Availability: 27th March 2010, via M1 and StarHub, and all authorized resellers
Retail Price: S$638 (including GST)
Quick highlights: Windows Mobile 6.5.3 phone, comes bundled with preloaded navigation from Garmin and Tele Atlas, 3.5 inch WVGA 480×800 screen
Promotions: Consumers who purchase the Garmin-Asus M10 smart phone between 27th March to 2nd May 2010 can get a car kit at a discounted price of S$65 (usual price S$78)

Garmin and Asus made a big splash today at their media event for their upcoming launch of the M10 phone in Singapore.

Now Asus is better known for their range of netbooks and graphics cards, but they have been trying to break into the smartphone market for at least two years. I haven’t been really impressed with Asus smartphones I’ve reviewed in the past as I found that both interface and form factor wise were just so-so.

But the Asus folks believe that this phone is a breakout one that will be lapped up by consumers. Benson Lin, vice president and general manager of Asus’ personal mobile devices business unit, believes that their phone will do very well against the competition, like the upcoming HTC HD mini (also a Windows 6.5.3 phone) and HTC Legend (Android 2.1).

Here are his reasons:

• It’s one of the most value-for-money smartphones in the market, packing in great specs at low cost.
• It’s got one of the biggest screens in the market, a 3.5 inch 480×800 WVGA display, which is always a nice bling factor.
• Battery life is touted to be pretty long with its 1500mAh battery.
• Pretty good memory and storage specs: 512MB RAM and 512ROM, and a 4GB eMMC flash memory.
• And of course, the navigation application tie-up with Garmin and Tele Atlus, which Asus claims is exactly similar to the Garmin 1460 PND (typical Singapore retail price S$449). Consumers of course get it for free in this phone.

Having had a very successful launch in its home country Taiwan, Asus believes that this phone wil be extremely competitive in the Singapore market, and Benson expects that it will be one of the best selling Windows Mobile phone for 2010 Q2.

My take and a quick commentary:
I think price-for-specs wise, the phone definitely has merit. I didn’t get a chance to play with the interface of the phone, but form factor wise it seems decent.

The phone also does seem like it will appeal to those who need a good navigation device cum phone. Asus claims that their GPS and navigation software takes an average of about 33 seconds to get the first GPS fix, compared to other phones who typically take about two to three minutes. They also claim that the M10′s interface is designed to multitask, and you can both make and take calls whilst using the navigation applications.

With Garmin and Tele Atlus’ software inside, the phone is a more robust navigation device than using a free tool like Google Maps. For example, it has routing algorithms that can suggest new places to park your car if the one you’re going to is full.

However, navigation is just one application, and any smartphone needs to do more than just that of course.

Said Aloysius Choong, IDC’s research manager who leads APAC mobile devices research, who was at the event: “Nowadays smartphones are also moving towards social networking and connecting people. The platform may be more important than phone features.”

For example, Google Maps may be less feature rich, but it also bundles in things like location-based social networking (Foursquare). An android phone also provides easy integration with GoogleTalk and Gmail. iPhone has gained such a huge market — Apple has overtaken Nokia to become Singapore’s top selling smartphone vendor in Q409, according to Aloysius — in part due to the great number and quality of apps in the iPhone App Store. And Windows Mobile get plus points when it comes to being able to work with Word documents and Excel spreadsheets.

At least for me, the fact that the M10 is a Window Mobile phone is more important than the nifty navigation features or even some of the specifications of the phone.

At every computer show I always check out memory card prices just to see how much they have fallen. Here’s what I spotted at the Kingston booth at Hall 6.

For a comparison, look at some of the memory card prices from last November’s Sitex.

Prices of memory cards, especially the 8GB and 16GB varieties, have fallen. The 8GB micro SD has dropped from around $32 to $25 and the 16GB micro SD from $112 to $84.

I was on the lookout for a netbook, and went to both the Asus and Acer booths to look at their EePc and AspireOne range respectively.

Will probably trawl IT Show some more this weekend for more cheapo offers, but overall felt that I liked the Asus AspireOne 10.1 inch netbook (in blue) better because of the overall nicer finishing.

The price is $688 for the Intel Atom Processor N280 , Windows XP Home edition version, 1GB onboard RAM and 160GB hard disk. The weight is 1.33kg with battery (the whole point of buying a netbook is that it is light!), and it comes with wi-fi 8021.11 b/g and bluetooth, which is pretty standard.

There were no freebies packaged with the deal, but I was told the outside retail price is $799. Of the few resellers selling the Acer AspireOne at the IT Show, the Best Denki booth threw in a free upgrade to 2GB RAM which I will strongly consider if I go back this weekend to snipe a good deal.

If you find any great deals at the IT Show, drop a comment on this post and share your experience!

It’s been said that recessions come and go but life goes on at Sim Lim Square, that six-storey techie haunt in Singapore, for those unfamilar.

The best evidence comes from the way PC buffs snapped up Intel’s new Core i7s, as they hit the stores late last week.

So popular are these Core i7s that the supporting high-end DDR3 modules are near sold out. Popular retailer Cybermind, for example, now has stocks for only 3 x 1GB DDR3s from Corsair (S$255 with bundle). The 3 x 2GB packs (S$499 with bundle) are already sold out.

Not surprisingly, the most popular Core i7 chip is the entry level i7-920, which at S$493, compares flavourably against almost any older Core2 chips out there now. It’s also an overclockers’ favourite, as it is known to ramp up nicely with the right motherboard.

The top-end Core i7-965 Extreme, the king of the hill now, costs no less than S$1,685, and there are quite a few buyers, say Cybermind. The worst seller among the three new Core i7s is the i7-940, which is “neither here nor there” with a price of $945.

Among the equally expensive motherboards, the Gigabye X58 Extreme and MSI X58 Eclipse are, relatively speaking, the best deals around, with prices going between S$550 and S$620.

That’s when you consider that the excellent but pricey Asus Rampage II Extreme costs a whopping S$709. Yet you can bet there are crazies out there who’d whip out the money for that board during recession!

The official word’s out – the next big leap in Intel CPUs will come next month, when the chipmaker launches its much-awaited Core i7 chips, also known as the “Nehalem”.

An Intel blog written by its PR folks confirm that the new chip will be out in November, just as supporting motherboards featuring the new X58 chipset start appearing.

These Core i7 babies are the biggest shift in CPU technology since the successful Core and Core2 series of chips started dominating the market in the past couple of years.

The new Core i7 is a “tock” in the “tick-tock” evolution of Intel’s processor roadmaps, with “tick” being a smaller improvement (usually in the manufacturing process) and “tock” being a whole new microarchitecture.

The news will come at the right time as new X58-based motherboards that support the i7 arrive in shops. These boards  will come with a new CPU socket and likely require new DDR3 RAM (most of us except the extreme mobo lovers are still using DDR2 I assume).

For hardcore PC buffs willing to splash more than S$500 on a mobo, I can confirm that Asus’ Rampage II Extreme featuring the X58 chipset will be out in a couple of weeks’ time, while Gigabyte’s X58 offering will also be out in Singapore soon.

Which all means that, if you are going to upgrade soon and are so tempted by cheap DDR2 RAM, hold out for a few weeks if you can. I am one such user – my Asus Rampage Formula (X48 board) is giving me unusual BSODs thanks to my extreme clocking and modding, but I may hold up my RMA until the Core i7 appears!

Win an LG 42-inch LCD TV now.
Contest closes Nov 12, 2008.

…

If you have been holding out for a new top-end graphics card, here’s a little bit of good news.

Sim Lim Square stores like Cybermind and Bell and online retailers like Potterhouse are (finally) selling some Nvidia GTX 280 cards for S$699 this weekend (down from S$799), reflecting the price drop that gamers in the US have been enjoying for weeks.

So far, Leadtek, Gigabyte and MSI have taken the lead in the price drops, though you’d expect Asus (still at S$1,000!) to quickly follow as well.

Singapore prices are still some way off the US$399 – US$449 (S$543 – S$611) that US e-tailers like Newegg or Zipzoomfly are selling the cards for after mail-in rebates. But at least, prices are finally moving somewhere here.

When the ATI 4870×2, which thumps the GTX 280 in performance,  comes to town in mid-Aug (delayed from earlier July date), expect even better deals.

For now, the best bang for buck may be the 4870 (S$399), which you can Crossfire later with a second 4870 (when prices are lower). But if you can wait, then wait for a few weeks more for the 4870×2 to come and spoil the market first, and for prices to be more consistent with performance per buck.