Acer Liquid E700 Review

Last year was quite an exciting year for the Indian smartphone market, especially in the overcrowded budget phone category. We saw some top-notch devices coming from domestic as well as International manufacturers packed with relatively high-end specs at an attractive price. Manufacturers are constantly trying to invent new ways to create demand for their product by offering something unique. Taiwanese manufacturer Acer has tried to do something similar and have forayed into the Indian smartphone market after a long break with the launch of their triple-SIM phone the Acer Liquid E700.

The company known for making quality laptops has launched two new smartphones in its Liquid Range of handsets. While the Liquid Jade is a mid-range offering at Rs.16,999, the Liquid E700 is a budget phone, and the one, we’ll be reviewing, is priced at Rs.11,999.

The E700 comes with a good specs which include a hefty 3500mAh battery. The phone does seem like a great budget phone on paper but has it got enough to make its mark. The phone has something unique to offer geared towards frequent travelers. It is a quad-band phone, implying you’ll be able to use it anywhere in the world where there is support for GSM. It faces some stiff competition from the likes of the hot favourite Moto G (2nd Gen) while there are also other worthy contenders such as Xiaomi, Asus, Xolo, Lava and Huawei.

HARDWARE

In terms of hardware, the E700 packs a decent set of specs at least on paper. It sports a mid-range Quad-core chipset from MediaTek bundled with a hefty 2GB of RAM, a lush bright 5-inch HD screen. Check out the key specs below:

BUILD QUALITY AND DESIGN

The Acer Liquid E700 does not appear to be like any other budget smartphone one would come across. It has a curved top and bottom edge along with fine contours along the display, giving it a niche distinct look.

The front of the phone is largely covered by the display, with physical capacitive touch buttons placed below the screen while there are two front grills reminiscent of HTC’s recent phones. The right edge of the phone houses the volume rocker keys along with a micro-USB port, while on the top edge rests the 3.5 mm jack along with the power key.

Meanwhile, the back of the phone sports a soft black matte plastic finish offering better grip with a soft feel. The back also houses the primary camera unit bundled with flash along with an additional button which can be assigned a function. The back of the phone is removable which reveals the three SIM slots along with the microSD slots, with the battery unit embedded within the phone.

Hence, the overall look and feel of the phone is relatively good with precise cutouts made for camera units and flash. It sports a nice form factor with an ergonomic design making it apt for one handed usage. Despite featuring a heavy battery unit, the phone feels relatively light weight.

DISPLAY AND MULTIMEDIA

An HD IPS display is the standard norm these days, and the Acer Liquid E700 sports a 5-inch HD IPS capacitive touchscreen with a resolution of 1280×720 pixels. The same display is also found on the Moto G 2nd Gen along with the Asus ZenFone 5.

The 5-inch screen does the job quite handsomely rendering good colour saturation with crisp viewing angles. Visibility is top notch both indoors as well as outdoors owing to the bright screen.

Meanwhile, the phone is perfectly suited for multimedia consumption. The 720p screen can take care of all your multimedia needs. Even Full HD videos can be rendered easily and run quite smooth without any noticeable jitters. In addition, the front facing speakers pack enough punch, though at times gets distorted which is quite common in this category of phones.

ANDROID & UI

Acer Liquid E700 runs the Android 4.4.2 KitKat with the company’s Liquid Float UI on top. The Float UI brings in a whole new look and feel with its flashy icons and transparent shortcuts. Even the drop-down menu appears a bit different. The UI needs some time getting used to.

Once you’re a bit used to the UI, it offers new and unique ways to multitask. The Float app interface displays several apps and widgets at the same time. These apps come in very handy when you need to take note of something quickly. In addition, Acer has pre-installed a few apps including its Cloud-based Office suite, Polaris Office 5, Acer Snapnote and more.

Overall, the UI is quite snappy and smooth giving a seamless response to swipe and touch. The only weak link with the UI would be excessive bloatware that makes the home screen appear very cluttered. Acer would have been better off had they kept things simple.

PERFORMANCE & GAMING

The smartphone sports a quad-core Mediatek Soc clocked at 1.3Ghz bundled with an ARM Mali-400 MP2 graphics chip. This is further bolstered by a hefty 2GB RAM that enhances the overall performance of the phone.

The phone offers hassle free multitasking. It switches from one app to other in time. Meanwhile, it can even run high-end titles like Asphalt 8 and Modern Combat 5. Even at fully cranked up settings, the device was able to render satisfactory frame rates.

Coming to its benchmark scores, the Acer Liquid 700 fared some average scores, have a look at the benchmark scores of this device along with its competitors below:

CAMERA

The Acer Liquid E700 comes with an 8 MP rear camera with LED flash along with a 2 MP front-facing snapper. Meanwhile, the camera app on the E700 gives users a lot of options to fiddle around. Users can manually set the ISO and Exposure settings along with the white balance. Though the image quality is not as satisfying as one would want. There are better options in the same price range that render much better quality pictures.

Outdoors shots are fairly decent, especially the macro shots which come out fairly well rendered with good colour saturation and clarity. Though indoor shots appear a tad grainy and lack the finer details with noise clearly evident, while low light images are plain bad appearing washed out and dulled.

Here are some camera samples for your viewing:

In addition, when you tap the screen for adjusting the focus, you are presented with a circle that can get annoying at times especially when you need to capture something in an instant. The shutter speed appears relatively sluggish; the only striking feature of the camera is its camera app.

The phone is capable of recording 1080 p but as you would from a phone in the given price range, videos appear to be grainy and shaky.

The front has a 2MP snapper which can manage just about average selfies, so hardcore selfie lovers should stay away from this marketing gimmick as Acer touts it as a ‘selfie phone’.

PHONES, NETWORKS AND BATTERY

The network connectivity is pretty top notch; all three SIM slots get good signal strength whether indoors or outdoors and voice quality is pretty crisp. All the three SIM slots support 3G, but can be used for only one SIM at a time. Other connectivity features include 3G, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth v4.0 with A2DP and GPS. It also has support for USB on-the-go (OTG) support as well.

Additionally, the phone sports a 3500 mAh non-removable battery which the company claims  provides upto 60 days of standby, 24 hours of talk time and 800 hours of standby time.

The 3500 mAh battery can easily suffice a day of heavy usage without the need for charging. Meanwhile, in our battery test the phone was able to give over five plus hours of battery life.

All in all, the 3500 mAh battery can easily last a day of intense usage.

CONCLUSION

The Acer Liquid E700 is a decent all round performer given the price tag. It has a bright 5 inch IPS screen that is pretty amazing, a good overall design and build quality, along with a massive 3500 mAh battery. In addition, it has a few nifty features like triple SIM support which can be customised as per your needs ( data, roaming and calls) along with the Acer Rapid button makes it good overall buy.

Its camera performance is below par and the overall UI experience is not that great. There are better options available in the given price bracket including Xolo Omega 5.0 or even the Yu Yureka. If the battery is your main priority, there are smartphones that have a slight edge over the Acer E700 in terms of overall performance like the Iris Fuel 60 or the Gionee Marathon M3.

In our opinion, the Acer E700 Liquid is just another smartphone launch and doesn’t leave a lasting impression.