Acer Iconia Smart S300 reviewed!
Sometime ago Acer had launched their Iconia range of devices which include, tablets running Android and Windows 7 and the Acer Iconia smart S300. the S300 is a hybrid smartphone having a 4.8-inch LCD screen. well by hybrid i am not directly comparing it with the Samsung Galaxy Note though it does come in comparison considering the size of the screen. it runs on Android Gingerbread v 2.3.3 with Acer’s own custom skin which we talk about later.
This time we decided to merge the unboxing video with the review, so without wasting anytime here’s the unboxing video:
Design:
The Acer Iconia Smart aka S300 is a unibody device pretty solid and good to hold in the hands and at the same time looks huge and heavy as it weighs 185g. Measuring 141.7 x 64.5 x 13.6 mm the S300 is narrower and tall so it’s easier to hold it in one hand. when holding the device in the hands it gives a premium feel and assures me that a drop or two won’t cause much of damage to the exteriors.
On the front we have a 4.8-inch (236ppi pixel density) LCD screen with a 21:9 ratio. the screen is definitely huge, pixels can be seen just at a glance which is not good especially at this price range where there AMOLED and Super AMOLED available it will be a mystery why Acer chose to go with LCD TFT.
On the top of the screen we have the 2.0MP front camera and the proximity and ambience light sensor.
At the bottom we have the usual android hardware buttons in a single strip. the buttons are quite responsive but a bit hard to press.
Backside of the device is curved just like the DesireHD and other devices. Curved back gives a better grip while holding the phone in a single hand. the back consists of an 8MP camera with an LED flash, speaker with Dolby Mobile printed on it. the word “Acer” is engraved in the middle written on silver.
At the bottom there is a small strip, removing it reveals a lock system which I have seen for the first time and it’s pretty difficult for a person to open. the strip contains radio chip, Opening the lock system we have the battery, SIM card and MicroSD card slots. the lock system ensures the battery is in its position and does not come out. the SIM and MicroSD cards can be removed even with the battery placed. But the user has to open the lock in any case. Opening the lock is a bit difficult and requires some patience as there are chances of damaging the lock.
Right consists of the Volume rocker and the camera shutter button. Yes the S300 is one of the few android devices having a physical camera button. the keys are made with stainless steel and are very easy to operate.
On the left we have the HDMI and USB slots packed in a single door. I liked Acer’s move to keep separate ports for USB and HDMI as it allows the user to connect the HDMI cable to the phone and can charge the phone at the same time.
On the top we have the power button, secondary mic and a 3.5mm headphone jack.
Hardware:
Let’s have a look at the internal hardware of the device.
- 4.8” TFT Capacitive Touchscreen
- 1 Ghz Scorpion Processor
- Adreno 205 GPU,
- Qualcomm MSM8255-1 Snapdragon Chipset
- 512MB RAM and 512MB ROM
- 8GB Internal Memory
- 8MP Back Camera and 2MP front Camera
- Bluetooth, WiFi, GPS etc.
The 4.8” touchscreen is a pure LCD TFT screen with a 21:9 ratio, the screen resolution is low i.e. 480 x 1024 pixels. Talking about the outer side we have a Gorilla Glass display which protects the display from getting accidental scratches. the pixels are fairly visible on the screen but it’s not that prominent you have to closely look at the screen to actually see them. it does not actually affect day to day use. the display is actually good thanks to the LED backlit display. Visibility under direct sunlight is also pretty good. the 21:9 aspect ratio is ideal for watching HD movies also Acer provides a HDMI cable which you can plug into your HDTV for watching and playing games in True HD. HDMI cable comes handy when you want to project objects from your device to a larger monitor to show images and videos to your dear ones or play presentations in a board meeting at office.
We have already seen phones with better and faster processors, GPU’s and that too in the same price segment it’s difficult for Acer to compete with other manufacturers. But frankly speaking the 1 GHz Single core Scorpion processor is pretty good enough on Android Gingerbread 2.3.3. Yes with 2.3.7 being the latest and greatest version of Android (ICS has just released) the Iconia Smart still runs on 2.3.3, would expect a firmware update from Acer in near future. the supplied Adreno 205 GPU is not the latest and greatest but is good enough and provides decent on device graphic experience.
Bluetooth, WiFi and A-GPS performance is also good. I haven’t paired any Bluetooth headset though file transfers happen to be as per standards also for WiFi connectivity is decent. A-GPS performance is nice; it takes a few seconds to get a GPS fix.
Android Experience:
As we all know all manufacturers provide a ‘personal touch’ or some kind of customization and some addition of apps to the ‘Stock Android’ which is provided by Google. With HTC coming up with Sense UI and Samsung with Touchwiz… Acer has also come up with Acer UI. the Iconia Smart comes with Acer UI 4.2. let me tell you Acer has done a pretty good job with the customization. as usual we have multiple homescreen’s with Acer’s personal touch. Acer has made special flip type widgets for Music, Videos, and Photos, Web Browser bookmarks etc. Check screenshot below:
Talking about app drawer… at first I was a bit confused as to where is the app/menu button?? it was later I came to know that the bottom bar has to be pushed up in order to bring up the menu/app list.
App list is as usual not arranged alphabetically all new app install go to the last screen. well there is a work around for that thanks to “Appzorter” available in both Free and Paid in the Android Market which sorts all your applications alphabetically. in case you don’t want them to be arranged in that way you can always long tap on an icon and move it anywhere you want.
Here comes an interesting point. What if you want to remove an unwanted application? Goto Setting->Applications and then scroll thru a long list of apps? No, just open the app drawer long press on the app icon just drag it to the Trash icon to the bottom left side and the app will be deleted. same applies if you want to add the app shortcut to the homescreen just drag the icon to the right bottom of the screen and place it where you want it.
Acer has also customized the Notification Bar. Notifications have been split into various tabs. one for Music, USB controls, Information, Settings and Clock.
The Music tab has just the music related controls and nothing else. USB controls bar options like Mobile Network Sharing, Use device as a USB Drive, and Sync content with PC. Information Bar contains general notification’s like New Mail, Chat/text message etc. Settings bar contains Battery Bar which shows remaining battery power in percentage, Network, Option to toggle Mobile Internet On/Off, same with WiFi, Bluetooth and GPS. Another feature includes Portable WiFi Hotspot, this feature turns your smartphone to a portable Internet hub with this you can share your Mobile Internet connection with other mobile devices or laptops. last tab is the Clock tab; here a nice big digital clock is displayed along with Day, Month, Date and Year. Below that there is an Alarms bar which lets you quickly set an Alarm.
Acer has done a pretty neat job building these features in the Notifications bar in a clean and clutter free tabbed interface. the settings listed above are pretty much in daily use and hence are accessed frequently. Putting these settings in a tabbed interface inside the notifications bar is what I have seen for the first time and Kudos to Acer for that.
That’s not all.. After tabbed notifications bar here comes multiple lockscreens. YES multiple lockscreens with individual and customizable widgets. the S300 comes with three customizable lockscreens, one contains the Music Controls so you can control music without un locking the device, the second screen includes Date, Time, No of Missed calls and Messages and Weather information. these widgets can also be customized from the Idle Screen setting under Home Décor from the Contextual menu on the Homescreen.
You can easily access Camera app from the Camera Shutter button even when the phone is locked, simply press the camera key you will get the standard android pull outs one for taking Photos and the other for Video capture. Simply drag them to start.
Acer has also included some apps like:
Social Jogger; Acer has included Social Jogger app which integrates your Twitter, Facebook, Plurk and Flickr feeds in a nice and intuitive timeline an awesome homescreen widget.
Acer Sync which syncs; allows users to sync their contacts, calendars, multimedia etc. from Phone to PC.
Apps like Road Sync, Barcode scanner, Docs to Go, WaveSecure (Security app from McAffee), and Clear.Fi a cross platform entertainment solution. the S300 also comes with pre-installed games like Asphlat 5, SpiderMan and NOVA.
Overall Android experience has been pretty good with the S300. But due to the large screen factor many of the apps I tried didn’t work in full screen like Plume, Hootsuite, Skype etc. the bottom space is all blacked out and wasted which somewhat irritates me. this is not a good sign; Acer should have done something about it. It’s mainly due to the 4.8” form factor which is not common amongst mobile devices and since it’s a mobile device we cannot install tablet versions of some applications. for this there’s an app called “Spare Parts which can fix the gap issue but unfortunately requires you to root your phone.
One more thing I would like to add here is the Gallery app on the S300. It’s pretty much the same stock gallery app seen on other android phones, but while surfing thru photos there is a lag when pictures are being loaded. at first the picture appears blurry/low quality and it takes two to three seconds to load it in its original form.
Multimedia:
Music:
The Music experience has been good on the S300. the default headphones supplied are pretty good for one’s music needs also being a 3.5mm headphone jack users can use their own preferred headphones. There are special Dolby Mobile settings in the Music player; users can tinker with Treble and Bass settings, Toggle Music and Video Equalizer etc.
I found the loudspeaker to be a bit low. in case of busy streets there are fair chances of missing a call.
FM Radio comes with RDS support channel reception is quite good enough.
Well there is nemoplayer re-installed so users who don’t like the default Music, and Video player can play their files on nemoplayer which is also pretty good alternative.
Camera:
The S300 comes with an 8MP camera with a LED flash. we cannot simply expect it to do wonders, but it’s quite decent. the camera comes with quite a few scene modes like Sepia, Aqua, and Negative etc. the outdoor photos appear quite decent on the device some pics appear to be noisy when viewed in 100% zoom on the large screen. however there is some problem with indoor pics, there is an orange tint on the pics right in the center, check below:
It also supports Panorama mode, users can take a panoramic shots just by moving their device in the desired direction.
The front facing 2MP camera also performs quite well although the pics appear noisy and slightly less detailed.
Video Recording:
S300 supports 720P HD video recording at 30 Frames per second. though an 8MP camera, the video output seems to be blurry and not that detailed. I hope Acer will work out this issue. Here’s a sample for you to decide exactly how the video recording is like.
Video Sample:
Browser:
The S300 has the stock Android browser which is considered as one of the best browsers on a mobile device. Pages load very well in both Mobile and Desktop mode. the browser comes with multiple window/tab support so you can open a few links in the background and still be on the same page. Text is re-formatted to fit in the screen on double tap. also thanks to the 4.8” form factor long pages require less scrolling and zooming.
Conclusion:
The Iconia Smart 300 is a pretty good device. it has a huge screen which is good to watch HD moves, shoot panoramic pictures, etc. the bad part about the display is that it’s a LCD display and the pixels are easily visible. also due to the large display apps don’t work in full screen. on the Design part the battery cover is a bit tedious to remove which will not be good for ones who frequently change SIM/MicroSD cards. Must say Acer has done a pretty good job on the UI, it increases the productivity by decreasing amount of taps on day to day tasks and on the other hand it’s fun to use. Multimedia is also decent apart from the orange tint found in indoor pics without Flash.
