In these halcyon days of impromptu
Vietnamese gadget reveals, it should come as no surprise that Acer's Stream has gone from
FCC filing to
hands-on honey in a few days flat. Now it's been the subject of a rather more thorough photo shoot in Ho Chi Minh City, and also was kind enough to share a little footage filmed from its five megapixel camera.
Sadly, it's not raw 720p footage that was YouTube'd, so it's perhaps too early to draw conclusions -- but we'll go ahead and say the video doesn't look very good just the same. Still, it looks to be yet another intriguing entry to the Android assault, and we can't wait for the next leak.
Update: Thanks to kreatos for pointing out that there's a second, albeit shorter 720p video on YouTube as well. We've got that embedded below and it does indeed look a good bit better -- but you can certainly still tell it came from a cellphone.
[Thanks, Tran]
posted May 29th 2010 7:18AM
The video is pathetic, so much for HD! They should invest in better sensors.
@dementedacademic
You do realize that the video is a 3.9 MB 400x226 heavily compressed MP4, right?
Hey what do you know, the video is absolute shit.
@Dafrety You do know this comes with 2GB of internal storage which is pathetic for anything that wants to be in the digital recording/streaming niche. No wonder the director was being skimpy using only 4mb.
@juanvaldez
Oh hai Micro SDHC card! Fancy meeting you there? What's that you say, you run up to 32 GB now? And a 16 GB can be had for around $30? Wow!
@Dafrety
The second video is 720p and it still looks like ass.
@Dafrety Well aware, thank you very much. The point is that's essentially a $30 price increase and this thing hasn't been able to show itself doing a good job or even having that great of specs.
BTW, since all Android devices can do the same thing, again as I've said before, what's the point of this device and having 2GB stock.
@geoken
dude, turn up the quality of the youtube stream
http://www.google.com/support/youtube/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=91449
will help you :)
@HoldenMccrotch
It still looks like crap. A $200 pocket camera will do better HD video than this, by a lot. I see lots of jerkiness, blurriness, compression artifacts, etc. in this video. And yes, I've clicked the "720p" button.
Looking good
@iantolee Either you didn't watch the video or you thought it was so blatantly obvious that you didn't need a /s on that, either way...
I'm not sure why this even made the front page, Engadget mobile would've been a little bit borderline as well, unless they are trying to take some steam out of the Stream that the other day they were amping up.
Seriously, I don't know why this device was talked up. 2GB internal out of the box, nothing really special going on, this thing is a chump when lined up next to the Motoroi, the Evo 4G and the Galaxy S.
@juanvaldez
Why do you keep banging the same drum ? It's a 2GB micro SD card which can be easily upgraded by you or by the carrier, a lot of carriers here in the UK have finally started using 8GB and Samsung can bundle big cards easily since they make it.
Most people just buy themselves a class 6 16/32GB card and transfer it from phone to phone.
what is it with everyone wanting HD quality? am i missing something? all these hd cameras on these phones aren't even on part with good sd quality.
@dedparrot Because HD (720p anyways) is quickly becoming a sought after feature on new phones. And once the iPhone gets it, it will become the defacto standard.
@Shalabi
Like MMS?
@dedparrot Many can do a hell of a lot better than this. If your point is, we have to look for more than a 720p moniker then I'm with you. If your point is that the companies should focus on sd before hd, I'd say then you lost me and we can talk about the same things with 4G roll-outs and all the like where tech lovers will just want the best without wanting to slow down for the rest....and we are on engadget here.
@dedparrot I think if they really cared about HD quality, they certainly wouldn't be looking to a phone to provide it.
I agree with Shalabi as well, when the iPhone is introduced with the FFC and 720p capabilities, any phone that comes after without, will be considered inferior.
@Motlee
i dont know why people keep wanting such HD video from devices that arent meant for HD quality
if you're so interested in HD then youd get a camera that does it specifically for the job.
phones are meant to capture quick moments, and by the looks of it this phone does it quite well
@HoldenMccrotch
these devices out there are all touting 720 HD video capture, but they deliver it with bad results. However, the Nokia N8 seems to actually deliver on the promise, and the SE Vivaz isn't far off either.
So if you want to do HD video recording, there is no need to buy a seperate camera and spend more money. Just choose a smartphone with good HD capture skills like the ones I mentioned and a few others.
If I could actually get this phone with T-Mobile USA's 3G bands then I'd be first in line. I still don't know why they decided to be spechul. Thankfully their service and signal is excellent in my area.
man, this phone is crap. did you see the interface-video? laggy as hell, allthough the 1ghz cpu.
@dartox They shoudl just have the standard android UI like N1, serious d**kheads, anyway the good news is, Acer androids have been rooted, so can be updated easily.
Thats 720P? It looks like it's shot using a 1MP camera
@MoonWalkerCTE
considering that 720p are about 900K pixel that wouldnt be to bad :-)
But that Video looks just horrible. And I dont like all these buttons either... guess its not my phone
@MoonWalkerCTE: i don't get the point of that device. the design is not very tasteful, the interface is laggy, and the hd-videos can't compete with the upcoming hd-monster named nokia n8. whats the deal with that phone? yeah, maybe android, but that's all?! and android with that buggy "acer-skin" isn't a benefit. just my opinion.
That video is absolutely useless. They might just as well remove that functionality alltogether... epic #fail
People are complaining about bad quality video on you tube. Really?
@Einlander It's the fact that practically every high end device out for the last year can do better than this, so if this one can't (though, for now, I'll assume it can do better), then what exactly is it trying to fill? Seriously, the streaming qualities of the stream take a big hit if it can't stream content that it creates and it can't internally store much of what you consume and/or create with a measly 2GB of storage.
@Einlander ... All phones get the same treatment! Multiple other phones destroy the quality shown here whilst also being Youtube. Anyways, even if the quality was good on this phone I'd stay away from them. Acer screwed me on a laptop as a student...one of the worst customer service.
@Einlander
You're about 3 years behind... YouTube now uses h.264 (among other codecs) at up to 1080p resolution.
@Einlander
btw, click this, then click "1080p" and the full-screen button. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K83hME5OKws
Then you'll know what YouTube is capable of these days. If your computer can handle it, anyway.
Any newly-submitted video on YouTube that doesn't look like that is because of the source. YouTube's not the quality bottleneck anymore.
Don't know why engadget picked this particular video, but here's another link of the same vid in 720p although shorter
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-V_Q_k5LQw
@kreatos
That looks a lot more decent, yes.
@kreatos
And this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8todlcvu9E4
Engadget...you already know that your readership is prone to knee jerk reactions (see the guys above) so why not be a little more careful?
Not only is this video not a fair representation of the phone it seems a fair few of these tech fans have never heard of micro SD or expandable memory at all.
@kreatos Because that was the only vid we spotted when writing up the post. Added the other one. Thanks.
@Tes Since I am defensive, just kidding, though I know I am one of the main ones talking about that. It's literally a tax that makes the phone more expensive in order to serve it's main quality. IMVHO, it's like complaining about Archos not having codec support and charging premiums when it's trying to be a *high end* PMP.
A high-end streaming device on a phone should be able to shoot better quality videos than this for content creation and to be able to store them and whatever content you consumer. Otherwise, it'll be that much harder to overcome the fail.
Since your critical of those who are critical of Engadget and those who don't like the storage, let me ask you, do you find this a compelling device? I think fixing these two shortcomings makes it a very compelling device. That's why I've said what I've said. I think having 18GB with a measly class 2 card for the price that this phone will command without being better than the competition is a niche, anything higher in storage or card class is a waste of money.
So is this coming over onto this side of the Pacific, and if so what carrier??
Pretty sh*tty of Engadget to throw up that horribly compressed vid as an example. Needs to be edited.
@FreakNasty Look at the source. That's still the only video they're showing.
@TimStevens
the 720p version isn't much better. N95 had better quality at VGA.
the two 720p videos look more like 848x480 panasonic camera quality. Lets hope the HTC Desire's forthcoming 720p firmware addition and apple's 720p videos look alot better than this as the video is watchable, but it would be misleading to write 720p or HD on the phone.
@hajj3
its not misleading. 720p and HD are terms to describe resolutions, not image quality. That is why Nokia has called their previous video capture quality "DVD quality", which best described what a user could expect.
Consumers will have to learn that HD is a resolution, not a quality rating. This example is lesson number one. Not all HD looks good.
haha.. this is laughable compared to the EVO.. BUT IT WOULD BE a perfect device for my grandma.
Just so you morons know, the BOTTOM video is the one that is available in 720p...you will have to manually get the 720p stream by clicking the resolution button -- also, YouTube compresses videos after they are uploaded, no matter what resolution they're in, so the bitrate WILL go down. But -- overall, the i8910 had 720p video last year, and it was and is a hell of a lot better than this.
www.batista70phone.com
There was a link to download directly the video by megaupload, it is down ... Sad :( The original video probably have a better quality than the one in youtube
I like the green leaf on the screen...
I couldn't care less about video quality. Take cameras off phones so I can watch live performances by my favourite bands on youtube and not have som shakey cameraphone (with horrible sound) footage show and and ruin it all.
@polter If Noah from phone dog test it like htc evo, it could be a greater and better demonstration for the camera ( with a final software )
Checking the youtube links in the comments, it's not horrible, no, but neither is it particularly good and, most importantly: the quality just isn't there to justify all those extra pixels. "720HD" is just a badge and more bandwidth.
:D