Big review of Acer n10

December 15, 2003 | Pavel Koza | format - Other (ar.) | viewed - 324x
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(258 votes) | category - -

Big review of Acer n10

A few days ago, my grand plans to review all Pocket PC with Windows Mobile 2003 seemed about to fail. I haven't been able to put my hands on a Asus MyPal A620, Dell Axim X5 has been avoiding me successfully, too. The Toshiba e750 I managed to obtain came with the original Pocket PC 2002 OS... There has been a spark of new hope though as I was able to get this Acer n10 for a review. The device won't amaze you with a great number of features but rather will offer a reasonable performance for a good price. If it is as reliable as my 3.5-years old Acer Travelmate 522TXV notebook, I believe it will provide good services to its user for a very long time. I'd like to thank Acer Czech Republic for providing the device for a few days for the purpose of this review.

What is in the box?

I received a brand new device, so I needn't to be afraid that something would be missing. Having removed a transparent wrapping foil, I opened the box to find the following items inside:

Acer n10
Textile protective case
USB synchronisation cable
AC adapter with replaceable plugs (the box contains only one, depending on the geographic area of purchase)
CD ROM with Outlook 2002 and bonus apps
A brief User Guide in several languages
Accessories catalogue
EULA
Warranty information booklet

I won't deviate from the usual procedure and start with the accessories. The textile case offers good protection against damage. In my opinion, the relatively massive padding will be able to absorb the impact of a minor fall (untested:). The case is not very tight and has a Velcro clip that prevents the device from falling out accidentally. The case leaves the IrDA port and headphones jack easily accessible. However, you can forget about wearing it at the hip - there is no way how to fasten it to the belt.

The packaging contains only one stylus, but unlike in other devices it does not look cheap, is appropriately heavy and nice to work with.

The USB cable provides fast communication with the desktop PC. You can buy a cradle extra. Someone may find the 120-cm cable a bit too short - if you don't have the PC right below the table, you'll likely have a problem. On the other hand, the device has a standard mini-USB connector, so that you can easily buy a longer cable. The one-piece AC adapter has replaceable plugs, but ships with only one, depending on the geographic location. Other types of plugs are available as accessories.

The CD-ROM contains only very basic apps and a bonus one. And finally, the package would not be complete without a few documents.

What else? It is clear that Acer's objective was to push the price as low as possible. If you miss something (such as a cradle), you can buy it extra.

Design

Acer appears to be one of the companies that decided to enter the Windows CE PDA segment in order to be able to offer its loyal customers its own brand pocket device, but take this market as an auxiliary one rather then a priority one. Acer's only attempt at innovative approach seems to have been the experiment with MemoryStick in n20, which was all but a great success on the market. This time, the manufacturer stayed on the ground and used only time-tested components.

Like most other Pocket PCs makers, Acer, too, uses metallic finish to conceal the fact that its device has a plastic case. The dimensions of 78 x 130 x 16.9 mm make n10 look quite slim and rank it in the same category with iPAQ h3970, LOOX 600 and Axim X5. With a mere 168 grams of weight it may be (one of) the lightest among them. The design is not extravagant in any way - its somewhat rounded corners are sure to please every conservative user. The front panel is obviously dominated by the display. It looks bigger than that of h2210, but after switching the device on, you will see that n10 has much wider black borders so that the diameter is exactly the same. Over the display, there is a speaker. Having been using h2210 every day for several weeks, I have absolutely no reservations about a speaker on the back side, yet one at the front sounds better, also because there is nothing to mute it. Right next to it is the main switch and a small LED indicator. Under the display, there is a standard set of joypad and four soft buttons, and two little holes indicating the presence of a microphone.

Looking from above, you will see a CompactFlash slot (it is type II, so that you can use any common memory or I/O card), stylus shaft and a usual 3.5mm stereo audio jack.

On the left side, there is a standard IrDA port and a three-way roller wheel (up, down, press), a configurable button (preset to launch the Start menu by default) and an MMC/SD slot.

The bottom side hosts a power connector, a standard mini USB connector for communication with a desktop PC and a battery activation switch (you will need it to perform a hard reset of the device).

And finally, the right side: a button to activate sound recording and a stand-by mode switch, in which the display is blank, buttons deactivated - the device sleeps and saves battery power (USB communications remains active). On the back, there is only one interesting point - a reset pinhole.

Pocket PC	Dimensions (in. / mm)	Weight (oz / g)
Acer n10	3.07 x 5.12 x 0.67 78 x 130 x 16.9	5.93 168
HP iPAQ h1940	2.75 x 4.46 x 0.5 69.8 x 113.3 x 12.8	4.38 124
HP iPAQ h2210	3.01 x 4.54 x 0.61 76.4 x 115.4 x 15.4	5.09 144
HP iPAQ h4150	2.78 x 4.47 x 0.53 70.6 x 113.6 x 13.5	4.66 132
Toshiba e310	3.1 x 4.9 x 0.4 80 x 125 x 12.4	4.9 140
Toshiba e740	3.1 x 4.9 x 0.6 80 x 125 x 15.2	6.1 179
MDA II	2.75 x 5.12 x 0.71 70 x 130 x 19	6.53 185

Parameters

We have examined the device from outside - let's look under the bonnet now. It is powered by Intel PXA255 processor running at 300 MHz. This is a reason why there is no software utility to reduce the clock speed. But you don't need to worry about performance - I have tested many different applications, including games (Snails, Anthelion, Worms, Metalion 2, Ultima Underworld, to name just a few), and I was surprised to find very little difference between devices with a 300MHz and 400MHz processors. There are some, for instance somewhat slower work with Pocket IE; you will also notice a difference if you are used to listening to MP3s while working. But if you are not switching from a faster device to the slower one, you may not notice at all.

Considering the price, it is nice to find 64 MB of RAM in n10 for both data and apps. Some other devices claim to have 64 MB of RAM, too, but available memory is actually much smaller for various reasons. This is not the case with n10, though, and the user has full 62 MB at his or her disposal. The operating system is stored in a 32MB FlashROM, a safe storage is not available.

Describing displays has become a routine with a few exceptions, because I have not seen a really bad one for quite a long time. The standard resolution of 240 x 320 pixels, 64k of colours and transflexive TFT display will hardly come as a surprise to anyone. As I have already mentioned, Acer is somewhat deceptive as far as the size is concerned. The black borders are quite wide, so that the active size is the same as in most other standard PDAs, i.e. 89 mm. The brightness and contrast are excellent, placing n10 just a little behind perhaps the best display available on the market (h2210). Acer lags behind mainly in brightness, with adjustment in mere four steps. Most importantly, the display has no yellowish or greyish tint but colours are what they should be and white is really white. Likewise, I found no problems when using n10 outside. If you like the ClearType "font-blurring" technology, you can switch it on in a control panel applet, instead of tweaking the Registry. Controlling the device with the stylus is sensitive and precise.

If good quality MP3 playback is one of your main requirements, n10 will disappoint you. The only adjustable parameter is the volume and the output is somewhat more hissing that than that of h3970. Simply, if you plug the earphones in, you can hear a steady low-level noise:) You will hardly notice while listening on a bus but you may find it annoying when listening in bed. The integrated loudspeaker won't suffice for a dance party but is good enough for games or to playback a recording from a business meeting. MP3s are no problem either - it does not make any funny noise but plays the music. And finally, audio recording capabilities - again, no user adjustment but very good sensitivity (clearly catches every word at a three-metre distance).

For communication with other devices, you can use USB and IrDA at a standard serial speed. Of course, you can use any CF IO card, such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GSM/GPRS and others, but that costs some bucks and takes up the CF slot. The absence of a BT module is painful especially when connecting to the Internet - the infra port works, too, but who tried BT once will never want to switch back:)

Acers is powered by a 1520-mAh Lithium-Polymer battery. The battery is not replaceable, which means there is no need for a backup battery. In my "common use" test with maximum backlight on, Acer worked for five hours - an excellent result. But don't forget that the processors runs at "mere" 300 MHz, which significantly influences the power consumption.

Expandability

Two card slots offer great extendibility options. The SD/MMC slot can hold only a memory card but the Compact Flash type II slot will work with virtually any card. I tested an IBM Microdrive 1GB, Socket Wi-Fi and Socket LAN - all worked without any problems, which is a nice discovery in a device of this price category. However, I must voice an objection about the SD slot. Its location on the side of the device is fine - Acer n10 is not the only PDA that does not have an SD slot on the top. What is bad is that the memory card sticks out a millimetre or so, so that I have accidentally pulled it out many times when grasping the device. One can live with it, but you need to be careful not to lose the card.

Software

Software is what you have a PDA for, so let's talk about the application you will receive with the device. If you are new to Pocket PC, please read the article "What's new in PocketPC 2003". Here, I'll mention only the extras.

First of all, there is an extremely useful utility called Backup / Restore, which can backup your data to a memory card and restore from there. You can use either an SD/MMC or a CF card, protect the backup with a password, and select what you would like to backup (everything or just the calendar, contacts, tasks and mail). If you are paranoid about your data, you can set the backup to run when battery power decreases under a certain level. Restoring data is very easy - the application offers a list of available backups, you select the one to load and click Restore. Another (the only other) extra application installed on the device is a simple utility called RecentDo, which produces a list of the most recently opened applications, documents and websites.

Otherwise, there is nothing new but a few Control Panel applets. You may also like eight different themes for the Today screen.

The supplied CD-ROM includes the standard MS Outlook 2002 and Microsoft ActiveSync for synchronisation, as well as three bonus apps. However, only one of them is a true "bonus" - you can download Adobe Acrobat Reader for Pocket PC and TV Player free from the web (well, to be precise, the CD-ROM version is Pocket TV Enterprise, which has more features than the free one, but they both can play video). The Adobe Acrobat Reader for Pocket PC will enable you to read documents and e-books in the PDF format; the TV Player can play video including that in the MPEG format, which the standard built-in video player cannot. And finally, the only real "bonus" application - a "Lite" version of IA Album. Even though Windows Mobile 2003 offers a picture viewer, IA Album is better and can make screenshots.

Price

The recommended retail price is $299US. I think it is quite a reasonable price for such a device, but compared to its competitiors, it might be even a little lower.

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Benchmarks

I use Spb Benchmark for a complete performance test. As usual, there is no point in giving all the results in dozens of charts which would probably mean nothing to most of you. If you are interested in the full results, the complete .XML file is available for download here :: Acer n10 (2003, 300MHz) [2KB]. If you copy the contents of the file to the form on this page (click on Add device), you can compare the results with other devices. As you can see, Acer performed quite well in comparison with other PDAs.