Acer Liquid Z630 - arrived in the shelf of interesting "shovels"

    Building any smartphone is not an easy task. And it’s not even about those masterpieces of engineering that we are used to calling flagships, with their multi-core monsters, the tightest layout and the completely contradictory requirements of “a better camera + a bigger battery” at the same time as a “thinner gadget”. Designing "average" and "state employees" poses no less challenge, but not so much to competent wiring and trying to cram the unseen, as to the ideal balance of hardware and software for a certain price.



    High resolution screen? You need a powerful GPU, which means you have to save on something else: a battery, case materials, a camera, or communication capabilities. Cool body materials and a good battery? Under the knife will fall camera, performance and display. Today I want to introduce you to one of the most successful attempts to get a balanced device without getting out of a “reasonable” price. Meet the Acer Liquid Z630.

    General view


    The smartphone belongs to the rapidly growing market share of devices that can be fashionably called the word "phablets." The diagonal of the display is 5.5 inches, it is already beyond the bounds of comfortable use with just one hand, but it has not grown to 5.7 inches that are clearly unsuitable for “normal” use. Of course, now talk will begin about the dominance of “shovels”, and jokes on the topic “is there a handle in the kit?” No, no cuttings. And, yes, in this price segment there is a steady increase in demand for such a diagonal, so, unfortunately, we have what we have. On the other hand, such physical dimensions allow you to place a capacious battery in the device: here Acer did not stint. For autonomy, the impressive size of the battery is 4000 mAh.



    By the way, about the materials: the back panel of the phablet is made of high-quality corrugated plastic: there are no noticeable micro-scratches to you, nor slippage from wet hands. The front panel is covered with oleophobic coated glass. Signature chips, of course, are present. The characteristic design of the conversational speaker, the general form of the case - all within the framework of the general strategy of smartphone manufacturing Acer.



    Platform and Wireless Features


    If the manufacturer did not save much on the body, then where is the dog buried? SoC MTK 6735 acts as the “foundation” for Liquid Z630. This platform is interesting because MTK for the first time tried to implement a single decent platform for creating relatively inexpensive devices that will work fine. At the same time, the low price for this SoC is based on the mass nature of this solution.



    Inside MTK 6753 there are 4 64-bit ARM Cortex 53 cores that can operate at frequencies up to 1.5 GHz. For most models, the frequency is limited to 1.3 GHz, and the Acer Liquid Z630 in this case was no exception. For work with three-dimensional graphics, the powerful Mali-T720 GPU is responsible (supports OpenGL ES 3.0 and OpenCL 1.2). The hardware video decoder allows you to work with the H.264 and H.265 formats and allows you to decode video up to FullHD @ 30 FPS, practically without using the CPU power.

    And now - a cherry on the cake. Wireless Technology Support. MTK did their best here: the built-in modem supports ALL LTE frequencies, so the solution turned out to be really universal, and devices for different markets do not need to be individually customized to local standards: it is enough to “sew” the correct modem into the device’s memory.



    Wifi? Bluetooth? GPS? Glonass? Of course, yes. WiFi b / g / n + direct, Bluetooth 4.0 + A2DP for headsets, navigation starts in 20-30 seconds on a freshly turned on smartphone.

    Display


    If the filling is more or less normal and the case is not bad, then the display is not so simple. 5.5-inch IPS-matrix works with a relatively modest resolution of 1280x720 pixels. The brightness margin is small, and on a sunny day, using the device “without problems” will not work, but in the dark the backlight does not burn out the eyes, the minimum brightness level is very low. Viewing angles are close to maximum: if distortions are noticeable, then at such angles at which the device is simply inconvenient to use.

    As for permission, then Acer cheated. On the one hand, 1280x720 does not load the GPU (and the segment of “shovels” began with 5.7 inches at the same resolution, there were no problems), on the other hand, users spoiled by modern technologies may be unhappy that competitors have “more points”. What do we really have? The display is excellent. Color reproduction, contrast and the picture itself are very, very pleasant. Grain is not in sight. Properly selected size and style of the system font made the display's highest resolution completely invisible: getting into the pixel grid is such that there are no “teeth” at the borders of characters.

    A nice addition is the ability to adjust the white balance: reading on a slightly yellowish screen is much more convenient than on a white or bluish background. Although in general, the picture on the display is quite warm and without additional settings.

    Camera


    Here, I admit, there will be no miracles. Good performance, high-quality display, good materials and a huge battery - the camera got a very average module in all respects.



    In good conditions, he simply takes pictures: there are no miracles in the field of picture sharpness or dynamic range, which is confirmed by numerous photographs from various reviews . That's what the reviewers from Ferra filmed. But in difficult conditions, the module works surprisingly well. Especially when you consider the dollar, the price of the device and the overall level of the gadget. See for yourself.








    This is crop and resize from a photo taken in the rain and wind from hand! The full file can be viewed by clicking on the picture. In difficult conditions, the white balance is sometimes mistaken, but I'm not sure that a SLR or the notorious iPhone would normally handle this frame. Very difficult conditions with two light sources, different both in nature and in color temperature.



    There is no optical stabilization here, so get ready to shoot 5-6 frames in the dark in order to be able to choose the best one. In principle, there is nothing criminal here, it is possible to understand what is shown in the photo.



    But all the bright bulbs actually turned into squiggles:



    In this case, literally the next frame turned out to be completely normal:



    In general, from such a budget device with a completely inexpressive daytime shooting, I expected at night frank pornography, the inability to focus on the object, hellish noises or no less hellish consequences of the noise canceling. For the whole evening (and more than 50 frames) I received only ONE frame out of focus:



    And then, the problem turned out to be not in the camera software, but in the lens: a drop of water was corny on it. The camera can shoot up to 10 frames in a row at native resolution without any problems. It shoots very quickly, the quality of a single frame does not suffer. But the frame buffer is being rewritten for a long time.


    10 frames glued together in 1 gif



    Pleases the work of the exposure meter. Even in complete darkness, he tries to get a sane picture:



    In general, I have no serious complaints about the software and software component of the camera. Crop, full size on click. He made a little noise and missed with a white balance, which is noticeable in the color of the arch on the right. The camera interface provides much more opportunities than the module is able to implement. The settings are neatly hidden in the drop-down menu: here you can see shooting modes, predefined profiles, and special effects. It makes no sense to sort them all out, but a general idea of ​​the wealth of opportunities can be obtained from the screenshots. There is even a photographing mode, sorry, food. The HDR camera seems to be gluing, but the extremely poor dynamic range of the module does not allow drawing any significant amount of detail from the shadows. But the noise adds pretty much. You’ll have to put up with it.








    image



    Here is a shot without HDR:



    Here is a shot with HDR: There



    was more noise, but the dynamic range didn’t grow much.

    Software and Performance


    The standard Android 5.1 is flavored with Acer's proprietary shell, which can work in several different modes: beginner-friendly, childish or classic. The first is perfect for those users who are completely unfamiliar with technology. The second - by itself, for children. Parental controls are easy to configure, in this regard, again, everything is great. The third is the usual application launcher with "proprietary" goodies.

    Of the 16 GB of internal memory, about 9 and a half are available to the user: the built-in software is not just a lot, but a lot. Here you will find browser dialers-reminders that can work in a floating window, and all sorts of cloud-tricks, pre-installed games from Gameloft, the Polaris office suite and proprietary applications for music, video and viewing pictures.



    The native desktop with the “For Dummies” setup wizard allows you to quickly set up your smartphone even if you just thawed it and missed the events of the last thirty-six years: You



    can replace all this (of course), but delete it without violating the integrity of the firmware by root - no (just “disable” in the application manager), and this is sad.



    Otherwise, the shell is like a shell, now LG, Samsung, and ASUS have such chips. The shutter of notifications / quick switches is easily configured, floating applications can be turned off. Well, or turn it on.



    No brakes were found, the browser copes with relatively heavy sites without any problems, the toys go fine. Native google software (Google start, Chrome) work perfectly. There are no problems with Google Now, Ok, Google from the desktop - no problem.



    Antutu is difficult to call an objective test, but everyone uses it, and we can’t stay away. For 6 runs (2 sets of three tests in a row, to take into account possible heating and throttling), the results swam from 26 150 to 26 500 parrots.

    With a dollar under 70 and a price of 13.5-14 thousand rubles - more than normal results. In the end, the point is not the number of benchmark points, but how the device works.

    Acer engineers obviously tricked something with the speed of animation, all transitions and transformations take less time than competitors, which makes it seem that the response speed of the interface is faster than that of classmates. Asphalt at medium settings flies everywhere except the Tokyo highway.

    Sound


    There isn’t much to write about here: to listen to music, the device suits exactly as much as you can use the complete headset or its analogues. Big headphones aren’t enough to swing a little strength, and sound detailing after music-oriented smartphones can be a little frustrating. The rest is sound as sound. Better than 90% of budget junk in the market.

    Summary


    What do we have in the end? A good middling in all respects with an amazing battery. Performance is the most common, but we are invited to play on this phone and not in Crysis. But all the everyday functions work great. UI worked well, the built-in software works quickly, the display pleases with rich colors and a good picture, the device is normal in the hand.



    The camera is so-so, but for 14k only Lumia 1020 with Avito or any digital camera will take normal photos.

    Competitors


    The device has a lot of direct competitors: ASUS Zenfone 2 Laser ZE550KL, Meizu M2 Note, Lenovo A7000, Xiaomi Redmi Note 2.

    Asus can hardly last one day from the battery, Atom is a fairly gluttonous processor. But the camera is better.

    Meizu is the best option in terms of sound, but, unfortunately, the memory card here occupies the second SIM card slot, so you have to choose what is needed. In addition, it is more expensive, and the case materials / rear panel design raise questions. Autonomy is better than that of Asus, but also not a record.

    Lenovo is more expensive, it removes a little better, but is weaker in battery, and the screen is so-so, to be honest.

    Xiaomi is the strongest competitor both in price and in filling. He has a very ... specific shell, some complain about problems with the Russification of the smartphone (in some places no, no, and damned Chinese squiggles will come out), but in Russia it is for sale ... semi-officially, so to speak. That is, you can find it, and even some kind of guarantee, but they will give it, but otherwise, consider that you bought it in China.



    There is another competitor, which rarely anyone remembers ... Yes, we are talking about the Nokia 640 XL model. According to the form factor, the hit is close, and the iron is about the same level. The price tag is almost identical, but there will be no LTE in it, and models with two SIM cards and / or LTE are not on sale in the Russian Federation now. The trouble is not even this, but that in terms of speed, a set of applications, browser convenience, customization capabilities, and even in the field of autos, this “state employee” easily kneels any flagship on WP / W10M, not to mention 640 / 640XL models that are currently making major sales for statisticians from Redmond.

    And so it turns out that the “average” in all respects Liquid Z630 becomes an extremely interesting option if you are satisfied with the diagonal of 5.5 inches, and the results of shooting on the camera do not go further than twitter, contact and facebook. The battery is excellent, the software is no problem, the price is delicious, what else is needed?

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