Big review of Acer n35

Acer is not one of innovators who offer new Pocket PC models one after another. When it launches a new pocket device, its main advantages usually include good quality and low price rather than technical parameters. That applied to Acer n10, newer Acer n30 as well as the latest Acer n35.

As I hinted in the introduction, this Acer model, similarly to recently reviewed Yakumo Delta 300 GPS, does not offer anything special but for the integrated GPS module. That is why this review is quite brief in some sections. I would like to thank Sunnysoft, a distributor of the device in the Czech Republic, for lending me a specimen for testing purposes.

P.S. Please pardon the reduced quality of photos in the review, I have got a new camera and have not mastered it yet.

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What is in the box?

The box is larger than usual. It contains the usual accessories as well as a few extra items that users of this type of device will find quite useful.

• Acer n35
• Stylus
• Case
• Synchronisation USB cable
• AC adapter
• Car holder
• 12-V CL adapter for charging in the car
• CD-ROM
• Very brief user guide
• Warranty information

The new device is visually almost identical with Acer n30 but more on that later. The stylus is cylindrical, 107 millimetres long, 4 mm in diameter along most of its length. The main part is made of a light metal, with hard plastic tips that are screwed on.

The package includes also a case. However, in this case, the word "case" is rather exaggerated. It is a primitive bag consisting of two pieces of leatherette sewn together with soft-fabric lining for better protection. Overall, the case provides very basic protection and buying a more robust one is virtually a must.

The synchronisation USB cable is an ordinary accessory without any noteworthy features. It is 130 centimetres long; the data connector is combined with a power cable connector. A cradle is not included and according to this site, it is not even among available accessories.

The AC adapter offers standard output of 5 V and 2 A. It is 190 centimetres long and the connector is the same as those used e.g. in iPAQ and LOOX.

Those who want to use their Acer for navigation while driving will need a car holder. The bundled one comprises three parts - a flat circular base with a sticker to attach to any place in the car, a bendable strip that connects the base to a piece that holds the Pocket PC. Its sides are adjustable, made of plastic, lined with a 4-millimetre thick layer of plastic foam to hold the device firmly but softly. To remove the device, just press a button on the left-hand side. A pair of sliders at the bottom snaps to the power connector. The whole thing resembles e.g. Dicota Keeper, which I use in my car, but this one is more sophisticated.

A bundled CL adapter makes it possible to use the device on long trips. It includes a connector adapter for direct charging.

The bundled CD-ROM includes a few standard applications as well as a few bonus ones. The user manual is quite brief, warranty information rather bloated.

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Design

It is apparent at first sight that Acer n35 is a close relative of the Acer n30 model. There are some differences between the two but I would not be able to tell them apart without my glasses on:) The device looks nice, sporting a balanced colour combination, although the design is not strikingly elegant. Its shape is an almost perfect hexahedron, only progressively thinner towards the bottom. The prevailing black colour makes the device look smaller than it actually is. In reality, e.g. LOOX 720 with a VGA display is smaller than this Acer. The dimension WITHOUT the antenna are 120 x 72 x 20 millimetres / 4.72 x 2.83 x 0.79 inches, the antenna will add another 4 centimetres in length. Despite, it holds well. The weight is quite low due to its light, soft and rather inexpensive-looking plastic - 165 grams is not very much. It is built solidly, although shell parts do not fit perfectly in some places.

Pocket PC with GPS receiver	Dimensions (mm / in)	Weight (g)
Acer n30	120 x 72 x 20 4.72 x 2.83 x 0.79	165 5.82
Yakumo Delta 300 GPS	112 x 69 x 16 4.41 x 2.72 x 0.63	147 5.19

The front panel is dominated by a display standard 3.5-inch display (89-millimetre diagonal) with a classic combination of a miniature joystick and four user-definable buttons (one action each) below. This is good news for gamers in contrast with the Acer n30. Unfortunately, the joystick does not support diagonal movement (e.g. up and right simultaneously) or press to confirm. In other words, it is just a four-directional control. Above the display are two LED diodes. The one on the left shines blue, which is misleading - Bluetooth is not implemented in this device. Instead, it indicates GPS activity. The one on the right is a usual device status indicator - no need to elaborate on this one, I believe:)

The back is plain, with nothing but the GPS antenna flip and loudspeaker grill there. The battery is not replaceable, as usual in Acer PDAs.

In the middle of the top side is a capped SDIO slot, the only expansion option for this device. To the left of it is a standard 3.5-millimetre headphones jack, an infrared port, microphone and stylus shaft are located on the opposite side.

The bottom side hosts a 26-pin data connector, and a soft-reset button and a hard-reset switch on the sides.

The sides bear even less controls. On the left-hand side is a power switch and a three-way scrolling wheel (up, down, press), on the right a connector for external antenna covered with a rubber cap. Praise for Acer for attaching the plug to the body of the device, which prevents its loss and subsequent clogging of the slot with dirt. The connector seems to be of standard size (the same one was implemented in my BT GPS receiver), but I cannot tell the type.

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Parameters

Acer has always produced cheap but average-performing devices, and the Acer n35 is no exception. It resembles its elder brother Acer n30 by hardware specifications even more than by the look, so let's be brief (or copy&paste from a review of Acer n30 here and there - if Acer can do it, why couldn't I?:). Its Samsung S3C2410 processor running at 266 MHz shows approximately the same performance as a 300-MHz Intel PXA255 processor. These days, it is rather below average but appears to be a sufficient and cheap solution for specialised devices like this. Juts forget about cool features such as processor speed adjustment. The Acer features a theoretic 64 MB of RAM and 32 MB of FlashROM. However, after a hard reset, the user can access less than 47 MB of RAM and a safe storage will be listed among memory cards, offering a mere 1.84 MB because of the overall small size of the ROM.

The transflexive TFT display is very good! With maximum backlight, its really blinding, the colours are rich and clear, white is as white as snow. The size and other parameters are the same as in other common devices - an 89-milimetre diagonal, resolution of 240 x 320 pixels, 65 thousand colours - the standard. The backlight is adjustable separately for battery and mains operation at 20 different levels. There is no automatic backlight adjustment to the surrounding light conditions. I tested the device outside, in direct sunlight, and the display was perfectly readable. Black margins around the display are hardly noticeable and optically merge with the display's dark grey frame. The touch-sensitive layer is not as responsive as those in most other devices - it ignored some of my taps. Otherwise, it is an excellent display I wish others would take as a standard. As a bonus, Acer includes its own special theme.

The audio output (this time through a much more convenient standard 3.5-mm jack) is perfect. Virtually noise-free and sufficiently dynamic, the sound will satisfy even the most discerning audiophiles (well, the very most discerning ones listen to vinyl records, anyhow:) The only parameters you can adjust is the volume, whereas most other Pocket PCs make it possible to adjust bass and treble, too. Here, you will need a third-party application. Speaking about volume, it is more than sufficient over the headphones. On the other hand, the integrated loudspeaker failed to impress me. Due to its position on the back it plays into the hand. Besides, it hisses considerably. It is not tragic, I have heard worse-performing ones. By contrast, quality of sound recording improves the overall impression. Direct recording was excellent, so was recording from a distance. Not that you could record a rock concert with it but the Acer can serve as a 100% replacement of an ordinary dictaphone.

Communication options are very basic: USB 1.1 and SIR, no USB Host, no Bluetooth, no WiFi. The infrared port cannot be used to control home appliances remotely (not with any of the common applications I have tested for this purpose).

An integrated 1000-mAh Lithium-Ion battery is not replaceable, unfortunately. That means you will have to economise on power when away from the mains for a substantial period of time. Those who travel by car can use a CL adapter, others can envy them. The Acer lasted for 3 hours and 11 minutes, about the same as the n30. Unfortunately, I did not have time to test the device with GPS activate. I believe that power consumption should not increase dramatically because of the nature of the GPS module (receiver only).

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GPS receiver

Apart from clones of the same device (Mio MiTAC 168, Yakumo Delta 300 GPS etc.), this Acer is the second GPS-enabled Pocket PC on the market. It features an antenna flip resembling that in the Yakumo. Opening the flip activates the GPS module. However, this one is designed much better that that in the Yakumo - it does not stick out in any direction when closed, hiding completely in the body of the device. When open, it is level with the back of the device, so there is less danger of damaging it. According to the technical specifications, it is 12.channel GPS receiver with optional external antenna input. This is the only information provided at the manufacturer's website.

It is quite difficult to perform any exact tests of this type of component, so let me share my experience. I could test the device for just a few days. As far as I can judge, its response speed and accuracy were no different from other GPS receivers I have ever used. I drove tens of kilometres on routes I know. The GPS worked with PocketKiM and other applications without any problems. I made an attempt at objective comparison, testing the Acer together with Mio 168. Both GPS modules start equally fast. After they were both switched off overnight, it took them well under a minute to activate. Sensitivity is similar too. Both devices found six satellites, signals of five of them were sufficiently strong to process. When used with the TomTom GPS application to show exact position, their results differed by no more than 4 thousandths of a second (unfortunately, I could not tell which was more accurate:) I found only one major difference - whereas the Mio lost all signals when I entered a building, the Acer retained the latest data in the memory and supplied them to the application, which pretended to be working normally. Otherwise the two GPS devices are very similar.

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Expandability

If you find the Acer's basic configuration insufficient, you have fairly limited possibilities to add extra functionalities. Apart from an infrared port (which is most typically used for an uncomfortable connection to a mobile phone) and a data USB connector (not backwards compatible), there is only an SD slot. It supports the SDIO standard, so I could use e.g. an SD digital camera from HP but given the nature of the device and the memory size, the slot will most typically be occupied by a memory card.

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Software

The Acer n35 comes with pre-installed Windows Mobile 2003 for Pocket PC Premium Edition, which includes a complete software suite for Pocket PCs from Microsoft except for phone-related applications. Unfortunately, it is not the Second Edition that offers e.g. easy screen rotation. As far as I could find out, Acer is not planning to offer an upgrade. Besides the standard applications and a few applets, the Acer offers only one bonus application with a self-explaining name Backup/Restore. It is an uncomplicated tool to backup either all data or just PIM information to any place on a memory card. It can also perform an automatic backup when battery power decreases under 30 percent of full capacity. It can, naturally, restore the data upon request - you just choose from a list of all available backup files on a given memory medium.

The bundled CD-ROM contains a few documents and a vary basic set of applications, including Microsoft Outlook 2002, Microsoft ActiveSync 3.7.1 and Adobe Acrobat Reader.

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Pricing

The price of approx. 300USD positions this Acer among the cheapest Pocket PCs on the market. The better it has an integrated GPS module for that price.

[POLL]

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Benchmarks & Tests

As far as performance is concerned, there is no difference between the n35 and n30 models, so I must repeat myself. Well, there has been more repetition lately but it is not my fault - manufacturers release new Pocket PCs one after another with less and less differences worth detailed examination. The only major difference is in gaming experience due to the joystick implemented in the n35.

The device's performance is sufficient for all common tasks and compares to other devices with the same processor or an Intel processor @ 300MHz. Games mostly seamless, only some have problems with sound (e.g. GangstaRace). The joystick is highly accurate and its limitation to four directions can sometimes be an advantage. If you like watching videos and choose a tested combination of BetaPlayer + films resampled to 240x320 pixels, you will be satisfied.

As far as utilities that use the GPS module are concerned, I tried PocketKiM and TomTom GPS. They both worked fine, detected the GPS at first attempt and started processing data in a few seconds. Vector navigation was smooth and fast, everything in order. When used for navigation, the device fulfils its role perfectly.

Benchmark tests gave exactly the same results as for the n30. If you are interested, take a look in the earlier review.

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Detailed evaluation

The Acer n35 is another device I have subjected to a more detailed and stricter evaluation system. This is because the rating of most devices I reviewed in the past ranged from 90 to 95 percent and it was difficult to tell which device was better (I tried to avoid a 100-percent rating). Another reason is that this new system is more transparent. That is why the final rating is NOT BACKWARDS COMPATIBLE. 90 percent now and 90 percent before are completely different figures.

Now, a few words to explain the evaluation system. The type can be Pocket PC, Pocket PC Phone Edition, or Smartphone. Class means the target group, which is key for understanding the other categories. Number of points in the other categories are relative with regard to the class. For instance, a device with a VGA display, two expansion slots, BT and WiFi modules in the high-end category will receive nine points for a certain weight, whereas a device in the "entry" class with a QVGA display, one slot and no radio module will receive three points for the same weight. The date is also important - if I am rating a 1.3-Mpix integrated camera today, it will receive 10 points because there is nothing better available. Half a year later, when 2-Mpix integrated cameras will become available, this one would receive fewer points.

If you would like to comment on the evaluation, please join the discussion below. I am not doing this for my own pleasure but to make choosing a new device easier for you. If you think it is a wrong idea, just let me know:)

Rating
Name:	Acer n35
Type:	Pocket PC
Class:	Low-end
Date:	February 16, 2005
Design, user friendliness
Design:	8
Dimensions:	4
Weight:	4
Buttons, user comfort:	6
Assembly quality:	8
Performance, memory
Processor:	4
Free RAM:	5
Free ROM:	1
Display
Dimensions:	5
Size:	7
Quality (indoors):	10
Quality (outdoors):	8
Backlight:	9
Touch layer:	6
GPS
General:	9,5
Audio
Microphone:	9
Loudspeaker:	7
Headphones output:	9,5
Communication
USB:	6
Infra:	7
Battery, power settings
Features:	6
Battery life:	4
Expandability
General:	3
Software
System, settings:	4
Bonus apps in ROM:	2
Bonus apps on CD:	1
Accessories
Quantity:	6
Quality:	6
Other
Overall impression:	7
Manufacturer's support:	6
Price/performance ratio	7
Total
Acer n35	5.97 out of 10

Notes :: Rating on the scale from 1 to 10. The higher the figure, the closer to the ideal. If a device receives 10 points for "Design", it means it is beauty from heaven. On the other hand, if it receives 10 points for “Weight”, it means it is extremely light.

And that all for this review.

Article rating - (449 votes)