Leap K1

GPS manufacturer Mio isn’t going to let Garmin get away with its nüviPhone. The company announced two new phones this week at Computex: the Leap K1 and the Leap G50 Navigation PDA Phone. The Leap K1 (first previewed at CES) screams Samsung UpStage with its dual-sided form. One side of the candy-bar phone has a touch GPS screen, and the other side a basic keypad.

The Leap G50 is a Windows Mobile 6.1 device with built-in navigation capability. I stopped by the Mio booth here in Taipei to get a closer look at the phones.

Hands-On with the Leap K1

I like that the dual-sided Leap K1 keeps the phone separate from the GPS functionality. But I do anticipate some potential issues since the touch interface doesn’t seem to support phone capabilities such as accepting an incoming call.

The phone at the Mio booth didn’t have a SIM card, so testing out voice capability and the screen’s UI was out of the question, but I did like the feel of the spacious keypad. The phone side sports a 1.6-inch TFT OLED screen.

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