Acer N30 > Reviews (9)

Recently I purchased the Acer n30 PDA so I can have a Windows Mobile powered device and I wasn't disappointed. The device runs Windows Mobile 2003 edition which looks good and runs reasonably well but it is not without its faults.

The device boasts Bluetooth support and a USB port feature. Bluetooth hasn't given me any issues and runs well (communicating with my phone and laptop with ease). The USB port is interesting and supports loads of common USB devices, such as USB keyboards, USB mice, pen drives, hard disks, and etc. (I've plugged a USB mouse, keyboard and a pen drive into the device). The USB port feature is only accessible through the USB host cable so you must have one to use this feature (it is supplied). The USB port doesn't support all devices- it didn't recognise my MP3 player.

The chassis is well-made, lightweight, and has buttons in the right places, although I nearly damages the speaker which is the middle "button" of the five in the photograph - poor design. The microphone is well hidden, as is the headphone port (which doesn't allow you to plug in standard headphones which is not good).

There is a scroll wheel on the left hand side for reading through documents and E-books, it can be used to select documents- its like the wheel on a wheel mouse.

The speaker is small but delivers industry standard sound (nothing special). The microphone can pick up my voice very well.

The screen is bright and clear. Reading text is a joy to read since ClearType(TM) font smoothing technology is available in Windows Mobile 2003.

The system has a reasonable battery life and charges quite quickly (after the initial charge), but because its Lion do not charge and discharge it too often or you can wear it out.

The device comes with standard software to be found Windows powered Pocket PCs such as Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Reader, Windows Media Player (all slimmed down), other software and 2 games come as standard on this device. Docking with the PC is quick and easy but I advise you have an Outlook account available or you will get grief! A folder [shortcut] of "My documents" for your handheld will be on your main desktop once you've successfully docked, dump stuff in here and after the next sync, your documents will be shuttled over to the device. The device's organiser tools are quite good, nothing special but quite good non-the-less. The Today Screen feature is good for a quick glance of appointments, tasks etc soon coming, instead of browsing through the organiser.

The clock speed on the device is a reasonable 233mhz. This sounds good but consider the fact that most other devices including the XDA run at ~400mhz+. This shouldn't be an issue if you just want to use this device to watch movies, type documents, and play solitaire. If you want something that can run powerful applications and games (such as loading Quake) unto the device, while this is possible a faster clock speed with be advisable.

The device doesn't come with a Compact Flash reader, but does have a SD disk reader.

If you lack a keyboard, the device can easily work using a Graffiti(TM)-like block character recogniser (for those switching from a Palm), a character recogniser tool (which is annoying but probably there for the Pocket PC veterans), a on-screen keyboard, and a Transcriber feature (remember the Apple Newton? well those days of scribbling something on screen to only get garbage are back again).

In conclusion I recommend this device to the serious user who wants a device that helps get the job done in style. People wishing a change from Palm OS wouldn't be disappointed either. Those people new to handhelds would find this system to be quite forgiving. For more information read more on Windows Mobile 2003.