Acer Liquid E smartphone: four weeks together

    For about a month now I have been using the updated version of the popular Acer Liquid smartphone - Acer Liquid E. every day. I could have written about it early, but I really wanted to, firstly, feel all the weaknesses, and, secondly, deal with firmware and software. And now I feel - I'm ready.

    Acer liquid e

    I got a pre-sale sample in my hands, but according to Acer, it is no different from the devices that will appear on shelves in August. However, there are also very few differences from just Liquid - only two pieces.

    Acer liquid e

    Firstly, Liquid E immediately has Android 2.1 Éclair firmware (Acer LiquidE 1.100.09 EMEA GEN1). That is, multitouch and other important attributes of a modern google phone are present by default.

    Secondly, the amount of RAM (RAM) increased from 256 MB to 512 MB.

    Here, in fact, all the changes. The remaining advantages and disadvantages moved to Liquid E from the original in full. Children's illnesses, like a gently creaking case and a very warm charge controller located at the bottom of the case, have not gone away. The processor also remained the same - this is the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8250, and its standard frequency did not exceed 768 MHz, as many dreamed. In general, if you are already familiar with the characteristics and appearance of Acer Liquid, welcome to read on. If not yet, I recommend SeriyLis user post about this, albeit not without flaws, but a very nice device.

    Acer liquid e
    It's funny, but even on the sticker under the battery, the Liquid E is indicated by the familiar S100 index. Are we really going to be distinguished only by production date?

    Yes, I probably would like more improvements, but they should be expected a little later, in other Liquid (they even promised me a metal case!). But you can safely hope that the price of the updated device will be at the level of the original model, and 512 megabytes of memory in a fairly budget smart (I recall, now Acer Liquid costs about 14,000 rubles) - this is not such a trifle. At least you can safely forget about the lack of RAM - no matter how I try, 70-80 MB always remain free.

    Personal impressions

    Prior to Acer Liquid E, I was a staunch iPhone navigator and, in general, did not look. He used his iPhone 3GS, calmly bought in April, and waited until he managed to get cheaper iPhone 4. Android devices, of course, were spinning in his hands, but nothing more. And then it turned out that Acer Liquid E came to me exactly before the trip to my small homeland, to Saratov. I took it with me, inserting a spare SIM card. There was especially nothing to do on the train, and so I decided to study the unfamiliar platform more closely. It’s very bribing that once I entered the login and password in Gmail, I immediately got access to mail, Gtalk, calendars, my account on Youtube and at the same time the database of contacts stored in Gmail. Logged into FaceBook (their application Acer included in the set of standard software), contacts pulled up and from there. Beauty! I understand, that for experienced users of the Android platform all these things are commonplace, but compared to the iPhone, the difference in ease of development is huge. And, alas, not in favor of the iPhone.

    Email clients - that Gmail, that Email - are very convenient. I used to think that better than the iPhone does not happen - but no. Better - no better, but no worse worse ( I wrote it, and poked my nose in the comments in the complete absence of copy-paste in Google Mail. I didn’t use this function myself, but I agree that the flaw is simply unpleasant. Did the first iPhone firmware really teach nothing?). The buttons on the preinstalled keyboard seemed a bit small, but they managed to change it in two counts to torn from HTC - this is also unthinkable by the standards of the iPhone. There, if you don’t like that of the native functionality, either get used to it, or take it, sweetheart, from our awesome platform. And I changed it without connecting to a computer, just downloaded the file, launched it, and voila. I didn’t have enough ICQ - the right client in the Android Market (ICQLive) was instantly found, and I wasn’t even greedy to download it using EDGE (in the same Market I used to find the ES File Explorer file manager).

    Acer liquid e

    By the way, the tenacity of the "liquid" was very pleased: on the lines between stations, the iPhone is constantly losing its network, and I honestly thought that it should be so. But no: Liquid with a SIM card of the same "Megaphone" was offline just a couple of times, and even then it was fixed almost immediately. Very, very helpful. Then, however, it turned out that with the sensitivity of WiFi everything was exactly the opposite: where the iPhone is confidently groping for the network, Liquid - even with an alternative firmware that promises WiFi signal strength - does not see it. Well, everyone has their own shortcomings, and for me personally the sensitivity of the 3G / EDGE module is perhaps more important. To WiFi, if anything, I pick up a netbook.

    Acer Liquid E screen compared to other devices. Top to bottom: Nokia N8 (prototype), Nokia n900, HTC Desire, iPhone 3GS:

    Acer liquid e
    Acer liquid e
    Acer liquid e
    Acer liquid e

    In short, around three in the morning I realized that I just like the platform wildly, and, having arrived in Saratov, I put a local SIM in Liquid E and went only with it, leaving the iPhone at home. I walked and wondered: well, it turns out that it is possible to ensure the convenience and functionality of the iPhone without all these branded Apple troubles. My ten-year-old daughter also liked the device, and especially the Google Maps application. It seems to be the same as in the iPhone, but, apparently, children have their own perception. So then the first time I was faced with how quickly Liquid E can eat a battery, and at the same time with overheating that occurs during intensive work. Having taken a very hot smartphone from my hands, I tried to charge it, but a red exclamation mark appeared on the battery icon, and I had to wait until this whole thing cools down. In fairness, These days in Saratov there was also wild heat, but, as far as I know, Liquids can overheat in a fairly moderate temperature environment. I am inclined to think that it was the problems with heating and heat sink that made it necessary to limit the processor frequency to 768 megahertz instead of the native one for Snapdragon gigahertz. Well and, of course, power consumption: with active use (and with official firmware), a fully charged device in the morning already at 18-19 hours begins to cry and ask for a power outlet. There are two ways: to root the device and install optimized firmware (more on that below), or buy another battery and carry it with you. Although - why or? The combination of both methods is guaranteed to solve the problem of autonomy. that it was precisely the problems with heating and heat sink that made it necessary to limit the processor frequency to 768 megahertz instead of the native one for Snapdragon gigahertz. Well and, of course, power consumption: with active use (and with official firmware), a fully charged device in the morning already at 18-19 hours begins to cry and ask for a power outlet. There are two ways: to root the device and install optimized firmware (more on that below), or buy another battery and carry it with you. Although - why or? The combination of both methods is guaranteed to solve the problem of autonomy. that it was precisely the problems with heating and heat sink that made it necessary to limit the processor frequency to 768 megahertz instead of the native one for Snapdragon gigahertz. Well and, of course, power consumption: with active use (and with official firmware), a fully charged device in the morning already at 18-19 hours begins to cry and ask for a power outlet. There are two ways: to root the device and install optimized firmware (more on that below), or buy another battery and carry it with you. Although - why or? The combination of both methods is guaranteed to solve the problem of autonomy. with active use (and with official firmware) a fully charged device in the morning already at 18-19 hours begins to cry and ask for a power outlet. There are two ways: to root the device and install optimized firmware (more on that below), or buy another battery and carry it with you. Although - why or? The combination of both methods is guaranteed to solve the problem of autonomy. with active use (and with official firmware) a fully charged device in the morning already at 18-19 hours begins to cry and ask for a power outlet. There are two ways: to root the device and install optimized firmware (more on that below), or buy another battery and carry it with you. Although - why or? The combination of both methods is guaranteed to solve the problem of autonomy.

    It’s strange for me to write this, but the discovered disharmony did not kill sympathy for the device. Arriving in Moscow, I started walking with two devices, and very soon I found that all activities, except calls and SMS, smoothly moved to Liquid E. That is, mail, Twitter, IM-clients, mobile Internet surfing, social networks - everything everything is there! And then it became interesting - is this the specific Acer Liquid E smartphone that I like or the Android platform itself?

    I began to watch other google phones. I understand that in my assessments I can hurt someone’s feelings (a smartphone is a very personal thing, I would even say it is intimate), and I apologize in advance.

    HTC Legend - solid, with good recommendations from friends, did not fit because of the screen. Nevertheless, 480x360, like the iPhone, loses noticeably against the background of the Aserovsky 800x480. Plus the AMOLED screen: everything is great in the room, but you can’t figure it out in the sun (Liquid with its TFT-matrix behaves perfectly in the sun). 384 MB of RAM - will be missed.

    HTC Desire - I liked it very much by touch, screen size, and speed. A notable choice of alternative firmware - for me, this is an indicator of the popularity of the device and the interest in it from users. Upset only the behavior of the screen in the sun (AMOLED with all that it implies). The price in the region of 20,000 rubles is a lot, but the device costs its money. True, it makes sense to wait for versions with Super TFT screens that will be available closer to the end of August: the picture is no worse than on AMOLED, and the sun does not fade.

    Samsung i9000 Galaxy S - it didn’t spin for a very long time, but still I can’t get rid of the feeling of a big shiny toy in my hands. It’s gorgeous according to its characteristics, the screen is excellent, it looks notable in the pictures, but in life ... Plus, the device entered the market a little ahead of schedule, and it has enough children's diseases, such as slow work with its own memory and in some places non-Russified pieces in the firmware. And the price in the region of 25, or even 28 thousand per copy, is not very inspiring yet.

    Sony Ericsson X10 alerted by non-standard screen resolution and ugly situation with official firmware. No joke, the owners of the flagship SE are still sitting on Android 1.6 without multi-touch. No, thank you.

    In general, I will not hide, from all that I saw I liked Desire more, but before I went to the store, I decided to experiment with alternative firmware for Liquid, since they were done decently. The amount is comparable to Desire. I got root, made a full copy of the entire contents of the smartphone on a flash drive, and installed three firmware in a row - Xian LiquidE v1, LainSuxem 2.1 and Liquid Community Rom 1.8.

    The first turned out to be very quick, but not very stable. What is at least one of the “claimed” bugs worth? Reboot after selecting “Accounts and sync” in the settings menu. I did not begin to experiment for a long time, I installed the LainSuxem 2.1 touted by many. Upon completion of the firmware, I found myself on a Christmas tree - everything sparkles, shimmers, confetti everywhere, suspiciously cheerful Santa Claus runs around ... No, the authors are great, that they tried to put everything that was possible into the firmware and put their initials in a heap of places (even on “ space "in the virtual keyboard). But, firstly, the home-made utility for setting this magnificence behaves strangely, while the default settings are not perfect. Secondly, the "prettiness" quickly tired me, and a significant part of the software was useless.

    Acer liquid e
    Alternative firmware interface can be changed totally - and more than once. And if you start to shaman yourself ...

    It was sewn on Liquid Community Rom 1.8 and only then calmed down. Normal fast firmware, with a minimum of necessary, generally without prettiness - as you want, you can decorate it yourself. At the same time, there are a lot of subtle settings, if there is nothing to do in the evening, you will dig into them. And also, as befits a decent alternative firmware, LCR 1.8 contains the SetCPU utility, which allows you to very noticeably extend the battery life by adjusting the processor frequency in different situations. So, for some reason, the official firmware makes the processor work at full even when the screen is off, and therefore the battery runs out to almost zero during the night. SetCPU, on the other hand, clocks up to 245 MHz and life is getting better. Yes, and reducing the frequency to achieve a certain level of battery discharge is also an archipolous thing.

    Still, I have to compliment Acer: if you get root on the official firmware and install several utilities, including SetCPU, it is quite suitable for use. I remember that the native E-TEN firmware, from which the Acer smartphone division grew, were not suitable for use as intended without severe modification ...
    This post is a bit long, it's time to round off.

    What I DO NOT like about Acer Liquid E:

    • Case with creaks. This is not observed in all instances, but still quite often.
    • Short battery life. It is small for all “google phones” falling into the hands due to the peculiarities of Android itself (free multitasking happens only in fairy tales), but this does not make it any easier.
    • Heating the bottom of the chassis under load. A bug of designers.
    • Pensive camera without flash. She shoots well, five-megapixel images look good even outside the screen of the device. But the room is very leisurely, and therefore the pictures are often obtained blurry. The flash would fix the situation a little, and in its free time from photographing it could be used as a flashlight. But alas.


    What I like about Acer Liquid E:

    • A convenient platform with great personalization capabilities and a sufficient selection of software. There is nothing to Acer, Google needs to be thanked, and yet the platform is part of the smartphone, and you won’t erase the words from the song.
    • Unusual and quite convincing exterior. I especially like the black version, just don’t give it to potential critics anyway, it will give out its budget essence by creaking 
    • Great screen. For its price category, it is simply luxurious, but even if we ignore the price - it’s still good. Importantly, the screen is fast, and movies and dynamic games look equally good on it. The surface is covered either with tempered glass or mega-hard plastic, but does not lend itself to scratching at all.
    • High performance for its class. 2D and 3D games, films without additional conversion (not Full HD, of course, but 720p is easy), everything is spinning perfectly.
    • Decent quality of official firmware, allowing most users not to bother with an alternative. The maximum that may be required is root and a couple of additional utilities to optimize power consumption. At the same point - a decent choice of alternative firmware, for those who are especially fiercely striving for perfection.


    Unfortunately, the ideal Android smartphones are not yet released. Each must find its own flaw. I got the feeling that if the price of Liquid E remains at the Liquid level, this will be a very good option for those who want to join Android without extra costs and, at the same time, without losing functionality. Indeed, it’s ridiculous to draw conclusions about the platform on slow state employees with a very relatively touch screen and a resolution of 320x240.

    Acer liquid e
    Acer Liquid E Ferrari will feature a more solid and beautiful body, as well as a set of ringtones and wallpapers. If they don’t even raise the price (as long as they promise at the level of 20-25 thousand rubles), it can turn out interesting.

    I decided for myself that I haven’t taken it yet - I’m similar to Liquid E, and then I will make a purchase decision. There are so many new products waiting for us in the fall - on Android, and on Windows Phone 7, and on MeeGo. I smell, I smell the price war! But the order for the iPhone 4, which they promised to bring me from France, has already been canceled. Acer Squeaky plastic convinced me that there are more interesting ways to spend your own money.

    Acer liquid e
    During the shooting, the focus worked inaccurately, and the Liquid E screen turned into a mirror.

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