Review: Acer M900

The M900 is in many ways a flagship PDA. It has a large, high resolution screen, boasts a sliding keyboard, and has something we very rarely see on a PDA – a fingerprint scanner. Put those elements together and you should have a leading edge device.

It doesn’t quite work out like that for Acer, though, and there are three key reasons for the missed goal.

Specs & info
Price: £350
Operating system: Windows Mobile 6.1
Processor: Samsung S3C 6410 533Mhz
Memory: 128MB RAM, 256MB ROM
Dimensions: 119mm x 62mm x 17.1mm
Weight: 188g
Display size: 3.8 diagonal inches
Display resolution: 800 x 480
Expansion slot: 1 x microSD

One is that the battery life of this device isn’t wonderful. We guess the reason is partly that high resolution screen, which needs quite a lot of juice to keep it going.

Another is the overall size and weight of the device. Of course any PDA sporting a slide-out qwerty keyboard has to be somewhat on the chunky side, but we just felt that overall the M900 is that little bit too fat for our liking.

And the third is the general build quality. Crammed with goodies it may be, but the M900 feels somewhat plasticky in the hand, and we aren’t sure it will survive too many tumbles to the ground.

That screen measures 3.8 inches across diagonal corners and its 800 x 480 pixels make it ideal for watching video footage. However in outdoors conditions the screen is extremely reflective.

There is a clever trick where the keyboard is concerned. Flick it out and the screen moves into wide format and offers a set of eight options that you are likely to want the keyboard for, such as creating a new SMS, appointment, task or email. Tap the one you want and the appropriate software opens up ready for you to start tapping away.

The keyboard itself suffers from poor design. It looks as though it should be extremely comfortable to use. The keys are well spaced and raised at their bottom ends. Unfortunately the individual keys don’t feel very responsive under the fingers.

Even the space bar, long though it is, is difficult to hit successfully because it is obscured by a lip around the bottom edge of the device. Furthermore, common punctuation marks like the full stop and comma don’t have their own dedicated keys. It is definitely not one of the better keyboards we’ve seen.

With Wi-Fi, GPS and a 5-megapixel camera on board there is no shortage of high-end features. That fingerprint scanner we mentioned earlier just adds to the rosta, and doubles up as a kind of optical d-pas as well.

There are some good software elements too, including the ability to set the built in gravity sensor to work with just the applications you want, and the option to install six additional applications should you want them. These include Acer’s NameCard Manager which lets you scan a business card and import the contents into the contacts application.

Installing all the extra applications won’t do you any favours on the internal memory front as it leaves you with just 42MB of additional storage. You can boost this with a microSD card and the slot is on the left edge of the casing. The amount of available RAM is also on the low side for a premium handset like this.

Music playback is a bit disappointing on several fronts. The headphones are one-piece and share the same miniUSB port as the mains power connector. This makes it difficult to use your own favourite headset as you’ll need to buy an adaptor. And volume through the M900’s loudspeaker is decidedly low.

Add in that poor battery life and this PDA is not at its best when doubling as a mobile music machine.

Overall, then, there are pros and cons here. The spec is excellent, but the implementation is very disappointing in places.

For the security conscious business user the rare inclusion of a fingerprint scanner might appeal, but there are other devices with better screens, keyboards and build quality at comparable prices that are more worthy of consideration.

Essential Verdict
Performance: 7/10
Design: 7/10
Features: 9/10
Value for Money: 6/10

Overall score: 7/10

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