Touch Pro2 Killer? (1/4)
Acer Tempo M900 with Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional
INTRODUCTION
We first heard about the Acer Tempo M900 at Mobile World Congress 2009. Many were super impressed by what looked to be a strong competitor for the also freshly-announced Touch Pro2 from HTC. The design of the M900 looked sleek, the specs sounded impressive, and the huge 3.8" screen even trumped that of the Touch Pro2 in terms of size. What's more, the device would support USA 3G bands. Though it looks good on paper, how does the M900 perform in real world testing? We've got the thorough review ahead!
WHAT'S HOT
Let's go through the specs. The Acer M900 is running with Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional. Acer has said that the M900 will be upgradeable to Windows Mobile 6.5 at Mobile World Congress, but we haven't heard anything about that since. It has a Samsung SC3 6410 processor running at 533MHz. It has 256MB ROM (with 128MB accessible), 128MB RAM (with 87MB accessible), and has a microSD/HC expansion slot for added memory. The resistive touchscreen is 3.8" and is WVGA 480x800 resolution, making for a pixel density of 246ppi (the Touch Diamond's screen is 285ppi, the Touch Diamond2's screen is 292ppi, and the iPhone's screen is 164ppi). It's a quadband GSM (850/900/1800/1900) phone with triband UMTS (850/1900/2100) with HSDPA and HSUPA. It also has assisted GPS, WiFi b & g, Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR, USB 2.0, a fingerprint scanner, FM Radio, and an accelerometer for screen rotations. The rear camera is 5.0MP with auto focus and a flash, and the front camera for video calls is VGA resolution. Powering all of this is a 1530mAh battery. For even more specs, check out PDAdb.net. And for a spec-to-spec comparison of the M900 with the HTC Touch Pro2, click here.
(all images link to larger versions)
The most stunning trait of the M900 is its huge screen. At 3.8", it's larger than the Touch Pro2, and as large as the Touch HD. It also has the highest resolution that Windows Mobile can support at 800x480.
WHAT'S IN THE BOX
Here is the unboxing video for the M900. Included is a case with belt clip, extra stylus, headphones, screen protector, wall charger and sync cable.
THE DEVICE
The M900's screen doesn't tilt like it does on the Touch Pro2. It has a full QWERTY slide-out keyboard.
The case that comes with the M900 is made out of plastic but is made to look like leather. It has proper cut-outs so that you don't have to remove the device from the case to charge it, or to access the microSD card.
On the back of the case is a belt clip.
The M900 has a nice-sized slide out QWERTY keyboard with offset keys and plenty of shortcut buttons for Windows Mobile like Start, Ok, and two soft keys on the right and left of the keyboard. The keys feel spaced out and are more difficult to press than the Touch Pro2. A big annoyance: the period and comma buttons can only be accessed if you tap the FN key.
Zooming into the keys we can see that each one has a little ledge at the bottom.
The front of the M900 is covered with a huge piece of very reflective plastic. This severely harms outdoor viability.
Zooming into the top we see the front-facing video camera, plus two system indicator lights (one for GPS, and one for new messages). There is a light sensor up here as well. The polling frequency for the light sensor on the M900 is way too high, meaning that the backlight may change every few seconds if you have the device set to change backlighting based on ambient light.
Zooming into the bottom we see (from left to right) a Call Start button, a programmable hardware key, the biometric fingerprint scanner, another programmable hardware key, and the Call End key.
Turning over to the left side we find the miniUSB port which is used for syncing, charging and audio. To the right of that is a handy scroll wheel for emails and web pages, and to the right of that is an external microSD card slot behind a cheap piece of plastic.
On the other side we find the stylus silo which contains the flimsy collapsible stylus. To the right of that is a dual-action camera button, followed by the soft-reset hole, a programmable button, and the power/standby key.
And on the top, it says GPS.
Like the front, the back of the M900 is also quite stunning. It is adorned by an oversized metal ring surrounding the camera, plus a brush-metal-looking piece of plastic to cover the battery.
The camera is 5.0MP with flash and autofocus. More on photo quality on page three.
Taking off the back battery cover we reveal the 1530mAh battery, which has the SIM card slot beneath.
When the lights are out, the four hardware keys glow in white.
In addition, the keyboard is entirely backlit.
Here is the hardware tour of the M900.
COMPARISONS
From left to right we have the HTC Touch Pro, Touch Pro2, Acer M900, Touch HD, and Touch Diamond2. The M900 is a large device and leaves a bulk in your pocket.
Here they are stacked in reverse order.
And here is how the Touch Pro2's keyboard compares with that of the M900.
Flip on over to the next page where we'll cover Acer's 3D interface!
