The device ships with Android 4.2 Jelly Bean, but is upgradeable to KitKat

Mar 1, 2014 02:30 GMT  ·  By

It's been less than two weeks since Acer announced their Liquid E3 and we've been offered the chance to see it live at Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2014 trade fair, not just in some press photos.

The good news is Acer Liquid E3 is solidly built with decent enough materials, so it won't fee cheap while using it. The bad news is the smartphone will definitely not stand out when it comes to design.

The Liquid E3 features the same dull design that makes it look like any other Acer smartphone, so if you have already seen one then you have seen them all.

Those who aren't bothered by how nice or ugly their smartphones look should definitely give the Liquid E3 a try. The handset is not ugly, but it doesn't have its own identity either.

Perhaps that's because Acer Liquid E3 is a mid-range handset, though this is no excuse for not making any changes to your smartphones lineup for years.

The front side of the device is made of a polished plastic, but the battery cover features a matte coating which eliminated the possibility of catching too many fingerprints. It's also worth mentioning the rubberized plastic on the back offers users a better grip on the smartphone.

Acer Liquid E3 hands-on
Acer Liquid E3 hands-on
  The smartphone has been equipped with a 1.2GHz quad-core MediaTek MT6589 processor and PowerVR SGX44 GPU inside, as well as 1GB of RAM, which is probably why we didn't experienced any lags or freezes.

The strong point of the Liquid E3 is the large 4.7-inch IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen display that supports HD (720p) resolution. It also comes with DTS sound enhancement. This feature is also confirmed by Acer via the phone's back cover where we can see the branding of the technology.

Acer Liquid E3 hands-on
Acer Liquid E3 hands-on
Surprisingly, the Liquid E3 comes with an impressive 13-megapixel photo snapper on the back, which is a rare thing for a mid-range smartphone. Unfortunately, we couldn't test it for obvious reasons, but at least it's there and users can take advantage of its capabilities.

When Acer announced the Liquid E3 about two weeks ago, it also stated the smartphone will ship with Android 4.2 Jelly Bean operating system out of the box.

However, during our visit at Acer's booth we found out the handset will receive an Android 4.4.2 KitKat upgrade at some point. Hopefully that will happen sooner rather than later.

Keep in mind the Liquid E3 is not yet available on the market, so you still have time to decide it's worth the €199 ($274) price tag recommended by Acer.

 

Photo Gallery (8 Images)

Acer Liquid E3 hands-on
Acer Liquid E3 hands-onAcer Liquid E3 hands-on
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