Acer n50 Premium review

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Verdict:

The Acer n50 Premium lives up to its name in terms of features but without the premium price. Its performance and multiple connectivity options are excellent, and its stylish looks belie its relatively modest price. Only the stiff joystick lets it down.

Review Date: 22 Jun 2005

Price when reviewed: inc VAT

Our Rating 5 stars out of 5

ExpertReviews Award

Review
Specs

The n50 Premium is Acer's top-of-the-range PDA and comes with an impressive set of features, despite its modest price.

FEATURES

With its stylish silver casing, Acer's n50 Premium looks more expensive than it is. The plastic screen surround has a brushed metal effect and the back of the PDA has a similar faux-metal finish. Its design is simple and uncluttered, with two pivoting panels under the screen that activate short cuts to the home screen, calendar, contacts and messaging programs. Like the n35, the Premium has a joystick rather than keypad buttons to browse the PDA's functions but, unlike the n35, it acts as a selection button when pressed. The joystick is very stiff and hard on the fingers. A sliding switch on the left powers off the backlight and disables the short cut buttons.

The Acer has built-in infrared, Bluetooth and wireless networking and a bundled docking cradle, so it is not short of connectivity options. It is also impressively light, weighing 150g, and its 124MB of storage is enough to store plenty of documents and extra programs.

PERFORMANCE

The n50's 520MHz Intel processor propelled it to a score of 1,802 in our general performance benchmark, putting it far ahead of its nearest rival, the HP iPAQ hx2110. This speed is evident when running applications: Pocket Word and Excel start almost instantly and run smoothly. At 235 minutes, the n50's battery life is fine.

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