Acer launches the world’s first WVGA smartphone using the latest Android 1.6 Operating System (also known as Donut) from Google – the Acer Liquid A1. It is also the world’s first Android smartphone powered by the Qualcomm 8250 Snapdragon processor clocked at 768 MHz. Acer pushes the mobile handset to a higher level of sophistication that combines state-of-the-art mobility with a remarkably fashion-centric ergonomically designed high-end gadget without the high end price. Without counting the Sony Ericsson Xperia 3 yet to be release, the announcement made just a few days back makes the Liquid A1 the most powerful handset on the planet.
High End Features
Thus far, the powerful Snapdragon has been seen only on the TG01 from Toshiba and on the soon to be released HTC HD2 – both running the Window Mobile platform. While HTC is said to be working on an Android phone code named Dragon using the same engine that remains under wraps and won’t be in the market until sometime next year. This gives the Acer Liquid A1 the claim to be the world’s first Android Snapdragon phone.
Technical details are only now surfacing but remain less than complete. From the leaks we’ve seen so far, the hardware features are typical of flagship handsets.
- It is basically a quad band GSM/GPRS/Edge handset and a triband UMTS/3G support for high speed HSDPA/HSUPA data connectivity. Internet surfing and downloading is a breeze and with WiFi 802.11 b/g and Bluetooth with EDR, you get high speed local data transfers.
- It sports a fluid sleek design around a monoblock touchscreen form measuring 115 x 62.5 x 12.5 mm weighing 135 grams which while similar with most other touchscreen phones, it exudes a high fashion charm that defines the mobile handset for the 21st century crowd. It has a 3.5” TFT LCD capacitive touchscreen display with 256k color depth on a Wide-VGA resolution (800 x 480 pixels) dominating the façade. It has an ambient light sensor for automatically adjusting the display brightness, accelerometer for automatic viewing orientation according to the tilt of the handset and the usual proximity sensor to disable the touchscreen when held to you ears in a call.
- Imaging starts with a 5-megapixel autofocus camera with LED flash and geo tagging. It also supports a mere QVGA video recording — about the only mediocre feature on a handset when all the other flagship mobile phones already support VGA video recording. A complete multimedia experience is supported with the usual media players that can play the popular audio and video content formats and Bluetooth 2 with A2DP for wireless stereo headsets, a stereo FM radio and 3.5mm headphone sockets for using your preferred high fidelity headphones.
- Internal memory comes from a 256 MB of RAM and 512 MB of ROM with microSDHC support for up to 32 GB of external memory. Its 1350 mAh battery limits you to just 5 hours of talk time and 400 hours or 14 days of standby time, which is below industry averages.
Stand-out Promise
While much of the features are typical for a flagship handset, the promise of the Acer Liquid A1 entirely rests on the use of a powerful engine and an open operating systems that many tech savvy pundits claim to hold the future for a most engaging mobile phone experience.
The fast engine allows the Liquid to support a more compute-intensive 3D graphics, lending the mobile experience a new level of visual richness and realism never before seen. Its open architecture lends itself nicely to forthcoming phone apps that promise to add more functionality and versatility to the handset. But all in good time. Announced only a few days back, expect the new Acer smartphone to be available in time for the Christmas holidays.
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