Acer Unveils Iconia Smart Handheld Device At MWC 2011

Acer on Monday at Mobile World Congress 2011 in Barcelona showcased its new Android-based Acer Iconia Smart mobile device.

Acer's Iconia Smart combines tablet-like capabilities on a smartphone form factor, with a 4.8-inch widescreen offering 1024480 pixel resolution and a 21:9 aspect ratio. Powered by a 1-GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, Iconia runs the Android 2.3 version of Google's mobile platform, code-named Gingerbread.

Acer's new handset comes in a candy bar form factor with a smoothly curved back and measures just 64.5 mm in width. Customers will be able to wirelessly control multimedia content using Acer's clear.fi media sharing system, which is integrated into the Iconia Smart's software.

The Iconia Smart also allows users to browse multiple Flash-based Web sites without resizing or adjusting the view, and connect the device to an HDTV via either DLNA or standard HDMI outputs.

Acer's Iconia Smart features an 8 megapixel, rear-facing camera with LED flash and a 2-megapixel front-facing camera. The device supports 720p HD video recording at 30 frames per second and includes Dolby Mobile Sound technology.

Acer's Iconia Smart comes with 512 MB of RAM, 8GB of on-board flash storage, and a MicroSD card slot featuring up to 32 GB of memory. Acer says the Iconia Smart offers up to eight hours of talk time. It also features a gyroscope, an accelerometer, built-in Bluetooth 2.1 and Wi-Fi with support for up to 14.4 Mbps HSDPA.

The Iconia Smart, although technically a smartphone, reflects Acer's interest in the emerging tablet category. Acer last month said it is preparing a seven-inch tablet and a 10-inch tablet for release in the first half of this year, both of which will be powered by Intel's Sandy Bridge integrated graphics processors, and an Acer executive said Acer could stop producing netbooks altogether in favor of more tablet models as escalating tablet sales continue to fuel concerns of cross-category cannibalization.

Acer's Iconia Smart is one of many upcoming mobile devices running the Android mobile OS on display at CES 2011, including smartphones as well as tablets. Distributors are now ramping up their initiatives to support Google Android-related products and solutions, according to executives, and many would like channel resellers to do the same.

Acer did not offer details regarding pricing and availability in the U.S. for the Iconia Smart device.