(Click here for a larger view of Acer's DX900)
Acer, already a leader in the
netbook market,
announced its entry into the smartphone market last week by sending journalists an invitation (right) to a Feb. 16 launch event at MWC. Meanwhile, the company's entry on the MWC website touts "a range of easy to use devices designed to offer phone capability, simple one hand usability, and complete connectivity."
Acer provided no details of what operating system its new smartphones will run, leading to a variety of speculation by the Windows Mobile-bashing blogosphere. The U.K. website
Stuff.tv, for instance, wrote that Acer might be planning to launch devices based on Google's Android operating system.
But, we pointed out, "the smart money is on Windows as a key ingredient of Acer's new product range." After all, Acer
bought Windows Mobile phone specialist E-Ten last year, gaining an existing range of "Glofiish" Windows Mobile phones that are ripe to be restyled or simply rebadged.
E-ten already offers consumer-friendly features such as VGA displays, GPS, TV receivers, and FM transmitters for sending music to car radios. In addition, many of the devices include one-handed operation, thanks to a version of the
Spb Mobile Shell user interface add-on.
E-Ten's Glofiish DX900
(Click image for more information) |
Well sure enough, Acer's first smartphone runs Windows Mobile, as a listing by U.K. reseller Clove Technology has now revealed. The Acer DX900, shown at the top of our story and below, is a rebadge of the E-Ten
Glofiish DX900 (right), first announced in December 2008 with identical features and specifications.
Acer DX900While Acer's DX900 might not be a new design, that doesn't make it a boring device. Like its E-Ten twin, the DX900 offers something we've seen on only a couple of other Windows Mobile phones. A dual-SIM feature lets the device employ two different phone numbers and/or service providers, according to E-Ten.
Spice's dual-SIM D-1100
(Click image for further information) |
Like the similarly endowed
Spice D-1100 (right) and
General Mobile DSTW1 released in 2008, the DX900 includes both dual SIM sockets and dual GSM transceivers, meaning that both numbers can be active simultaneously, and users can receive and place calls on either number. (Some devices with dual SIM slots, in contrast, have only a single transceiver, and so can use only one number/SIM at a time.)
Via its primary SIM, the DX900 offers quad-band (850/900/1800/1900MHz) GSM device and tri-band (850/1900/2100MHz) connectivity, while the secondary SIM provides tri-band (900/1800/1900) GSM. There's no word on whether both SIMs can be used with data mode, or whether, as on the Spice phone, only the primary SIM can be used for Internet access. Additional wireless capabilities include WiFi, Bluetooth, and a GPS receiver based on the SiRF
starIII chipset.
Acer's DX900
(Click either to enlarge)Dual SIMs aside, the DX900 resembles E-Ten's earlier Glofiish
V900 (pictured later in this story), though without that unit's television receiver. Like the V900, it features a 2.8-inch touchscreen display, an FM receiver, and the "finger-operable" user interface based on the Spb Mobile Shell.
The DX900 has a 533MHz Samsung S3C6400 processor (see block diagram,
here), 128MB of RAM, 256MB of flash, and a microSD expansion slot.
The DX900 has a 3.2 megapixel camera, supplemented with a front-facing VGA-resoution camera for videoconferencing. The device is also said to include a 2.5mm headphone jack for audio output, and a miniUSB jack that relays video signals to an external monitor.
Features and specifications, originally listed by E-ten for the DX900, and now confirmed by Clove Technology for the Asus version, include:
- Processor -- Samsung S3C6400 clocked at 533MHz
- Memory -- 128MB of RAM and 256MB of flash storage
- Storage -- microSD expansion slot
- Display -- 2.8-inch touchscreen display with 640 x 480 resolution
- Cameras -- 3.2 megapixel main camera, with autofocus and LED lighting, plus VGA-resolution secondary camera
- Keyboard -- 5-way controller
- Wireless interfaces:
- WAN:
- SIM1 -- quad-band (850, 900, 1800, 1900MHz) GSM/EDGE and tri-band (850, 1900, 2100MHz) UMTS/HSDPA
- SIM2 -- tri-band (900/1800/1900) GSM
- LAN -- 802.11b/g
- PAN -- Bluetooth 2.0
- GPS
- Other I/O:
- 2.5mm headphone jack
- miniUSB port incorporating composite video output
- Battery type -- 1530mAH
- Dimensions -- 4.16 x 2.38 x 0.68 inches (106 x 60.5 x 17.5mm)
- Weight with battery -- (147g)
Background
Based on Acer's release of the DX900, we expect other recent E-Ten devices (pictured, below) to be rebadged as part of the company's "new" smartphone product range. However, MWC attendees could also be treated to at least one high-end phone from Acer that isn't a retread. After all, company President and CEO Gianfranco Lanci (right) has reportedly said he wants smartphones to make up 10 percent of his company's revenue.
Acer could rebadge these additional E-Ten phones: Glofiish V900 (left), Glofiish M750/M810 (middle), and Glofiish X650 (right)
(Click any for further information)
Acer's Aspire One Netbook
(Click image for further information) |
Acer claims to be the world's third largest vendor for PCs overall, and number two in the global notebook market, with 2007 revenues of more than $14 billion. The company owns the Gateway and Packard Bell brands, but was little-known to U.S. consumers under its own name until the arrival of the
netbook tsunami. Now, the company's
Aspire One (right) is a top-seller. In the third quarter of 2008, the device had a
35 percent share of netbook sales, with more than 2.15 million units sold, according to DisplaySearch.
Further informationAccording to Clove Technology, Acer's DX900 will be available later this month for 395 U.K. pounds (approximately $575). For more information, see the company's website,
here.
For further information about the Mobile World Congress, see the exhibitor website,
here. To read the
Stuff.tv speculation about Acer and Google's Android, see the publication's website,
here.
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