Acer beTouch E110 early review: Where's the Wi-Fi?

Let the glaring omission of Wi-Fi slide and perhaps the E110 can be a smart phone for the masses. We tried it out at Mobile World Congress

Richard Trenholm

Richard Trenholm was CNET's film and TV editor, covering the big screen, small screen and streaming. A member of the Film Critic's Circle, he's covered technology and culture from London's tech scene to Europe's refugee camps to the Sundance film festival.

See full bio

Richard Trenholm

Feb. 15, 2010 9:34 a.m. PT

1 of 3

Acer has well and truly thrown its hat into the smart-phone ring, with a slew of Android phones announced today. The most affordable is the beTouch E110, which is designed to offer Web-connected smart-phone-style features to the masses. Unfortunately, it has one glaring omission: Wi-Fi.

But we'll let that go for the moment. After all, Wi-Fi isn't everything, especially if you have a decent data plan, and the E110 still offers Android 1.5 goodness, meaning you can fill your phone with all the apps you like. It also includes slick interface touches like the effect shown above, which blurs the background when you call up your main menu.

It's also a solidly built phone, with a large, bright, 71mm (2.8-inch) touchscreen. It's resistive, which means there's no multi-touch support, but you can use a stylus if that's more your thing. It'll also view Microsoft Office documents like Word, Excel and PowerPoint files.

We took the budget blower for a quick spin to see how it measures up. Click 'Continue' for more.

2 of 3

GPS tracking tells you things like how fast you're moving, and in which direction. We imagine that'd be awesome if you were on a train speeding through the night. It's not so cool when you're standing in a marquee at a trade show.

3 of 3

The E110 lets you access your apps via a pull-up menu. Grab the arrow at the bottom and pull up the full list of apps, minty-fresh from the Android Market.