Acer beTouch E100 Review

Introduction and Design:

The Acer beTouch E100 is an entry-level Windows Mobile 6.5 phone. It is equipped with 2-megapixel camera, 528MHz processor, A-GPS and 3G, but lacks Wi-Fi and accelerometer. There is also a second version of the phone, the Acer beTouch E101 that comes without 3G support. Both models come in white and black color solutions and the first does look more spectacular. The cool thing is that the device comes boxed with 3 additional back panels (pink, red and green) that allow you to change its look in but a few seconds. The materials it´s made from will always remind you of the fact you´ve bought an affordable cell phone, because the manufacturer hasn’t paid the attention to details that you can notice with the Samsung OmniaLITE B7300 and HTC Touch2, the major rivals of this handset.

What’s in the box:

•    Acer beTouch E100
•    Charger
•    miniUSB cable
•    3 additional back panels
•    Screen protector
•    Stereo headset
•    User Guide
•    Software CDs



You can compare the Acer beTouch E100 with many other phones using our Size Visualization Tool.

The Acer beTouch E100 comes with 3.2-inch display that utilizes resistive technology. Its sensitivity is acceptable - the screen rarely failed to register our actions and actually, most of the problems relate to the interface of Windows Mobile 6.5. It has native resolution of 240x400 pixels, supports 65k colors and images look worn-out even in the dark. Unfortunately, the screen is totally unusable in direct sunlight, but at least you will have an almost immaculate mirror in this case. The buttons around the navigational pad aren’t raised enough, but they have pronounced travel. The interesting thing is that the pad is touch-sensitive (capacitive) and circular motions allow you to navigate throughout menus. The pad has, however, also fallen victim to the penny-pinching build-quality and its edges start collecting dust and dirt right away. Moreover, it´s not really pleasing to operate, because said edges also create annoying, discomforting feel.



Aside from the slider that puts the phone in silence mode, all other buttons aren’t raised enough, but they are easy to press. Despite the fact that most manufacturers have already adopted the latest, microUSB standard, the Acer beTouch E100 comes with miniUSB port.

Interface and Functionality:

Just like the Acer beTouch E200 and neoTouch S200, the beTouch E100 sports perfunctory personalizationof Windows Mobile 6.5 thanks to the so-called Acer Home. You´ve got a home screen that allows quick access to certain functions. It´s actually a grid of up to 9 icons (shortcuts) and the user is allowed to change 6 of them. The uppermost three are mandatory – dialling, messaging and phone contacts. We do like that the interface is simple, but we would rather use the standard home screen of WM 6.5, because it offers richer functionality.



Acer´s personalization, however, penetrates the phone contacts, dialling screen, phone calendar and file manager. We like the options that the manufacturer gives in this respect better than the standard of the operating system, because the former are better optimized for bare fingers. As a whole, the Acer-made personalization of WM 6.5 is nothing to write home about, but it´s not an eye-sore either, plus we´ve seen worse really.



The Acer beTouch E100 comes with preinstalled applications that give access to Facebook, Flickr, YouTube and Blogger. As a whole, the Acer beTouch E100 is quite a disappointing handset in this respect, as we have already seen with the beTouch E200 and neoTouch S200.

Internet:

Due to the lack of Wi-Fi, you will have to rely on 3G (HSDPA 7.2 Mbps) when you need to connect to the Internet. Its connectivity speed is high enough to allow fast loading of pages... in theory. In reality, the situation depends on your carrier´s network and coverage.

The Acer beTouch E100 comes with the standard software of the operating system pertaining to internet, i.e. Internet Explorer 6. Actually, it´s pretty good at opening websites and offers limited Flash support, but you will constantly need to zoom in and out on things due to the relatively low screen resolution of 240x400 pixels. As a whole, the browser is capable, but we believe Opera Mobile 10 is much better, because it loads and visualizes pages times faster thanks to Opera Turbo. Well, even though it comes without full Flash supports, we still prefer it for its better speed, especially with phones without built-in Wi-Fi.



GPS:

Like we said, the Acer beTouch E100 is equipped with built-in A-GPS. It proved to be an able performer during out tests, managing to pinpoint out location in about 30-40 seconds after cold start and less than 5 second after hot start. Google Maps comes preinstalled on the smartphone - the application offers quite many options and relatively easy and user-friendly interface, but needs active internet connection in order to download relevant maps in real time.



Camera and multimedia:

The 2-megapixel camera of the Acer beTouch E100 sports interface with acceptable design and overall speed. As we have mentioned in previous reviews, snapshot quality is, by far, much more important than interface design and camera speed. In this particular case snapshots are nothing special really, because they lack enough details and feature badly represented colors. Going over them in full screen is far from enjoyable experience and the only thing they are good for is... being shared on social networks. The same applies to videos, because the maximum video capture resolution is 320x240 pixels (rather low as of today´s standards) and the frames per second count is around 10.

Acer beTouch E100 sample video at 320x240 pixels resolution





Entirely unexpectedly, the Acer beTouch E100 performs quite well in terms of multimedia and did leave us gaping. The affordable phone uses Media Player, the standard application that comes with the operating system and plays DivX, Xvid and H.264 coded videos with resolution of 800x480 pixels and high bitrate without a hitch. There is no lagging, no skipped frames, no audio and video playing out of sync, although the image quality isn’t really good, due to the mediocre display entirely. The handset even manages to play video clips with resolution of 1280x720 pixels, but the content stutters. Anyway, we are stunned... who would have though?



You can listen to music using Media Player as well. The boxed headset of the beTouch E100 does pack some punch, but the sound quality it delivers is mediocre. The bad thing is that you would have to buy a converter from miniUSB to 3.5mm jack in case you need to plug in a better pair. What you can hear coming out of the built-in loudspeaker is by no means an ear-pleasing sound, but it´s passable.

Performance and Conclusion:

As a phone, the Acer beTouch E100 is mediocre. Our callers sounded monotonous, there was obtrusive crackling, the overall loudness was inadequate and as a whole, we had problems catching onto people. The situation was much better on the other end, but still, far from coming up roses and voices sounded muffled. The beTouch E100 is quite a disappointment in this respect.

What´s hidden under the hood is 528MHz Qualcomm MSM7225 processor, 256MB RAM and 512MB ROM. Fortunately, we didn’t encounter any lagging, hang-ups or slowdowns, even with as many as 10-15 applications running simultaneously in the background. The battery is acceptably robust and according to the official information should be able to provide up to 5 hours of continuous talk time and keep the handset operational for about 400 hours in standby. In reality, the beTouch E100 was able to make it through a day and half on a single charge, given we used it for talks for about 30 minutes, but seriously abused the GPS and internet browser.

The only real advantage of the Acer beTouch E100 over its rivals, the Samsung OmniLITE B7300 and HTC Touch2, is in its ability to play DivX and Xvid videos with extremely high resolution. However, it´s mediocre in every other respect - perfunctory personalization pack, low build quality and lack of attention to details are just part of everything that makes us believe its competitors are much better WM smartphones.

Acer beTouch E100 Video Review: