Acer Liquid E1 Review

Introduction

We got a brief hands-on time with the Acer Liquid E1 at the MWC expo not long ago, but now the retail deal made its way into the office, and it marks a foray into the affordable lower mid-range market for Acer.

The Android 4.1 Jelly Bean phone has a few tricks up its sleeve that make it stand out, like stereo speakers with DTS output, as well as a dual SIM version for emerging markets, which is the one we have for review, so read on for all the details...



Design

The Acer Liquid E1 is a fairly light and compact phone, that feels pretty well in the hand, thanks to the soapy shape with tapered back and the rounded corners. It still leaves a tad chunky impression, and the back cover is made of patterned plastic, but is a bit slippery nonetheless.



The rounded frontal shape and red speaker grills remind of HTC's unibody designs, but the Acer Liquid E1 actually sports a removable back cover that reveals a swappable 1760 mAh battery, microSD card slot, and in our unit – two SIM card slots.


The power/lock key up top is painted in red as well, but not the metallic volume rocker on the right, whose tactile feedback leaves something to be desired.


Display

A 540 x 960 pixels 4.5” display of the LCD variety ensures a decent 245ppi pixel density. Colors are well represented, but the TFT panel doesn't have the best viewing angles, and brightness plus contrast diminish quite a bit after the 45 degree mark.

The screen could use a bit more brightness outside under direct sunlight, too, yet it's still on the average side, so you don't have to shade the screen with your palm to see what's going on in broad daylight.