Review: Acer Tempo DX900

They have also included a touch keyboard, although the name Easy Keyboard is presumably ironic because in portrait mode it is unusable. Without enough space to fit a full row of keys the qwerty layout becomes garbled with keys in apparently random positions. In landscape mode it is better although we did find it covered a bit too much of the screen, and the unfortunate positioning of Windows Mobile’s word completion options meant we often couldn’t see what we were typing. Switching into landscape was thankfully easy due to the presence of a motion sensor that worked okay despite the tendency to get stuck from time to time, even after we had cranked up the sensitivity.

There are quite a few extra applications pre-installed on the DX900, but often of questionable degrees of usefulness. Location SMS is a handy tool for sending GPS coordinates to someone via text message, but we would have rather had Google Maps instead.

The Streaming Player app supports streamed video but is somewhat outdated as it is not YouTube compatible. And there is also a Memory Optimization tool that will automatically restart the device to reclaim used memory.

This last example is an indication of one of the weaknesses of the phone. It is equipped with 128MB RAM, but only about 35MB is free from a restart and is a serious limitation for the power user. This, coupled with a respectable 533MHz processor, meant the phone was never the quickest, even in basic use.

Other parts of the hardware were better – the GPS got and held its signal pretty well, and the 3MP camera, while limited in function, produced better than expected results. The phone also supports TV out (but comes without cables), as well as wi-fi and HSDPA for connectivity.

Battery life was not too impressive, calling for a daily charge with what we could call ‘average’ use. But then this is two phones in one, remember.

Overall the DX900 stands out as something of a curio rather than an essential new smartphone. We can see benefits to having a dual-SIM phone, but would like to see it integrated into the software better in future. Take that feature away, though, and you are left with a smartphone that feels at least 18 months behind the times.

Essential Verdict
Performance: 7/10
Dual-SIM works but could be better; light on RAM

Design: 6/10
Sturdily built but hefty unit

Features: 8/10
We’d have liked more memory, but little else is lacking

Value for Money: 7/10
Feels maybe £50 over the odds

Overall score: 6/10

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