The Acer Liquid Metal has been released into the market for a while now, the current price tag attached to it is $102.33, which makes it fall into the category of Motorola and Samsung devices. Good job Acer!
Technical Specifications:
- OS: Android 2.2, Acer Breeze
- Processor: Qualcomm MSM 7230-1, 800 MHz HSDPA / HSUPA
- Memory: 512MB RAM/ROM
- Screen size & Resolution: 3.6-inch, WVGA TFT screen
- Camera: 5.0 Megapixel with auto focus
- Connectivity: Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n
- Dimensions: 115x63x13.5 mm
- Weight: 135 g (with battery)
Pros:
A second microphone at the back of the phone near the camera is for noise cancelling. Consequently, call clarity is better than other Android phones in this price segment. Along the top of the device are a few notification indicators that flash through the reflective plastic, which can be easily seen whilst in the case.
Underneath the battery cover are several metal contacts that align with the metal of the back panel for boosting the antenna.
Battery life on the Acer is excellent; one can get through the day without recharging the phone. And, that’s with regular web browsing, Twitter updates, emails and phone calls.
Cons:
The screen is convex, making it difficult to touch the right option. The built in software keyboard requires more hardwork. Swiftkey’s error correction made it a lot more usable but still not perfect.
The large bezel made the screen feel a lot smaller in use compared to other similar sized screens.
With only 512 MB, Internal memory is a problem. After weeks of installing applications, you have to start thinking which ones to keep.
The camera uses the standard Android camera app, and does not take detailed shots as compared to other 5mp cameras.
Dual Operating Systems:
The phone supports dual OS- Acer Breeze and Stock Android Interface. Let us look at both of them.
Acer Breeze Interface is an applied skin to Android OS, similar to other OEMs like Motorola, Samsung and HTC. You begin with the lock screen; it has five pages each, that you can swipe from left to right. Here you add widgets as well, the middle page has a clock, weather and unread message notifications and you can add any other widgets you may have installed to the other four pages. To interact with these widgets you tap on the widget and swipe up on the popup. To unlock you have a nice animation of turning the page in a book.
The homescreen has the notification bar, eight shortcuts and no app draw button. However, if you swipe left to right atop the screen you obtain large thumbnail views of previously used programs. Swipe from right to left and you get a multi media view to access your photos, music and videos. If you swipe up from the bottom of the screen to the top the app drawer opens. You also get nice popup bubbles on the notification bar allowing you to control connections, messages and alarms.
Stock Android Interface
To use Android 2.2, turn off the Acer Breeze via Settings> Applications> User interface> and pick Android UI. The home screen reboots to Android UI, and you get five homescreens that you can fill with any installed widgets and shortcuts.
Conclusion:
The Acer Liquid Metal is a great device for the money. The Acer is easily rootable, has an active community creating ROMs for it. An official Gingerbread ROM was leaked recently, and we know for sure, Acer device will support it. If Acer can concentrate of rectifying the keyboard and perhaps changing the shape of the screen then it’s a delightful phone. I could play Angry Birds without any glitches and installed embed videos and Flash, and to my surprise it worked well.
So if you’re looking for a basic device that will not disturb your budget, yet offer you several cool applications, then Acer Liquid Metal is for you.
