MWC: Acer M900 Review

BARCELONA, Spain – The Acer M900′s theme is clearly secure business. Its QWERTY keyboard, fingerprint sensor, and operating system made it a phone exclusive to one particular category of buyers. The 5 megapixel camera tells us that this is a high-end device, as such camera is not usually seen in a business phone.

Acer was very public about its strategy, when it said that it is completely focused on smartphones. The eight devices unveiled on the 16th of February were all Windows Mobile 6.1-based, some being 6.5-capable, such as the M900.

The M900 is focused at synchronization of activities, files, and contacts to one’s notebook or desktop computer. Computers are known to be the largest business of Acer.

The phone is also directed to emailing and editing documents, thanks to its full slide-out keyboard. For this function, Outlook mobile and Office mobile are installed.

In terms of connectivity the phone possesses HSDPA, WLAN, and GPS.

On the multimedia side, there is a 3.5mm audio jack, FM radio, MP3, and a 5 megapixel camera with autofocus and LED flash, although the latter can also fall under imaging solutions.

The device runs on the Samsung S3C 6410 mobile processor at 533 MHz, and as said previously, it is based on Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional, with support for Windows Mobile 6.5.

The large 3.8″ display of the phone contributes to the quality of the experience itself, but it also adds weight and size to the already-heavy 188g M900. The phone measures in total 119 x 62 x 17.1mm. The display seemed vivid at the time, and also legible, thanks to its Wide-VGA resolution (480×800 pixels).

Its large size also makes it obvious that it is a phone that reflects quite a lot, and that it attracts fingerprints, due to its glossy appearance.

The user interface used seems to be similar to that of HTC’s TouchFLO, but Acer said that it is their proprietary platform sitting on Windows.

The buttons on the bottom of the display are large and provide a good feedback. They allow one to terminate or answer a call, access the GPS navigation application, or access the home screen/menu.

The fingerprint sensor was not tested. Similar to notebook PCs, the user would have to swipe in order to certify himself, instead of using a password.

On the right of the phone there are three buttons: camera shutter button, an unknown button, and the power button. All these are made out of an aluminium-like metallic material, and have a good feedback. Ahead of the shutter button there is a port, perhaps used for charging the phone. The stylus compartment is also located on this side.

On the left side of the phone, one can find the miniUSB port, trackwheel, and microSD memory card port. The latter opens easily and is not in danger of disintegration.

The top of the phone reads “GPS”, boasting one of the phone’s features.

The back of the phone embosses a Microsoft logo, and features a speaker, the 5 megapixel camera, as well as its LED flash.

The sliding mechanism worked robustly, but unfortunately not as a hinge in order to angle the display. All keys are large and well-labelled in different colours. For the ones who are used to notebook computer-keyboards, it will not take very long to get used to this keyboard.

The Acer M900 smartphone is completely directed to business users to wish to have a complete Windows Mobile experience, but the new HTC Touch Pro2 might prove to be great competition. In the end, it’s the price that will decide the winner, as well as availability.