Acer Liquid

Style & Handling Summary for Acer Liquid
The Acer Liquid is a good looking handset by Acer standards, but it’s a bit big and there are visible seams between the back of the phone and the rest of the body, ruining the glossy look.

User Friendliness Summary for Acer Liquid
The user interface is easy enough to use but the touch-screen keyboard takes a lot of work, especially if you’re a fan of punctuation.

Feature Set Summary for Acer Liquid
The Android OS makes for smooth internet and the potential for loads of downloadable extras, but Acer doesn’t add much to the mix.

Performance Summary for Acer Liquid
The internet is quick to load and you can multitask to your heart’s content, but the keyboard is sluggish and frustrating.

Battery Power Summary for Acer Liquid
Battery life is above average, with 300 minutes’ talktime.

Full Review and Specification for the Acer Liquid

Acer has produced several phones, but with the Acer Liquid it’s finally starting to find its feet. Its first Android smartphone is a good looking device with high-spec credentials. This is largely thanks to the Android operating system, which includes all the features you would expect such as an easy-to-use interface, bucketloads of free applications and full syncing to Google service.

Appearance for the Acer Liquid

The Acer Liquid is a slick-looking handset, with straight edges, sharp corners and a curve to the top and bottom. The glossy black frontage is dominated by a tempered glass, 3.5-inch capacitive touch-screen (think iPhone), with four touch-sensitive controls below. But while it’s stylish compared with other Acer phones, the Liquid just doesn’t have that wow-factor that makes it sexy. It could be the protruding camera lens, or the three large vents of the (rather tinny) speaker; there are also visible seams between the back cover and the rest of the handset. And the back cover, which should slide off smoothly, needs prising off with your thumb – watch your fingernails.

Performance for the Acer Liquid

When it comes to smartphones, the Acer Liquid is certainly one of the fastest, boasting a 768MHz Snapdragon processor. This means apps load quickly, and you can run several at once without compromising speed and performance.

As expected from Android phones, high-res touch-screen is smooth, taking just light swipes and taps to activate. But the on-screen keyboard is not as good: it’s unresponsive and slow, often missing out typed letters entirely. This wouldn’t be so bad if there was an auto-correct function, but there’s just auto-suggestion, which means you need to click on a suggestion to select it. The comma and full stop are on the main screen, but inputting any other symbols involves going onto a new screen. If you send lots of texts and emails, this keyboard will just end up frustrating you.

The user interface is instantly recognisable to Android users, with three customisable home screens and a handful of preloaded widgets. Acer hasn’t thrown much into the mix, but we like the ‘media’ home screens, one of which displays your last played song, video and photo in a nice fan shape, the other displaying bookmarked web pages.

Syncing on the Acer Liquid

If you use Microsoft Exchange or Gmail, it’s a breeze to sync the phone with your email, contacts and calendars – simply input your email address (and start the preloaded RoadSync App for Exchange) to activate over-the-air syncing.

Syncing Outlook is more complicated if you’re not on Exchange. You need a third-party application to manually sync your phone and PC via USB. This wouldn’t be a problem if Acer made one available which it doesn’t – and odd omission at the best of times and even stranger when you consider the company’s long association with Microsoft.

Internet and camera on the Acer Liquid

Internet is wired into Android phones and the Liquid is no different. Over a Wi-Fi connection, you can load full internet pages in under 10 seconds, with well-rendered pictures. Screen space is maximised thanks to an auto-fit button with zoom keys, and you can switch between multiple windows that are displayed in a grid.

The official Android Facebook app is nothing special, but Acer has integrated both Facebook and Picasa, and you can sync contact info from both into your phonebook.

The verdict on the Acer Liquid

Android phones have already made a mark on the phone market, and set pretty high standards to boot. The Acer Liquid just about meets those standards, but only just. Applications and web pages load quickly and multitasking works well thanks to that high-speed processor, but the keyboard will put many users off

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Acer Aspire One ZA3

Style & Handling Summary for Acer Aspire One ZA3
The Acer Aspire One ZA3 is a smart, glossy device that comes in a choice of five colours and doesn’t attract fingermarks too badly.

User Friendliness Summary for Acer Aspire One ZA3
The ZA3 is fairly straightforward to use, with no over-complicated functions to navigate, and switching between connectivity options is simple enough.

Feature Set Summary for Acer Aspire One ZA3
The Acer Aspire One ZA3 offers the latest netbook trend of accessing the internet via a 3G SIM for a reasonable price. There’s plenty going on, even though the preinstalled software is a little too much to handle.

Performance Summary for Acer Aspire One ZA3
The low-spec processor and all that onboard software slows the ZA3 down considerably, especially when you are running more than three programmes at once.

Battery Power Summary for Acer Aspire One ZA3
Seven hours of power with Wi-Fi running is pretty good.

Full Review and Specification for the Acer Aspire One ZA3

Netbooks, like everything else, are subject to trends. The next big thing will be getting online using a 3G SIM, and the first to feature this technology is Acer, with the Aspire One ZA3. A Windows XP device has a preinstalled BT SIM, the ZA3 costs just £249 – but, as we know by now, you get what you pay for when it comes to netbooks.

Style and handling for the Acer Aspire One ZA3

In terms of size, the Acer Aspire One ZA3 is par for the course, at one inch thick and weighing 1.35kg. The11.6-inch LED screen is larger than average with a high-definition 1366x768 pixels – a high-end spec for a netbook – and shows up your webpages clearly and vividly. It only pushes back to around 120 degrees, which isn’t as much as some netbooks, but unless you’re in direct light it shouldn’t pose too much of a problem.

The sleek device comes in a choice of black, white, pink, navy or brown and the glossy frontage is not as prone to fingerprints as some. It’s just a shame that the battery protrudes, ruining the smooth line. Three USB ports sit on the sides, alongside a TV-out cable, and Ethernet port and an SD card reader.

The keyboard is spacious and well laid out, although the tablet keys are rather flimsy and tend to click – that’s usual for netbooks, of course, but we have come across better. The touchpad is responsive for standard navigation – up, down, left and right – but rather too jerky for tasks that require more accuracy such as photo editing. The pinch-zoom function is also fitful.

If you start a video call the Crystal Eye 1.3-megapixel webcam and digital microphone automatically fire up. You can also load the webcam from the menu to take a photo, but the results are washed out.

Processor and applications on the Acer Aspire One ZA3

The Intel Atom Z520 processor is moderate when compared with other netbooks, running at 1.33GHz and packing just 1GB of RAM. This makes for slower loading of applications than you get on higher-spec devices, particularly when you are running three or more programs simultaneously.
The battery life is more impressive, though: with Wi-Fi running, it’ll give you seven hours before having to recharge.

The high-definition screen allows you to watch at 720p, not the full 1080p, but it’s enough for a screen of this size. If you do crave a bigger picture, you can connect to your TV via an HDMI cable. That high-def media is hard work for the little processor, though, and it does freeze from time to time. Luckily you get no such problem with browsing the web, messages and document editing.

The main issue for the processor is all the software which has been preinstalled by Acer and BT. For a start, there are three office programmes: a Microsoft Office trial version, the open-source office package OpenOffice and, just in case, the aged and barely used Microsoft Works. Google Desktop has been preloaded alongside a dozen extra games through Acer Gamezone and the RSS reader/meta search engine eSobi. There’s no option to choose, although as software goes, these are pretty good. Finally, McAfee Virus Scan uses enough processing power to cause those delays, and reminds of its presence on a regular basis to install updates, restart your machine or check on whether you’ve received the objects. It’s rather irritating, to say the least.

You can uninstall all of this if you want, and with a bit of technical knowhow download more efficient programmes such as Avira Antivirus, for free.

Internet on the Acer Aspire One ZA3

Thanks to the onboard BT Connection Manager, you can get online using the 3G SIM or swap over to a Wi-Fi network. There’s a choice of five internet profiles to use, dependant on tariff, including PAYG Wi-Fi, free BY Wi-Fi and Ethernet. Switching between connections is a simple process but the user interface is crowded with options and menu tabs.

It’s handy to be able to switch networks at will, but we would have liked to have seen an option to text a mobile phone from the ZA3, like you can with Nokia’s Booklet 3G.

3G is slightly more complex to set up. You can’t just hot-swap the SIM – it’s a pre-installed card that has to be registered on BT’s website before you can use it (we guess they expect you to use the Wi-Fi connection on the ZA3, or another computer altogether). It could also be slow to load, on occasion taking us up to 30 seconds.

The verdict on the Acer Aspire One ZA3

The ZA3 is a competent netbook that ticks all the boxes but the slow processor and clunky preinstalled software means it takes a little longer to react than other, similar netbooks. We like the option to go online using the 3G SIM, Wi-Fi or Ethernet but would like to see better use of the 3G SIM, like the option to send SMS to mobiles. But overall it’s a solid device and a good addition to the Aspire One range.

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Acer neoTouch P300

Style & Handling Summary for Acer neoTouch P300
The P300 certainly looks the business, with a polished body and a solid build.

User Friendliness Summary for Acer neoTouch P300
Despite some improvements to the Windows interface, some of the menu setting are still fiddly, and the touch-screen doesn’t really work effectively unless you use the stylus.

Feature Set Summary for Acer neoTouch P300
The P300 boasts a great set of business features: Wi-Fi, HSDPA, Office Mobile and A-GPS are all present and correct. You also have access to Windows Marketplace for downloading extra apps.

Performance Summary for Acer neoTouch P300
The slow processing speeds make for delays when opening and closing apps.

Battery Power Summary for Acer neoTouch P300
With 240 minutes’ talktime and and 400 hours’ standby, battery life is pretty much what you’d expect.

Full Review and Specification for the Acer neoTouch P300

Acer has been producing smartphones and a rate of knots over the past six months, likely trying to get the message across that it does more than computers and establish itself as a name in the mobile market. Quality has varied wildly, from the spot-on Acer Liquid to the underwhelming beTouch E200.

Style and handling on the Acer neoTouch P300

With the exception of the Liquid, Acer handsets have failed to impress with their design so far. Luckily the P300 bucks that trend. It’s a nicely built slider device with a polished finish and a 3.2-inch touch-screen. The QWERTY keyboard slides out smoothly and feels stable, which isn’t that common on phones like this.

Hold the phone vertically, and below the screen sit the call and call end keys alongside a Windows Menu key – we’ll talk more about that later. They are much too thin, resembling trimming as much as keys – we kept mistaking the icons above for the actual keys. In fact, these simply symbolise which key is which.

Touch-screen and QWERTY keyboard on the Acer neoTouch P300

You need to be careful using the screen if you don’t want to end up in completely the wrong place. Press a key or scroll too fast and it’s likely that the P300 won’t even recognise your command. You’re better of using the stylus, which lives at the bottom of the phone. It seems a bit archaic, but you definitely get better results.

The QWERTY keyboard also has flaws: it looks good and it’s spacious, but the flat keys make it hard to differentiate between them. Plus, the space bar is positioned slightly left of centre, which is counter-intuitive to fast typing.

User friendliness on the Acer neoTouch P300

Windows phones are notorious for their fiddly menus and settings, and while it’s far from perfect, Windows 6.5 is certainly better than previous versions. The text-heavy menu has been replaced by clear, vivid icons, and there is a list of shortcuts visible on the homepage.

But things are still far from perfect. For example, the volume switch, which on most phones you push one way up and one way down, requires you to push one way to open up a virtual volume level display on the screen, which you then adjust. It’s just unnecessarily complicated.

The verdict on the Acer neoTouch P300

The neoTouch P300 is a well-featured, good-looking smartphone that fails on usability. It’s a shame, because the Windows functionality means that you can open, edit and send documents in Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote, and Wi-Fi, HSDPA and A-GPS make for good access to the internet and mapping.

But it’s fairly slow, and applications take forever to launch and to close. A more powerful processor would have been handy.

It certainly had promise as a business phone, but until the Windows issues are sorted out, it fails to impress.

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Acer NeoTouch P400

Style and handling summary for Acer NeoTouch P400 review
The P400 is a sharp-looking phone with a tempered glass fascia and a smart rubber back. But it doesn't pass muster on further inspection thanks to its lightweight and plasticky parts.

User friendliness summary for Acer NeoTouch P400 review
The home screen looks great, but the rest of the user interface is rather outmoded. The message interface is clunky and the resistive touch-screen slow.

Feature set summary for Acer NeoTouch P400 review
The feature set on the P400 is average at best, with a slow, unresponsive keyboard and a 3.2 megapixel camera with no extras.

Performance summary for Acer NeoTouch P400 review
The outdated OS hasn't been improved upon, and the P400 is tricky to use and something of a chore.

Battery power summary for Acer NeoTouch P400 review
Around 300 minutes' talktime is respectable.

Full Review and Specification for the Acer NeoTouch P400 Review
Acer's history with Windows Mobile phones is not good, and the neoTouch P400 fails to break the pattern. It's a nice looking handset, but the feature set is average at best and the unresponsive touch-screen makes slow work of navigating and browsing.

Style and handling on the Acer NeoTouch P400
The Acer neoTouch P400 is a good-looking handset. It has a rubber back and a tempered glass front, and four touch-sensitive areas instead of keys on the front, for call, call end, home and Windows. But once we had removed the back cover to insert our SIM, we could not put it on properly again, so were left with a crack down the side where it didn't quite fit, ruining the smooth lines of the design.

It runs on the Windows 6.4.3 OS, but the home screen looks like the forthcoming Windows Phone 7: instead of icons for apps, there is text in a crisp modern font, and it's the best looking part of the whole user interface. Missed calls and messages are displayed next to the relevant app. Touch the Windows logo to be taken to the all programs menu, which is arranged in an apparently random order so you need to scroll down to find what you want.

The resistive touch-screen is pressure sensitive and fairly responsive to scrolling, and the unlock screen displays events notification so you can swipe your finger down to the event you want to view.

User friendliness on the Acer neoTouch P400
While the home screen looks sharp and modern, the rest of the user interface is pretty clunky. So instead of simply hitting a text field to display the virtual keyboard, you have to select an icon at the bottom of the screen. To send a text you have to hit a different icon - and none of them is easy to decipher - then choose the new message option and finally whether you wish to call, send a voice message or text. The latter should be the default option but isn't.

The keyboard is also frustratingly unresponsive, and slow to boot, so fast typing isn't an option. Using the keyboard in landscape view helps with accuracy at least.

Email and business on the Acer neoTouch P400
You can set up Microsoft Exchange and webmail accounts on the P400 but there is no support for push emails, although you can set it to automatically send and receive mail every five minutes. Exchange users can also sync their calendars.

Acer Sync, which syncs up to Google services, is preloaded on the P400, so you can access your Google calendar. It's a handy option that seems designed to attract Android users.

For all its flaws as an operating system, Windows Mobile does provide you with a full set of business-friendly apps. You can view your calendar by day, week, month or year, and the Microsoft office suite gives you everything you need including Word and Excel. Of course, this is only useful if you can work the keyboard - a stylus would have come in handy here.

Internet on the Acer neoTouch P400
HSDPA internet speed and Internet Explorer Mobile 6 make for a speedy internet experience. An on-screen touch bar takes car of zooming, and the URL bar automatically fills in www and .com, and will auto-complete web addresses you have already visited. You can also cut and paste - just hit menu for the option then drag your finger over what you want to copy. It's not as slick as something like the HTC Desire, limited as it is by the slow action of the touch-screen.

You can access Windows Marketplace, which isn't as well-stocked as Android Market or Apples App Store, but you can pick up the most popular applications such as Facebook easily enough.

There is a 3.2-megapixel camera on board, but with no flash or auto-focus, it's a token effort really. Night shots are out of the question, and even daylight photos look pixelated, with dull colours.

The verdict on the Acer neoTouch P400
It's hard to see who the Acer P400 is aimed at. It's made of lightweight, almost cheap-looking parts, but it runs on the business centric Windows Mobile 6.5.3. It could be a good internet phone but most other features suffer thanks to a sluggish, inaccurate touch-screen. Acer has done little to improve an outdated OS, and the P400 is neither fun nor easy to use.

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Acer Liquid E

Style and handling summary for Acer Liquid E review
The Acer Liquid E feels rather wide in the hand, and it's a shame Acer saw fit to retain the cheap glossy white plastic from the Liquid.

User friendliness summary for summary for Acer Liquid E review
The Android OS offers the user true multitasking, but it's a pity that the capacitive touch-screen is not as responsive as its counterparts on the likes of the Apple iPhone 4 and HTC Desire.

Feature set summary for Acer Liquid E review
You'll only get average results from the five-megapixel camera, which lacks flash, though it does have auto-focus. Web browsing is a highlight on the Acer Liquid E , thanks to its full HTML browser, and with voice navigation, Google Maps offers a speedy GPS fix.

Performance summary for Acer Liquid E review
Android phones from Acer are always smooth and offer ease of use, and the Acer Liquid E proves to be no exception.

Battery power summary for Acer Liquid E review
The Acer Liquid E will keep you talking with an excellent 300 minutes talktime and 400 hours on standby.

Full Review and Specification for the Acer Liquid E
It's proof of Android's success that Acer, which produces pretty clunky Windows Mobile phones, can churn out such great Android handsets. The surprise success of last year was Acer's Liquid, which is now succeeded by the Acer Liquid E , running Android 2.1.

Bag a bargain

Pick up the Acer Liquid E and it feels rather wide in your palm, and it's a shame Acer has chosen the same cheap-looking, too-glossy white plastic casing of the original Liquid. It feels flimsy, the seams are over-obvious and the ports could be smaller, too. But, we do like the 3.5-inch screen, which is great for watching movies and web browsing, thanks to its WVGA resolution. You'll find a five-megapixel lens on the back, while the side is home to silver buttons that take care of on/off, camera shutter and volume control. On top of the device is a 3.5mm audio jack.

And all is not lost on the looks front; the Acer Liquid E does retain some sense of style, thanks to the black-and-white retro design. It's a shame, though, that the touch-screen, despite being the higher-end capacitive type, is not as responsive as its counterparts on the Apple iPhone 4 or the HTC Desire. Having to tap harder for input to be recognised is pretty frustrating when typing, though not so bad if you're just navigating a menu.

While the 768MHz processor is a step down from the original Liquid's 1GHz Snapdragon chip, we're happy to report that there was no lag even with huge programmes such as Spotify, with web, maps and camera running. The Acer Liquid E loads quickly and has the benefit of ‘true' multitasking - it's possible to leave programmes loading while you open or use other ones. In common with other Android phones, you can only kill programmes if you download a task manager app. Messages and missed calls are flagged by lit icons on the top of the phone.

Handful of Aces

Along with a handful of Acer widgets, you are treated to five customisable home screens, Like its predecessor, the Acer Liquid E has a cute web widget, which shows a fan of bookmarked sites, while the media widget displays the most recent photo, tune or video.

We also like the Acer Settings app, which shows the state of Wi-Fi, GPS, 3G, battery and memory. It's simple to manage - there are two icons beside each spec, one to turn it on and off, the other to adjust settings.

First-timers to downloading will be glad that Facebook and Twitter Android apps are preloaded.

We're also fans of the scrolling animation on the all-programs menu, which sees rows of icons slide over a corner, just as a sheet wraps around a cube.

We weren't so enamoured with the camera, which lacks flash, though it does have autofocus. Daylight images are okay, but there is a lack of true colour, and clarity is pretty average. Plus, too many were overexposed. The shutter is hard to click and there's a delay of a second or more before the picture is taken. The Acer Liquid E is also a bit heavy and unwieldy to be held as a camera.

True calling

Unlike many smartphones, the Acer Liquid E hasn't forgotten about the humble phone call. We are fans of the phonebook, which syncs contacts with their Facebook profile picture. Tap the picture and you'll be presented with different contact methods - email, text, call, or via Facebook. Your favourite contacts are migrated from your previous Android handset automatically, and we were thrilled to discover that you can type in the first few letters of a friend's name and a list of possible contacts pops up.

Email is excellent too. Gmail looks just as it does on a desktop, offering access to your custom folders, sent mail, drafts and trash. Non-Gmail is sent to a different inbox, which looks pretty similar, but won't allow you to access sent mail. You will be able to see HTML graphics though. Whatever mail programs you use, start typing in the address field and you'll see a list of possible contacts appear from everyone you've ever emailed. Use the preloaded RoadSync app if you want to sync Microsoft Exchange calendars and emails.

It's a shame that the touch-screen keyboard is not quick enough for fast typists, and the auto-suggest could be better. If you want to type long messages, this is not for you, but it will be okay for writing the odd Facebook post or short text. However, it's excellent at correcting grammar and incorrect contractions, and applying auto-capitalisation to a decent range of proper nouns.

Web wonder

Like its Android brothers, the Acer Liquid E is made for web browsing, thanks to a full HTML browser that loads in only five seconds. Autofit applies to non-mobile optimised sites, pictures are quick to render, and fonts show smooth edges. You can pinch to zoom as well, as the phone supports multi-touch. Mind you, we had to tap pretty hard to get input recognised.

Hold down the address bar and you'll be able to copy or share the page URL using email, text or social network. It is possible to copy and paste in the browser, but this facility doesn't work as well as it does on the iPhone and HTC Desire. To do this, hit menu, then choose ‘select text'. Next, drag your finger over the bit you want and it will be copied automatically. You can only paste this into the search bar, not into an email or text.

More useful is the ability to paste to Google Maps' search bar. Maps load speedily and the GPS fix was quickly established. However, it was off the actual location by about 50m. Android 2.1 offers voice navigation support, and the digital compass is capable of reorienting quickly. First you'll have to download an add-on to Google Maps, but the first time you try to use it, you'll be sent to the right link at Android Market.

The verdict

We can't quite believe that the Acer Liquid E is made by the same firm that gave us the neoTouch P400. Unlike the Windows Mobile goliaths, the Android phones from Acer are smooth and offer ease of use, while featuring enough software tweaks to make them stand apart from your basic Android handset. It's a shame about the unresponsive touch-screen.

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Acer Stream

Style and handling summary for Acer Stream review
This is the most stylish Acer handset so far, with a neat, slim profile and some nice touches, such as dedicated buttons for media playback

User friendliness summary for Acer Stream review
It's easy enough to use, but anyone who is already familiar with Android may find the device a bit confusing

Feature set summary for Acer Stream review
There is plenty to be enamoured about with this device - with a fast processor, a good camera and HD video

Performance summary for Acer Stream review
The Stream mostly works well, although there are a few hiccups with the display

Battery power summary for Acer Stream review
Battery life is mediocre - you'll find yourself recharging every day, if not more often.

Full Review and Specification for the Acer Stream
Touchscreens are not like they used to be. The rather iffy resistive screens have been surpassed by the dearer, and far better, capacitive type that you'll find on the iPhone and its ilk. Acer's new Android handset has the benefit of a capacitive display, plus some stylish good looks. It also features some discreet, touch-sensitive buttons for menu, search and back, as well as a raised homebutton, which you'll find at the bottom of the display. It also features three media buttons - a novelty for Android - which allow you to playback music and video. That's not the only surprise the device has in store... so read on...

Nice touch
Touchscreens need to be precise in use if they're going to be fun to use. You don't want to touch the display in one place and find the phone reacting as if you've touched it somewhere else. This happens occasionally on the Acer Stream, and has the effect of slowing you down if you're typing in text. We found it too easy to launch a menu when we didn't mean to because the 3.7in screen doesn't react as it should. Apart from that, the device is speedy and responsive, due to its 1GHz processor.

Anyone who knows the Android OS and its customisable multiple home screens may take a while to get used to Acer's approach to the system. We found it pretty disorienting to start with. While HTC has managed to create a stunning, imaginative and intuitive overlay on Android, Acer's is something else.

Android OS
Nokia was so successful because its phones all used a consistent, easy-to-use operating system. So it created loyal fans who would only upgrade to another Nokia. With the Acer Stream, things have changed - want to add a widget on the home screen? On other Acer handsets you would press and hold the screen - here you have to press and hold the Home button. It's not that this is a bad way to do it, it's simply that it has made things more complicated for the existing Android user. You can launch your screen saver from the front of the device, once you've woken the handset - which saves having to reach to the top edge, as you do with the HTC Desire and other devices - and you'll be rewarded with a home screen image with its corner flicking and just begging to be flipped up! Do so and you'll see a menu of eight shortcut icons pop up at the base of the screen. We hope you like them, as you won't be able to delete them!

Sound and vision
On the main screen, swipe to the right to find the media area, where you can access your videos, music and photos. By the way, you'll find there's a mini HDMI out socket next to the micro USB connector you use to charge the phone. You can connect to a suitable flatscreen TV and play your video, for example, on the big screen. This is another facility that shows the Stream is taking Acer's phones to another level. And as your video can be recorded at 720p resolution HD video on the handset, it looks pretty good on a big screen.

Social media fans can subscribe to Orange's Life is Better On service, which forms an address book by combining details from your mobile phone, Facebook, Gmail and Twitter contacts. There were some other facilities we really liked: you can set your availability, so that you can decide if your friends can contact you easily or not - and it will also tell you where your contacts are (if they've agreed to this). It's done well, but can take a while to get a handle on. Either way, it's also useful for backing up contacts and so on, should you lose your handset.

The verdict
This is yet another bonus on a phone with a great feature set which also has a good camera and tidy design.

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Acer beTouch E130

Style and handling summary for Acer beTouch E30 review
Looks and feels smooth, and sits well in the hand

User friendliness summary for Acer beTouch E30 review
Many manufacturers have failed to get the keyboard just right, but Acer has done a pretty good job, producing a keyboard that lets you type speedily and is easy to see, even if the lights are low

Feature set summary for Acer beTouch E30 review
It's good to see a 3.5mm headphone jack, but the media player and camera are simply mediocre

Performance summary for Acer beTouch E30 review
The touch-screen is lacking in parts, but the trackball makes up for it, and despite not having the latest Android incarnation, it still performs pretty well

Battery power summary for Acer beTouch E30 review
One battery charge will take you through a whole day and into the next, which is unusual for a smartphone

Full Review and Specification for the Acer beTouch E130
This QWERTY phone from Acer has the look of a Nokia E or BlackBerry, but there the similarity stops. It has a touch-screen and, unlike the BlackBerry Torch, Acer's handset is neat and pocket-sized, thanks to its 2.6inch screen.

First impressions
The beTouch E130 is a very tactile phone - it feels good in the hand with its smooth keys and rear casing. The keyboard is also pretty smooth, though it doesn't quite reach the heights of the BlackBerry Bold. We like the fact that unlike Blackberry's phones, there is a full stop in a lower case position. The 0 too, is underneath the number keys - unlike on Nokia phones, where it sits alongside them. It's easy to read the white keys and even in low light, the backlight comes into play - the only thing is that it makes the secondary characters easier to read than the main ones. Despite these grumbles, the keyboard is a very decent attempt.

To speed up typing, the predictive word system offers a number of suggested words as you type away - just tap on the correct one. The central trackball may seem a little out of date when compared with the optical trackpad of the BlackBerry, but it does the job.

Under the screen you'll find four icons; like other Android devices, there are search, home, back, and menu buttons plus there are end and send keys. It's a little different for an Android phone but works well.

Touch me
The touch-screen is not the superior capacitive type; it's a resistive one, so is not as responsive, but is certainly no slouch. It means that there's no multitouch capability - so no pinch and zoom. However, the trackball offers another level of interaction with apps and menus, so it may be that you don't use the touchscreen as much as you would on another Android device.

As is always the case with Android, you need to know which version the handset supports - it's not one-size-fits-all like the iPhone or Windows Phone 7 devices. The beTouch has version 1.6, which is a bit old now, however it still offers a decent speed, although it's lacking features such as internet tethering and the ability to store apps on a removable memory card, rather than built-in memory.
Acer hasn't done much to Android in terms of customisation - but it does have a multimedia screen (which you'll find furthest left on the five home pages). Here it's easy to delve into the photos, video and music that you have on your device.

There is a camera, but at three megapixels it's nothing to write home about - it has no flash and the images tend to be grainy. The display doesn't have the resolution necessary to get a good look at photos or video anyway. Mind you, as it's pretty small, it won't drain your battery too much.

The beTouch E130 may look a bit like a BlackBerry but it can't compete when it comes to email, although it's still not bad. Having said that, being an Android device means it has access to 100,000 apps - something no Blackberry phone could boast.

The Verdict
The Acer beTouch E130 is really a bit of a jack of all trades - not quite being the business device that the BlackBerry Bold is (or boasting such a bright screen), nor being as simple to use as other Android devices. It does look good, though.

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Acer Liquid Metal

Style and handling summary for Acer Liquid Metal review
Specially designed to fit the hand, not only does the handset feel good, but it looks great thanks to its curved chassis and metallic coat

User friendliness summary for Acer Liquid Metal review
Acer has seen fit to add its own user interface to the Liquid Metal, which does take a while to get to grips with, but it's reasonably straightforward

Feature set summary for Acer Liquid Metal review
Fantastic social networking integration, a five-megapixel snapper, A-GPS, DVD-standard video recording HDSPA and Wi-Fi

Performance summary for Acer Liquid Metal review
Android's wonderful Froyo OS ensures the Liquid Metal offers top performance, although a more powerful processor would have been a bonus

Battery power summary for Acer Liquid Metal review
Decent battery life, offering 550 hours on standby and 480 minutes of chat

Full Review and Specification for the Acer Liquid Metal
Acer has been working hard to put its name out there on the mobile phone map. Already known as a computing brand, its forays into the mobile world seem to have gone two steps forward, and taken one step back, but Acer has been slowly but surely making progress. And with the launch of the Liquid Metal it may finally have arrived with the big boys.

First impressions
Like its predecessor, the Liquid E, the Liquid Metal has a curved chassis, all smoothly coated with a metallic finish. And while the Liquid E felt a bit cheap, the Liquid Metal has the feel of a tougher handset. It has been designed to fit in the hand, and it does feel very comfortable to hold. It's called the Metal because of its trim and the aluminium back cover. While this looks great and adds a touch of class, it does get rather worryingly hot when charging.

The touch-screen is of the more desirable capacitive type and measures 3.6 inches. It reacts very well, and each time you press an icon or virtual key it answers with a short vibrating pulse.

User friendly
The Liquid Metal is the first of Acer's phones to run using Android's latest 2.2 Froyo incarnation. We'll get on to that below, but first we must say how much we like the user interface Acer has added. The Taiwanese mobile maker has really come at it from a new angle.

For instance, even if the phone is locked, it is possible to swipe between the five home screens, each of which displays a number of shortcuts and icons. This theory has been applied to all the phone's features - apart from the music player. This, amazingly, can be used by pressing play even if the device is locked - which leaves the way open for music to suddenly start coming from your pocket at inopportune moments! If you want to get to the main menu when your handset is locked, you have to peel open a dog-eared page at the base of the display. It's a novel and rather sweet way to unlock the screen and looks pretty good too.

Once you've unlocked your screen, you'll be presented with three home screens - one for time and date, one for media such as video, music and downloads and the third that offers 3D thumbnails showing most used or most recently viewed pages and features. Click on any of them and you'll be transferred back to that screen.

On all three home screens there are eight menu icons that sit along the base of the screen in two rows of four. The icons are customisable, so you can add your most used features, although many Android fans will be put off by the inability to drag and drop favourite shortcuts and icons straight into the home screen. If you want to get to the rest of the menu, you have to drag up the collection of eight icons. They will stay static, but anything below them is capable of being swiped from side to side, and apps you get from the Android Market will be added as appropriate.

Above the drag out menu is the notifications bar, which shows any emails or messages, and also allows access to Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and GPS settings. It was a tad fiddly and we found ourselves opening the menu by mistake on more than one occasion.

Getting social
Acer has also made great efforts in achieving social networking integration. While other phones manage to synch all contacts, Tweets and Facebook updates into one news feed, Acer's innovative Social Jogger does it in its own way. When you're logged in to your numerous social networking accounts, a jog wheel on the right side of the display can be used to let you switch between them. It is even possible to add in a particular friend's feed if you so wish - although it seems a bit stalker-like to us!

But the jog wheel has another surprise - you can turn it manually, or you can set it to auto-turn at whatever speed you want, so your numerous photos, links and Tweets appear automatically. We did find the feeds a touch small, so you may find you have to click on some to read all of a message, but generally it's a really nifty attempt at doing something a bit different with social networks.

As we mentioned earlier, the Liquid Metal runs Android 2.2. This gives the added benefit of Flash video (you'll have to download an app from the Android Market first), and it is also possible to save apps onto a microSD card (which you'll need to buy separately). You can also turn your handset into a Wi-Fi hotspot. We've been told that with version 2.2, everything runs five times faster than it does on devices running Android 2.1, but we're not completely convinced about this. Sure, the Liquid Metal is no slowcoach, but in fact we found the A-GPS took some time to get a fix (this might be due to the 800 MHz processor on board). Having said that, navigation is an excellent facility, offering voice navigation for pedestrians and drivers (again you'll have to download a free app from the Android Market to facilitate this), and Google's latest mapping facilities.
The verdict
The Liquid Metal is definitely the best handset from Acer so far, but it does have a lot of heavyweight competition - in the shape of HTC, Samsung and Apple phones. While they all produce better-equipped devices, Acer has a few tricks of its own up its sleeve, most notably that the Liquid Metal can be had, SIM-free, for £299. When you take a look at the prices of its rivals - the Samsung Galaxy S is £400, the iPhone 4 £499 and the HTC Desire HD, £499 - the Acer Liquid Metal becomes even more desirable.

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Acer Liquid Mini

Style and handling summary for Acer Liquid Mini review
With its curved, small chassis available in a number of colourways, this is one phone that will attract the fashion-conscious, although the screen is not the best

User friendliness summary for Acer Liquid Mini review
The Android user interface is mostly familiar and there are some decent customisation options, as well as an intelligent history page that makes it easy to retrace your steps

Feature set summary for Acer Liquid Mini review
Along with the useful history page, the phone boasts HSDPA, A-GPS, a five-megapixel snapper and Social Jogger, Acer's own networking feed

Performance summary for Acer Liquid Mini review
The display is reasonably responsive, although we noticed a touch of lag when we were opening applications

Battery power summary for Acer Liquid Mini review
Battery life is average, offering 480 hours of standby and 390 minutes of talktime on a full charge

Full Review and Specification for the Acer Liquid Mini
You have to hand it to Acer. Since the company turned its attention to producing Android handsets, their offerings have been decent, well-priced smartphones. Not exceptional, but decent enough. Mind you, it looked like the phone manufacturer had upped the ante with its recent Acer Liquid Metal and could be getting set to take on the likes of HTC and Samsung. So has it managed to continue this trend with the Acer Liquid Mini?

First impressions
You should be able to tell from its name that the Acer Liquid Mini is a tad small. But despite its diminutive dimensions, it still manages to squeeze in a 3.2in capacitive touch-screen and offer a virtual QWERTY keyboard that can be used in both landscape and portrait mode. It's obvious that Acer has put a lot of stock in the Liquid Mini's appearance. There are curved edges on the sides and top of the handset, and while our review model came in shiny piano black, you can also choose a handset in something more eye-catching, such as pink, green, blue and silver. The screen isn't quite so eye-catching, as it only has 256K colours.

The display is also not as responsive as you might hope. While Acer has gone for the more expensive capacitive type of screen rather than the resistive kind, we did find it suffered from a touch of lag - which may well be down to its 600MHz chip. Another complaint (although bear in mind that the Liquid Mini's price is very reasonable) we experienced a slight lag between pressing a feature's icon and it actually coming to life. And because you only get haptic feedback if you're using the virtual QWERTY keyboard and the four touch-keys under the screen, sometimes you have a moment where you're not sure if your key press has been recognised or not.

History feed
The Liquid Mini may be an Android handset, but Acer has made its own mark on it. On the homepage, for instance, you'll find six shortcut icons along the bottom of the display; you can change these depending on what you use most. But what we really liked was the way that if you swipe from left to right, you'll be rewarded with a list of thumbnails showing the most recently used web pages and applications. It makes it really easy make a call to someone you just phoned, take another look at your directions on Google Maps, or take another look at an article you were reading online.

And while we're mentioning Google Maps, we must say we were most impressed with the sat nav offering. It's possible to view maps in various ways, such as satellite or terrain - but our favourite feature was the 3D affect, which along with the accurate A-GPS and digital compass, made sure we found our way perfectly.

Web browsing
Surfing the net was mostly hassle-free, apart from the odd time when a text bar (Google search, for instance) would get covered up by the popup QWERTY keyboard. That meant we had to type blind, and were unable to check on what we had input. Just like on the Acer Liquid Metal, Acer's own Social Jogger merges Twitter and Facebook feeds into a single stream that is shown on a virtual wheel.
The snapper has five megapixels and offers lots of settings to help you get your shots right before you even press the shutter. Once the pictures are taken, though, you can't do much in the way of editing before you upload them onto your favourite social networking site.

The verdict
The Acer Liquid Mini doesn't live up to the standards of the Acer Liquid Metal, but it does still fly the flag for the manufacturer and its reputation of offering, decent, well-priced smartphones. If you want an affordable, pocket-friendly smartphone, then it's worth considering the Acer Liquid Mini.

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Acer beTouch E210

Style and handling summary for Acer beTouch E210 review
Smooth, slender and sits well in the hand, the only letdown is the somewhat plasticky back covering.

User friendliness summary for Acer beTouch E210 review
Resistive displays can't compete with capacitive screens, and the size of the E210's screen is no advantage either. We like the keyboard and trackpad, however.

Feature set summary for Acer beTouch E210 review
We're glad to see the almost-latest version of Android and of course all the apps available in Android Market. It's just a shame some don't work to their best on the small display.

Performance summary for Acer beTouch E210 review
While the chip is slow compared with those in most smartphones, we didn't experience much lag.

Battery power summary for Acer beTouch E210 review
Battery life is pretty good as that small display doesn't drain much juice; you'll get through a full day with no problem.

Full Review and Specification for the Acer beTouch E210
Acer has just released the beTouch E210, which includes both a touch-screen and a QWERTY keyboard. Sure, you'll find both on the BlackBerry Torch, but that is a far bigger phone, while the beTouch proves less pricey, slighter and smaller.

Plus, this is an Android handset - with all the benefits of access to more than 300,000 apps -while the Blackberry phone offers a smaller choice of mostly more expensive apps. Also, the phone is running Android 2.2 (Froyo) - it's not the very latest version of the OS but should offer most features that you'd want. While BlackBerry still holds the gold medal for email speed, security and reliability, there is a good email push app available for Android users.

Resistive display
Wake up the phone, and you'll need to swipe across the display to unlock it. Bear in mind that this is a resistive, rather than the pricier kind of capacitive display. It means it is pressure sensitive and we found it took a few goes to unlock the display - it is especially hard if you're trying to do this one-handed.

This is one of the frustrating things about resistive displays - along with the low resolution you usually experience on these screens. However, the E210's screen proved reasonably responsive, especially once we'd got used to using a little more pressure than we would on an iPhone, for instance. Mind you, it does mean you can use the display with a stylus or with your gloves on.

As has been seen on previous Acer QWERTY handsets, the beTouch E210 has a good keyboard. There are no spaces between the keys, which can be a problem, but as each one of them is domed, we found it easy to hit the right one. It may not be quite up to the standards of the Blackberry keyboard, but is certainly extremely usable.

3.2-megapixel snapper
The silver keys and bottom of the handset look pretty cool, though you'll find they work best in good light - when they're backlit they are rather difficult to read. Turn over the handset and you'll see the back cover is the same colour - although we found it rather plasticky in appearance. The Snapper lens and loudspeaker grill are the best-looking parts of the phone's back cover. It's just a shame that the grille leaves no space for a flash, which means this 3.2megapixel snapper is suitable for little more than very basic snaps.

The trackpad that sits beneath the display is very usable - it's far better than the trackball that featured on previous QWERTY phones from Acer. Around the trackpad sit four hard button for home, back, menu and search, plus call, end and send buttons. This is all very well, but it means there's not much room left for the display. It means the 2.6in screen is somewhat cramped - perhaps Acer should have chosen to put virtual Android buttons on the screen instead.

Internet browsing
It means that the screen is not big enough for gaming, and if you're trying to surf the web when you're used to a bigger screen it quickly becomes frustrating. It may not be a make or break issue, but you should be aware that it does limit the handset's usability. However, one good point is that the beTouch has 3G (which some of the less pricey BlackBerry phones don't have), along with the standard smartphone additions such as compass, GPS and Wi-Fi. Mind you, you won't be replacing your sat-nav, because of the small display.

The typing experience is excellent, and you'll see word prediction suggestions popping up along the bottom of the display. While this works well, when you tap a word, the software does not add a space, which is rather frustrating. However, if you want a decent priced alternative to a BlackBerry, the beTouch E210 is a good choice.

The verdict
If you're after a handset with the benefits of a BlackBerry, but at a lower price with a choice of more apps, there's plenty going for the Acer beTouch E210. It's good for messaging because of its useful keyboard, but the small display holds it back when it comes to multimedia playback, gaming and internet browsing. Plus, the snapper is underwhelming. It also offers GPS, 3G and Wi-Fi, but ultimately the small screen and uninspiring processor speed will prove hampering you want to do anything more than text or email. In which case, the more expensive Blackberry is a better option.

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