Acer Liquid Jade Review: Slim and Light Mid-Range Smartphone
Acer is best known for its budget-friendly notebooks and tablets. Still, it continues to create a name in the entry-level to mid-range smartphone market as well. Tagged as “Acer’s best smartphone yet”, the Liquid Jade is one of it’s newest devices available in the market, which was announced mid-2014.
Arriving with a price tag of PhP 14,990, which is within the range of a mid-range smartphone, let’s take a look if it has the hardware and features that can take on other smartphones in its league.
What inside the box?
The Acer Liquid Jade is packaged in a small box where the unit and all its basic accessories are included.
Opening the box, you’ll find the smartphone unit along with the USB charger and 3.5-mm headset.
Design
At a glance, the Acer Liquid Jade is memorable of the Samsung Galaxy S3. Both have a simple and neat design with a plastic exterior. The Liquid Jade’s rear is just a little more curved compared with the Galaxy S3. Moreover, there is a conspicuous “Acer” branding at both front and back panels. Still, if just do a quick look, it may be a little tough to tell them apart.
However, with careful inspection, you begin to see the differences. The Liquid Jade has a protruding rear camera and has a circular speaker grill at the back side.Â
Its front speaker grill, which is designed for voice calls, is also more apparent that the Galaxy S3’s.
The Liquid Jade’s protruding camera worries me a bit because it is more susceptible to getting damaged even if you just lay it flat on a smooth surface. To avoid the camera from getting damaged, it is recommended to get a smartphone case if you can.
Another big difference is that the Liquid Jade has a non-removable rear case that houses the non-removable battery unit. It gives it a feel of having a more solid chassis compared to the Galaxy S3’s detachable rear cover and battery unit.
Since the Liquid Jade has a non-removable rear case, it’s memory card and SIM card tray can be found on the left side of the device. Unlike other smartphones where you need a removal pin to open the tray, the phone’s tray can be pulled out by just using one finger.
With its curved design, the 5-inch smartphone has comfortable handling and allows easy one-hand use. Moreover, it is relatively light at only 110g so using it frequently will not quickly strain your hands.
Specs
- Operating system –Â Android OS, v4.4.2 (KitKat)
- Processor –Â quad-core 1.3GHz Mediatek MT6582
- Internal memory –Â 8GB, 1GB RAM
- Display – 5.0-inch, 720 x 1280 pixels, IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen
- Camera –Â 13 MP rear, 4160 x 3120 pixels, autofocus, LED flash; 2 MP front
- Connectivity –Â Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Wi-Fi hotspot, Bluetooth, MicroUSB v2.0
- External memory –Â microSD, up to 32GB
- Battery –Â Li-Ion 2100mAh
- Dimensions –Â 140.5 x 69 x 7.5mm
- Weight –Â 110g
