Acer Betouch E101 ? Smartly Designed Smartphone

The Acer company can emerge as a cause of many sleepless nights of present day mobile phone market leaders as it is creating few really worthy gadgets. The Acer beTouch E101 is one among them.

The new Acer beTouch E101 which is also known as Acer E1 comes with a 3.2 inches TFT resistive touch screen that renders 65K colors at 240 x 400 pixels resolution. Acer UI 3.0 and Scroll Wheel are few exclusives on the gadget making it even more attractive. The overall weight of the phone is 118 grams and its casing measures 113 x 56 x 12.8 mm.

The 2 mega pixel camera of the phone can click pictures at 1600 x 1200 pixels resolution and videos of QVGA quality. To leave you with a perfect multimedia feel the presented music player supports MP3, WAV, WMA, eAAC+ music files. Moreover, video playback of MP4, WMV, H.264, H.263 video files can also be expected from the Acer E101. Games and downloadable MP3 and WAV ringtones are also few of its multimedia attributes.

There is Pocket Office software given on the Acer beTouch E101 that will allow you to access your Word, Excel, PowerPoint and PDF files through the phone. Messaging services like SMS (threaded view), MMS, Email,and Instant Messaging have made the phone even more engaging. You can access your favorite websites through it by using the HTML browser. GPS navigation system with AGPS support will allow you to keep a track of every route. 3G HSDPA, HSUPA, Bluetooth v2.0 with A2DP, Mini USB, EDGE and GPRS are the connectivity and data sharing techniques of the phone.

The standard Li-Ion 1140 mAh battery of Acer beTouch E101 will help you to achieve approximately 400 hours of standby time and about 5 hours of talk time. The gadget comes with 256MB of RAM and 512MB of ROM and a MicroSD card slot for further expansion of the storage space.

Joining The Android Bandwagon With The Acer Betouch E400

One of the world leaders in mobile computing Acer has unveiled the latest addition to its beTouch family of smartphones with the new Acer beTouch E400. Android fans can rejoice as Acer has opted to go Android 2.1 Éclair and abandon the Windows Mobile 6.5 used in the first three beTouch smartphones released starting last October.

An Average Feature Profile

The E400 is powered by the 600 MHz Qualcomm QSX 7227 CPU and runs the latest Android 2.1 Éclair.  There are some Acer-specific widgets and services like free music streaming but other than that, the E400 is as average as any mid-range smartphone with no stand-out feature to brag about.

It's a quad band GSM/GPRS/EDGE on 2G and a dual band UMTS/SDPA/HSUPA on 3G.  There's WiFi 802.11b/g as well as Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP and microUSB 2.0. SatNav gets a GPS receiver with E-compass location finder and Google Maps with Latitude, Traffic, Street View and POI search.
Its elegant iPhone-like styled body measures 115 x 59.3 x 12 mm and weighs just 125 grams.  It accommodates a 3.2-inch TFT half-VGA resistive touchscreen with 256k colors and comes with an accelerometer.  Imaging is supported be an average 3.2 megapixel autofocus camera with digital zoom, geo tagging and video recording that Acer is silent about.
Your entertainment on the road gets a Roll Tech Nemo Player that supports the popular media file codecs, a stereo FM receiver, free online music streaming with music Spinlets and YouTube video streaming.  For stereo headphone listening, you can opt to go wireless with its A2DP support or go wired with its 3.5mm audio jack.
It has the same 256 RAM and 512 MB ROM phone memory as its E100  predecessor and microSD expandability for up to 32 GB.   You get a talk time of up to 5 hours and a standby time of up to 400hours from a 1090 mAh Lithium Polymer battery when fully charged.
There's social networking integration, access to the Android Market and comes pre-bundled with a document viewer for PDF and MS Office files, Google Search, PC Sync and Google cloud sync, an Android email client and web browser, Gmail and IM using GTalk.

Conclusion

It's clear that the above feature won't take the Acer beTouch E400 above the smartphone crowd but it's also a capable if average smartphone.  A review of the Acer mobile phone products since it started in April last year shows it has its sights trained on the markets currently lorded over by its compatriot HTC, considered the world leader in smartphones outside of the Symbian OS.

The last Mobile World Congress bannered Acer's commitment to triple its mobile phone business by 2011 starting with a target sale of 3 million units this year.  That's a tall order considering it only sold half a million units last year.  Acer might succeed but not with lackluster smartphones it showed at the MWC.

While the Acer beTouch E400 looks and acts better than its predecessor, it's more because of the new Android OS and nothing more.  Same with its Liquid e which is nothing more than the old Liquid A1 with an upgraded OS.  Acer has better get its innovative act together in an industry that puts a premium on it.

Acer Betouch E110: Smart Phone For The Masses

Taiwan-based Acer Incorporated has given mobile phone enthusiasts something to look forward to with the high-end Acer Liquid e. They have also invaded the business phone market with their phone for young professionals, the Acer neoTouch P400. The Taiwan-based electronics manufacturer has another phone lined up for Android lovers (or more likely, for first time smart phone users who want to try using an Android device) the Acer beTouch E110.

Wi-Fi: A No Show?

Among the Android phones that Acer has launched in this year's Mobile Phone Congress, the beTouch E110 seems to be the most affordable one with only subpar specs thrown in. Since it is likely that Acer is marketing this particular device towards those who are looking to kick off their smart phone collection, the specs are forgivable. What is not is the lack of something that should be a standard for new releases: Wi-Fi connectivity.

For a phone that markets itself as a Web-connected smart phone, the lack of a Wi-Fi is no doubt a huge misstep for Acer. The phone itself seems to be an affordable package, especially with the number of cheap deals from mobile carriers to choose from these days. The lack of a Wi-Fi does pose a problem for those who get this phone solely for internet browsing so a decent data plan is a must.

An Office and a Living Room in Your Pocket

Despite the fact that the E110 was meant to be a budget phone, it does pack some noteworthy features both for work and play. Much like its WinMo cousin, the neoTouch P400, Acer's E110 comes equipped with a Pocket Office which comes with OneNote, Word, Excel, PowerPoint and a PDF viewer. For those who need to record notes, a voice memo feature is also thrown in to top off the list.

Built-in Facebook and Twidroid apps as well as other social network integration apps make connecting to friends easy. One of these apps is the internet radio app dubbed as "Spinlets". This gives users the freedom to stream songs by major music labels on the go and share these with friends and family through social networking sites such as Facebook or through email messages. The Acer avatar application called as the "Acer UrFooz" lets users create their likeness in a 2D format and share their creations on their social network site account profiles.

Optimized Hardware for Internet Use

The E110 carries the Google Android version 1.5 "Cupcake" OS. While older, it is stable and it does have a user-friendly interface. The beTouch E110 is equipped with an ST Ericsson PNX6715 416 MHz processor. It has Bluetooth (version 2.0 with A2DP) connectivity and is capable of connecting to 2G, 3G and EDGE networks.

There is no question that the Acer beTouch E110 is a standard phone for the masses. It does a great job in terms of its intended purpose which is to browse the internet and be a device for capable of basic work/school functions. For those looking for more to fiddle around with and more customization options though, they are probably better off looking at either the Liquid e for a high-end Google Android device or the P400 for a WinMo OS.