Acer beTouch E400

Acer's smartphone onslaught continues, this time with a budget offering in the form of the beTouch E400. This is the Android version of the Acer neoTouch P400 we reviewed last month: the same hardware but with a different operating system.

Size and weight:

The super-slim Acer beTouch E400 with its stylishly pure design is so good-looking you’ll find your friends talking about it more than you do. At just 12mm thin, the slim and pure Acer beTouch E400 with its unique design is a real eye catcher. Acer E400 is a candy bar shaped handset coming in the dimensions 115 x 59.3 x 12 mm and weighs 125 g.

Network and connectivity:

For those who love their mobile phones to be highly stylish as well as updated, here comes the Acer BeTouch E400 Mobile Phone. With superb connectivity features, this 2G/ 3G phone runs on Android 2.1 OS and is powered by 600 MHz processor. Capable of global roaming, the device supports GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 and HSDPA 2100 / 900 frequencies. It also supports GPRS (Class 10, 32 - 48 kbps), EDGE (Class 10, 236.8 kbps), 3G (HSDPA, 3.6 Mbps; HSUPA 384 Kbps), WLAN Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g), Bluetooth (v2.0 with A2DP), USB (v2.0).

Memory and Display:

Acer also provides a 2GB micro SD card to bolster the 256MB of Ram and 512 MB ROM built into the device – the card slot is under the backplate. It also supports micro SD and micro SDHC card slots. The phonebook of the device has a vast memory and features ring ID, picture ID, search by both first and last name, and multiple numbers per contact and caller groups.

Camera and Video:

The 3.2-megapixel camera is rather basic in its offering, being of the fixed focus variety, so there is little detail in distance shots and it won't focus on close subjects. It struggles with bright conditions, low light and high contrast, so if the camera is important to you, look elsewhere. Video capture too is a little mediocre, offering a 720 x 480 capture at varying frame rates, we averaged about 26fps. A quick tap on the video icon and the E400 can also record super-sharp videos and then post them directly onto YouTube. For the lacking of flash so indoor shots tend to look dark and noisy.

Entertainment Features:

There's also a copy of Twidroid, a well known Twitter client, a music streaming app called Spinlets, and the NemoPlayer media player. The latter will address the concerns of those who find Android's built-in media player too basic, while Spinlets is more of a music discovery app, letting you sample music from artists arranged by genre. The media player of this handset supports MP3/WAV/WMA/eAAC+, MP4/WMV/H.264/H.263. There is also Facebook and Twitter client Twidroid built-in, GPS-enabled Google Maps complete with Latitude, Street View, Traffic and POI search a standard 3.5mm audio jack and Acer Sync, that allows automatic cloud-based and Wi-Fi synchronisation with your netbook, notebook or desktop so that your contacts, calendars and files are always up to date. The Acer beTouch E400 comes with GPS and Google Maps complete with Latitude, Street View, Traffic and POI search. Now you’ll always know what’s around you, how to find it, and the fastest way to get there.Traffic , POI search , Google Maps and Street View are country specific. Other features included are organizer, clock functions, video recording, and speakerphone, T9 and GPS. A 3.5mm headphone connector is also included. Ring tone featured is polyphonic and MP3. The device also has vibration alert provided.

The Acer beTouch E400 has some decent features, but its touchscreen and build quality aren't wonderful. On the whole, we don't think it represents as good value for money as the likes of the HTC Wildfire or Samsung Galaxy Portal.