The Acer Stream is one of a growing number of top end Android smartphones with eerily similar specs, so standing out from the crowd is a tall order for a company better known for its PCs and laptops. Does it manage to? Find out in the build section of our Acer Stream review.
Read the rest of our Acer Stream review
Acer Stream review
Acer Stream review: Android 2.1
Acer Stream review: Multimedia
We’ve seen plenty of beautiful top notch Android phones of late, like the Dell Streak and HTC Legend, but while the Acer Stream packs hardware that’s more than a match for them all, it’s ensconced in a shell so ugly and impractical, in reality, it doesn’t deserve to be mentioned in the same breath. It’s a pity, as Acer got off to a good start with the Acer Liquid, the first Snapdragon Google phone and a pleasant debut effort on the platform. The Acer Streak appears to have undone all its good work.
Theoretically, there’s not a lot wrong with the basic layout of the Acer Stream. A power/lock button and volume rocker sit on the left hand side, the top houses the 3.5mm audio port and the right sports a camera shutter and slots for micro USB and HDMI out, just like the Motorola Milestone XT720. At around 11mm, it’s not too thick, and a 3.7-inch AMOLED screen should give plenty of room to type.
But Acer’s managed to shoot itself in the foot with a horribly clunky exterior. The back feels smooth but will soon boast more fingerprints than an afternoon of CSI repeats on Five (The microSD slot isn’t hot swappable either, in case you were wondering.). And the front really ruins the whole experience.
The sharp edges and grey finish look like they belong on a 2006 Windows Mobile phone, and holding the Acer Stream to your face, the phone feels more like a tupperware container than a telephone. And what’s with the big track control buttons underneath the screen? We know Acer wants to emphasise the Acer Stream as a multimedia phone, but cluttering up the front face of the phone with keys that do nothing at all in 95 percent of situations is not the way to go about it. We don’t really understand how Acer managed such a misfire, since there was nothing offensive about the Acer Liquid.
It’s true that our favourite Android phone right now, the Samsung Galaxy S, is a bit of a minger as well, at least when turned off. But Sammy’s smartphone’s astounding screen more than made up for the plastic casing – while the Acer Stream uses similar AMOLED technology, it’s not nearly as impressive. Colour reproduction is vivid and videos do look fantastic on it, but the screen is set so far below the glass that it looks cheap. We love the sticker like feel of the Retina Display on the iPhone 4, and wish more companies would emulate it.
The battery life of the Acer Stream is at least respectable. The Acer Stream will stand up to a day and a half of very heavy usage, and can easily go for a whole weekend without a charge, which certainly isn’t true of the HTC Desire, or 1GHz Hummingbird Samsung Galaxy S. We’ve not tried out a Snapdragon Android phone that runs for longer than the Acer Stream, save perhaps the Dell Streak. Sadly, this isn’t enough to make up for the pain of using the Acer Stream otherwise, and we haven’t even touched on Acer’s software keyboard – more on that in the Android 2.1 section of our Acer Stream review.
Acer Stream review sample provided by Expansys
Read the rest of our Acer Stream review
Acer Stream review
Acer Stream review: Android 2.1
Acer Stream review: Multimedia
