Unboxed – Garmin Nuvifone A50

When Garmin first announced the Nuvifone way back in January 2008 smartphones and sat-nav were unfamiliar bedmates. But now we live in a world of free Google Maps Navigation and Ovi Maps on Nokia phones, is Garmin's sat-nav knowhow shoehorned into a phone still a lustworthy proposition? Let's find out.

First, the Nuvifone A50 itself. Built by Asus, it's a fairly unremarkable glossy black slab with almost identical dimensions to the iPhone.



On the front there's a bright 3.5in, 320x480 screen, underneath which sits a physical D-pad that's flanked by four touch-sensitive navigation keys.

Fire it up and you're greeted with a menu that leaves you in no doubt that the Nuvifone A50 is as much sat-nav as phone. It runs Android 1.6 (which will eventually be upgraded to Android 2.0), but this has been modded almost beyond recognition to create a UI that makes it ideal for reading from a car mount.

We haven't had a chance to take the A50 out for a spin yet, but it locked onto our location instantly, and all the standard sat-nav options are available including POIs and a link to Google Street View. The Nuvifone also stores its maps in its 4GB storage, so you don't need to rely on a network connection unlike Google Maps Navigation.

The A50 is also a fully-fledged Android smartphone with access to all the Marketplace apps, a 3MP camera and a multitouch web browser. It all looks very promising – we'll bring you a full review soon.