Hands-On: Acer CloudMobile S500

Most Android players right now are focused on their flagship devices but what about those seeking for something in the middle? Now we have the Acer CloudMobile S500 which is a capable contender in the mid-spec range that’s priced at RM1,299. It is powered with a respectable dual-core 1.5GHz Qualcomm S4 processor and 1GB of RAM. On board there’s 8GB storage but it is expandable with microSD. The biggest highlight is its 4.3″ IPS display which pushes a rather high resolution 1280×720 pixels. This gives a rather high density of 342ppi which is even higher than the iPhone 5 or the Galaxy S III.

Design wise, it feels rather compact in the hands and it does feel like a smaller 4″ device. The appearance looks different from the usual all black design and the S500 stands out with its curved upper and lower ends which is wrapped with a nice textured plastic back cover. Operating the S500 is rather smooth thanks to its plain vanilla Android without any of those heavy customised skins. However it isn’t that all bare as Acer has added some nice touches such as a customised pull down notification bar which offers quick access to setting toggles and alarm. Acer is no slouch when it comes to software updates as the S500 is currently running on a recent Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean.

In the photography segment, it comes with a 8MP shooter that is capable of shooting 10 frames per second while the front facing 0.7MP camera is capable of shooting 720p videos. Over at the back, the S500 also comes with NFC capability where you can beam contacts and files across seamlessly. The Achilles heel of the S500 would be the battery which is a rather small 1,460mAh that lasts about 10 hours in our heavy usage. For moderate users, you might be able to get more hours and there’s also a power saving mode to stretch that even furhter.

Watch the hands-on video above. We will be posting a full review shortly.