with Asus and not taking on the responsibility for making their own phone.
I wonder if they will give free upgrades to Windows Mobile 6.5.
No T-Mobile 3G?
does this have to work with a stylus? 'cause that would be a big mistake.