This weekend at Computex Acer treated us with not one, but six new devices – four of them smartphones, one a tablet, and its first ever wearable.
The Liquid Leap is undeniably the most interesting of the bunch. 2014 has seen everybody start to jump on the wearables bandwagon, and Acer has decided to throw its hat into the ring for the first time.
The most striking thing about the Liquid Leap, to us at least, is just how much it looks like the Fitbit Flex. Of course, if you’re going to ape a fitness band you may as well go for the one which holds 50% of the market share. It’s plastic, which reflects its emphasis on fitness, and comes in a variety of colours. It has a 1-inch rectangular display, similar to that of the Samsung Gear Fit, and features synchronised device notifications and music control. There’s also, as could be expected, a variety of fitness trackers – steps, running distance, calories burnt and sleep cycles are all tracked. Acer also claims it will boast an impressive five to seven days of battery life.
The Liquid Leap is set to come bundled with one of Acer’s newly announced smartphones – the Liquid Jade. Whilst it features what are now considered fairly standard specs in the form of Android 4.4 KitKat, a 5-inch display and a 13-megapixel camera, what should really make the device stand out is its curved design. That is, if you can tell that it’s curved. We were a little harsh on the LG G Flex in our review earlier this year for its unnecessary curved design, but at least it was noticeably curved. From what we can tell from the few images available so far, the Liquid Jade seems to be a lot more subtle. As for specifications such as display resolution or processing power, Acer is yet to reveal them.
The Iconia 8 is the latest tablet from the Taiwanese firm. It features, as you may have guessed, an 8-inch display, with a full-HD 1920 x 1200 resolution. Behind that display sits a 1.8GHz quad-core processor, along with Android 4.4 KitKat and Wi-Fi capability (although no 3G or 4G). It’s reasonably slim at 8.5mm of thickness, and extremely light at 360g – that’s less than the iPad Air. It should also get 7.5 hours of battery life during active use, if Acer is to be believed (as always, though, you may want to take that with a pinch of salt).
The Liquid Z200 is Acer’s latest lower-end handset. Whilst very few specifics have actually been revealed, it’s safe to say that with an emphasis on a fun and compact form factor that it will most likely be targeting the budget market. It’s got a 4-inch display, a 2-megapixel camera and comes in a range of bright colours – but it does run Android 4.4 KitKat. It also features ‘Acer Quick Mode’ which allows for easier and more simplified use for the young and the elderly. Incredibly, it’s set to cost just â¬79 (~ £64).
On the opposite end of the spectrum sits the Acer Liquid X1. It’s got an enormous 5.7-inch display, a 1.7GHz octa-core processor with 2GB of RAM and 4G LTE capability. It comes with 16GB of in-built storage and a microSD expansion slot. There’s a 13-megapixel camera on the back, and a 2,700mAh battery inside.
Between the Liquid Z200 and Liquid X1 sit the Liquid E600 and Liquid E700. The Liquid E700 seems to be geared towards the traveller, thanks to triple-SIM capacity and a massive 3,500mAh battery. The Liquid E600 is a run-of-the-mill mid-range 4G device with a 5-inch display and non-descript quad-core processor.
Prices and release dates are still to be announced for all of these devices (Q3 is the estimated launch window) but this is an awful lot of new information to take in all at once – we’ll keep you up to date as soon as Acer reveal more.
