While Acer are a relatively new company to world of mobile phones, traditionally being involved in the manufacture of laptops and home computers, they did score an early success with their Liquid handset. This certainly stood head and shoulders above Acer´s other, rather non-descript and unimposing, handsets. Acer followed up with a slightly modified and improved version some time later known as the Liquid E, which featured some hardware tweaks and an upgrade to the (then) latest version of Google Android.
Now Acer has yet again unleashed a revamped model of their flagship device, although the Liquid Metal seems to offer greater improvements from the Liquid E than the Liquid E did from the original Liquid. The new Liquid Metal has also seen an update to the (at present) latest version of Google Android, with 2.2 Froyo being put to good use. This is also coupled with an upgrade for Acer´s user interface which has seen a jump from version 3.0 to 4.0.
The screen has seen some slight tweaks although it has not had a complete overhaul. It still uses the same capacitive TFT technology, and offers the same 800 x 480 pixel resolution, but at the same time has an increased colour depth and increase in physical size by 0.1″ to 3.6″. The increase in colour depth to 16 million colours certainly makes the Liquid Metal more visually spectacular than its predecessors and is a welcomed improvement to compliment the new software on board.
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The processor has also seen a slight update from 768MHz to 800MHz, as this is a feature that remained unchanged from the original Liquid to the Liquid E. RAM has remained the same from the Liquid E at 512MB and internal storage is also set at 512MB with support for 32GB microSD cards. The media player still offers exceptional music and video playback for you to put this to good use, and as well as this there are apps for YouTube and Picasa among many others. The camera remains virtually the same as the Liquid E although it has undergone a much welcomed improvement in the form of 720p HD video support (the Liquid E only supported a low frame rate VGA video capture).
Connectivity-wise the Liquid Metal still performs exceptionally well with GPRS, EDGE, Wi-Fi , Bluetooth and microUSB all on board. 3G is also present and the HSDPA connection speed has been doubled from 7.2Mbps to 14.4Mbps offering significant improvements although the HSUPA speed has remained the same. As an Android phone the Liquid Metal comes with a host of great Google features to enjoy including Google Maps, Gmail, Google Talk and YouTube. There are also document editors for MS Office files and a PDF viewer present.
The Liquid Metal is not a drastically different handset to the Liquid and Liquid E and is essentially an updated version of these earlier phones. There are some noticeable upgrades in certain areas, including the processor, camera, 3G connection and operating system while many other areas of the phone remain unchanged. The Acer Liquid Metal is an exceptional phone by all accounts but may feel very familiar to owners of either of the original Liquid handsets.
Editor’s Note: You can buy this phone via our UK partner, UK Best Mobile Contracts.