Acer Liquid

Acer Liquid review: Android breed

Introduction

The Android meter is ticking. Acer want a piece of the pie. We all add two and two together. Yesterday, Acer didn't know the first thing about phones (if you can say that for a household name in notebooks), today they're betting on two horses in the mobile OS race. After their neoTouch running on Windows Mobile 6.5, Acer decided to dip their toe into another kind of water - the free and open source world of Android. This time attention goes to the Liquid - the company's second Snapdragon powered device.
We have to admit we weren't as impressed as we wished by the neoTouch and its almost naked Windows Mobile OS. It was less the price and more the really strong competition that drew our attention away from it.

Acer Liquid official photos
We're certain it's not how Acer planned it to be and their answer was immediate - the sexy Liquid powered by Android 1.6. Just like the neoTouch, a Snapdragon core is ticking inside the Liquid and does all it can to run the OS flawlessly despite the slightly lower clock rates.

Key features

• Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE support
• 3G with HSDPA 7.2 Mbps and HSUPA 2Mbps
• Android OS v1.6 with Acer UI 3.0
• 3.5" capacitive touchscreen of WVGA resolution
• Qualcomm Snapdragon 8250 768 MHz CPU, 256 MB RAM
• 5 megapixel autofocus camera with video recording
• Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g and GPS receiver
• Accelerometer sensor for auto-rotate and turn-to-mute
• Digital compass
• Standard miniUSB port for charging and data
• Stereo Bluetooth (A2DP)
• microSD card slot with support for up to 16GB cards (2GB one included)
• Standard 3.5mm audio jack
• Direct access to the official Android Market

Main disadvantages

• Camera lacks flash or lens cover, has outdated features
• No smart dialing, no voice dialing, no video calling
• No web Flash support
• Acer UI 3.0 offers only minor changes to the original interface
• Somewhat limited 3rd party software availability
• No DivX or XviD video support or a third-party application to play that
• Poor MP4 playback performance - any videos over QVGA res are barely watchable
• No proper file manager out of the box
• No TV-out port
• No FM radio

Both lists give us a sense of deja-vu. It was a similar case with the neoTouch, but this time the situation is a bit different. Some of the Liquid's weaknesses are inherent to the Android OS (especially its first iteration, the Donut). It's not that they won't count against, but it's at least fair to note most of those are not Acer's fault.

Acer Liquid live photos
Anyway, the Liquid will be measured against the likes of HTC Magic, HTC Hero, Samsung Galaxy and Samsung Galaxy Spica and it sure has a few things to offer that they won't. WVGA resolution and sky-high processing speeds are enough of an edge against competitors. The excellent capacitive screen and all-round connectivity are perhaps no news for the Android species.
So, Acer are newcomers but they're keen to bring value. Let's see how their Android fits in that plan

Liquid unpacked

Starting with the basics, in the retail box you'll find a charger, data cable and a headset. You can use your favorite headphones of course thanks to the 3.5mm audio jack. The charger connects to the phone's miniUSB port.

Liquid's retail box
The retail box also includes a 2GB microSD memory card, manuals and a CD with manual.

Acer Liquid 360-degree view

The size of the Acer Liquid is quite friendly, it measures 115 x 62.5 x 12.5 mm and weighs in at 135 grams. Tiny it isn't, but the 3.5" touchscreen is a good enough excuse and the best way to prove this is putting it alongside some of the competition. The Liquid is the size of an iPhone and much smaller than the Omnia HD.

Design and construction

The full-touchscreen form factor can be pretty limiting for manufacturers in terms of design and devices are beginning to look more and more alike with very few aesthetic distinctions. While that may be true, Acer have tried to push the envelope more than most others and the result is one very sexy Liquid. The huge touchscreen covers most of the front, while the back is pretty plain. The rounded edges certainly earn it some bonus points.

Acer Liquid • The big screen leaves the Liquid little flexibility but it looks nice next to the competition
The 3.5" capacitive touchscreen unit has a resolution of 800 x 480 pixels and amazing image quality. With its type, size and resolution, you can chalk this one up as 'great' in our books.
As with the XPERIA X10, that 65K-color limitation of the Android 1.6 Donut takes its toll on some occasions, but unless it's single-color gradients that you are looking at, it won't bother you much in day-to-day usage. The default UI graphics by the way have been carefully chosen not to expose this weakness.
The sensitivity of the display is great as well - just what you'd expect in a capacitive touchscreen. You don't need a push but only a slight touch for a click to be registered. The snappy Snapdragon also plays a part as the responsiveness of a device is the screen and processing power in equal measures.
The four keys below the display are touch-sensitive and similar to the capacitive display in that they will react only to your naked fingers. They are comfortable, but unfortunately don't provide any haptic feedback. The left button serves the Home function, next is search, followed by Back and the typical Android contextual Menu.

The typical Android controls are touch-sensitive on the Liquid
Unlike the majority of first-generation Androids, Acer's Android has no dedicated Call and End keys obviously in keeping with the latest Android styling. For that purpose you can use the virtual on-screen keys instead.
The right side of the handset features the camera key and the volume rocker, which also doubles as a zoom control. Those are both painted in silver, comfortable and easy to use.

Camera and volume controls on the right
The left side of Acer Liquid features only the Power/Lock key, also finished in silver.

The Power/screen-lock key is on the left
The top of the Liquid hosts the 3.5mm audio jack and three hidden indicators - battery, messages and missed calls. From time to time, the status LED's blink with a soft white light from beneath the otherwise pitch black glossy plastic. They are very useful and give the Liquid an even more distinguished look.

The interesting top side
At the bottom of the Acer Liquid we find the miniUSB port and the mouthpiece. The connectivity port is covered by a small rubber lid to keep away dust and avoid an unnecessary gap in the otherwise smooth curved surface. Acer went for a miniUSB connectivity port on the Liquid instead of a microUSB one.

The miniUSB port is at the bottom
The back of the handset features the 5 megapixel camera lens and the loudspeaker grill. In addition, there's an Acer logo and a really huge - perhaps unnecessarily - camera class description.

The 5 megapixel camera lens and loudspeaker grill at the rear
Unfortunately, there is no protection for the camera lens, so you should be particularly careful not to scratch it. It's recessed quite a bit but any sharp objects in your pocket might get dangerously close - the Liquid doesn't come with a carrying case in the box.
The microSD card slot is under the rear cover, but you have to remove the battery itself to access it. And that means it's not hot-swappable.

To access the microSD card slot you need to remove the battery - no hot-swap is not so hot
The Acer Liquid is well built. It's all made of plastic but still feels solid in the hand. The white paintjob is quite impressive, with contrasting black front, top and bottom. Despite all that plastic, the Liquid not only feels sturdy but is quite fingerprint resistant too. Only the front panel takes on an increasingly smudgy appearance as the day goes by, but surprisingly not as much as we expected. It seems that Acer are using better glossy plastics than some of the other manufacturers.
The black version will probably prove more popular (and more of a fingerprint magnet), but white is a rare paintjob for phones and it works quite well for the Acer Liquid. White certainly doesn't make the Liquid look slimmer and smaller but it does look hot. And one thing is for sure - it feels really nice to hold.
 
The Acer Liquid held in hand

The Spinlets application

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