Acer DX900-A review

Over the last fifty years, skirts are not the only accessories that seem to have shrunk in size. Once there were the room sized computers, then came the personal computer, then came the laptop and now it is the era of the smartphones, the pocket computer. So much has been the popularity of the smartphone that computer manufacturers been forced to sit and lookup. Apple changed the smartphone world with theiPhone, now its Acer’s turn. The computer giant has recently launched a range of smartphones known as the Tempo series. Touted as the world’s first official dual sim phone, the phone lets you keep your work and your home separate. What’s more, it’s better looking than most of the competition around. Samsung and HTCbeware!

If you are looking for a Windows phone which is also affordable then the DX900 should definitely be on your list.

You have to give it to the Eten engineers who have designed a very impressive phone. The all black matt handset comes with a 2.8 inch resistive TFT touch screen with the shiny navigational D-pad and the send and end buttons at the bottom. For all the features and the dual sim, the phone comes in at a rather heavy weight of 147 Gms. The light sensor is placed right above the screen, the volume jogger and the external headphone jack is on the right whereas the USB and the power switch are placed on the left of the phone. Except for the striking looks there is nothing much unique about the phone.

The screen works well normal light but fails miserably in bright sunlight. The response to touch is impressive and works with the stylus as well as with the fingers. The screen also works as the preferred mode of input with the virtual keypad as well as handwriting recognition capabilities. The device runs the Windows Mobile 6.1 professional with the Spb Shell running on top. The user interface offers customizable menus among other features.

All said and done except the dual sim. Open the rear cover and remove the battery to reveal the Sim slot. The 2nd sim placed on the right can also be used for a 3G card.

A 3.2 MP camera is provided for capturing images and video. Ably supported by the autofocus, the phone is able to pick up objects from quite some distance very appreciably. The LED flash ensured bright pictures even when the surroundings are not very ambient.

That’s not all. A secondary VGA camera is also provided at the front for self portraits and video calling.

Should I just say Windows Media Player? The media player does not stand even close to some of the fantastic multimedia capabilities of Samsung phones. The sound quality is average and so is the video.

The equalizers and playlists are standard which come with Media Player. But then this is a business phone from a business machine maker. So we never expected it to be even close to those HD phones out there.

For Web Browsing you have the Internet Browser which is perhaps not the best out there. But then it’s efficient and works well with most of the web pages. Standard pages are rendered smoothly though the browser suffers with pages with rich media.

Abundant support is offered for all types of instant messaging and email. Windows live messenger is available for messaging. Outlook Express should take care of the e-mail part with support for all the popular protocols both enterprise and web.

With the Windows calendar by your side you can rest peacefully and plan you days well in advance.

Display: 2.8 inch TFT screen with a resolution of 480 x 640 pixels and support for 65K colors.
Dimensions: 108 x 53 x 17 mm.
Weight: 147 Gms.
Camera: Main camera – 3.15 MP, 2048×1536 pixels, autofocus, LED flash.
Secondary camera – VGA video call camera.
Audio: Music player with support for MP3, WMA.
Video: WMV, divx.
Messaging: SMS, MMS, Email, Instant Messaging.
Connectivity: Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP, miniUSB.
Internet: GPRS, EDGE, Wi-Fi, 3G HSDPA, internet explorer.
Games: Built-in and downloadable.
Memory: 128 MB internal with support for microSD.
Battery: Standard battery, Li-Ion 1530 mAh with talk time of 10 hours and standby of 150 hours.
Extras:
* Dual Sim.
* Voice memo.
* 2.5 mm external jack.
* GPS through SiRF Star III chipset.
* Pocket Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, PDF viewer).
* Widget based Spb Shell UI.
* Hearing aid compatible.
* Accelerometer.
* Light sensor.
* Voicemail.