Experience with WM Acer neoTouch S200

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daniel123

榜眼
Since a long time I was looking for a new WM device. I tried for example HTC Touch HD, HTC HD2 and Samsung Omnia Pro for some days in detail. I tried many more devices shortly. But all of those have serious reasons why I was not happy with them. But now I got the Acer S200 and this is the best WM device I have ever seen.

It is a litlle faster than the HD2 (I saw some benchmarks like this), has the display size of HTC Touch HD (but of course much much faster, better display sensitivity and better display quality). The sensitivity for finger usage is nearly as good as the capacitive display of the HD2. This shows a resistive display is not necessarily out of date.
WM makes more fun than ever. Pleco works fast and nearly without any problem. I noticed only a problem with IA (the same like the HD2). I guess it has to do with WM 6.5. But the rest works great.
The biggest advantage compared with the HD2 is that it is possible to use a stylus. The device brings a stylus that could be put inside. Not as good/big as the stylus' some years before but this stylus is IMHO ok.
It seems to me as the best compromise of a modern device that could use Internet and multimedia with finger and stylus as well. I installed the SPB mobile shell (for me it looks and works much better than HTC's Touchflow) and I think this maybe could make iPhone users thinking "wow".
I also installed the Touchpal keyboard that supports great finger input for many many languages (also Chinese) and can be for example easily change the input language. Sometimes I want to write German, sometimes English, sometimes Chinese.

Special advantage for me: I can use all my existing WM software specially Pleco and nearly everything works better than before.

Of course also the S200 has some disadvantages. It does not has the device hardware quality of HTC. It looks quite good but it pick up all fingerprints and the back is very sensitive being scratched. The battery cover is ok but not as werthy like for example the HD2 or the Xperia. But the device is 200 Euro cheaper in price than the HD2. It has the same 1GHz Snapdragon cpu like the Nexus One or the HD2. This make WM really run. It makes so much fun. Youtube videos as fast as on my notebook and with enough display size. Internet browsing IMHO also works quite good for such a small piece of hardware. THe camera is not the best and the sound level is ok but maybe could not turned loud enough for very noisy environment.

I think to build a fast WM device that supports new media and old WM software as well is the way WM can go. This brings advantages for the old users who want to keep their software and it has the advantage to be more open for everybody than for example the iPhone. That could bring even new customers who does not like the iPhone. I hope more smartphone companys will go the same way with their WM devices.

For me it is the device I waited for since about one year and it proves for me WM still has a good chance to stay in the top 3 of mobile operating systems.

I think if somebody wants to keep with WM and want to use Pleco and his existing software - maybe the Acer neotouch S200 is an alternative for you...

Sorry I am really enthusiastic about it :)
 
mikelove

mikelove

皇帝
Staff member
Cool. Sounds like they've done less to screw up how Windows Mobile interprets pen movements than HTC and Samsung have, which is already a huge advantage. Also a very good sign for what Snapdragon can do for WM, particularly once Microsoft gets off their duffs and releases WM7.
 
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chao-ren

进士
Hi daniel123,

The Acer NeoTouch S200 is definitely available in China. But I have only found 简体中文 version..http://m.pconline.com.cn/idago/pid:2653231/product_detail.html
But ask around at Taobao may be can get a English or 繁体中文version.http://item.taobao.com/auction/item...li_trackid=1_687a4bd306f8672f7382f0f2a8a19f31

Attractively priced, only around ￥2,500 元 , for such a 'powerful' machine. Running wm6.5 as well ! If Mike had not come out with an iPhone version, I would probably have gone
for this suggestion.
 
B

Bentley

Member
Good Experience with WM Acer neoTouch S200

Hello everyone,

I bought my Acer S200 Neotouch two months ago, and it is working great with the new ROM update. When I bought it, the ROM version was S200_2.003.01_EN_02, and was unstable. I upgraded it to S200_3.003c.01_EN_02, which is very stable. But the ROM upgrading was a big struggle which was finally solved with some difficulty. If you want the steps that solved the problem, read my account in:

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=661139

If you follow my steps, you should be able to do the ROM update in about 60 or 90 minutes. Again, what worked for me may not work for you, so you have my forewarning about the inherent bricking risk in updating your ROM.

Except for that initial ROM update struggle, the Acer S200 Neotouch is a very good buy. I bought it at Toronto Pacific Mall for CDN$430 (no warranty), and it works flawlessly (after the ROM update). It has a 1 GHz Snapdragon, 256 MBs RAM, 512 MBs ROM, true satellite GPS, 4-band cellphone, 3-band 3G data, 5 megapixel camera (not great quality), large WVGA screen (800 x 480), accelerometer, light sensor, and Windows Mobile 6.5 Professional (CE OS 5.2.21883 Build 21883.5.0.783, after the ROM update).

Best of all, my Acer works beautifully with Pleco: super sharp Chinese characters, sharp icons with no jagged edges, full use of WVGA real estate. Mike Love was quick to answer my initial questions. I finally bought two Pleco licences (full bundles), one for me, one for my wife. But she is using Pleco on her QVGA iPaq, which looks so crude compared to WVGA, so I will try to convince her to upgrade to something like my Acer Neotouch one day (she seems happy with QVGA).

Bentley
 
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