Acer Liquid Metal

While the Acer Liquid E failed to impress, the Liquid Metal has plenty of attractive features for a mid-range and competitively priced smartphone (RRP £299 SIM-free). With a revamped design, a new and improved interface and bolstered tech specs, it's time to find out just what this Android 2.2 mobile can do and how practical it is to use on a day-to-day basis.

This phone may be metal by name but it's definitely not metal by nature! In fact, the only actual metal used in this phone's casing is the battery compartment cover on the back of the handset. The rest of the casing is made entirely from plastic, with a few metal-effect details that are probably on the tackier side of flashy. That said, for a mid-range handset, the Liquid Metal holds its own and even manages to look reasonably impressive. This is mainly thanks to its slightly curved design, which gives the handset a classy look and makes it pleasant to hold.

The four touch-sensitive buttons under the screen aren't over sensitive, so you shouldn't end up hitting the wrong one by accident.

The overall finish is OK, even if Acer has settled for rather cheap-looking plastics. Plus, there's no sign of a cover for the USB charging port.


The 3.6-inch touchscreen has a resolution of 800 x 480 pixels and is responsive to use. It has decent contrast, although you could hardly say it packs a punch.


On the top of the Liquid Metal, there are the same little notification lights (messages, battery level) that we liked in the original Liquid smartphone. These are a nice touch.

Eight customisable shortcut icons

For social networking, Acer has included the SocialJogger application that centralises information from Facebook and Twitter in real time on one handy page.
 

Reliable virtual keyboard

With Android 2.2 and the 800 MHz Snapdragon 7230 processor, the Acer Liquid Metal is a fairly responsive phone that can load up applications quickly. However, the internal interface could still be smoother.
 

First of all, let's take a look at how this mobile gets on with photos and videos.

The multimedia interface developed by Acer has a pleasing design and is easy to use. However, videos (720p HD) sometimes glitch heavily and photo quality could be better—the shots lack detail and have a red tinge. You'll also have to put up with (or not) the horrible noise the phone makes when it takes a photo.
The battery life is surprisingly decent, as we only had to recharge the phone after almost two full days of use! That's really not bad at all considering that the average battery life for a smartphone is generally just one day (or even less!).