GPS Giant Garmin Unveils Its First Phone

Known primarily for its GPS devices, Garmin just took a sharp left turn into the cell phone business with the nuviphone, a 3.5G, touch-screen handset with iPhone looks and serious GPS power under the hood.

Unveiled late Wednesday, the nuviphone sure looks like an iPhone, complete with a slim design and a 3.5-inch touch screen on its otherwise featureless face. The phone's homes screen features three main icons: Phone, Search, and Navigation. Touch the Phone icon for calling (natch), Search to find nearby restaurants, gas stations, ATMs and the like (courtesy of Google local search), and Navigation to tap into the nuviphone's GPS capabilities.

Unsurprisingly, it’s the nuviphone's GPS features that take center stage, complete with maps of North America, Western or Eastern Europe, plus turn-by-turn directions and voice navigation. Also: a "Where am I" feature that quickly displays your present coordinates, plus nearby points of interest. Plug the phone into a vehicle mount and it'll automatically switch to GPS mode and switch over to hands-free dialing.

The nuviphone also manages to pack in 3.5G HSDPA data access for speedy Web browsing and (potentially) full-track music downloads, which you could play on the on-board media player. There's also a camera (no details on resolution yet) that'll automatically geotag your snapshots. Other tools include an e-mail client, contacts, and a calendar.

All in all, pretty impressive; that said, Garmin has yet to announce pricing or carriers for its new phone. Look for the nuviphone to arrive sometime in the third quarter.

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Press release