Garmin-Asus releases more G60 details, adds M20 Windows phone

After last week's rollout of plans to re-launch a line-up of Nuvifone smart phones -- this time together with Eee maker Asus -- GPS specialist Garmin has teamed with its partner on a new Web site for Nuvifone.

In its first week online, the site contains more details, including pictures, on the Nuvifone G60 product mentioned last week, along with an early description of a Windows Mobile-enabled model known as the M20.

As Garmin officials said at a press conference in Taiwan last week, the G60 -- a phone now set for introduction at the Mobile World Congress -- represents a rebranding of the initial Nuvifone previously planned for announcement in late 2008.

Is the phone now announced identical to the one envisioned earlier, though? Maybe or maybe not. In comparing press releases from January 30, 2008 and on the new Garmin-Asus Web site this week, Betanews found that the descriptions of feature sets overlap but are not completely the same.

Both press releases say that the flagship phone will offer a 3.5-inch touch display with three primary icons: "Call," "Search," and "View Map," for example. But the information now posted on the new Web site adds that secondary icons on the side of the G60's home screen are organizable according to the user's preference, and that the quad-band GSM phone will sport 3.5G HSPDA and Wi-Fi connectivity. Both documents mention preloaded Garmin maps, but the mention of the on-board camera included in the earlier press release is absent from this week's G60 press release. No operating system is mentioned for the G60, either.

The Windows Mobile-enabled M20, on the other hand, will be a tri-band GSM device with a full-size soft QWERTY keyboard and some of the same connectivity features and on-board software as the G60.