Acer Tempo F900 Windows Mobile smartphone

The roll out of Acer's Tempo series of Windows smartphones continues apace with the dual-SIM DX900 and rather unremarkable X960 now being quickly followed by something altogether more shiny and new, the F900 with its eye-catching 3.8in touchscreen. Acer Tempo F900 Acer's Tempo F900 Windows Mobile smartphone The F900's …

[Monty Burns]

Cost, comparisons and tips

Many online retailers will do this "on contract" bringing the phone down to a FREE price point. Im sure google will help you find them. I got my M900 for £99 on 18months which is pretty standard for this sort of phone.

Support wise, so far i've been VERY impressed with Acer and lets be honest, its a brand new device so there will be issues. A fair few of us have been on 4winmobile.com logging our issues and Acer have activley been looking at this thread and others. I suspect we will see new firmware released VERY soon and we have already seen "lite" ROMS cooked. WinMo 6.5 is well underway.

It seems that most people dump the Acer Shell, some die hards still like windows today screen (?!) but a lot of us have put on SPB MS3 and its awesome .... really, really flies on the M900. Btw, if you don't use Acer Shell, delete the Shell and AcerShell directories from program files and you will have another 30 or 40 meg free... result! Having done this, and being a heavy user, I can honestly say i have never had memory issues. Numbers are an indicator, not a "be all, end all".

I am very puzzled though why you decided to review the mid-range and keep comparing it against HTC's top range when the M900 is clearly the top range of Acers. Kind of like putting an M3 against a Lambo..... not the fairest of decisions.

[Anonymous Coward]

Expandable

"with a reprehensible web browser and limited media player"

Until you install fennec/opera and TCPMP.

There's plenty of good software freely available for virtually every phone platform including WinMo

[Dibbles]

Must try harder?

I find it interesting* that while phones such as the iPhone, Palm Pre et al have detailed reviews encompassing ease of sending messages, use of keyboard etc, the WM handset reviews invariably focus more on the graphical interface, built-in camera, if present, and so on. Obviously not all handsets can have a 16-page review, but it's a bit shonky, and reviews like this really don't add a huge amount to a decision-making process

*-I say interesting, but it's often irritating

[Anonymous Coward]

@Dibbles

but wouldn't that be like sticking in a few pages about XP or Vista in every PC laptop review? Windows Mobile 6.1 is the same as its ever been, only the bespoke GUI differs between Acer handsets or HTC devices. And fair play to Reg, the review does include comment on - and a picture of - the bespoke virtual keyboard that Acer provide. Phones running Android or iPhones and Pre's obviously get more time spent on the actual OS, cos they are new, or new-ish. Come the next generator of Windows Mobile the same will apply, but until then the reviewers will just be repeating themselves. Do you want a review of Symbian in every Nokia phone review?

[Neoc]

Missing the point

"it’s an ageing and fiddly OS cursed with a reprehensible web browser and limited media player."

And you miss the point entirely. While WinMob may not be as flashy as (say) the iPhone OS, replacing the Web browser and/or media player is a matter of minutes.

I speak from experience, as (indeed) the MS Media Player blows chunk and would not allow me to play my video files. A quick trip to the IntarWeb and TCMP was installed on my mobile. Free of charge.

If you're going to complain about something, try to complain about things that are not in the purview of the user to change.

[Anonymous Coward]

@Neoc

OK, first off TC*P*MP is no longer available as free software - if you want it, you have to pay for it as CorePlayer. Secondly third party players are not the same as having a decent application integrated and bundled - the review states that while you can load Opera it won't swap from landscape to portrait when you tilt the phone over. That's a major fail. But all that aside, Windows Mobile IS fiddly - that's why you get a stylus - and it is getting long in the tooth - that's why a new version is due soon. This is why people love about the 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 - like browse the web and play videos.

[Jimbo 7]

really?

"This is why people love about the 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 - like browse the web and play videos."

I don't want to troll here, but if I ignore things like copy-paste iPhone did not have for 2 years, the reason why quite a lot of people don't like iPhone is very strict Apple control of what you can do. Maybe I'm dumb (probably I am) but I was never able to figure when one song is playing how to put another song to queue to play after current song. I was never able to figure out how to play some very common video codecs, I was never able to play any flash content. I still don't understand why I need iTunes to make a phone function correctly (you cannot do phone firmware updates without iTunes, you cannot get any apps from iTunes store without initial sync with iTunes app on your computer)

there is a lot iPhone does not do out of the box and there is not a workaround because Apple won't let you.

[Matt 13]

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!

[Anonymous Coward]

@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.

[Giles Jones]

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?

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

[Anonymous Coward]

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."