Acer has a habit of being first to market with most laptops and netbooks but in the smartphone space the company is still finding its feet, hence the Acer neoTouch S200 being beaten to market by the similar Windows Mobile 6.5 device, the HTC HD2. Can the Acer neoTouch match it in terms of performance, check out our review and find out for yourself…
The Acer neoTouch S200 is the first Windows Mobile 6.5 smartphone the company has launched since it acquired ETEN last year. This 3.8-inch touchscreen device isn’t shy about making its presence felt, as this is a hefty device to hold in the hand.
Fortunately, the 480 x 800-pixel resolution of the Acer neoTouch more than makes up for the size of the phone, as images and text look crisp and sharp. Video and swapping between screens is also neat and trim, thanks largely to the use of the Qualcomm Snapdragon CPU running at 1GHz. It’s not all-good news, as we found the resistive screen is rather laggy at times, with the user needing to give the screen a firm poke to respond.
The Windows Mobile 6.5 operating system is a vast improvement over earlier versions and loading up your most commonly used apps is easy. However, Acer hasn’t done a whole lot to make this handset it’s own, something HTC did a great job of with the HTC HD2.
Features wise, we’re more than impressed with the Acer neoTouch, as you’ll find all the basics of what makes a good smartphone. So 3G and Wi-Fi move along at a decent rate and you’ll even find GPS installed and running Google Maps with ease.
This latter feature really shows off the benefits of having a larger screen, as you could well use the Acer neoTouch as an in-car sat-nav. The 5-Megapixel camera should have been a given, however, the flash is on the poor side, which means snaps taken indoors tend to look a little under-exposed.
Verdict
The Acer neoTouch S200 has a few nice touches and certainly shows Acer moving in the right direction with its Windows Mobile offerings. However, this still feels a lot like an entry-level device rather than a premium, top-flight handset.
Best features
Big screen
Decent design
Good battery life
Not so good
Hefty design
Sluggish screen
Poor flash on camera
Closest Rivals
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