Something solid about the Liquid

A dual-SIM smart phone with an impressively large HD screen and an attractive design, the Acer Liquid S1 is also up for grabs at a surprisingly affordable price. 

With a curved top and bottom and a black body edged with silver, the S1 has a sleek and sassy look and despite the generous 5.7-inch screen, it’s quite skinny at 9.6mm thick.

S1 has a good performance thanks to its 1.5 GHz quad-core processor and it runs on Android 4.2 operating system. It has 1 gigabyte of RAM or working memory and 8 GB of storage, which is expandable with a microSD card.

S1 also has a good quality main camera with 8 megapixel resolution. The main camera uses 28-mm focal length lens with f/2.0 aperture and a BSI (backside-illuminated) image sensor so the camera can take good quality shots even in low-light environments.

Its front camera has 2 MP resolution but uses 24-mm focal lens with 88-degree wide angle. That makes it fun to use for self-portraits.

Among the other cool camera features, the S1 allows to take hands-free shots just by saying “cheese!” You can also used 16 FPS continuous shooting to seize those high-action moments.

S1 supports HSPA+ 3G connection of 900/2100 MHz. Since it doesn’t support my TrueMove H 850 MHz HSPA+ account, I tested it mostly on a Wi-Fi connection and found that it performed smoothly. HD video clips on Acer’s HD Channel and YouTube ran smoothly and the 1280x720 pixel screen was good for watching video as well as viewing photos.

Although it has just 1 GB of RAM, it supports multitasking using Acer’s special user interface, called Float UI. You can activate the Float UI by pressing and holding the touch button on the bottom right corner of the screen. That gives you the option to activate Acer Float Maps, Notes, Camera and Calculator. Each of these four apps can be floated on one another and can be resized and move around the screen. There is also Float caller app that will pop up a mini window to alert you of incoming calls without leaving your existing screen mode.

The dual SIM function of S1 is easy to mange. You can set one SIM to be used for data connection and the other for voice calls. You can also set a SIM for text messaging. Or you can have the phone ask your which SIM to use each time you want to send SMS message or make a voice call.

You can use S1 as a mobile office by using AcerCloud Docs and AcerCloud Remote Files to store and access your Office documents.

Another nice app on S1 is Live Screen. This allows you and your friends to collaborate while viewing each other’s photos, scribbles and writing through the app.

S1 also functions as a good quality music player with the built-in DTS Studio Sound technology.

Acer Liquid S1 retails for Bt11,990.

 

Key specs

_ Operating system: Android 4.2

_ Network: HSPA+ / WCDMA: 900 / 2100 MHz,  GSM / GPRS / EDGE: 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 MHz

_ Processor: Quad-core 1.5 GHz

_ Memory: 1 GB

_ Storage: 8 GB, expandable with microSD card

_ Display: 5.7 inch, HD 720p (1280 x 720), 257 PPI Zero Air Gap

_ Main camera: 8 MP auto focus, f2.0, 28 mm lens, BSI sensor, LED Flash 1080p video recording

_ Front camera: 2 MP, f2.2, 24 mm lens, 88-degree wide angle, BSI sensor 720p video recording

_ Battery: 2400 mAh, replaceable Li-polymer battery; Talk time: up to 11 hours; Standby time: up to 450 hours

_ Connectivity: Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0 LE, GPS / aGPS, micro SDTM slot, micro USB, 3.5 mm audio jack

_ Sensors: Light sensor, accelerometer, proximity, digital compass

_ Dimensions: 163 x 83 x 9.6 mm

_ Weight: 195 g