Garmin Asus G60 Cell Phone First Impressions Review - Value & Comparisons
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Marianne Schultz Published on February 16, 2009 Comment on this |
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Pricing & Value
The G60's price has not yet been announced. Garmin's portable GPS devices range in price anywhere from about $150 to over $800 in retail stores, and we'd expect Garmin-Asus to price the G60 somewhere in the middle of this range, but if a carrier partner is secured, the price will likely be subsidized to put it in the same ballpark as devices like the HTC Touch Diamond and iPhone 3G. Of course, we haven't fulled tested the G60 yet, but it truly appears to be able to take the place of a dedicated navigation device more so than other cell phones out there that come with navigation software or a carrier-specific service, and we won't be surprised if there's a bit of a premium to go along with this level of GPS functionality.
Comparisons
iPhone 3G - The iPhone 3G is still the touchscreen device to beat and its forte is its multimedia capabilities, and its messaging and organizer capabilities aren't that far behind with Microsoft Exchange Server push email and sync capabilities. What the iPhone 3G is really missing is turn-by-turn directions - Google Maps and on-screen directions simply don't cut it for safe in-car navigation. However, Apple's App Store currently offers over 15,000 3rd-party applications to augment the iPhone 3G's capabilities, and this may make up for the lack of true navigation abilities for some.
HTC Touch Diamond - The Touch Diamond is a full-on smartphone running the Windows Mobile OS. As such, it's quite capable of handling your email, contacts, calendar, tasks, notes, and just about anything else you can throw on it. It also has a pretty good camera capable of recording video, and it can play back video and music for a relatively complete multimedia experience. It also has a GPS receiver and you can use the included Sprint Navigation software to find the nearest coffee shop to get your caffeine fix on the way to a customer's office, but it will cost you $2.99 per day or $9.99 per month to use. Navigation is obviously not the focus of the Touch Diamond, but it can do so much more that this may not make a difference if you want a device that can do a little bit of everything in your pocket.
LG Dare - The Dare offers a pretty good package as a non-smartphone, though it's missing native email capability. With a decent camera, straightforward interface, and full music and video multimedia functionality, it offers more right off the bat than the G60. Its weakness is navigation - it makes use of Verizon's navigation service and gets all of its map data from the network as you use it, holding no map data in its internal memory. So, if you get out of range of a cell tower, you'll get lost if you're in the middle of using it.
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