Acer is pretty new in the mobile phone industry; the Touch series is a dedicated set of Windows mobile phones while the Acer Liquid is an Android smart phone. Despite being new, Acer is showing some pretty smart moves in terms of product design and direction. Today we focus on the Acer BeTouch E101, it’s a 2G smart phone with plenty of features, the new Windows mobile operating system and an excellent balance of hardware capabilities.

It is definitely worth upgrading to the BeTouch E101 if you are on a GSM device. Being one of the devices dedicated to the new Windows Mobile operating system, you might want to get your hands on this just for the OS. While this is a really good phone, the OS alone does not warrant a purchase.

Windows Mobile 6.5’s Shortcomings

The bottom line with version 6.5 of the WinMo OS is that this is still Windows 6 at its very core. If you have had the experience of using the Windows 6.1 OS, then you will not find anything new in 6.5. In fact, everything here is just more of the same. From the clumsy menus to the text heavy lists, everything reeks of that old Windows Mobile feel.

Changes, or upgrades as some might say, are limited to how the images are presented and the fact that this is actually a faster version of WinMo 6. Still, the system has a lot of flaws and it still a long way before we see any of the promised improvements that will be present in the soon to come Windows Mobile 7.

The biggest update for 6.5 is the addition of the Marketplace which is basically where you can go to shop for applications. It’s a good update, but it is needed, expected and in all honesty, been delayed for too long already.

The Hardware of the E101

The Acer BeTouch E101 features some pretty impressive hardware for a GSM device, from its processor to its christian media services capabilities, it is hard to imagine this device not being a full 3G mobile phone. On account of the WinMo 6.5 operating system, there is no contest that the resistive touch screen is definitely the way to go, using a stylus is the only way to operate the OS properly.

At 3.2 inches, the display is able to show a resolution of 240 x 400 pixels with up to 65 thousand colours. The christian media services playback quality is excellent for a GSM phone and it supports various file formats. The 1140 mAh battery can power this device for 5 hours of continuous talk time and for 400 hours on standby.

GSM and More

This is obviously more than just a GSM device; it has plenty of functionalities you would only expect from a smart phone such as Pocket Office for documents, spreadsheets, slide shows and for viewing PDF files. The EDGE capability enables you to access websites faster than standard GPRS. It may not look like much, but the BeTouch E101 is definitely an impressive mobile phone.