Like the Garmin-Asus Nuvifone G60, the Pharos Traveler 127 puts GPS features front and center in its smartphone package. It ships with built-in navigation software, along with all the things you can expect from a typical Windows Mobile device.
Because it comes with Smart Navigator software, users won't need to make a separate app purchase to maximize the phone's GPS hardware. This is great, considering the extra expense it usually entails, whether you opt for a subscription service or a one-time payment.
Unfortunately, Smart Navigator isn't the best GPS software around. Compared to the HTC Touch Cruise and the Nuvifone G60 (both of which shipped with impressive navigation apps), the app bundled with the Traveler 127 isn't the most user-friendly, with a badly-designed menu system that can get confusing. It is a complete system, though, offering voice and text navigation, multiple routes, POI and trip recording. There are also real-time updates for traffic, gas prices, movies and local weather.
Physically, the handset is a bit on the thick side and looks rather industrial in design. It sports a 2.5-inch TFT touch display with 320 x 240 resolution and a slate QWERTY keyboard. Both performed up to par, although the screen tended to fade out under sunlight. It uses the default Windows Mobile UI, which is pretty bad, and comes with a trial version of SPB Shell, an app we recommend you buy if you want to make your WinMo experience much easier.
As a phone, the Traveler 127 offers quad-band world roaming and decent calls. Over several tests, voice calls were pretty uneven, offering average quality at times while sounding hollow during others. It comes with standard WinMo niceties, such as Windows Live Integration, Mobile Office and Exchange support.
It offers tri-band 3G and Wi-Fi connectivity, making for capable data speeds. The phone is quite sluggish, though, which slows down most every activity, including web browsing. It also comes with stereo Bluetooth, some basic media playback and dual cameras. The main optics panel is a 2-megapixel unit with video and geotagging capabilities. Photo quality is surprisingly impressive, with a good interface to boot.
Overall, the Pharos Traveler 127 makes its case by virtue of the bundled GPS system. Unfortunately, this advantage is offset by sluggish hardware, making for a really tough sell. Available for around $500 without a contract, either the Touch Cruise or the Nuvifone might prove a better purchase.
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Doesn’t seem to be worthy at all. The GPS itself isn’t very good and other phone features are just ordinary. Much better phones than this.
I agree with Tom. Its not worth the price. $500 and what are they offering just GPS ? Rather buy some Blackberry or even take the special Verizon $99 phones offer.
http://www.phoneblog.com/cell-phone-news/verizon-drops-prices-on-most-of-their-smartphones-to-99-and-below/
What are these guys thinking? With so many great phones around these days, this one hardly seems to be any competition for them. They might have had a chance had they priced it much lower.