Gadgetory

hey guys jon rettinger here three of you for you of the garmin nuvi phone g60 just released for AT&T wireless this is going to run you to 99 after a hundred dollar mail-in rebate if you watch my channel you'll see me unbox the device give you a tour of the operating system and give you a demonstration of the indycar and navigation features of the g60 it touts navigation as really its killer feature since it is built by garmin before we get into all that let's start with the phone itself since it is a phone it's got to make phone calls phone quality is actually very high I could hear people very clearly on mind and they reported no white noise on there and in fact most people thought I was even on a landline a 3g radio is a little bit weak put side by side with other 3g phones like the iphone 3g nand unlock treo pro had about one bar less of 3g something to keep in mind if you're in a fringe area you may have some problems with reception built quality of the device is fantastic it's got a really nice solid bill to it it is a little bit on the thick side but i guess that's to be expected since it is a standalone gps unit so let's talk about God Briggs isn't for a minute like I said I did a full tour of the operating system but as a new phone it already feels a little bit dated garmin first revealed this a little over 20 months ago and had it been releasing then it probably would have felt like a modern OS but in the days of android and iphone OS something like this really feels behind the eight ball it's functional don't get me wrong it's certainly not elegant and it's definitely not pretty but it is usable so if you want something that's just a usable feature phone OS the nuvi phone OS is going to be okay for you does offer features like an HTML browser no multi-touch it does have email capabilities although it's not rich HTML this sort of your standard pop/imap email application no exchange support and of course text messaging from the design standpoint I found a little bit weird that there really aren't any physical buttons on a device used for navigation the only real buttons that you use regularly is the power and standby button right on the top of the phone all the navigation is done on screen yeah a resistive touchscreen and for those are not familiar with resistive essentially what it is is two layers of film on top of each other and I make a connection when you push them together so that's why you can use things like a stylist really anything to push on the screen whereas a capacitive touch screen like the iphone or blackberry storm t-mobile g1 is used by a transfer of electrons that's why you can only use your finger I'm admittedly not a fan of resistive touchscreens I think garmin did a decent job implementing one of those in this instance the OS does feel zippy with resistive touch brand afflicts rolling does work quite well surprisingly that being said since it is resisted the screen is actually in late a little bit there's a lip around the device you're going to get a lot of dust cut in there from the navigation standpoint so this is what the phones really known for it is a fantastic navigator all the maps are loaded locally on the device so use no need for a data connection to use it as a gps unit close you that are familiar with garment have used a newbie in the past this is going to behave exactly like one of those standalone units it comes with a ton of accessories including a car mount and charger so you put it right up on your dash and it's just like any other gps it does text to speech they'll tell you which way to turn and i'll say the street name it is a fantastic navigator now let's talk about the price point 2 99's a little bit steep if you looking to buy a car you're going to compare cars that are in the same price range I think phones are no exception at that 299 price point you really have a lot of comparisons you've got the iphone on ATT you've got the blackberry bold you've got the new HTC pure and upcoming tilts to there are a lot of phones a sort of fall in that price point I think you're going to be hard pressed to justify three hundred dollars for to buy especially when all those other phones offer navigation options take something like the iphone for example I know it's sort of unfair to always come back to the iphone something like that it does offer standalone navigation options companies like navigon and tomtom offer full-blown navigation for just about a hundred dollars so the cost of an iphone 3g or 3gs about two hundred and another hundred dollars for the navigation Program and you are to equal the price of the newbie phone it's a very hard sell just from a price perspective however taking price out the phone is very functional and it does what it's advertised to do it doesn't do anything more you're not going to get a fantastic web experience or email program but you're going to get a phone that works so it's really going to come down to you and what's important if you get lost a lot like I do sometimes they got a hard time even finding my way home you're going to appreciate having the gps functionality it does work quite well and they're really in my opinion is nothing better than garment so it's going to be a trade-off for what you can live with or not live with back to give this phone on a one-to-five scale based just on features i'm going to give it a solid three it's a little bit thick for my taste and the resistive touchscreen immediately takes a star away so what do you guys think is this a phone you're interested in if you want to go to AT&T store and check it out they've got a few on display there be a video or tech response and curious what you guys think for exclusive content check me out on twitter twitter.com / John for lakers and to learn more about technobuffalo check out TechnoBuffalo comm links everything I talked about will be up in the sidebar see you guys the next video bye bye