The Acer BeTouch E200’s Interface and Functions
Though Acer is one of the top companies in the computer world, it wants to extend its supremacy to the mobile phone world. Thus, this prompted the launch of their newest unit, the Acer BeTouch E200. A stylish phone at that, this brand new offering from Acer comes with a number of tremendous features and functions. Because of which, this unit can function more than just a phone.
The much-awaited version of the Microsoft Windows Mobile operating system has been unveiled and this phone luckily has it. Yet, what Windows Mobile 6.5 is running is not Acer Shell which can convert your home page into a virtual workplace. Rather, what works in it is Acer Home which enables a user to access a personalized home screen that caters to a lot of functions.
Aesthetically, it is a grid of nice icons, six of which are customizable. However, the phone, contacts and message icons cannot be changed.
Phone contacts
As far as phone contacts are concerned, it is important to stress out that Acer gave the phone their own application which does not allow scrolling through contacts unlike the standard version that is packaged with the OS. Yet, it still has steady search options by the names' first letters. But on the back side, you would have to manually switch from the active XT9 entry mode to the T9/123 mode should you want to enter something in fields dedicated to phone numbers.
Also, dialing these numbers from the main screen is a bit discomforting. You can only enter numbers here so you'll have a hard time with this if you don't know your friend's number by memory. Deleting this numbers is unhandy too. This can be done by the slow process of pressing the delete button for a period of time. You may also do this by using the uncomfortable backspace button on-screen.
Social Networking
Also, a 'Social Networking' button is present upon selecting a phone contact entry. Clicking it will bring you to two sub-buttons that can lead you to that person's Flickr or Blogger accounts if you've saved the corresponding URLs for both. Once you're there, you may browse that person's posted content. This smart phone also has a personalized calendar which is more user-friendly than the standard one.
The main menu also contains applications which allow access to popular social networking sites such as Blogger, Flickr, Facebook and Youtube. Microsoft's official Facebook application's performance is just on the average. Although, it allows you to do everything on Facebook just like when you're accessing the site on the computer. However, you may only view videos on Youtube and not post new content. Because of which, Acer can still improve on the basic functions that they allow for various social networking sites.
And finally, an alternative application in the settings menu gives you an option to sport an interface that is optimized for the fingers. In general, the Acer Home interface of the Acer beTouch E200 is simpler than that of the Acer Shell. It may give a skin-deep personalization but is still looks decent. It's neither ugly nor extravagant to look at.
