Acer might be a relative minnow in the smartphone market, but it's attacking it with gusto at the moment with the announcement of the Android-toting Liquid, and the Windows Mobile 6.5-running NeoTouch, which we played with at a recent Acer event.
The phone, previously known as the F1 whilst in development, is a sleek model with a shiny black exterior, which is more chunky Samsung than iPhone curve.
That's not a criticism though, as the phone sits snugly in the hand, although it's got a 3.8-inch (sadly resistive) touchscreen. It feels almost capacitive-like in the hand though, and Acer's done a good job of making it feel like a much sleeker device.
The Neotouch brings the full range of Windows Mobile 6.5 support, with the vanilla menu backed up by a home screen filled with icons for easy access to applications.
Why Acer has decided to go down this road rather than just using the pretty good Zune-style list, we don't know, but both styles are available as an option.
The good news is the 1GHz processor powering the phone underneath the hood actually works pretty well - trying out multiple applications at once didn't bring a hint of slowdown. It's not the most extensive of tests, but like on the Acer Liquid, it bodes well.
Industrial Windows
We're still not fans of the Windows Mobile 6.5 experience - it just looks too industrial when you drill deeper through the menus, with elements like the dialler and the connection pop-up bringing back memories of WM 6.1 and earlier.
The phone also comes with a well-placed 3.5mm headphone jack at the top, which sits flush with the chassis and will help make the phone into a multimedia powerhouse.
But it's hard to be such when you look at the media options on board - how Microsoft expects to be beating Nokia or even RIM on the media front with the oh-so-basic Windows Media player interface we don't know.
But it's not Acer's fault that there are problems with WM6.5 - the phone itself is a pretty good effort in its own right.
Add to that a decent camera (5MP) with flash and auto-focus, and you've got a pretty well tooled phone indeed.
It's more about multi-tasking that anything else with the powerful specs on board, so we haven't had a chance to have a good thrash with it as yet, but this early play bodes well.
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