We got a bumpy car ride through Barcelona, and handled the newly spruced-up and official
Garmin-Asus nuvifone G60 along the way. The phone has come a very long way since
we last saw it, with a snappy, smooth interface, and nary a glitch or crash. The touchscreen keyboard -- usable in portrait and landscape modes -- is no pretender to the iPhone's throne, but is one of the best we've seen on a resistive touch device. We also found the WebKit-based browser to be one of the smoother ones we've seen outside the T-Mobile G1 and the iPhone. The phone is pretty slow when reorienting itself or entering certain applications, and, as feared, there seems a general lack of depth to the functionality of the actual "smartphone" features like calendar or contacts, but the location-based services -- in the car and out -- really do bring a lot to the table.
Update: we added a video after the break, pardon the bumps!
posted Feb 15th 2009 5:24PM
8 degrees! it must be really cold over there lol
celsius? that's not that cold
Celsius. It's not cold at all... just "chilly".
another failed iphone clone wannabee,boring.,guranteed to tank here in usa. In 3-6 months this phone will of been forgotten n possibly discontinued. Asus stick to netbooks..,.,no iphonekiller here.,im sure we all agree.,
your reply has nothing to do with the above poster, u just wanted to say something complete and utterly stupid so everyone can see didnt you?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celsius
Worldwide adoption Throughout the world, except in the U.S. and a few other countries (for example, Belize)
Even in the U.S., almost the entire scientific field and most engineering fields, especially high-tech ones, use the Celsius scale, and the metric system in general. However, most Americans remain more accustomed to the Fahrenheit scale, which is the scale that U.S. broadcasters use in weather forecasts. The Fahrenheit scale is also commonly used in the U.S. for body temperatures.
Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOe_vFds2u0&fmt=18
Nice
YOU GUYS EVER GONNA SAY WHAT OS IT RUNS?
WHY DO COMPANIES USE RESISTIVE TOUCH!!!!!!!!
There is no reason to use that older technology unless the company does not have a OS optimized for touch (AKA a stylus is used)... And then it should probably not even be touch screen since just slapping a touchscreen onto a device that limits your use of the features never wins... When will they ever learn?
Because people need:
1. Handwriting
2. Drawing
Both of which suck with capacitive screens.
Why so adverse towards resistive. i find it to be better if they are not trying to incorporate multi-touch (which Apple has made sure that you cant without some type of lawsuit thrown at you).
Resistive allows for multiple ways of controlling the touch screen. I find that to be much better. Until they can allow capacitive to be used with gloves on...I have no like for it yet!
@superhobo
Both of which are IMPOSSIBLE with capacitive, unless you have pencil then fingers...literally
Plus you can't use anything except your bare fingers.
1) Handwriting is not very good on small screens.
2) drawing on touchscreens is only really any good with a wacom (or something similar)
I personally would like smooth scrolling and easy button entry... I would give up drawing in a program that looks like Microsoft paint for easier/smoother navigation...
I read about some artist guy who "drew" a bunch of drawings on his iphoney.
Totally pointless, but in a twisted way, it is possible...kind of.
Ok, for all practical purposes, impossible
B.S. on my Omnia I have never needed a stylus because if I can't or won't use my finger I can always rely on mouse and mousepad just like on a laptop.
I love the Omnia and look forward to upgrade to the Omnia HD when it will be available, even though a few other devices are piquing my interest right now, including this N60 nuvifone.
The review by Engadget must be totally wrong , or else is totally wrong the one in the link provided by Saad Rabia (which looks more professionally done)
Besides I would really like to know what iPhone trone is Engadget talking about: the one of the most antiquated phone still on the market? The one for most hyped gadget ?
I was so stupid to buy an iPhone 3G when it just came out (i got rid of it within a month of course) and this Garmin appears superior in every aspect bar none to Apple's cheap imitation of a smartphone.
sacapuntas, did you just bash MS Paint? Why would anyone do that? Paint is all the way up there - that's right, alongside Notepad!
By the way, why isn't this post on Engadget Mobile - at all?
handwriting and drawing are possible on capacitive touchscreen... in fact they are done quite well
No qwerty keyboard in portait? Not sure about that :-s
appropriately named - "NOOBY PHONE"
This piece of crap is gonna fail so hard.
Besides, we have iPhone. What else do we really need?
What we need is you to shut up.
You're inability to read is astounding. You're going to really struggle with this comment.
So are we going to be treated to a week of these iPhone-worshiping losers trolling every story?
Maybe Engadget can pull the ban hammer out and get rid of these clowns?
what we need is competition to kick Apples ass into gear.
Flashpoint, do you sleep with the iPhone between your legs at night?
Probably because that's the only real hardware you have in your shorts.
What else do we need? THANK YOU.
- Copy/Paste
- A decent camera
- A camera that can take decent video (or just video, for that matter)
- Multitasking
- A flash on that camera.
- Better typing experience
- Higher resolution screen
- Real GPS
- REAL BLUETOOTH.
- Inter-app integration
Sorry for the short list, but I only had 10 seconds to spare. Thanks for asking!
We need something that doesn't have the following limitations (which incidentally, most WinMo phones fill the following voids left by the iPhone quite nicely):
No bluetooth music streaming and/or file transfers (video is out of the question)
No drag and drop file juggling
No Flash support inside Safari (where the heck is Opera Mobile and/or SkyFire for this thing)
No Java
No copy and paste
No tethering
No front camera
No video recording
No video calls
No user replaceable battery
No radio
No VGA resolution
No IR port (it's something I take for granted, using my phone as a remote for well...anything just about)
No physical keyboard
No external storage card support (Micro SDHC cards are up to 32 GB now, 8GB is NOT enough these days, especially for a media device)
No voice command (WM devices and even some "el-cheapo" phones have featured this for years now)
No MMS (it doesn't have phone-to-phone MMS, it has phone-to-air-to-phone picture sharing necessitating a data plan)
No Live TV (that doesnt require you to be connected to an app like Orb on your home PC, which defeats the purpose, why would I want to watch it on a dinky non VGA screen instead of just on my home PC when im at home anyways)
No camera flash
No camera zoom
Same old, subpar, 2 MP camera for that matter
No multitasking
No turn-by-turn voice navigation system
Limited video format support
Limited picture format support
Limited file format support in general
Only 128 MB of RAM (Cant run many apps simultaneously -- I mean not that it matters since multitasking is for all intents and purposes out of the question! New WM phones are getting 256+ MB of RAM, with 150+ MB free on bootup)
WTF is wrong with you? Why are you brain dead to all other OS? You must have been dropped on your head at birth.
@ Flashpoint
You don't need anything else because you would never understand how to use it anyway, no matter what it is.
@hamidxa,
I'm not going to disagree with you regarding the capabilities (or lack thereof) on the iPhone but you know what's sad? I used winmo devices for years (compaq, dell, HTC) and and after using the iPhone, you couldn't pay me to go back. Call me one of the mindless sheep if you like, but there is a reason why the marketshare of winmo devices is quickly disappearing to nothing..winmo, as it currently exists, plain sucks. It does a whole bunch of things, just none of them very well. And while you may find all of the items on your list useful, most people don't care or need the majority of them and simply don't miss them. Only thing I miss about using winmo is the availability of slingplayer but hopefully that will soon change.
There is also a video over at gizmodo. Some kind of Press thing they've got going on because they're in the back of a car in that too. It looks okay but I don't travel enough to need location based services. I'm pretty sure I will be going for the pre or omnia.
We wanted android, you didn't provide, we don't buy.
Not everybody wants android. Its not mature enough.
It is still more mature that than the nuvifone's OS
.
I totally agree.
More interesting, insightful and informed than ieye and flashpoint put together.
OMG, it's full of stars!
I'm really diggin' this phone. I might have to pick one up and see how it compares to my iPhone.
Lost me at resistive. I'll never own another resistive touch phone.
I am with you on that. After owning an LG Vu, I will never buy another resistive touch device. Though you can turn it off, vibration on every single click was annoying, typing was slow and at times would not register correctly. The UI was esthetically chunky. The only good stylus is one that doubles as a poison blow dart!
Capacitive = smooth
Capacitive = me not being able to use it with my gloves on. Which sucks during winter seasons at work (I work outdoors) =(
Interesting point, iDavey. Funny I never thought about that. I live in Michigan and most of the time in the year I wear gloves outside.
But still, I will never buy a non-capacitive touchscreen phone.
I think this is a pretty clean looking phone. does it do navigation in landscape?
yes, check out the video posted earlier
oh em gee! This is nice. The animation is very smooth and doesnt seem to stall at all! Only if it was a smartphone also...I dont care which OS, just a smartphone would've been nice! (yes, I'm addicted to smartphones)
Is she American? or Spanish with American accent? whichever she is, she has a voice of a girl i know... :P pls. pass your # along...eh, maybe I will get a free G60 along with it...
Resistive touch screens suck!