Save content
Have you found this content useful? Use the button above to save it to your profile.
AIA

Hardware review: Acer F900 smartphone

by
15th Sep 2009
Save content
Have you found this content useful? Use the button above to save it to your profile.

Acer is better known for their PCs, but the Taiwanese company have launched a new venture into smartphones. Technology correspondent Jon Wilcox checks out the company’s WinMo device.

The Window Mobile brand may be stuck between a rock and a hard place (otherwise known as BlackBerry and the iPhone) in the smartphone sector, but that hasn’t stopped PC manufacturer Acer from stepping up to the plate. The Taiwanese company unveiled its Tempo smartphones series at the beginning of 2009, and added to the collection earlier in the summer with the F900.  So how does it perform?

Running the soon-to-be-replaced Windows Mobile 6.1, the F900 follows the current trend of touch-screen interfaces and comes with a nifty telescopic stylus.  A somewhat chunky device thanks to its sizeable 3.8” 480x800 resolution screen, it nevertheless feels positively robust.  The stylus neatly stores away in one corner of the device, and the additional soft-keys underneath the touch-screen allow quick access to menus and phone functionality. The F900 also includes the sort of functions users expect in a smartphone, including camera, voice recorder, Wi-Fi, and more. All in all, it’s a solid piece of hardware, though we’re not advocating stress tests by dropping it down a flight of stairs or exposing it to a nuclear blast.  The only real niggles appear when the power button is pressed.

If you’re a fan of the virtual office, then Acer’s Shell 2.0 interface (which replicates an office desk and its sundries) is sure to appeal.  At the start of the experience it was a novelty for me too; the ability to take photos with the F900’s satisfactory camera and frame them on the virtual desk is a nice detail.  However after a while the sight of a virtual rolodex, calendar, and window visualising the weather, just dumbs the experience down; it almost trivialises the device’s usability.  Like Apple’s infamous iPhone however, the F900 implements a grid of applications for quick access together with the WinMo drop-down start menu, both of which work well – though a little more grunt under the case would make for a smoother (and faster) level of productivity.

Veterans of the Windows Mobile 6.1 experience will be fully aware of the operating system’s foibles, especially with regards to touch-screen functionality – something that makes us look forward to the 2010 release of Windows Mobile 7.  Coupled with the F900’s somewhat quirky ‘gravity orientation’ sensor (or accelerometer as anyone with an iPhone or Nintendo Wii call them), using the device is sometimes pretty patchy.  Even in the first few hours of testing, the stability of the WinMo 6.1 operating system showed exactly why an interim replacement platform is due in a matter of weeks. 

Overall, the F900 is a solidly respective but ultimately uninspired addition to the saturated market. The device may form part of Acer’s planned foundation in the smartphones sector, but the company will have to ramp up quickly if it’s to offer a viable alternative to its contemporaries.  Future models based on Google’s Android mobile operating system platform are already confirmed for the end of 2009, although we’d be surprised if WinMo 6.5- and WinMo 7-enabled devices didn’t find their way onto the market soon after.
 

Replies (0)

Please login or register to join the discussion.

There are currently no replies, be the first to post a reply.