E-TEN, soon Acer, with dual-SIM 3.5G smartphone

WELL KNOWN SMARTPHONE outfit E-TEN which is just about to be eaten up by Acer, has launched a couple of new models this round, as expected.

Being a guy hacked off with horrible roaming rip-off charges during my frequent trips around this planet, and having quite a few local numbers around Asia, I was particularly elated to see the new Glofiish DX900 among these gadgets.

From the outside, it is a standard 3.5G HSDPA/GPRS Windows Mobile 6.1 phone with the same VGA screen and size as the old X800 we reviewed here. GPS, WiFi b/g and the front video camera are still there. However, the on board RAM has doubled to 128 MB, and the back photo camera is now an improved 3mp model. And yeah, the design is new and way more polished and shiny.

Most importantly, this is the first truly high end phone I saw with two SIM card slots. Now, when for instance visiting Computex, you can keep your main number's SIM card in one slot and add a Far East Tone or Taiwan Mobile SIM card in the second slot. Make the local calls at a true local price (and receive them for free) while at the same time you can still be accessible at your home cell number - if you want to.

It is always interesting to see how reliable the call send & receive management will be, i.e. ensuring that the right card has priority and so on.

The phone should be out mid summer, just before the Acer acquisition is complete, we guess... µ