Smartphone Review – Acer Vs HTC Android
The HTC Wildfire certainly packs some punch, considering the price tag is less than £ 300 for a Sim-free phone. A 3.2-inch screen with a resolution of 320 x 240 pixels offers an incredibly bright and sharp image. The screen is slightly flickering, but its size will work for most users. The obvious drawback with screens of this size is that you will always have a hard time viewing websites, particularly text, because it is too small. Yes, you can zoom, but it’s not really the same as seeing the full screen.
The Acer beTouch E400 is a very stylish smartphone, slightly similar to an iPhone, which can attract or dissuade potential customers. In fact, I prefer it to the heavy iPhone, which can be difficult to hold and use with one hand. You usually discover this whist while driving, using heavy machinery, or while in the bathroom. You have been warned!
The 3.2 inches seem to be swallowed up by the case. Good for fingerprints as you can grab the phone without worrying about smearing the beautiful screen with dirty fingers. I’m all for this as fingerprints drive me crazy and I spend all my time cleaning that damn thing.
I liked the carousel navigation on Acer is excellent and it reminded me of a Finder window on a MacBook. The only annoying thing is the presence of the ‘Acer Spinlets’ application on the home screen. I’m not a fan of this kind of service from the manufacturers, when they just don’t have enough content to justify it. At best, it’s never going to be more than a gimmick, but it’s well done for trying. I have owned Acer laptops in the past and easily survived more expensive Dells and Toshibas. They are rugged phones and probably a better option if your lifestyle demands a more rugged device.
It feels less valuable than the HTC and you probably don’t worry too much about a few scratches, they are designed to scratch, crumble, and stop working. It usually happens just before their contracts end!
The good news is that all the usual smartphone: Android kit as standard on both, including 3G (7 Mb download), Google Maps, Wi-Fi and GPS. The 5-megapixel camera (with flash) on the HTC offers one of the best images for any smartphone in this price range, but the Acer lacked clarity, despite the slightly higher price.Some nifty tricks like sending photos directly to Social media accounts will certainly attract a younger market, hungry for new technologies, but on a limited budget.
HTC’s standard social networking application is FriendStream, which comes pre-installed on all phones. If you have ever used desktop aggregation tools like seismic, you are already familiar with this type of application. If you like Facebook and Twitter a lot, you may already have a preferred app, but remember that it’s built into your phone’s system so it’s less likely to crash. Well that’s the theory anyway! Some new features, like Facebook’s caller ID, are very nice, but you could probably live without it; It depends on how handsome your friends are.
HTC pioneered touch screen technology in 2007. Their excellence in this field is written all over the phone, even the restrictive screen size. The pinch-to-zoom is responsive but easy to get used to and makes the small screen easy to navigate.
I’m a fan of both manufacturers and really both phones for different reasons. The Acer feels tougher, but the HTC is really stylish and I think it will appeal to more people. In my opinion, the fundamental problem with screens of this size is that you will never get the best of this technology.