The Garmin Asus A10 certainly is an interesting proposition. The newly announced smartphone runs Android, which is rarely a bad idea, but here’s the thing: phone and PND partnership Garmin Asus is bigging up its unique pedestrian navigation software onboard. Won’t Google Maps on almost any other phone suffice for that?
We’re still waiting for bigger brother the A50, to arrive on these shores, but in the meantime, the Garmin Asus A10 has been made official anyway. It’s packing a smaller, 3.2-inch HVGA multitouch screen, five megapixel camera and Android Market access, plus Exchange support to get your work email on the go.
Garmin Asus nuvifone A50: Android satnav phone up close
Naturally, given Garmin’s satnav credentials, the Garmin Asus A10 has GPS on board, but somewhat surprisingly, it’s being pitched as a smartphone optimised for pedestrian navigation, with cityXplorer public transport maps and routes preloaded, though it does come with an audio mount to boost volume in a car as well.
Of course, Google Maps on Android 1.6 and up offers both anyway with Google Maps Navigation, though the Garmin Asus A10′s ability to work outside of 3G reception could prove a useful selling point: it has the maps preloaded, whereas Google downloads them on the fly.
The Garmin Asus A10 goes on sale in Europe in “mid-2010″, we’re told, but given the delays we’ve seen on previous models, we’re not going to start getting our hopes up until we get a precise launch date.
Out 2010 | £TBC | Garmin Asus
