The people at Techradar have gotten the chance to pre-review the upcoming Garmin-Asus Nuvifone M10, a navigation phone running Windows Mobile 6.5.3. The hardware was scored fairly high (aside from the 600mhz processor), and overall design is impressive. The interface, however, was considered less than satisfactory (quote):

If your eye is taken by the idea of having a combined sat nav and smartphone all in one then the Garmin Asus Nüvifone M10 might be an interesting choice.

There are enough extras to really differentiate it from Google Maps’ navigation element, though whether they’re expansive enough to lead you to shell out for them is really a matter for your personal choice. Certainly if you do a lot of walking you might prefer Google’s offering.

We’d have liked the bespoke software to have been put together with a bit more attention to detail too, and for features like an FM radio and the Opera browser to have been included.

Add to that the fact Windows Mobile 6.5.3 is sitting under the hood, with its bland, finger-unfriendly design and it’s hard to see what the M10 really offers.

It’s not the cheapest phone in the world, nor the most expensive – you can easily pick one up for between £300 and £350, and when a decent sat nav will only cost £200 we’d much rather pay that and have a separate mobile phone.

If the Garmin Asus Nuvifone A10 packs all the sat nav power of the M10 but with none of the Windows Mobile-y-ness, then it’s hard to see why on earth you’d plump for this offering.

So while this phone may be a nice design, I think I'll personally just stick to an HTC HD2 with Bing navigation.

Read the full review here.

[Via: WMPU]