Acer Liquid Metal

 The Acer Liquid Metal is a sleek glossy black smartphone. The handset features a curved design, with a hint of metal on the back, although we found this felt a bit plasticky when the phone was being held.

Chunkier than some smartphones at 14mm thick, the Acer is 116mm long, 63mm wide and weighs 135g - dimensions we found just right for fitting in the palm of your hand and comfortable for making calls, sending emails or browsing the web.

The 3.6in, 480x800-pixel touchscreen is responsive to even a light touch. Haptic feedback notified us that our commands had been registered (if you're less keen on this feature it can easily be switched off). Four touch-sensitive buttons on the front take you
to the home screen, go backwards, access the menu and launch the Google Chrome web browser.

When writing emails and text messages, users have a choice of having the on-screen qwerty keyboard being displayed in either portrait or landscape mode, by simply rotating the phone.

Powered by a Qualcomm 800MHz processor, the Acer Liquid Metal was fast to open and load apps, as well as switching between different tasks.

PORTABLE HOTSPOT

Acer's handset runs version 2.2 of the Google Android operating system. As well as being able to turn the phone into a portable Wi-Fi hotspot that can be shared with up to eight devices, Version 2.2 also offers support for Adobe Flash Player 10.1 for smartphones. Once we'd downloaded the free Flash Player from the Android Market it was easy to view sites with embedded Flash content.

All Google Android handsets come with Chrome pre-loaded, and the Acer Liquid Metal is no exception. We had no problem surfing the internet from the device, and pinch-to-zoom means that it's easy to read text-heavy sites.

The handset also features a 5Mp camera. With a little help from smile - and face - detection technology, taking clear and sharp shots is easy. Users will also benefit from a built-in flash and 720p video capture.

As Acer handsets tend to be aimed at business users, Documents to Go is a helpful addition. It ensures Word, Excel, PowerPoint and PDF files can be opened and viewed, although to edit these files from your mobile phone you'll need to download chargeable add-ons from the Android Market.

Alongside this the handset features a number of Acer-specific apps including SocialJogger, which combines your Facebook and Twitter feeds in one place on your home screen, and urFooz that lets you create a virtual 'look-a-like' complete with profile details and bookmarks, to post to your social networks.

The Acer Liquid Metal comes with 512MB of built-in memory, although this can be expanded with a microSD card up to 32GB in Size. Users will also benefit from a music player, the ability to turn the
device into a media server so media content can be shared with others and Dolby Mobile, which claims to offer excellent quality audio when listening to movies and music on the device. We did love the fact you can shake the handset to mute alarms or switch tracks when listening to the music player.

VERDICT

The Acer Liquid Metal is a sleek and functional Android 2.2 smartphone. However, while it's a worthwhile buy for the business-minded users, the handset will also appeal to teenagers and those with a passion for social networking.

Details
 
Price (SIM-free) £300 inc VAT 
Further information mobile.acer.com/en/phones/liquid-mt
Specifications Google Android 2.2 (Froyo); 3.6in, 480x800-pixel screen; 800MHz Qualcomm processor; 5Mp camera; 512MB memory; 3G, HSDPA; 135g; 63x14x116mm