Acer A1 Liquid

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Review

The Google Nexus One may have yet to reach these shores (officially, at least), but there are still other Android smartphones to choose from. The A1 Liquid is Acer’s first attempt, but it isn’t the first time we’ve seen this particular handset — unless the near-identical design of the Acer neoTouch Windows Mobile 6.5 smartphone was a mere coincidence, that is.

Nevertheless, the A1 Liquid is a slender and good-looking device. It’s just about the same size as an iPhone 3GS and our model was wrapped in a clean white plastic shell with black plastic top and bottom edges — red and black models are also available. There’s a bit of creak in the case if you squeeze it gently, but the whole thing feels sturdy enough.

The A1 Liquid’s front is finished with a single sheet of toughened glass that blends smoothly with the case. It’s a real fingerprint magnet (no oleophobic coating here), but it completely hides the display when it’s off to create a sheer, black face that looks rather stylish.

Unlike on other Android smartphones, there’s no trackball on the A1 Liquid; just four ‘soft’ buttons below the screen. These have no tactile identification nor tactile response, and only light up for a few seconds when pressed, not before. This makes using the A1 Liquid in the dark a tricky proposition — particularly when you have to press one of the buttons to unlock the device.

A captive plastic cap hides a Mini USB port on the A1 Liquid’s bottom and there’s a 3.5mm stereo headset socket on the top. The volume and camera shutter release buttons are well-placed on the right of the case, but the position of the power button on the left could be better — it’s quite sensitive and easy to press accidentally when using the device.

We couldn’t figure out an elegant way to remove the A1 Liquid’s battery compartment cover and so resorted to using a fingernail to prise it apart from the case until it popped free — clumsy, but at least it’s unlikely to drop off inadvertently. The 1350mAh battery blocks the microSD and SIM card slots, but this isn’t much of an issue unless you’re in the habit of swapping popping these in and out on a regular basis.

The Acer A1 Liquid runs Android 1.6 (‘Donut’) rather than the more recent Android 2.0 and so lacks some of the features found on the Motorola Milestone and Google Nexus One (a 2.0 update is rumoured, but there’s no confirmation from Acer). Unlike other Android smartphone makers, Acer hasn’t opted for any kind of fancy skin and so the A1 Liquid makes do with the relatively simple default UI with just three Home screens for app shortcuts and widgets.

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