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We all know Acer has a list of smartphones attached to its portfolio. This list also includes the dual-faced Acer DX650. Yes, we do know that the concept of incorporating two screens is quite old and found in many handsets. But this same concept has been used by Acer with a twist.

Here’s a hands-on review of the Acer DX650:

Before we speak of the pros and cons of this handset, let’s make ourselves familiar with the features of this handset. Well, what caught our attention are the unusual looks of the handset. The DX650 is a dual-faced smartphone. The two screens of this phone are placed on its two sides. The larger screen is a 2.8-inch QVGA touchscreen while the smaller one is a 1.27-inch 128 × 96 monochrome OLED display with a full numeric keypad. The touchscreen display of this phone flaunts a resolution of 320 x 240 pixels. The handset on the whole measures 109.6mm x 59mm x 15.6mm, weighs 133gms and looks more like a PDA than a handset.

The 2-megapixel camera comes embedded with a CMOS sensor. The handset incorporates a 1260mAh battery. The handset runs on Windows Mobile 6.1 operating system and is powered by Samsung’s S3C 6410, 533MHz processor. It also supports GSM/EDGE, Bluetooth 2.0 and GPS connectivity. The handset features the SPB Mobile Shell user interface. The various applications that are supported by the phone include Office Mobile, Outlook Mobile, Internet Explorer 6, Windows Live Messenger and Windows Media Player. There is also a microSD card slot and an accelerometer. The accessories that the handset packs in a Mini USB headset, a Mini USB sync cable, a Mini USB AC adaptor, a Mini USB Y cable, a battery pack and a leather case.

Pros:

The 2.8-inch QVGA touchscreen is quite pleasant to look at and offers exceptional clarity. The mini screen on the other side assists only in receiving and making calls and text messaging. We found the SPB Mobile Shell user interface easy to use as compared to most of the other business class phones. The menu of this interface is well sorted and easy to navigate. The blue colored SPB menu is quite attractive and easy to use. The 2-megapixel camera delivers averagely clear images that can be zoomed in and viewed without much of distortion. The default date tags make it easier to sort and organize the images clicked.

The sound quality delivered by the player is above average. The FM radio offers clear reception without much of disturbance. The jog wheel proved itself to be useful while scrolling through a list. But it couldn’t do much with the grid menu as it doesn’t support sideways scrolling. The Mobile Office suite incorporated in this phone works flawlessly. The phone doesn’t limit its offering to a virtual QWERTY keypad but goes a step further to incorporate easy keyboard, Block recognizer as well as Letter recognizer. The easy keyboard is a virtual QWERTY keyboard that also allows users to arrange the letters on the keypad in alphabetical order. The deleted messages folder allows users to retrieve the messages that were accidentally deleted. The application recovery and backup function helps to recover lost data as well as applications. The processors and the rest of the functions offer smooth functioning. Both the Opera and the Internet Explorer browsers were swift and convenient to use. The multitasking feature of this handset is unblemished.

Cons:

Although, the larger touchscreen of this phone provides clear display, the sensitivity of this screen is low and we had to apply a little bit of pressure to make the device respond. Frankly, we don’t think much of the mini display on the other side. This smaller monochrome display consists of light figures on a dark screen that are almost illegible in the sunlight. The keypad side of this phone adorns a large Acer logo at the base. But we would prefer a smaller logo and a larger display. Although the 2-megapixel camera serves its purpose fully, we expected a higher megapixel camera. The speakers of this phone aren’t much powerful and even at full volume the music isn’t loud. Except for the fact that the block recognizer as well as the letter recognizer typed ‘e’ when we wrote ‘{’ and vice versa. The recognizers found it difficult to recognize a few more letters. We were just thinking what the recognizer would type if a doctor were to write a prescription on it (just a thought). Lastly, would like to mention is that the phone has to be restarted even after making minor changes which we felt a bit annoying.

We were quite impressed with the idea and design of the phone. Well, we feel that Acer could have implemented the unique idea in a different and better way. We would love to see a revised version of this phone with more enhanced features. On the whole, the Acer DX650 gets rating of 7 on 10. It is priced at approximately Rs. 24,100 in India.