Acer neoTouch F1 deals & review

In a word or two

The Acer neoTouch F1 is a smartphone with an impressive touchscreen, an incredibly fast processor and some modern features.

The Design

Also known as the Acer neoTouch S200, the Acer neoTouch F1 is encased in a black shell. Its minimalist style and the fact it fits so comfortably in the one hand stops this phone feeling chunky. The sleek lines are preserved by the 4 touch buttons beneath the 3.8 inch touchscreen. You simply tap the Start button and the menu is displayed with its large and finger-friendly icons.

There are just 3 normal buttons on the Acer neoTouch F1, for standby, camera and volume control. The majority of the phone experience is touch-sensitive and the screen fares better for responsiveness than the Acer F900.

Specifications

The first Acer mobile phone to run using the latest Windows Mobile 6.5 operating system, the Acer neoTouch F1 is only the second phone on the market – after Toshiba’s TG01 – with a 1GHz Snapdragon processor. This makes the phone impressively quick for checking web pages and navigating all the applications on the mobile.

If you are keen on communication, you will enjoy the neoTouch. You can send texts, multimedia messages and emails, instant message friends using Windows Live Messenger as well as stay up-to-date with your contacts on social networking sites such as Facebook. The mobile also comes with YouTube, Flickr and Blogger applications pre-installed so you can easily share photos taken with the neoTouch’s 5-megapixel camera.

With a Microsoft platform, the phone comes with access to Windows Marketplace where you can download further applications and games easily, many of which are free. The other great Microsoft feature is the Pocket Office. You can open and edit word documents, spreadsheets and presentations, and check PDFs, all from your phone using Word, Excel, PowerPoint and the PDF viewer. This is particularly useful if you want to use your phone for work purposes as it allows you to effortlessly stay in touch with business matters – and you can send and receive emails with attachments too.

The neoTouch phone is customised with a ‘today’ screen. This screen houses large icons to access core features, along with 6 shortcuts to commonly used applications like Marketplace and YouTube. It is also easy to change these shortcuts and create direct access to your favourite features.

Considerations

The touchscreen is a good size but it is resistive which means you need to apply a certain amount of pressure with your fingers. The screen is less responsive than the iPhone which lets you lightly swipe your commands, and there is no multi-touch feature to zoom in on images.

Verdict

The Acer neoTouch F1 has a super fast processor and many modern features you’d expect from a smartphone including GPS, Google Maps, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and support for speedy downloads. It is cheaper than the slower HTC Touch HD phone and the neoTouch does offer a lot for the money.