PC Mag slams nuvifone G60
October 5, 2009 by Rich Owings
Wow! PC Magazine has posted a Garmin-Asus nuvifone G60 review and they slammed it, giving it a 2 out of 5 star review, saying, “It’s like Garmin gave up halfway through the development cycle and released what it had.” This, despite some fairly positive points. It sounds like it’s a good phone and a good navigator, but a weak smartphone. Don’t count the boys from Olathe out yet though, because that could actually bode well for the forthcoming Android nuvifones. Here’s hoping they can cut many months off the development (and carrier certification) cycle!
Read for yourself, but here are the highlights and lowlights:
Pros:
- Crisp and clear call quality
Better HSDPA signal strength than the iPhoneSee comment below- Good Battery life
- “…the best cell-phone-based GPS navigation device I’ve ever tested.”
Cons:
- No DC adapter
- Slower recalculations than a standalone GPS receiver
- Weak speaker
- No MMS
- Lack of apps
- Sluggish browser
- Poor camera
- Price
The review did not in fact determine that the G60 gets better cell reception than an iPhone. It only determined that the G60 showed more bars on the screen than the iPhone did. Comparing network strength bars between two manufacturers is completely meaningless. There is no set standard for how to convert cell signal strength into those little bars. The bars scale is dependent upon firmware from the manufacturer, OS vendor, and radio firmware provider. So the sensitivity of the bar scale, what will force it up or down, and what the baseline is of this variable on your phone is determined entirely by a string of programmers, none of which are following any specific standard for what qualifies as one bar versus two, three, or four.
You’re absolutely right. It’s just like trying to compare reported accuracy on GPS receivers.