While Garmin-Asus’ M20 is going to be the talk of the playground next week, one must not forget the G60, which has been pegged as the first device from the collaborating companies since last year.

A less snazzy smartphone compared to the upcoming M20, the G60 seems to have already been overshadowed by Garmin-Asus’ next release, which doesn’t even have a launch date yet. That said, it’s a pretty decent phone in its own right and as long as people don’t decide to hold out for the M20, it might actually sell pretty well.

A really quick run down of the specs are as follows: 3.5-inch touchscreen display, HSDPA 3G, Bluetooth, wi-fi, built-in accelerometer, pre-loaded maps of your region and 3 megapixel geotagging camera.

Again, no carrier as of yet, and no solid release date other than Q1 or Q2 2009. We’re sort of beginning to wonder why Asus has decided to give up on the idea of producing its own smartphone separate from Garmin. Satnav phones are a bit of stretch in the smartphone market because they don’t really have the all-in-one reputation associated with the likes of the iPhone or the BlackBerry Storm. According to PCWorld Asus is planning on bringing out an Eee brand phone but it will be part of its partnership with Garmin. Word on the street is the Eee phone will be Garmin-Asus’ first Android based phone. Watch this space for updates from MWC next week.

Check out more details on the Garmin-Asus G60 GPS phone here.

Source : Tom's Hardware US