Garmin-Asus nuvifone G60 review
By Darren Murph 
posted Oct 13th 2009 3:38PM
posted Oct 13th 2009 3:38PM
Design
Design wise, the nüvifone G60 is perfectly engineered for what it is. It's light and compact enough to be respected in the world of today's thin and light smartphones, yet it's stocky and hefty enough to be taken seriously as a dedicated navigation device. The non-slip rear surface keeps it in place when laying on your dashboard (or wherever it may end up within your vehicle), and the dark chrome accents give the phone a touch of class. The camera and rear speaker are nicely placed, and the volume rocker is sufficiently large and easy to find. Thankfully, Garmin-Asus decided to use a standard USB port for connectivity, but the 2.5 millimeter headphone jack is decidedly not awesome.
Speaking of the rear speaker, this thing is loud. Really loud. Which, to be honest, is completely expected given that a robotic gal by the name of Lucydroid-4000 will be belting out turn-by-turn directions within your vehicle and reminding you in an all-too-stern tone whenever your ineptness forces her to "recalculate." And then there's the screen. The resistive WQVGA display has an exceptionally unique feel to it; the coating is essentially the exact same coating found on Garmin's nüvi PNDs, and it's easily one of the best resistive screens we've had the pleasure of touching. It reacted to our finger presses remarkably well, and swipes were also registered with impressive accuracy.
Software / user interface
So yeah, the design is just fine and dandy, but it's the software that'll make or break this thing. For $299 on a two-year contract, you'd expect nothing less than Garmin's full-on navigation suite, and that's exactly what you get here. The user interface is beautiful to us, but then again, we've always had a soft spot in our heart for this company's navigators. If you've used a nüvi, you'll be immediately familiar with the nüvifone. The dialer screen, contact list and recent calls tab are all fairly basic, and the threaded text message screen helps you keep track of conversations. The email application had no qualms setting up our Gmail account and downloading our most recent messages onto the phone, but as with the iPhone's native Mail application, many of the more advanced features (stars, labels, etc.) are nowhere to be found. In other words, it's plenty sufficient to check your mail and even reply, but if you're looking for an Android-level Gmail client, you'll be sorely disappointed.
The "extras" that Garmin-Asus throws in (movies, weather, flight status, converter, Yellow Pages, local events, fuel prices and Ciao!, a location-based social networking platform) all seem like half-hearted attempts to add apps to a phone that's really only built to navigate and make calls, and considering that these so-called "Premium Connected Services" will run you $5.99 per month after a 30-day trial, it's even safer to call them worthless. Seriously -- even ancient Windows Mobile phones can get this kind of information for free if attached to a data plan, why should G60 owners be forced to pony up $30 per month plus an extra $5.99?
We should also point out that booting this phone up takes a bit longer than your average iPhone, and waiting for a satellite lock is just as annoying here as it is on a standalone PND. Another curious quirk was the G60's inability to accurately reflect signal strength; for whatever reason, the signal meter was always around 2 to 3 bars lower than reality. When placed beside another AT&T handset, the bars would indicate far worse reception, but when making a call, the connection was fine. We suppose that's better than finding out this thing has awful reception, but still, it's a bit befuddling. Finally, the omission of some sort of "home button" really bothered us; having to manually press a "back" icon each time we wanted to get out of where we were grew tiresome. To each his / her own, but there it is. We should also note that typing on the G60 was a true joy; key presses were recognized instantly, and the word correction feature was surprisingly useful. As far as typing on resistive touchscreens go, this is about as good as it gets.
And then there's the web browsing. As you'd probably expect, it's not stellar. It's bearable, but it's nowhere near exceptional. Sites that aren't optimized for mobile load extremely slowly, and while zooming in and out can be done with "+" and "-" buttons, it's still a laborious task. Mobile optimized sites fare much better, but seriously, a phone ringing up at three bills on contract should be able to surf with more poise than a three year old WinMo 5 device; sadly, it doesn't. Put as simply as possible, the G60's web browser will get the job done on basic sites, but don't expect it to have the browser prowess of a low-end MID, let alone Mobile Safari. Oh, and that music player that's throw in? Yeah, it works, but it's not like you'll be using it much thanks to the 2.5 millimeter headphone socket. Sigh.
Usage / navigating
Switching from panel to panel and application to application was shockingly quick; we never experienced any major software lag anywhere within the G60. By and large, it seems the code was well written to run on this hardware, and given just how aged the internal components are at this point, that was a delightful surprise. Onto the mapping aspect, we were initially (and still are, actually) perturbed by the inability to enter an address from within the map. As you can see in the screencap below, your in-map navigation options consist of "Go!" (which directs you to the most recently entered address), "Save" and "Send Location." Sadly, there's no "Go to..." option, which is a glaring oversight in our humble opinion. It's logical to think that users would want to enter an address from a map screen, and regrettably, no such option exists.
Instead, you're forced to manually hit a "back" icon, tap an ambiguously named "Search" icon, and then tap an "Address" icon. Nothing about the word "search" leads us to believe an "Enter An Address" option will be behind it, yet -- for whatever reason -- that's where it's hidden alongside Home, Points of Interest, Favorites, Recently Found, Cities, etc. Once you finally get to enter an address, the screen looks essentially like the one found on standard Garmin PNDs, and we never had any issues getting the G60 to find the places we were looking for.
Once an address was selected, the G60 was mounted on our windshield (the mount is included, by the way) and we were tuned in to the gal blurting out directions, the experience was top-notch. For all intents and purposes, the nüvifone G60 transforms into a dedicated PND once it's mounted in the car and given an address. The turn-by-turn guidance was spot-on, reminders were timely and recalculations were handled promptly. Garmin-Asus smartly instructed the phone to dim its screen when you're on a stretch of road, and it automatically brightens when it reminds you of an upcoming turn. The volume of the lady's voice is easily adjustable with the top-mounted (when the G60 is turned horizontally) rocker, and zooming is easily handled via two soft buttons that remain on the right side of the display whilst navigating. You're also shown your current speed, direction and the posted speed limit in the area you're in -- all very handy tidbits that are elegantly displayed as you cruise. Have a look at a 3 minute romp through town below, and please -- forgive the pothole-induced shaking. Clearly, Obama's road construction bonanza has yet to hit our locale.
Best of all, the nüvifone G60 fully supports multi-tasking between calls and routing; if you receive a call while it's routing you, you don't have to exit your guidance to answer. Of course, we'd still recommend holding off on non-critical calls while you try to navigate, but for those with focus levels on par with Professor Xavier, it's simple to handle both on this device. When a call comes in, a new screen emerges to show you who's calling and two options are provided: answer or ignore. If you answer, you're returned to your map and allowed to converse, with a simple (and diminutive) red phone icon on the left to let you know you're connected to a caller. If you ignore, the same happens save for the omission of the red phone icon.
Wrap-up
All in all, it's exceedingly simple to describe the nüvifone G60. If you're looking for a bona fide smartphone first and foremost that can do a bit of navigating every now and then, this phone isn't for you. The lack of an app market, the monthly cost attached to the lackluster apps that are included and the subpar web browser all contribute to making this phone less attractive than the iPhone or any of the existing Android phones in terms of actual functionality. Straight-up, you'll be entirely more productive with an Apple or Google-powered handset than the G60, and you'll have a lot more access to web-based applications and a web browser that's actually functional. It may hurt, but it's the truth.
However, if you're scouting a PND that just so happens to make phone calls, you won't find a superior option to the nüvifone G60. Without qualification, this is the best navigation experience you'll find on a phone. That TomTom app on the iPhone? Fuhgetaboutit. Frankly, that's not even in the same class. Garmin-Asus has managed to shove a bona fide nüvi into a phone, and when you're on the road, you'll never notice that you're not using an honest-to-goodness nüvi GPS unit. Though, we have to take this opportunity to point out just how badly you'll need to keep a powered cable connected to this thing. In short, battery life is just dreadful. A couple of hours on the road, and you'll be lucky to have enough life to check your email and respond to a few text messages. Even when it's not navigating, the G60 goes downhill in a hurry; count on charging it each and every night, and if you use it heavily during the day, don't be shocked to see it keel over by quittin' time. We didn't bust out the stopwatch during our testing, but based on the amount of low battery indicators that we saw during average day-to-day use, we feel frightened enough to make mention of it.
Honestly, you probably know already if the nüvifone G60 is right for you or not. At $299 on contract, you've got a lot of smartphone options, and unless navigation is your number one priority, almost any of them are superior to this. This phone just isn't a smartphone; it's an amazing navigation machine that makes calls and attempts to browse the web / dabble in integrated apps. That said, AT&T's still going to ding you for $30 per month as it sucks down data whilst routing -- even though the maps are all installed on the unit's internal storage. At the end of the day, it's hard to recommend the G60 due to the simple economics of the situation. For $299, you can pick up an iPhone 3G or HTC Hero (amongst other options) and a darn good nüvi PND that operates sans a monthly contract. Heck, you might even come out with a few bucks to spare. If you just have to have your GPS device and phone in one, the G60 is bound to impress the hardcore road warriors -- just don't expect that glee to come cheaply.
Is this really a smartphone?
If it doesn't have a calendar then it is NOT a smartphone.
Shove it under the Navphone category...
There's a cal, and AT&T hits you up for $30 per month whether you consider it a smartphone or not.
The phone doesn't have a dedicated home key but you can hold the back button for ~1 second and it serves the same function as a dedicated home key.
Also, Amazon has it on sale for $150 with a 2 year contract.
It does have a calendar.
My samsung t319 has a calendar. That means I'm the proud owner of a smartphone?
Paid off much Engadget?
That's a good question. I would think no, simply because email and a web browser are no longer indicators of a true smartphone. Typically calling something a smartphone means it has the ability to expand its capabilities beyond what they were when you got it from the store, through the use of various apps, skins, etc. To me, this just seems like a nifty feature phone, although I do think they managed to hit one out of the park with the nav feature. But then again you would expect Garmin to do so, lol.
NuviFail
Two years development for a phone that makes you go... "Meh"
Too little, too late IMO.
Garmin would have generated as much, if not probably more revenue with a decently priced iPhone app. Oh well, their loss I guess.
Agreed. The cost to develop hardware, especially on the corporate scale that is required by something this technologically advanced (im not talking about the slightly outdated hardware, just in relation to say, a lamp) is astronomical. They would have benefitted DRAMATICALLY more by buddying up with a smartphone manufacturer and creating an alliance of "put our better GPS chip in your phone and we will design the navigation software so that nothing can compete". That = profits.
Nuvifone = MONEYPIT
This phone looks like garbage. Garmin should just stick to making GPS units.
Hard to believe you wouldn't mention the Pre in your intro when describing all of the great navigation apps to buy for the iPhone. What about Sprint Nav which is out of the box on the Pre and no monthly charges.
Well, there was no room to mention the Pre. They needed the space to reference the iPhone - as in...
"We should also point out that booting this phone up takes a bit longer than your average iPhone".
Really now, Engadget. Comparing a Garmin navphone's boot time to an iPhone? That's like comparing Apples and, well, non-Apples.
the Sprint Nav app is really just the TeleNav app renames Sprint navigation. I have that same app installed on my tmo touchpro2 which would in turn work for any att winmo smartphone. Also I have Garmin Mobile XT installed on my TP2 which is pretty much the same great Garmin GPS with Google Search integrated.
So...ATT Tilt II plus Garmin Mobile XT app = Windows Phone with turn by turn voice navigation. Also the maps are stored on your SD card so no 3g connection is needed. So even in rural areas on on road trips you can still load maps without a data connection.
But i still recommend the Tmo TP2 since it is only $50 w/ 2 year commit.
What a shame that Garmin had to cling onto hardware and forgo the opportunity to come out with an iPhone/Android application instead. I would have certainly purchased it. Here's hoping the execs change their direction to facilitate the creation of such an app.
Garmin sees itself as a hardware company and has bet on heading off phone-based nav by creating a nav-based phone. Hence it thinks that silvery thing that is hurtling towards it is a stack of coins instead of a rifled bullet.
Garmin does have an app for the BlackBerry, and it's actually quite good.
This might've worked if they hadn't marketed it as a smartphone.
Knock the mandatory data plan and it starts to look much better.
Why, when reviewers are mentioning android based competitors to through in with iphone 3G, is the hero or cliq mentioned, but not the magic by default? I just picked up a magic because my AT&T contract miraculously expired for the first time in 5 years, and I feel like I died and went to smartphone heaven. Rock solid, utterly intuitive build with an iphone-esk capacitative touch screen, clean android as google intended it, and a headphone jack adapter that sticks just out of your pocket for start, stop, skip track, take call while perfectly picking up your voice on a busy city street, and offering the ability to plug in any 3.5 headphones on the planet without sacrificing any of the aforementioned very important handsfree abilities. Iphone app store somehow manages to look really awesome until it comes time to actually care that you have the apps and integrate them to your life, which I could never seem to make happen. android apps integrate with core functions and EVERY one ive downloaded does its chores for me and presents me with the fruits of its labor via the AWESOME roll down notification bar for quick perusal or further exploration- including, but far from limited to a fully functional active sync connector that is as worthy of work use as anything short of MAYBE blackberry. All this for like $50bucks/ month TOTAL. not to mention the music you buy (OTA) is YOURS and not leased from apple for use through their itunes and their devices that people including myself refer to as being in JAIL. Sorry for the rant I just don't understand why every other post isn't about this thing because I really don't know what to do with myself now that my quest for a solid, light, thumb friendly, perfectly intuitive and fully integrated little buddy is finally over. Thanks T-Mobile, HTC, and Google- you guys finally put your coconuts together and made something I can take home to my parents. I think I'll go immediately search and stream any podcast on the planet with the google listen app and then check out what constellations are above me right now by opening google sky and pointing the back of my phone up a the sky in any direction..yeah, I think I'll do that.
This thing is listed on my AT&T account online as $900 with a renewed 2 year contract. What a joke.
he didn't even mention the pre at all which is just plain silly if your talkn about smartphones! It definietly deserves to be mentioned in the same convo with the iphone or andriod...hell he even mentioned winmo....can the pre get some love? Its exceptional!
The Palm Pre is a joke... It is not worthy of mention, asides its straddled with the not now network that just does not work.
On my N97 I have OVI the new version of OVI maps which is great, but for 90% of my sat nav needs google maps with GPS enabled is the easiest and fastest option.
On my HTC Hero ,besides gmaps with all plug ins (panoramio, skymaps, underwater, etc, etc) I downloaded for totally free, AugSatNav, Nav4All, Show way back, car locator, Carrey, and a few augmented reality such as Layar, Soma view, and others..
On my HTC touch HD I had to buy the TOmTom app for win mob, (which I have been assured I will be able to move to my HTC HD2 when, in 2 weeks time , I will receive it.
I also have a PND integrated in my car's "infotainement system" (I swear this is what BMW calls it) , with vocal instructions volume that changes if the soft top is turned down or up and lowers the music,( or movie or TV) if it's turned on, and if I just drop my phone into the inbuilt craddle, all calls get routed to the speakerphone and sms and e-mail to the 9" screen and they are even read to you if you wish through the 12 speakers of the HIFI system.
And yet , if it would have come out just one yer ago I would probably have bought it , instead of the Samsung Omnia annd iPhone 3g I had at the time.
Nowadays however is as outdated as MDMA, the missionary position and music CDs.
I would consider this more of a smartphone than many for one reason: it is profoundly easy to root and it is capable, to a great extent, of running precompiled debian arm binaries. With a little love, this could be a better option for Zaurus-philes than most android devices.
@mosamjc
If that's what you want from your phone the N900 is a far better option.
So basically this thing sucks...that's what I got from the review.
I will most likely wait and see how their Android based phones look like. I understand they should be out in a few months. I'm a long time Garmin user, starting with their Street Pilots, and moving to an iQue 3600 (by which all others should be measured). Tom Tom could have a real Hit on their hands, if people start using both the software and the car mount (which improves the experience commendably via built in sirf chip and a nice loud speaker). So.....thats the big competitor out their, and it STILL uses the woefully inadequate ATT system.
At present, I am still using my iQue, and at times use my blackberry curve with Garmin navigation software. Both work very very well.
Now, where's that Asus/Garmin android phone?
Any HTC WinMo device +Garmin Mobile XT = Way better than this thing.
It's funny, Engadget, that you guys don't seem at all disturbed with the fact that the screen sits below the case of the phone. I don't know about you guys but that bothers me. It somewhat shrinks your screen since you can't get to the the far edges of it; it's susceptible to dust getting in between the screen and the case, and you typically won't be able to get a screen protector to cover the entire screen. Sad to say this but Garmin needed to do more with this phone with all the time they had.
Does it have geocaching?
You mention that "Garmin-Asus has managed to shove a bona fide nüvi into a phone"; from your review, it seems more like they've just about managed to shoe-horn a half-decent phone into a bona fide nüvi. That seems a bit of a back-to-front approach to me in terms of how they'll market it; will it be sold as a satnav with a phone thrown in, or a phone with a satnav thrown in. Either way, customers might end up disappointed that one function either fails or triumphs greatly over the other.
I owned one of these for a couple of hours back in June, in KL. But the lack of info for map availability and the fact that it has taken so damned long made me too scared to continue with it. The store reluctantly refunded me.
I have to say I found the GPS very quick. Even in my hotel room it located me very quickly and that touch screen is just gorgeous, but you have to say, its a GPS with a phone in and nothing else. Real pity this took so long as I would have had one as my gps does need upgrading as does my phone, but for mobile apps, this just doesnt cut it now.
And thats a real pity having lusted after this for so long, its like getting to know your favourite movie star after they retire. Not quite the same as in theit hey-day.
Thanks for the post! If you spend much time driving in unknown territory, i.e if you rent cars in big cities, a good portable Car GPS makes an awesome difference. Car GPS reviews are the most reliable source of information that provides all the latest info about different car GPS systems. I did some research and finally decided to buy this unit, and after using it for a couple of weeks, I am really happy with it.
I think if anyone wants a proper smartphone with Garmin navigation system, better go get a S60 smartphone or a Blackberry, or even a WinMo smartphone and install Garmin Mobile on it. This way, you get the best of both worlds. Not a good navigation system with a half baked smartphone ;)
they really should have mentioned that its pretty much more so a gps that has phone capabilities. I just saw it in AT&T two days ago and didn't know why they had that thing next to all the phones
From a sales perspective, I don't understand who this phone is targeting. Truck drivers who like to make a lot of calls? Mr. Magoo??
Nice unit.
Menu interface works fine.
Poor satelite reception with current software.
No updates available yet for the firmware.
Other diverse languages are available but only some are there for the unit's menu
example: Dutch interface not available yet. Dutch voice instructions in navigation ok.
MacOS software support for iSync not available yet.
Promising evolution...