Acer ships the F900 with a 1530mAh battery. As long as you are careful with the WiFi and Bluetooth radios it should be possible to eek out two full days of use before you end up standing around with a power adapter in your hand and a worried look on your face. Even with heavy use of all the bells and whistles, a full charge should see you through a busy working day.
Not bad for the price, although perkier with Spb installed
In the absence of network-subsidised deals on the high street, the one advantage the F900 does have over the Touch HD is price. We found the unlocked F900 for a shade under £400 from a number of suppliers, a good £100 less than the Touch HD.
Reg Hardware spoke to Acer and it confirmed that it is talking to several UK mobile telecos about carrying the Tempo range, but it wouldn't confirm which ones or when they will become available. So, in the meantime, if you want one you'll just have to go to one of the specialist suppliers.
Verdict
If cost was not an option and we had to choose between the F900 and HTC's HD we would have to pick the latter. It’s better looking, the screen is more reactive and the OS runs faster due to it having more available system memory. That's not to say the F900 is hopeless though – if you install Spb's latest Windows Mobile UI you will have a perfectly decent and usable phone on your hands and its a fair bit cheaper than the obvious competition. ®
More Phone Reviews...
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Apple iPhone 3G S |
HTC Magic |
LG Arena |
Acer Tempo F900 Windows Mobile smartphone
COMMENTS
Who wouuld buy this?
This phone seems pretty irrelevant, as it still can't do things now which the iPhone perfected 2-3 years ago. Are MS/Asus on a go-slow or something? Somebody seriously needs to put a bullet in this ridiculous OS which just makes MS and all who use it look incompetant. Whilst I used an HTC TYTN for about a year, I would never try and kid myself that it approaches a Blackberry let alone an iPhone, nor would I buy another WiMo device - Using one has convinced me that it lacks any redeeming features. Badly built, utterly overcomplicated and cluttered interface, unusable 3g and Wireless, rubbish camera, sluggish phone calls, unresponsive squidgy touch screen, old-fashioned stylus, dropped phone calls, zero design with its brick-like demeanour and the list goes on. Its simply obsolete in its current form. Who needs such buggy memory ineffcient multi tasking? Who outside of the IT industry exactly buys a phone then expects to replace the shell or the media player before it becomes usable? How can such an ergonimically bereft and fidddly OS be described as being remotely flexible? If the iPhone should have taught MS/Asus anything, its that very few people buy their devices, and even fewer enjoy using them. The iPhone is simply so good that even the Apple imposed limitations of it fail to stop it being immensely fun to use, and how many devices you use everyday can you say that about? Its a smart phone where you don't compromise on the phone component and gain so much more through the apps. Meanwhile MS are beavering away integrating Zune into WiMo next versions, and no doubt adding on a skin to make it look like Windows 7, like who makes these awful awful decisions?? They are still carrying on like they're just competing with Symbian still, when the ground has most definitely shifted. To paraphrase their age-old advice, "format and start again."
Vinyl recognition
I would say that it's people under 30 know nothing about vinyl, not those of us under 40 who have plenty of vinyl and grew up with it.
Wait for WM6.5
It really isn't worth bothering with a Windows Mobile phone until 6.5 comes out. I really struggle to see why Acer aren't supporting Android instead?
@Jimbo et al...
THIS ISN'T ABOUT THE FUCKING IPHONE!!! There. I said it. Fuck me. You lot are dull! Who are you trying to convince?
ON TOPIC: The phone looks OK. Too many shutlines and 'sticky outy bits' for my taste, let down greatly, as stated, by an aging OS that was shit when it was first released.
at ac who thinks the ipone works straight from the box!
'iPhone, it just works without users having to dick about trying to find 3rd part solutions to things it should do out of the box '
erm... the app store? a whole raft of applications not made by apple to fix the iphones shortcomings...
untill last month... mms? app needed to bodge that... want to rotate a photo?? need an app for that... flash content... oh! no app for that!!! safari doesnt render every page perfectly... no alternative app for that!
I love Winmo, yes its fiddly, sometimes, but a hell of a lot more flexible... and it atctually multitasks! nothing like closing each applicatio if i need to open another!
the mobile in my pocket?? well, it happens to be an 8gb Iphone 3G!
