Acer Liquid Metal Review

As a phone the Acer Liquid Metal performed very well. The voices in the earpiece were loud and clear sounding, without hissing. Thanks to the dual noise-cancelling microphones the other party said they could hear our voices clearly, and the traffic noise seems to have been filtered out of the equation. The loudspeaker is punchy as well. The 1500mAh is rated for 8 hours of talk time with 3G connectivity turned on, and 23 days of standby. In reality, you'll be able to eke a day out of the handset, unless you do some heavy lifting.

To wrap it all up, we have to say that with the Acer Liquid Metal is the best handset the Taiwanese have made so far. We really wanted to give it a higher score because of its curved ergonomic design, which makes it comfortable to operate, the slick metallic battery cover, the cool LED notification system, and the great specs for the price.

A few issues, however, chipped away at the initial impressions. The screen we hear is not scratch-resistant (not that we tried that one, but from the looks of it, it appears true), and doesn't have the smudge-repelling coating of many high-end handsets, so you end up with smears all over the screen pretty soon, and have to wipe it often. We can live with that, though, considering the specs and the price point. 

What irked us most, though, was the sub-par quality of the camera. A 5MP shooter, capable of HD video at 30 fps is nothing to sniff at in terms of specs, but the lens quality is below average, and that is visible both in the pictures, and the video samples. We had the same experience with the Acer Stream, so we guess the company hasn't splurged on a more expensive camera module, but preferred to add an LED flash instead, which is weak anyway.

Still, if none of the issues above would bother you on a daily basis, and you don't do much snapping with your smartphone camera, the Acer Liquid Metal will be a very good value for the money. If finger smudges and lousy camera sound like nuisances for you, then we'd say that the price is spot on.

Other alternatives to the Acer Liquid Metal could be the Samsung Wave, or you can pay some more for theNokia N8. In Android land, you might want to go for the HTC Desire Z or T-Mobile G2, which have the same chipset, plus a physical keyboard, but are more expensive. 

PROS

• Speedy second generation Snapdragon chipset
• Very good call quality
• Ergonomic curved design with metallic accents
• Innovative Breeze UI

CONS

• Subpar camera
• Easy to smudge screen