Updated 25 May, 2012, 12:40 pm IST

Garmin Asus Finally Unveil Nuviphone Handsets in India

10 Oct, 2009, 12:22 pm IST | by Shayne Rana |

Back in Feb we got wind that Garmin had tied up with Asus and were planning on launching a couple of GPS enabled handsets. We’ve seen snippets of the G60 and M20 since then and had the opportunity to actually ‘test drive’, so to speak, the handsets at CommunicAsia a couple of months ago. We knew they’d get here, GPS being really big in the country these days, and here they are.

Asus in alliance with Garmin Ltd have finally unveiled their Garmin Asus Nuvifones – the M20 and G60 in the Indian market. With the Nuvifone, Garmin-Asus intends to introduce location-centric approach in the lifestyle of the Indian people through their location based services.

Addressing the media at the launch of the phones, Edward Wang Business Head, Mobile Communication Business ASUS) said "Garmin and ASUS believe it’s important to offer Indian customers the latest and updated technology so that they can own a device that meets their individual desires and needs. The Garmin-Asus n�vifone series is an industry first to integrate a cutting-edge personal navigator with a premium phone. All in all, the Nuvifone series will act as a complete package for the smart phone buyers as it will bring people together via location based services. Coupling the expertise of a multimedia phone and a location based device will offer both the premium services in one compact package to our consumers"

The Garmin-Asus Nuvifone brings maps to life with high quality data from global map provider, NAVTEQ. The NAVTEQ map of India includes a significant collection of commonly referred to Points of Interest.

While addressing the media, Rajat Tandon ( Director, Sales-India, NAVTEQ) said “NAVTEQ is delighted that Garmin-Asus has chosen to use NAVTEQ maps in their nuvifone series. NAVTEQ has used its global capabilities to build a premium navigable map of India, unlike anything that has been available before. We expect this focus on navigable data, coupled with our understanding of how consumers navigate, to provide a premium experience to users of the Garmin-Asus devices.”

The M20 running on a WinMob 6.1 Professional OS will feature -

a 2.8-inch TFT Resistive Touchscreen with a resolution of 480 x 640 pixels and 65K colors
3 G (with HSDPA), EDGE/GPRS
Wi-Fi, Bluetooth with A2DP, USB 2.0
GPS with Geotagging for the 3 megapixel camera
4GB and 8GB models

The second handset and my personal favorite, the G60 runs on a super fluid Linux OS (closed platform). It will feature -

3.5-inch resistive touchscreen that sports a 272 x 480 pixel resolution
3 G (with HSDPA), EDGE/GPRS
Wi-Fi, Bluetooth with A2DP, USB 2.0
GPS with Geotagging for the 3 megapixel camera
4GB with microSD card support

Users can supplement the preloaded POI data with internet enabled local searches and automatically navigate around traffic congestion while seeing the estimated traffic delay along their route. Other features the handsets come with include:
Location Link: Helps the user to reach their desired location by selecting the POI and navigating.
Send your Location: This function helps the user to send across their location to friends.
Carfinder: This application helps the user to find their car in an outdoor parking by automatically marking the position where it is last disconnected from its car mount.
Ciao: A one of it's kind LBS application that helps users stay up to date on their friends’ whereabouts and status by linking location-centric social networks.
Panoramio: With this application the user can navigate to the geo-tagged photos. It’s basically a geo tagged photo sharing website wherein you can view geo tagged pictures in your area to get navigational directions to their location.
Weather Status: It helps the user to stay updated about the current and the five day weather forecasts.
Flight Status: Helps the user to check flight information from around the world.

Oddly though, the companies have priced both handsets at exactly the same price Rs. 30,000.

Tags: Garmin , ASUS , Touchscreen , 3 megapixel , GPS

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