This was announced by Pharos a couple of months ago, but I hadn't noticed it until today when I spotted it on PocketPCThoughts. Taking a PDAPhone to market with no carrier endorsing it is a tough way to go... and most devices that go that way are left with very few sales. I think the biggest reason is that non one can get them with the carrier incentives for a new plan signup. But the real question is... to consumers want their GPS built into their PDAPhone, or are they OK with the Bluetooth GPS devices that are currently the market norm for PDAPhones.
There have been PDAs with a built-in GPS before, but not a lot of PDAPhones with a built-in GPS. Pharos is a well known in the GPS and navigation software market, so its logical for a device of this type to come from a GPS company. The Pharos GPS Phone 600 is a re-branded version of the E-Ten X500, which is a very capable PDAPhone. It is one of the thinnest Pocket PC Phones at only 0.61 inches thick, but the trade-off is that it lacks any slide-out keyboard which have become very popular with PDAPhones.
The specs are pretty good on the GPS Phone 600, running on a 400MHz Samsung processor, GSM quad-band with EDGE, 802.11b/g, 2.8" QVGA touchscreen, 128MB ROM / 64MB RAM, GPS support (obviously), a 2 megapixel digial camera, an FM radio, and Bluetooth 2.0. The GPS Phone 600E retails for $599 without mapping software. The GPS Phone 600 comes with Pharos' Ostia mapping and navigation software and retails for $699. In the US Market, this phone will work with T-Mobile or Cingular / AT&T. Can it compete without carrier direct support?
Wow, I remember holding that device in a trade expo in Hong Kong last summer, waiting to be picked up by some foreign company. It was really light, and I'm surprised that it has GPS capability. However, it did feel quite tacky.
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