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Acer’s new Liquid E2 is a low-cost quad-core Android Jelly Bean phone that looks to cut the right corners.
It’s due out in the UK and Europe in mid-May for €229 (around £200) — although exact prices and dates for a British launch have yet to be announced.
It’s an interesting hodge-podge of specs that looks to hit most people’s key requirements for an Android phone while reducing its impact on your wallet. The headline is its quad-core 1.2GHz processor, with 1GB of RAM, which should be more than capable of pushing Jelly Bean around smoothly.
There’s an 8-megapixel camera capable of recording 1080p at 30 frames per second, along with a 2-megapixel front camera for selfies and Skype.
The display is the main corner it’s cutting though, with a meagre 960×540 pixels stretched over 4.5 inches of screen — a density of 245 pixels per inch, far less than Apple’s 330ppi on its retina displays since the iPhone 4.
Also limited is the internal storage, at a scarcely believable 4GB. That’ll need expanding with microSD, and although Acer’s spec sheet doesn’t specify what its limit is, I’d guess it’d be another 64GB. You’ll be providing your own card though.
There’s no 4G here, which is fair enough, as you’re unlikely to want an expensive contract to go with a cheap phone, and its 2,000mAh battery is pretty decent. It probably contributes to the phone’s 9.9mm girth though, which is rather tubby these days. It’s available in black or white.
We’ll be putting all these elements through their paces when we give the E2 a full review very soon.
In the meantime, if you’re looking for a cheaper blower, Acer’s own Liquid Z2 is just £90, although it struggles along on a single-core chip and an even lower-res screen. Nevertheless, it’s cracking value and that helped it earn four stars in our review.
Tempted by this new Liquid? Or is a high-res screen a priority? Pipe up in the comments, or on our fluid Facebook page.
