While picking up the Acer DX650 phone for a review, we’ve been chewing over the thought that the manufacturer has been a part of the smartphone arena for quite sometime now. And they consistently try to modernize the design of its smartphones by incorporating premium functionalities. The Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional powered handset in our hand appeared quite interesting at the first glance. Getting into the crux of the phone, we bring to users a hands-on review of the Acer DX650 smartphone.
A glimpse at the DX650 and we noticed an awe-inspiring design. Phew! It’s a dual sided smartphone with two screens. We are still wondering the reason behind such a bizarre design. A courageous act by Acer. Earlier we had seen the Samsung F300 sporting a dual sided design. However, the latest device packages advanced features and innovative looks when compared to the gloomy Samsung handset. The device presents a typical ‘smartphone-like’ structure, topped with a few handy buttons on the sides for volume controls, power and the record key.
Slim and sleek phones dominate the market these days. However, with a bulky design, the DX650 is nowhere near the line of sleekness. The 2.8-inch touchscreen is decent, nothing out of the box. While an OLED display is also incorporated, convenient for people who need to fire a quick text or make a call. Apart from this, sadly the OLED does not have any other functionality. The black and white display bears resemblance with the stereotypical handsets, which we had seen in the early 90s.
Surprisingly, the handset did not freeze while we loaded it with several applications, unlike other smartphones. The 128MB SDRAM and 256MB of flash memory coupled with 533MHz Samsung S3C6410 CPU boosts the functionalities of the smartphone. The DX6560 boasts of a SPB shell GUI, the one that we witnessed in the DX900 and the X610. The UI presents touch scroll functionalities just like the HTC and the iPhone. We customized the homescreen and it was smooth sailing thereafter.
We experimented with the Application Recovery functionality of the handset, but it did not work as expected. It allows users to download weather data, which is automatically updated. The device also packages Memory optimization functionality that effectively manages idle tasks. It allows users to set the time when they want to auto-end idle tasks, saving memory. Further, there is also a provision for backing up important data on the device.
We cannot call the Acer DX650 an ultimate multimedia device, but it does package an immaculate media player and FM radio. We tried out the Google Maps application and it was prompt in showing the appropriate results. However, the Voice Commander did not present the desired results. Moreover the device incorporates Office Mobile that facilitated us to quickly edit or create Word documents and spreadsheets. The smartphone presents a childish Bubble Breaker game as well as the mobile phone version of Solitaire that we found more convenient to play, when compared with the desktop version.
The battery life of the Windows Mobile device seems satisfactory. The jog wheel at the left hand side of the device is useful for scrolling and navigating. Instead of the stylus, we tried finger tapping. Thought it worked, wasn’t convincing enough.
The low resolution camera was disappointing. In an era, where 12 megapixel cameras are the latest trend, the 2 megapixel camera appears sloppy. The handset features a dedicated button on the side of the device for optimizing the camera functionality. However, the low resolution camera provides several modes of image capturing.
While exploring the GPS capabilities of the device, we spent most of the time loading the GPS Viewer. The device lacks a full QWERTY keyboard but features an on-screen keyboard that suffices the texting needs. The dual sided phone is loaded with Active Sync that makes synchronizing the device with desktops easier.
Connectivity features include Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. The device lacks 3G support, it comes with support for 2.5G. However, we appreciate the feature that enables swapping between e-mail accounts by simply tapping on the screen. We could swiftly browse by means of Opera Mobile and Internet Explorer Mobile 6.
It appears that Acer will still take time to influence the smartphone industry. We believe this smartphone would grab the attention of business users, however it does not fit into the ‘youth-centric’ category. Carrying a price tag of approximately Rs. 24,100 the handset is slightly expensive. We rate the Acer DX650 a satisfactory 7 on 10.