Acer announces 4.8-inch Android smartphone

21:9 aspect ratio display

MOST ANDROID PHONES are much the same these days in terms of features, but it seems like Acer has decided to take the plunge and come up with something a little bit unusual with its next gen model, as it’ll feature a 4.8-inch screen with a 1024×480 resolution. However, that’s unlikely to be the only selling point of this yet-to-be-named-handset that should launch at an unspecified date.

The 21:9 aspect screen is a peculiar choice on what it something of a hybrid between a smartphone and a tablet. The handset measures 142x64x13.3mm (HxWxD) and weighs in at a fairly chunky 170g, a tradeoff for the large 4.8-inch screen. That’s still a fair bit smaller and lighter than Dell’s 5-inch Streak, albeit not quite as slim.

Acer has gone for a 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, so it won’t have quite the same oomph as Acer’s new Android tablets. Other features include support for 14.4Mbit HSDPA, 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 3.0 and HDMI output. It will also sport a rear 8 Megapixel camera with an LED flash and a front facing 2 Mpegapixel camera. It also support DLNA and 6-axis motoin sensing thanks to a gyroscope and an accelerometer.

It looks like Acer might just have come up with a good compromise for those that can’t decide between a tablet and a smartphone, as the higher resolution, albeit very widescreen display, should at least allow for better readabilty of websites than your averge smartphone. It seems like we’re already getting a new type of convergence device before the tablet market has even had a chance to take off.S|A

The following two tabs change content below.