The Iconia Smart is a very larger phone and is so large that, at times, it is hard to tell if it is a large phone or a small tablet. With a 4.8″ screen the Iconia Smart is only marginally smaller than the Dell Streak 5 that fell into the latter category of devices, but by rights should be understood as a phone. As can probably be imagined the larger screen has some benefits while having other drawbacks, most noticeably with carrying it about on your person.

The larger screen makes the Iconia Smart more ideal for viewing movies than smaller smartphone devices, and indeed even general web browsing is significantly improved with a roomier interface. The Iconia Smart comes with Google Android 2.3 Gingerbread installed with all the software and performance tweaks that come with it, and also runs with Acer UI 4.2 on top.

The 4.8″ screen is capacitive so it comes with multitouch input gestures supported, and also has one of the largest resolutions found on any smartphone at 480 x 1024. The Iconia also features a number of sensors including a proximity sensor and an accelerometer for autorotation of the interface, as well as one of the all new gyro sensors for multidirectional controls.

The Iconia Smart comes with some high speed connectivity options to aid in all forms of web and messaging features. This includes high speed HSPA connections as well Wi-Fi with DLNA and Wi-Fi Direct. These both provide you with more ways to connect the Iconia Smart to other devices, including home TVs. In this way you can enjoy videos from the Iconia Smart on a larger screen in the comfort of your living room.

There are plenty of great multimedia features to put this to good use with. The media player on board comes with a wide range of support for music and video, and there is also an additional HDMI port to provide another means of hooking up your TV. The Iconia Smart comes with up to 40GB storage with microSD cards, and as well as offline entertainment you can enjoy online video with YouTube and Adobe Flash support.

The Iconia Smart comes with some great touchscreen games available, with many more available from Android Market. Here you can get hold of many apps to further enhance the phone. On top of this the Iconia Smart comes with a very high quality 8 megapixel camera that features 720p video recording, and photos can be easily uploaded to share online either through Facebook or Picasa. The Iconia Smart also features a secondary 2 megapixel camera that can be used for video calling.

The Iconia Smart offers a great range of features in terms of entertainment and messaging. It is superb for all forms of online activity and the large screen makes it ideal for games and videos. While packing a powerful smartphone punch the only thing that may deter some people from this phone is the large screen which some people may find too big for comfort, although others may find that it is just what they are looking for in a mobile device.

Editor’s Note: You can buy this phone from our UK partner site, Best Mobile Contracts