Acer Liquid e deals & review

In a word or two

The Acer Liquid e is the successor to the original Acer Liquid and sports a fast processor together with multiple features.

The Design

The Acer Liquid e has a smart design with curved ends and a large screen. To look at, the Liquid e resembles the original Liquid – they are the same size and come in the same choice of black, white or red casing. The dimensions are very close to the iPhone 3G S, making the phone sizeable but comfortable to hold and still portable.

One of the upgrades on the Acer Liquid e is its 5 home screens (compared to just 3 on the first Liquid). Having so many home screens is great if you are an apps fan as you can download apps straight from the Android Market and store them on your handset. This means all your favourite social networking icons, games and features are available for instant access.

The 3.5 inch capacitive screen is quick to react to your fingers, and the accelerometer automatically rotates the screen between portrait and landscape depending on your activity. When you are typing long messages, using the virtual keyboard in landscape is often preferable. And for added ease, the features on the Liquid e can be accessed by sliding the home button upwards from the bottom of the screen. This ensures the home screen looks clutter-free until you want to see all your icons.

Specifications

Run on the Android 2.1 platform, the Acer Liquid e is powered by the same Snapdragon processor (768MHz) as the original Liquid. The handset also shares the same clever LED lighting aspect that the Acer beTouch E400 and Acer neoTouch P400 phones do – the LED light changes colour to reflect the battery status, messages and missed calls so you know from a glance of the handset if you need to action anything. Unlike the other two handsets, the Liquid e has this element located neatly at the top of the frame, next to the audio connector, instead of on the home key beneath the screen.

Over the top of the Android OS is the Acer UI. This means you’ll get all the Acer features – like Acer UrFooz which lets you create your virtual self, Acer Spinlets which is a free streaming music service, and Acer Sync which backs-up your data to an online cloud and a compatible Acer device – as well as the Google features you’d expect.

There is social networking integration onboard the Liquid e including a quick contacts option which lets you switch between the address book and social networking apps like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. This lets you stay up-to-date with friends and the improved keyboard with its extended dictionary for predictive text makes online communication more fun.

Considerations

The 5-megapixel camera inbuilt on the Acer Liquid e comes with autofocus and geo-tagging but no flash; and the music player is not complemented by an FM radio.

Verdict

The Acer Liquid e is a decent handset with a colourful display and a range of features. The upgrades enhance the phone’s user friendliness but could have gone further.