Liquid that's solid gold

AN AFFORDABLE and compact 4G smartphone with good performance for its price range, the Acer Liquid Z530S is powered by the low-cost MediaTek MT6753 64-bit octa-core processor running at 1.3 GHz. Contributing to its good performance is its 3 gigabytes of RAM or working memory. It also comes with 32 GB of storage, which is surprising for this price range of smartphones and runs on the Android 5.1 Lollipop operating system.

It features a 5-inch HD display that uses Zero Air Gap technology, which reduces air between the cover glass and the LCD module thus limiting reflection and improving readability under bright sunlight. The IPS display has 1,280x720 pixels-resolution.

Despite its low cost, the Z530S supports fast 802.11 ac wireless connection and in the test worked fine with my Linksys WRT1200AC router.

The Liquid Z530S has two nano SIM slots and it supports the LTE 4G connection. I tested it on TrueMove H’s LTE network and found the connection speed very fast. My snapshots were backed up to my Microsoft OneDrive cloud storage in no time and the Ookla speed test app reported a download speed of 62.02 Mbps and an upload speed of 21.26 Mbps.

The Z530S has good quality cameras for a mobile phone. Its main and front cameras both have 8-megapixel resolution and the latter boasts an 84-degree wide-angle lens. During the test, I found that the cameras captured good quality shots in most lighting conditions and especially in well-lit environments.

Like many newly released smartphones, the Liquid Z530S supports full high-resolution audio in the FLAC 24bit/192 kHz format. I tested the Hi-Res songs playback with Sony's MDR-1ABT Hi-Res headphones and was impressed by the music quality. The songs had good details and powerful bass.

The smartphone also comes with a large speaker in its back cover. Together with DTS Studio Sound technology, the large speaker lets you share music with friends and was loud and clear during my test. The back cover also has a front cover, which when folded over the screen puts it in standby mode automatically. When you lift the cover, the phone comes out of the standby mode automatically as well.

Acer Liquid Z530S is available in two colour choices – black with golden frame and black with silver frame – and retails for Bt7,990.

 

Key Specs

- Operation System: |Android 5.1 Lollipop

- Networks: 4G LTE: 800/1800/2100/2600 MHz, |3G HSDPA, HSUPA: 850/900/2100 MHz, GSM: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz, 

- Processor: CPU MTK MT6753 Octa-Core 1.3GHz processors (64 bits)

- Memory: RAM 3GB 

- Storage: ROM 32 GB

- Display: 5-inch HD 1,280 x 720 IPS, Zero Air Gap Technology

- Camera: 8MP front/rear |camera LED Flash, |84 degree wide angle

- Audio: DTS Studio Sound 

- Wireless: 802.11ac b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0

- SIM: Dual nano SIM

- Battery: Li-lon 2490 mAh 

- Dimension: |144?70.3?8.9 mm. 

- Weight: 145 grams