Acer's PDA strategy sees it releasing both Palm and Pocket PC based PDAs. Does the fence-straddling strategy pay off in the final products? Read our Australian review.

If you're going to put new products into a market that's already crowded and leaves consumers confused by all the options, you'd better have something pretty exciting to show for it. Handheld manufacturers usually get fairly religious about operating systems, which is why it's interesting to see Acer has one foot planted firmly on each side of the fence. Acer has two models that run Palm OS - the s50 and s60 - and two models running Pocket PC 2002 - the n20 and n20w. We took a look at the n20 and the s50.

The entire range features in common brushed aluminium casings, clear and bright colour TFT displays, and Memory Stick slots. It is curious that although Acer offers a choice of operating system, it has chosen a proprietary expansion interface, rather than the more common choices of SD or CompactFlash. An expansion sleeve that accepts PCMCIA and CompactFlash cards is available for the Windows-based n series.

The n series has a 400MHz XScale processor, 64MB of memory and 32MB of flash ROM. It has the more recent version of Pocket PC 2002 (2002½?), which features mostly cosmetic improvements over the original 2002 OS. The only difference between the two models is the n20w has a built-in 802.11b wireless system, and costs more as a result. The n20 (AU$999) looks suspiciously like Toshiba's e310 (AU$849), though the specs are closer to the soon-to-be-released e330 (AU$899). If a faster processor is important to you, or you just can't wait for the e330, the Acer may be worth the extra AU$100.

The side-mounted stylus certainly looks cool, but slotting it in can be a bit fiddly. One presumes you would get the hang of it with practice. The battery is rated for a fairly standard eight hours.

The s series handhelds run Palm OS 4.5, and have audio recording and playback features. The s60 has a headphone jack, while s50 users have to make do with a tinny internal speaker. Both have 33MHz DragonBall processors, 16MB of RAM and 4MB of flash ROM. At AU$599, the s50 is very reasonably priced, significantly cheaper than the Palm m515, and cheaper and less clunky than Sony's Clié PEGSJ30G. At that price, you'll have to do without a cradle -- just a cable to connect to your PC. The s50 also lack the Clié's handy side scrolling wheel.

Acer claims the s series has a resolution of 320 x 320, like the Clié', but it's set by default to 160 x 160. There's no obvious way of switching to the higher resolution, either using the blunder-about-until-you-find-something method, or by checking the manual, although the manual is very good for absolute beginners.

Attempting to address concerns about the reliability of Pocket PCs, particularly after Toshiba's recent recall of the e740, Acer is offering an instant exchange service guarantee--if there's anything wrong with it, take it in and get it replaced immediately. A wise plan under the circumstances.

So, has Acer hit the mark? The Palm OS-based s50 provides an intriguing new option at a good price. However, Pocket PC lovers can find better deals elsewhere.

Acer n20 and s50
Company: Acer Australia
Price: n20 AU$999, s50 AU$599
Phone: 1300 366 567

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