PDA Reviews

Acer N310 Handheld PDA / Pocket PC With Bluetooth

Acer N310 Handheld PDA is a standalone PDA from Acer which does not have any phone functionalities similar to that of the HP’s stand alone PDA family. These devices are no longer the huge sellers, yet even now they prove to be vital for many who work a lot on word and excel files on the fly.

Built design:

The Acer N310 PDA has an ultra slim and compact look. The main display and navigational keys have a matt black finish whereas, the unit is given a silver outline. This ultra slim product comes with its dimensions as 11.8 X 7 X 1.3 cm ( H X W X D) and weighs just 135 grams. The thickness is 1.3cm only in the center, but, as you move towards the edges, it reduces to just 1cm. All the above facts that shows that the N310 has the absolute desired design. 75% of the handheld PDA is dominated by the big screen.

Display:

Coming to the part of display, Acer N310 is having a 3.7″ Transflective TFT active matrix with the resolution being 480 x 640 VGA which can display about 65,536 colours. The 3.7” TFT display falls under the “high-brightness” category, as the name indicates, the display is very bright and with such high resolution, the images are very clear and colourful. It works either in portrait or landscape modes.

Navigation and ports:

The main navigation is done using the five way rocker which is present right below the display. There are two shortcut launches on the either sides of the main nav-pad. The buttons on the left give Front Screen and Calendar, while those on the right give Outlook and Contacts. The touch screen gives swift responses while using the stylus. The onscreen keyboard is rather a very good inclusion.

Checking the buttons and ports on the device, the SD card slot is placed on the top along with an earphone socket. The right edge sports the stylus storage slot. The rear side of the unit has a connector that acts both as a synchroniser and charge point. The left side has hold slider and on/off.

The Operating System and included software:

The Acer N310 Pocket PC uses the Microsoft Windows Mobile 5.0 Premium Edition operating system. It uses the Samsung S3C2440 processor with the processor clock speed being, 300 Mhz. The software provided includes functions such as, Backup/Restore Utility, Calculatrice, Jeux, Voice Recorder, File Explorer, Microsoft Pocket Excel, Microsoft Pocket Word, Microsoft Pocket Internet Explorer, Terminal Services Client, Microsoft Outlook 2002, PocketTV Enterprise Edition, System Info, Windows Media Player 10 Mobile, Pocket MSN Messenger and Microsoft ActiveSync 4.0.

Memory:

The device has an internal memory as 64MB and 128MB of flash memory. The memory cards that are compatible with the device are, SD and MMC (SDIO compatibility) . The interfaces available includes a 3.5mm headphone jack, a USB port and a serial port.

The Bluetooth and Wireless connectivity:

Acer N310 Pocket PDA has both Bluetooth and Wireless for connectivity, the latter supports Wireless LAN to enable file transfers when away from the office and as an alternative to synchronisation. The product lacks GPS function which can be said as one of the major disadvantages of the product. Check GPS PDA section for product reviews of other models.

Audio:

For the purpose of audio, it has a built-in microphone and speakers. This is a stand alone PDA and hence lacks any of the phone functions. The built-in microphone sounds good and the quality of audio from the headphone is much better from the former.

Battery, accessories and warranty:

It uses the 1200mAh battery, and has a very decent run time of up to eight hours without backlight. The battery recharge time is not a very pleasing 3 hours. Anybody who regularly does syncs will hopefully be fine as the power lead is part of the sync cable. The accessories included in the PDA are, a protective cover and a USB cable. The Acer N310 Hand-held PDA comes with a manufacturer warranty of two years.

Verdict:

The Acer N310 Handheld PDA is neither a magical product or a “do not buy” PDA. It is a good option for those who are searching for standalone PDAs. If you are looking for maps too, then, you might opt for HP iPAQ 214 Pocket PC.



Acer N310 PDA - Technical Specifications, Features

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