MWC 2009: Acer unveils its "Tempo" range of smartphones
Acer, unbeknownst to me, is actually the third largest global PC maker and lately, after the success of their netbook – the Aspire One, they’ve been announcing some smartphone ambitions. Well, those ambitions are coming to fruition in the form of the “Tempo” series of smartphones, pictured above.
M900
First up is the M900. It’s business-focused, coming with Windows Mobile 6.1, Outlook Mobile and Office Mobile all pre-installed. There’s HSDPA, a 3.8″ WVGA touchscreen, GPS, FM radio, a 5-megapixel camera and a fingerprint scanner for security purposes. There’s also a slide-out QWERTY keyboard. Nice. Next!
F900
The F900 is more consumer-oriented, and designed for internet usage. Theres the same 3.8″ WVGA touchscreen as the M900, GPS, a 3.2-megapixel camera, FM radio, HSDPA, and Wi-Fi. It’s got the new Mobile IE6, too. Unfortunately there’s no keypad – everything is done onscreen.
X960
Then there’s the X960, which is a little lower-end. It’s got a 2.8″ VGA touchscreen, nav button, Outlook and Office mobile, GPS, and a 3.2 megapixel camera. That’s all we’ve got for specs right now – but I’m presuming there’s some 3G involved. I would hope so, anwyay.
DX900
Lastly, there’s the dual-SIM DX900. It supports both 3.5G and 2.75G SIM cards, so that you can have a business SIM and a personal SIM in one phone. On top of that there’s a 2.8″ VGA touchscreen, “3D animated icons”, a dedicated flight mode button, 3.2-megapixel camera and Outlook mobile preinstalled.
So, overall then, a varied bunch of middling-spec phones, more targeted at the business end of the market than the consumer end.No word on release dates, but my wildest guess would be Q2. No word on pricing, either, but as these are business phones, you can expect them to come with some sort of bulk discount for companies.
