Rumours have been floating around for a few weeks now, but today Pharos has officially unveiled two new additions to their Windows Mobile GPS smartphone lineup—the Traveller 117 and 127. Generally, another GPS-enabled phone is nothing to get all that excited about, but tri-band 7.2Mbps HSDPA, 2-megapixel cam / front VGA cam and a VGA touchscreen (on the 117 / QWERTY on 127) isn’t half bad for an unlocked Windows Mobile 6.1 phone priced at $US530. As for the GPS itself, Pharos Smart Navigator throws in traffic updates, dynamic POI and FollowMe services and can be purchased separately for $US100 (it’s free on the 117 and 127). Both phones and the software will be available starting on December 1st.
The Gadget: The Drive GPS 250 from Pharos offers text-to-speech functionality, a SiRFStarIII GPS receiver, a 4.3″ touchscreen display, 32-bit CPU processor, NAVTEQ maps, and automatic night view-switching. Not bad when compared to other mid-range devices released by more mainstream companies.
The Price: $US299
The Verdict: It will get you from point A to point B pretty well. Plus the street voice prompts will have you laughing your ass off.
[Pharos]
As much as we’ve enjoyed Windows Mobile phones and GPSes, we haven’t actually had the pleasure of using something that combined both into one device. That’s why Pharos‘s GPS Phone 600 is a welcome addition to our gadget arsenal whenever we have to go anywhere and we’re not driving.
We’ll skip the Windows Mobile 5 stuff that the Pharos has in common with all other WM5 phones, and just say that reception and call quality are on par with HTC’s phones. Which is to say, pretty great.
