VR-Zone

(Brief hands-on with the Garmin-ASUS nuvifone A50)

The nuvifone A50 is based on Google's Android platform though the user interface layout remains more of Garmin-ASUS design. Accessing the menu shows a sidebar and the main window whereby both can be scrolled up/down easily. The capacitive 3.5-inch touchscreen is also pretty intuitive to use.

At the base is a mini-USB port for charging and data transfer and it has a 3-megapixel camera for capturing still images and videos.

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BARCELONA, Spain/February 11, 2010 - Garmin-Asus has unveiled the nüvifone A50, a touchscreen Android-powered smartphone with multiple location technologies and apps. The A50 benefits from the personalization and enhanced features offered by the Android platform, and also includes Garmin navigation with turn-by-turn, voice prompted directions for use in a car or while walking. Location features are designed into virtually every function including email, text messaging, and photos.

The elegant and thin A50 has a 3.5-inch HVGA capacitive touchscreen display that incorporates a finger-friendly user interface. The QWERTY touchscreen keyboard makes it easy to send and receive messages, and predictive text helps customers type faster. It also comes with hardware features like 4GB internal storage, an expandable microSD card slot, and accelerometer so every screen can be viewed in portrait or landscape mode.

Access to thousands of applications
The A50 integrates Google mobile services with one-click access to Google Search by voice, Google Maps, Gmail, YouTube, calendar, contacts and Android Market, where users can find more than 20,000 applications to expand and personalize their phone to fit their lifestyle.

High-sensitivity GPS receivers with Garmin navigation
The A50 receives its location (latitude and longitude) information from multiple sources including satellite, network-based and terrestrial sources. Garmin navigation is included and preloaded on the A50. Because maps are installed on the device, customers will not have to wait for third party maps to download from a server, nor will they lose their turn-by-turn, voice-prompted navigation if they are out of cell phone coverage. Ready for pedestrian or automotive navigation out-of-the-box, the A50 includes a custom Garmin car mount and vehicle power cable.

Surf the web
With a powerful, multi-touch capable WebKit browser, the A50 allows users to browse the web at quick speeds and view streaming content. In addition, it automatically identifies location information embedded within web pages allowing the user to quickly navigate to the locations published on the world-wide web. 

Take quality photos
The A50 includes a 3-megapixel camera with auto-focus that automatically geotags images with an exact latitude and longitude reference of where the photo was taken.  Users may then save the image so they can navigate back to the location, or email the geo-tagged image to friends.

Availability
The Garmin-Asus nüvifone A50 is expected to be available in Europe in the first half of 2010. Specific availability and pricing details to be available in the future.