Review Over the last 12 months Acer has been spitting out smartphones like there is no tomorrow. Some of them, like the Tempo F900, have been quite good while others, like the beTouch E101, have been, ahem, less impressive. Yet none have really scored as a hit in our book, but that may be about to change with the release of the A1 Liquid, Acer’s first Android phone.
Fast and fuss-free: Acer’s A1 Liquid
Just the basic specs are enough to make your ears prick up. A 3.5in 480 x 800 capacitive touch screen, Android 1.6 OS – that’s Donut in Android’s confectionery obsessed parlance – a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8250 CPU running at 768MHz, a 1350mAh battery, quad-band GSM, HSDPA good for 7.2Mbps downstream and HSUPA good for 2.0Mbps up, assisted GPS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and a 3.5mm headphone jack.
Available in either black, red or white – with rounded sides and slab ends design – embellishments have been kept to an absolute minimum. The end result is that the Liquid is handsome, but a bit dull. Considering its size and weight, the Liquid couldn’t be more like Apple‘s iPhone if it tried. At 115 x 62.5 x 12.5mm and 135g, the two are near enough identical. Read the rest of this entry »
Review Acer has been successful in the laptop market by building low-cost, efficient computers that deliver the goods for less dosh than many of its big-brand brethren. When it first began manufacturing smart phones earlier this year, we had high hopes that they’d be able to pull of the same trick. Yet, Acer’s first four Windows Mobile smartphones seemed out-of-date almost as soon as they hit the shelves, and there was the feeling that they were old Glofish models with a new badge.
Acer’s beTouch E101: Price and performance payoff?
The latest beTouch batch, however, are new, with improved processors and the latest Windows Mobile 6.5. The E101 is the lowliest of the bunch, way behind the range-topping neoTouch S200, and claims distinction as the market’s cheapest WinMo smartphone. But with no Wi-Fi, no 3G and an exceptionally poor screen, could Acer have made a compromise too far?
The Acer beTouch E101 is a fair old handful at 113 x 56 x 13mm, but feels lighter than it looks at 118g. Part of the reason for this is its rather cheap and plasticky casing, which feels particularly flimsy on the thin back panel.
Beneath the large 3.2in screen is a large circular navpad with an outer scroll wheel and an inner action button. We were pleasantly surprised to find that it is a genuine scroll wheel which allows you to twirl through menus and web pages, but also has pressure points underneath, so it doubles as a five-way navpad. On each side of it are hard buttons for call start and stop, as well as back and home. Read the rest of this entry »
Review With the launch of the M900, Acer’s assault on the smartphone market comes to a halt. Well, at least until its first Android or WinMo 6.5 handsets emerge blinking into the cold light of day. Joining the ranks of the dual SIM DX900, 2.8in screen X960 and 3.8in F900, we now have a Windows Mobile handset with a slide-out Qwerty keyboard.
Acer’s Tempo M900
Unlike the F900, the M900 doesn’t face direct competition from HTC, the doyen of Windows smartphones, since the HTC Touch Pro2 makes do with a 3.6in screen. Acer, however, has fitted the M900 with the same bright and colourful resistive 3.8in screen fitted to the F900.
Despite the extra screen size, Acer has done a good job of keeping the M900′s size and weight in line with the HTC device. At 188g, it’s a only half a gram heavier than the Pro2 while at 119 x 62 x 17.1mm it’s a negligible 3mm wider and taller and fractionally thinner. Read the rest of this entry »
Review The roll out of Acer’s Tempo series of Windows smartphones continues apace with the dual-SIM DX900 and rather unremarkable X960 now being quickly followed by something altogether more shiny and new, the F900 with its eye-catching 3.8in touchscreen.
Acer’s Tempo F900 Windows Mobile smartphone
The F900′s external dimensions are unsurprisingly similar to HTC’s Touch HD, the only other 3.8in touchscreen Windows smartphone currently available. At 150g the F900 is 3g heavier while at 117.5×63.5×12.9mm it’s also a little taller, wider and thicker. Alas, it’s not the looker that the Touch HD is either, feeling altogether more slab-like, lacking the HTC handset’s subtly bevelled screen fascia. Read the rest of this entry »
Review Currently, only the second Acer smartphone to actually make it to market, the Tempo X960 comes with 2.8in touch screen, HSDPA 3G, Wi-Fi, 3.2Mp Camera, A-GPS and an all-new user interface.
Acer’s Tempo X960 Windows Mobile smartphone
PC manufacturer Acer made its bid to secure a place in the smart phone market earlier this year with the DX900 – essentially a rebadged version of the Glofiish DX900, the brand that Acer acquired last year when it took over its parent company E-TEN.
Despite its dual SIM capability, the bulky and slightly clunky DX900 seemed like something of a throwback to a more functional, less stylish era of smartphones. By contrast, the Acer X960 seems like a much more modern affair. Read the rest of this entry »
