By The Garminfone headed for T-Mobile has officially been announced, and we got some pretty clear looking photos of the device to start with. While they did give us a sense of what to expect when you take it out of the packaging, there’s nothing like a good video that allows us to see how things work. Garmin-ASUS went rather deep with their own customization of Android, as expected, to give the phone that “GPS Turn-By-Turn” feel, but it looks like that doesn’t come without some sacrifice.
I’m a little surprised, to be truthful, that we seemingly don’t get the “full” Android experience with it. In particular, homescreens and user customization has become one of Android’s most desirable set of features and – if this video is anything to go by – Garmin-ASUS doesn’t seem to facilitate that. The phone still isn’t out, though, so as usual we can’t say this is final (nor do we know if there could be an option to enable the traditional Android homescreens) but I can easily see this putting off a pretty significant amount of Android purists.
[TmoNews]
Not too bad, but not a fan of the UI by the looks of it. Just looks to jumbled and crammed. Hopefully they change it a little before it comes out.
We had a nice little training on this phone at work (T-Mobile call center.) Overall I was impressed with the phone and how responsive it was. I liked it but it really didn’t feel like Android. It felt more like a Samsung Behold or Memoir in terms of navigation. The home screen has 3 main icons on it, and the app tray is on the right. It is not organized like any other Android phone I’ve used before. It does what it does well, though: Navigation. It quickly finds your location and has a plethora of different map options. It is very customizable. Nice large, wide touch screen that is actually one of the better screens I’ve seen to date.
I think Il stick with my HTC desire after watching that video. As it so did not want me to buy it.
Would’ve been nice to see the GPS in action using maps stored locally… that’s really the only thing this phone has going for it IMO.
bah… rather wait for the galaxy s… phone looks cheap and UI looks rather difficult than any other android phones
Im not liking the ui at all but I’m sure the phone will appeal to some.
Damnit T-Mobile, I am sick of the crap android phones you are taking on lately. Can we please get a phone like a Droid, Incredible, Desire, EVO, etc. If you would stop spending so much money for Dwight Howard, D-Wade and Charles Barkley to peddle the crap ass My Touch 3G, maybe you can put it towards an android phone us current customers would want to upgrade to.
Am I the only one who laughed at how slow this “phone” was?
Open Home or Home++ anyone?
I personally like mytouch 3g. Just wish the screen was bigger