There she is. 20 months and 1 day after
its original introduction to the world, the Garmin-Asus
nüvifone G60 is at long last in our (admittedly sweaty) palms. The highfalutin' smartphone isn't slated to hit AT&T shelves until this Sunday, but we were able to wrangle a retail unit early in order to bring you a sneak peek at what's to come. Frankly, we've been looking forward to this day for a long (long!) time. We've got a soft spot in our hearts for the Garmin navigation UI, and we have to say, that very same look and feel has been beautifully migrated to the mobile space. Upon unwrapping the phone, we were struck by just how classy the whole thing looks. It's plenty thin for being a GPS-turned-phone, light enough to not weigh you down and sturdy enough to
somewhat justify the
$299 (on contract) price. We did some brief browsing around, and everything felt satisfactorily snappy. The resistive touchscreen had some expected give, but by and large screen presses did exactly what we wanted 'em to in our limited testing. We're aiming to give this bad boy a serious critiquing over the next few days, but for now, feel free to peruse the absurdly detailed gallery below.
posted Oct 1st 2009 12:08PM
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Battery's already dead, you sure you don't have a rebranded iPhone?
i see absolutely NO reason to buy this over a stand-alone unit unless you never know where you're going and are perpetually lost.
Still, you should be able to find your way to a dramatically better phone.
I agree Johnny....This seems like a slick unit but I am not sure who this is marketed to. It seems you would need to be a hardcore Garmin fan in order to use this over another smart phone that can do GPS mapping.
With the large buttons, it looks like it would be a great Jitterbug replacement.
Jitterbug + GPS = Fun!
@bevo4138
It would be great for my Alzheimer's-affected grandfather!
Destination: Bathroom
"Turn right at ... the end of the hallway."
This phone required 92 photos?!?!?!?
heheh... so true. It looks like this will be one of MANY phones Asus and Garmin are partnering up for in various OS platforms. The way Asus puts out Netbook's and Garmin puts out GPS's, I think I'll wait for the next wave of these phones to come out before jumping in(hopefully contract & carrier free)
OMG @ Dustin
That is so wrong. But funny.
Yeah this phone doesn't look that awful but seriously we would have rather had a HTC Leo.
@Sean O Stop being such an iPhone [and Apple] douche. I'm an iPhone user, I like it, but I don't run around like a puppy on an Apple leash. Get a ------- life.
As for this phone, bad idea. I'd definitely would rather have (and do) a stand alone GPS unit in my car. I'm glad it at least got Linux over WinMo.
Doesn't look half bad.
What's up with that ABC keyboard though?
The keyboard is ABC in portrait to avoid having too small of keys, and in landscape it is QWERTY (which is always available).
I had an old Garmin C320 which used an ABC keyboard. It annoyed the hell out me!
a lot of people are used to ABC keyboards on GPS nav because you never type something full anyway as it completes the street name or destination.
i just don't get why they push you to pay $30 extra for data plan ... come on, why would you get this and not $99 iPhone + TomTom cradle + TomTom App for the same money?
The Nuvifone offers an integrated GPS experience vs that of a separate application. The user of the nuvifone can continue to use the other applications of his device (such as the phone) while still receiving route instructions and viewing the map. I believe the Tom Tom application cannot be used simultaneously with other functionality (someone correct me if I am wrong).
You are correct Tom.
Though personally I have an iPhone with Navigon. I refuse to answer calls while I'm driving (just doesn't feel safe to me) so this works for me.
So you don't have to use the awful TomTom UI, maybe?
Let's say i get phone plan and data plan, do i still have to pay extra for GPS?
No
It's $5 extra for some services like traffic and gas prices.
The United States government subsidized GPS so it's free for everyone now! :).
POS.
Point of Sale?
Weeeellll, I suppose you COULD use it as a sales computer, despite the lack of a laser barcode scanner, but that seems like it would be more suited to a dedicated device.
Although, you could preload the store's layout into the GPS, so you can better direct customers.
Aside from that, I don't see this device being used in PoS applications.
hahahahahah, no, I was thinking Piece of Shit.
A) That was obviously sarcasm. B) It isn't a POS in either sense. If you don't want it, fine. Perhaps the price-point compared to other alternatives isn't appealing to you. But sh*tty it ain't. Personally, I think it needs to be $199. At that price, I'd consider getting one for my wife and father, both of whom use a phone for phoning (gasp!) and a standalone GPS for GPS'ing (and as a bluetooth speaker). And for both, the iPhone or Pre or Storm or G1 or anything else would be way too complicated.
Oh, and they need to drop the $30/mo. data plan requirement. This is plain silly, greedy, and will likely kill sales.
That is exactly what I am talking about. It the most expensive GPS system on the market when you factor how much it will cost you over 2 years. Not to mention the total rip off the extended service is. The physical unit may not be a POS, but the package is, and anyone who buys one should just go ahead and sign AT&T on as a secondary on their bank account.
Looks nice, but the UI icons are horrible.
Agreed. Why do so many of these companies fall prey to the Fisher Price syndrome? Designing some professional logos can't be this hard. It just can't!
Can WE get a video of the GUI in action??? Purty please?
the UI is surprisingly smooth, and the resistive screen is the most responsive resistive screens i've ever used
one of the small details that I really like, is that you can use both portrait and landscape orientations on ANY screen in the UI
Is that a G I see in the status area? That thing was using GPRS?!? Wow, I guess it really did take that long to come out ;-)
the box mentions 3g, still wouldnt make me want it tho
"to somewhat justify the $299 (on contract) price"
I can't wrap my head around this. There's no reason people should be paying this much.
92 gallery images... 92! I think that just might be a new world record...
You know, there's a fine line between "absurdly detailed" and just plain too large of a gallery for anyone to have the time to look over. You guys are blogging on it.
hey, i think a lot of us wanted to see eight shots of the box, four shots of the screen off, four shots of the screen powering on, and two of the shut down screen with the hour glass in slightly different positions.
Exactly. And the photos of the box should be 1 every 10 or so, otherwise it's meaningless.
So... Is AT&T categorizing it as a smartphone? I mean, it doesn't have a dedicated keyboard. Remember the sit down interview you guys had with some AT&T honcho?
Of course they are.
Why would they want to pass up on making people pay $30/month for the same data network featurephones get for $10-15?
Its not the dedicated keyboard that makes it a smartphone, it's the multi-tasking.
OK, so this has taken forever to get to the market and it is still a POS compared to the iphone. Sorry if you don't agree....you probably are stuck with your WinMo/Android crap-phone and are in the market for something like this. It's amazing that 2 years later and no one still has anything even compared to the iphone.
Too bad you lived all that long and didn't get laid yet.
May I suggest looking into the HTC Leo?
Ultimate feature phone.
Did I see EDGE only once in all the photos? And no 3G?? All I saw in most of the screenshots was either GPRS or Wifi. Are you guys testing it in a non-3G area or was 3G disabled?
It was the location. We shot in a corner that just happens to be a 3G dead zone.
Uhhh...can we get a video of how the menus and everything works? For some crazy reason, i am curious.
This is just too late. This was very interesting in 2007, but now.....not so much.
I don't understand why there's so much hate on this phone. Thanks to Garmin's UI, the phone has an awesomely simple interface and the best navigation software available.
And is the price really that unreasonable? It's a smart phone with GPS.
How much does one pay for a high end Garmin GPS unit? 200 buxx? (I'm really askin'.) If so then another 100 buxx to be able to browse web and call from it isn't all that unreasonable.
You *can* buy the iphone with tom-tom for around the same price, but I have a problem with *Supposed* Smartphones that do not multitask. If I'm trying to get to an important meeting I've never been to and have to recieve a call, I don't want to have to pull over after the end of the call to restart my navigation and also risk missing a turn while on that call.
Okay, I can't seem to respond to my post, but I was suggesting a Nuvi 765t. Retails at $450. I've seen it for a little under $300 new, and $200 for refurb. Here's a link to the site:
https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?cID=134&pID=14926
What would be considered a "high end" Garmin device is going to be over three hundred dollars.
here's the problem...
the original introduction had this phone at 500 bucks (back in 2007) back then, gps was still a novelty of sorts and garmin was making high end units that cost near 1000 dollars. at that time, before the iphone and pre and all of those phones, it seemed like a reasonable price, maps will always update, internet, phone standard stuff.
now its for 300 dollars. BUT the iphone and pre are 200 dollars. on top of that, people have standalone gps units or their automobile does. this is too late, it was great in 07 and if in 08 it was released it'd have been a contender, but it needs to be 150 on contract to really sell, 300 is just too much if it is put in perspective.
Ah, I didn't realize the iphone is only 200 with contract. The other thing is that the traffic updates and such is an additional charge per month, that just seems silly considering you're already paying for a data plan. The only thing is that the Nuvi is really a superior GPS product compared to Tom Tom at least from my use of them both. And I can't see the iphone's Tom Tom software and stuff being even as good as a standalone Tom Tom unit.
So you still have to pay a monthly subscription for traffic updates right?
Yes, the Garmin connected services such as traffic and weather data are separate from the AT&T data plan.
At least the browser screenshots looks halfway decent (much better than Pocket IE). Does this device use webkit based browser?
Hmmm. $299, a resistive touchscreen, and an awkward, vertical-only keyboard (or so it appears). Looks good to me...
Keyboard goes standard QWERTY when flipped horizontally.
Almost every screen on the entire phone is available in both orientations, including, as already said, the keyboard.
This is *not* a smartphone. A smartphone lets you install apps; this does not.
(Bleep, even a reasonable featurephone lets you install J2ME apps.)
I have Garmin's Mobile XT software on my AT&T Tilt with built in GPS. The software cost me less than $80 at Amazon. Is this version of Garmin's software different enough from that to justify a whole new device? Like many of you, I guess I am missing their target market here.
(I also have TomTom on my phone and much prefer it to Garmin)
The ability to allow you to share your location and track other people is very cool. However, it looks like a crappy phone.
The iPhone's weakest element is the phone. It is a great internet communication/media device but a crappy phone.
The nuvifone looks like a great GPS device but crappy everything else. They should refresh the stale GUI and map display. It looks like a children's version of an iPhone with big cartoony and flat 2-D pictures/shapes.
Fine, but how often do you really need the GPS? I can see it being a niche market to salesmen, truckers and delivery drivers. I think it's been like a month since I used my GPS last. I certainly don't need it to be a prominent feature on my phone (with the expense of having to carry around something with a larger screen.) I'd rather have a standalone GPS that stays in the car and a smaller portable phone.
They should have put Android on this phone.
They should have made the standard "Garmin UI" in a separate application.
The user being able to enable it from the main menu, or from the push of a button.
Much like the standard "camera" button on a cellphone today.
I have to admit I love the Garmin Nuvi interface over all other Navs, but the cost is ridiculous. Whether you are an iPhone luvr or hater you, have to admit the decision is a no brainer considering the flexibility of the "Jesus Phone"
People who buy stand-alone navigation units AT ALL confuse me. Google Maps is free (including traffic updates), can be loaded on practically any phone, and provides turn-by-turn directions. Sure it doesn't call out turn instructions to you (yet) but do you really have so much trouble handling the minor inconvenience of reading a screen for the next step when you get to a stop light, at least so much that you'd pay hundreds of dollars for any stand-alone GPS device that looks ridiculous in your car? (If you don't get that it looks ridiculous, go ahead and skip the rest of my post because aesthetics are lost on you.) If you insist on turn-by-turn voice instructions, there are many options out there to load onto whatever phone you have as well (TeleNav for most non-iPhone poeple). I like gadgets, but this has always seemed like a stupid thing to spend money on to me.
Some things I've noticed about this phone.
First, it DOES have a full querty keyboard when you rotate... It does not stay in that strange abc format (@Sara). I've found the texting to be very responsive and I love the anti glare display. The phone's UI is very fast and it just feels good. It looks sleek and sexy.
Second, email setup was very easy. I liked the easy to use mapping software. and the camera is pretty good. It has an MP3 player wich is a must for me.
Third, The phone lacks video capture, MMS ,and video play back (WTF?). I mean, what am I going to do if I can't watch my movies on it? These features are a must for me. I absolutely RAILED against the Iphone for lacking some of these features when it first came out. If I am to be fair, i have to hold this phone to the same criteria. And I do.
EPIC FAIL!!
Nice unboxing and review Darren!
I think the Nuvifone has a future and a pice of the market, its simple and does what its supposed to do - and less is more :-)
Anyways I want one....along with my iPhone 3GS.