Garmin Nuvifone GPS Mobile Phone and Mio A701 GPS Mobile Phone are not just a couple of flagships of their respective manufacturers, who incidentally are two icons of the satellite navigation segment, but two genuine pieces that evoke great expectations in the minds of real travel-oriented, mobile phone users. These gadgets certainly transcend the ordinary GPS mobile phones put forth by the contemporary mobile phone giants like Nokia, Blackberry, Sony Ericsson and Samsung. Here, an impressive trial is engaged to rate the better among the twosome, with satellite navigational properties of them held as the predominant parameter.

Garmin Nuvifone Mobile Phone, in the first looks itself scores. Say, in the specification part, to be precise. This smartphone with 3G, HSDPA, EDGE and GPRS, effects a lethal blow on its adversary, Mio A701 that is simply a GPRS mobile phone, deprived of even EDGE. The touch screen of Nuviphone is also a nicety being designed with a diagonal size of 3.5" (That is really a large one)., as the A701 user is forced to be content with a 2.7" touch screen that is enriched with a 240 x 320 pixel resolution, which proves a bit fiddly with its small icons. The user has to rely on the stylus frequently, and this proves to be a nightmare at situations like being stuck at traffic lights. The communication data download part of A701 too looks a bit weak, as it has only GPRS to boast, apart from being a triband GSM device. Frankly, inclusion of atleast, EDGE would have been a welcome addition here. No wonder, despite sporting an agile processor (Xscale PXA270 520 Mhz of Intel), it demonstrates sluggish update of maps, whem browsed through.

The maps of A701 belong to the TeleAtlas family that in its turn, strives to keep its products well detailed, with a galaxy of pints of interest. Meanwhile, the MioMaps trail a bit with no complete post code search being offered. Another intersting feature of the MioMaps is its set of a variety of drive speed settings, though they would certainly trigger sort of confusion in you, at first. They are; normal car, slow car, fast car, lorry, motor cycle, bike and pedestrian modes. Garmin in its turn, presents pre-loaded maps of N.America, and Western and Eastern Europe, with millions of POIs and street level navigation. Garmin maps also offer another novel concept in Google Local Search that enables the user to search for a range of European and N. American shops. This feature tends to enhance the POI data base of Nuviphone. Other significant features attributed to this segment of Nuvifone are; 'Where am I?' Feature that allows its users learn their exact position through the touch screen, 'Spot the Vehicle' that helps the driver to locate his/her car in a crowded parking lot, and Panaramio site of Google, when connected with this phone helps the user in the form of a tour guide.

The imaging part of the two GPS phones appears to be poles apart, with Nuviphone emerging the successful one with its 3MP digital camera that comes backed by autofocus and digita zooming capabilities. Although, the most striking attractions here are the automatic Geotagging feature that immediately tags a captured photograph with longitude reference of the location it was shot, and its nexus with Google Panoramio website that promptly boosts the picture sharing scopes. Mio A701 GPRS GPS Mobile Phone emphatically falls flat here with only a 1.3MP digital camera to back it that offers not even satisfactory images. Moreover, it also does not offer anything significant for a multimedia fan, as Garmin Nuvifone 3G GPS Smartphone comes with a built-in music player that reads MP3 and AAC, apart from an inbuilt video camera complimented by MPEG 4 playback. Finally, A701 also fails to present the advanced Bluetooth 2.0 or USB 2.0 connectivity features, as it manages only the stodgy earlier versions that tells on its transfer pace.

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