Acer is not traditionally associated with high-end smartphones. Usually if you are looking for a good value laptop or desktop PC, Acer is the firm to call. But expensive mobiles are a very different type of beast to the humble computer and producing handsets that can match up to the best in the business is something that many try and most fail to achieve. The Acer M900 Tempo is one of the smartphones that has emerged from this manufacturer and whilst it has not been a complete success, it does offer plenty of reasons for you to ignore the Nokias and Samsungs of this world and try something a little different.

Because Acer is used to working with Microsoft products on its computers, it is unsurprising to see the M900 Tempo sporting Windows Mobile 6.1. This platform is tried, tested and a little bit long in the tooth, with the emergence of Windows Phone 7 just appearing on the horizon to wipe away the issues of the previous versions. However, Acer has followed in the footsteps of HTC and created a user interface that masks Windows Mobile in a veil that attempts to be a little bit more finger friendly. The Acer Shell user interface works to a certain extent, but its look and feel, which Acer has branded as 3D, lacks the kind of polish that users of HTC’s Sense interface will have come to expect. In addition to looking a little jaded, the Acer Shell programme eats into about 50 per cent of the phone’s RAM that is allocated for operating programmes. The result is that you will only be able to harness limited multitasking capabilities unless you shut down the Shell and stick with the plain WinMo interface. You can turn off Acer’s interface easily, but in doing so you are presented with another problem; you really need a stylus to make the most of the standard WinMo interface.

The criticisms over the standard Shell interface for the Acer M900 Tempo might be significant if this phone was built on a rigid, inflexible mobile platform that you cannot mess with. However, the Windows Mobile operating system has been out in the wild for third party developers to mess with for a long time and the result is that there are lots of alternative interfaces which mean you do not have to choose either the Acer Shell or the plain vanilla interface from Microsoft. One of the biggest producers of Windows Mobile interfaces is SPB Software and it has a whole range of products which can be overlaid on the Acer M900 Tempo to make it much easier to use and less strapped for hardware resources in the process.

SPB’s interface update will let you customise the homescreen of the Acer M900 Tempo with a selection of widgets and shortcuts and it will take advantage of the M900’s processing power to give it multiple homescreens and a true 3D view when swapping between them. There is also a feature that allows you to make a distinction between the apps you need for work and those that you use in your down time, which brings the ageing Windows Mobile 6.1 in line with contemporary platforms such as Android. It is worth bearing in mind that SPB’s interfaces will set you back a few quid, which will add to the cost of owning the M900. However, this will probably seem a small price to pay for getting a phone that feels much more modern and is quicker and easier to get to grips with. Even if you do not have an Acer M900 Tempo, SPB and similar firms are out there, with interfaces and modifications for smartphone platforms including Symbian and the iPhone OS.

The M900 Tempo was released as a direct competitor to HTC’s Touch Pro2 and its larger screen is one of the features that allow it to appear more attractive than this device. However, there is one question that most people considering the purchase of a Windows Mobile-based handset will be asking and that is whether the M900 Tempo will be able to handle an upgrade to Windows Phone 7 when it arrives at the end of the year. Until recently the answer to this question would have been a resounding ‘no’, as the M900’s 533MHz processor and 128MB of RAM put it way below the minimum system requirements which Microsoft is enforcing for its next mobile operating system. Only phones with a 1GHz processor and 256MB of RAM need apply to the Windows Phone 7 party.

Now it looks as if all of this could change and this is down to announcements originating in India that Microsoft is planning a stripped down version of Windows Phone 7 that does not have the high end minimum requirements for hardware of the full release. If this turns out to be true, then the Acer M900 Tempo and some of the other older Windows Mobile-based smartphones could be in for a treat. An upgrade to Windows Phone 7 Basic, or Lite, or whatever it is eventually called, will allow these phones to compete with devices two years their junior. The one catch could be that Acer will not actually release an official firmware update bringing this to the M900 Tempo. In this event, owners will have to look to the community to provide the necessary ROMs in order to flash the device upwards and keep it in line with modern smartphones.

Tags: acer, acer m900 tempo

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on Monday, May 3rd, 2010 at 1:38 pm and is filed under Mobile Phones.
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