AcerCloudmobile
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Acer CloudMobile available in the UK at long last, is priced at £290
Acer's sleek CloudMobile smartphone was slated to launch on September 5th in the United Kingdom, but unexpected delays caused the handset to be MIA for nearly a month. Today, however, the first-class, 4.3-inch device looks to finally be ready for UK prime time -- and, unlike in some cases, here it's still running Android behind that 720p, IPS display and the 1.5GHz, dual-core CPU. The Acer CloudMobile's priced at £290 (about $470) SIM-free, and retailers such as the one linked below appear to be taking orders as we speak. Better late than never, right?
Acer CloudMobile moves to China, dumps Android for Aliyun
Acer's CloudMobile (A800) has quietly slipped on its September 5th release date in the UK and headed East, where it's swapped its Android front-end for Alibaba's Aliyun OS. The dual-core handset will be released in China this Friday for ¥2,999 (approximately $474), making it the most expensive in the country -- according to the Wall Street Journal. Acer has reportedly chosen the fledgling, cloud-based OS for its Chinese customers because of the easy user experience, especially for smartphone first-timers. The company seems committed to exploring Aliyun in follow-up devices also, with one planned for release next month and more coming in 2013. Meanwhile, the flagship has yet to receive a dollar price or release date at Expansys, which doesn't suggest imminent availability of the Ice Cream Sandwich variant. Unfortunately, we'll probably never see Aliyun make it outside of China and into our eager hands... not without dropping some serious cash on an import, anyway.
AcerCloud blows into Europe, bringing remote access to your (Acer) laptop
We took a good look at the AcerCloud service early this year and its companion Android handset, the award-winning CloudMobile phone. Now, Acer has launched a beta service in Europe, so buyers of the company's new laptops and desktop machines over there will be able to try it out for themselves. To get it working, you can install the portal app onto your Android device and Acer PC, allowing you to download images and other files between the pair. You can also send files back to your computer for backup, expanding the storage of your smartphone or slate through your own mini-cloud. Everything will be synced through the service, which will store the data if your home machine isn't fired up -- and transfer everything when it's alive again. There's no word on when users will be able to partake stateside, but if you're across the pond, hit the source link for the mobile app.
Acer CloudMobile now available for pre-order in the UK, expected to be released on September 5th
Acer took the gadget world by surprise with its award-winning CloudMobile handset, and now it looks like the company's finally ready to let consumers get their eager palms on that 4.3-inch, 720p slab. Per online retailer Expansys, Acer's CloudMobile will be released in the United Kingdom on September 5th, with the site already taking pre-orders for the SIM-free smartphone at £285 -- or about $447 in Yankee currency. Speaking of which, Expansys' also taking early orders for the unlocked device on its US site, though it's not listing a specific release date or even pricing info on that front. At any rate, parties interested can check out our hands-on, and see if it's enough to get you to shell out some cash.
Mobile World Congress 2012: smartphone roundup
Mobile World Congress is a dignified affair held yearly in Barcelona that companies take very seriously. For example, unlike CES, there are lots and lots of suits -- after all, this is a congress. Here, some of the most unique and desirable handsets meet the eyes of press, analysts and buyers for the very first time. Accordingly, anxieties were high among company leaders as they put their best foot forward and held their breath for the first round of impressions. This year's show has been a wild ride, and we've seen many devices stretch the boundaries of our imagination. There were more than a few stunners, and as the dust settles, companies such as HTC, Nokia, LG, Huawei and Asus can all hold their heads high. Join us after the break as we reminisce the most notable smartphones from Mobile World Congress.
More specs of the Acer CloudMobile revealed, we take a second look (video)
We can't say it was necessarily love at first sight, but a second passover certainly helped our heart grow fonder. In our first hands-on of the Acer CloudMobile, a phone with a product design award under its belt, we weren't completely convinced that it was worthy of such a prize. However, we were given the opportunity to spend a significant amount of time with the device and previously unknown specs to go along with it. Here's what we discovered during our reacquaintance.%Gallery-149040%
Acer CloudMobile hands-on at MWC 2012 (video)
Tucked away in the dark corners of the Google booth at Mobile World Congress, amidst several miniature hubs inhabited by all types of various companies, is a stand dedicated to all things Acer. Included as part of the selection was the CloudMobile, the proud owner of a coveted iF Product Design award. So were we that impressed by its trophy-winning feature? Yes and no. It's not tough on the eyes by any stretch of the imagination, especially given its fancy textured back and curvacious construct, but we have a difficult time declaring this to feature the best design of the show, nor is it necessarily much of a ground-breaker. The build quality itself doesn't quite hold a candle to what you'll experience on something like the ceramic-like aluminum treatment used on the HTC One S, but yet doesn't feel like it will smash into a million pieces if we give it the 'ol heave-ho.But perhaps the CloudMobile earned the honors by producing a respectable internal design: it offers a 1.5GHz dual-core Snapdragon chipset and 4.3-inch 720p HD display, for instance, and that panel is absolutely stunning with great viewing angles. We weren't allowed to view any part of the OS beyond the lock and a couple home screens, no doubt due to the model's pre-production firmware, so we'll need to leave our impressions of the UI for another time. From what we can tell, it will definitely be offering a customized skin, though it's unclear to what extent that will shine through in the final production version, still due to come out sometime in Q3. For now, enjoy the images and video underneath.
Acer CloudMobile phone wins design award, lets cat out of the bag
Sometimes, you're just so darn full of pride you can get lost in the moment. We assume that's what Acer's done, having revealed possibly its trump handset weeks before the global mobile event, MWC, even starts. Its CloudMobile has won the iF design award for 2012, and the company just wanted everyone to know. So what can we expect to see later this month? Well, the phone will pack a 4.3-inch high-definition touchscreen, with a Dolby-branded speaker plate on the back, all wrapped in a sub-10mm "Sleeve DNA" contoured shell. Expect the device to be tightly integrated with Acer's cloud technology -- we grabbed a hands-on with this just last month -- using peer-to-peer connectivity to sync pictures, music and other files, while also offering up printer functionality. Pocket-Lint believes we'll see the device running Android 4.0 on arrival -- it's currently posited for a Q3 release. We'll be scouring the show floor for it when Mobile World Congress kicks off in earnest.
