T-Mobile and Garmin Announce the Garminfone

T-Mobile will be picking up another Android device later this spring with Garmin’s new Garminfone. The handset is the first Android handset that fully integrates the Garmin navigation experience.  It offers on-board maps, and driving, walking, or public transportation directions with voice turn-by-turn navigation.

You can even set custom voice navigation commands by recording the voices you want. Would you prefer to hear your wife yelling at you to turn left? It can do that for you! It also provides real-time traffic updates, weather, gas prices, and it re-routes you if there is heavy traffic or incidents up ahead.

The navigation and location services work right out of the box and you don’t have to pay a penny extra to use them. Then again, the same goes for Google Maps Navigation which is found right in Google Maps for Android 1.6 devices and higher. So, why buy a Garmin phone if you can use Google Maps Navigation for free? Well, Garmin is a very navigation-oriented device and it even comes with the car dock which allows you to mount the handset where it can be easily seen, and it charges your phone at the same time.

It runs the outdated Android 1.5, so you can expect access to most of the Android Market, but not the latest features like voice search, Google Earth, live wallpaper. It also supports Exchange mail and your POP3 and IMAP accounts, so no worries there. It’s a 3.5-inch capacitive touchscreen 3G-enabled handset that has a 3MP camera, Wi-Fi, and it has North American maps preloaded into it with over six million points of intereset. No word on pricing just yet, or an official release date, but look for it before spring is over.

via T-Mobile