Windows Phone Thoughts - Daily News, Views, Rants and Raves

Product Category: PDA Phone

Manufacturer: Acer

Where to Buy: Expansys [Affiliate]

Price: $479.99 USD

Specifications: From the Expansys site

Pros:

• Elegant design;
• Large, sharp and vibrant screen;
• Very good speakerphone.

Cons:

• 128 MB of RAM isn't sufficient for such an advanced device;
• Screen isn't as touch sensitive as many competitors;
• Acer Shell touch interface lacks the pizazz and depth of HTC's TouchFlo.

Summary: Will we ever be able to write another touchscreen phone review without mentioning the iPhone? Its phenomenal success and near-iconic status have sent the manufacturers of phones using the more "venerable" operating systems, such as Windows Mobile and Blackberry, scrambling to come up with iPhone alternatives. I haven't seen much from Acer in phones in the past, but its F900 has impressive specs and looks to have the potential to challenge the iPhone as well as other WinMo contenders such as the HTC Touch Diamond 2. Does the F900 have what it takes to bring iPhone shoppers into the WinMo fold?

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Remember those eight models Acer launched in Singapore a couple of weeks back? Gearlog reports that Acer's plan for moving these into the US market is being held up by carrier certification. By the time they get in, Acer's models are going to have lots of competition - Acer loses, consumers lose. Is it just me or is the phone business model in the US broken?

"At a launch event today, Acer and C2O Corporation officially launched eight of these handsets in the Singapore market. Available now are the dual-SIM DX900 ($530 USD), the dual-faced DX650 ($397 USD) and the compact X960 ($463 USD). Expected in May but not yet priced are the F900 and the M900, and then coming later in 2009 are the F1, L1 and C1."

I'm not sure about the marketing angle of this - surely launching 8 models at once isn't exactly calculated to keep your brand staying very long in the consumer awareness. This is especially true since the timing is horrible as Singapore's economy has been among the worst hit in the region from the global downturn. Or maybe that's the whole idea - create a huge splash while everybody else cuts marketing budgets. In any case, Acer's eight models cover the gamut from entry level (two of which we covered here) to the top-end M900 and F900 (due in May). Specs on these are known (hit the link for the rundown), but not for the yet-to-be-available F1, L1 and C1. The F1 is also slated to be high-end, with a rumoured 5MP camera, Qualcomm's Snapdragon chipset running at 800MHz and ATI graphics, while the L1 and C1 are reputed to be budget phones. Credit to TechieLobang for covering the event and taking lots of pics!