Garmin-Asus A10 Android smartphone stock clearance sale (RM5xx) - a good companion for smart tablet

Garmin-Asus A10 Android smartphone is on stock clearance sale nationwide now!

This Android smartphone with Garmin Nuvi 1690 GPS features used to sell above RM1200 for the standard package itself, and now you can get a complete set with all the following items at a price of RM5xx only:

• The standard package - the phone, indoor charger, USB cable, earphone and battery
• Car charger and windscreen suction mount cradle
• A10/M10 desktop battery charger and 1 additional battery
• A10 anti-fingerprint screen protector
• 2 years warranty from SiS

This is really a very good deal to buy it as a companion phone for Samsung Galaxy Tab or some other Android smart tablet or Apple iPad, although we know that Garmin and Asus had discontinued their deal in producing future Garmin-Asus smartphone, and the Android in Garmin Asus A10 remains as 2.1 (Éclair) only.

Why? Because firstly, the Garmin-Asus A10 has a built-in Garmin GPS with Nuvi 1690 features, with a very fast responding and good signal reception GPS chip inside (compared with other smartphones with GPS or a-GPS feature). This phone can locate your location within seconds once its GPS feature is turned on!

The "Where To?" and "Where Am I" app are commonly used GPS feature. Beside that, you can also install additional GPS app into the phone, such as Sygic.

Secondly, the Samsung Galaxy Tab is too troublesome to use as a phone. The A10 with small 3.2" screen is nice to carry in your pocket and work as a phone. It has nice speaker that make your ringtone louder than most Android smartphones too.

So, with this companion, you can:

• Use the A10 as your phone, GPS, calculator, and perhaps basic camera
• Use the Galaxy Tab for Internet, gaming, reading, and other smartphone functions

In fact, I have found out a way to tether the Internet access of your A10 to Galaxy Tab, so you just need one SIM card with data plan in the A10 for this companionship to work seamlessly.

The pros of A10:

• Small size, easy to carry in any pocket. Good companion for tablet
• Superb Garmin GPS function
• Garmin maps are popular and have worldwide coverage. Free unlimited map update available for MalSingMaps (MSM), MalFreeMaps (MFM), etc. Many custom POIs and travel guides can be downloaded from the Internet too.
• When attached to its car GPS cradle, incoming phone calls are handled by the loudspeaker on the cradle. You don't need bluetooth or wired headphone for hand-free phone conversation
• Long lasting 1500mAh battery (can last for more than 30 hours without charging if not using GPS)
• Built-in 4 GB internal memory, and support additional memory (up to 32 GB) with micro SDHC card
• Its phone casing and accessories are solid and of good quality, same material with Garmin GPS products. Better protection from scratch and drop.
• The current cost of RM5xx is competitive to standalone basic GPS device and entry level Android phone. With A10, you get both of them in a single device! In fact, its hardware spec is better than Samsung Galaxy Y S5360 and HTC Explorer.

The cons:

• The 3.2" screen size with only 320x480 resolution is good enough for GPS and general phone function, but is small for other smartphone functions which you can use the 7" and above Galaxy Tab to handle
• The 3.2" screen is a bit small when use as GPS in car, but the voice is loud and clear
• CPU speed at 600Mhz and 512 GB RAM is good enough for GPS and general phone function, but not powerful enough for many apps that need higher resource, which you can use the Galaxy Tab to handle
• Latest firmware is Android is 2.1 (Éclair) update-1, able to install and run most Android apps in the Market, but lack of new features in Android 2.2 (Froyo), 2.3 (Gingerbread) and above. You will need to root it and install Barnacle Wifi Tether as tethering is only built-in in Android 2.2 onwards

You can consider this phone if you are still using Galaxy Tab as your phone (make this a good companion) or you are considering entry level Android smartphone such as Samsung Galaxy Y S5360, HTC Explorer, etc. At almost the same price, this phone has better hardware specs, Garmin Nuvi 1690 GPS functions, and come together with a lot of accessories.