The company presents the new phone at MWC 2015

Mar 1, 2015 10:14 GMT  ·  By

Acer has just announced the Liquid M220, its first Windows Phone 8.1 device that's supposed to come as an alternative for customers who are looking for a cheap phone powered by Microsoft's mobile platform but don't necessarily want to go for a Lumia.

Presented at the MWC 2015 in Barcelona, Spain, the M220 comes with specs that would only appeal to those interested in a low-end device, as it features a 4-inch WVGA display with a resolution of 480x800 pixels, a 1.2 GHz dual-core processor, 512 MB of RAM, and 4 GB of storage, which can be further expanded with a microSD card.

As far as cameras are concerned, the M220 comes with a 5-megapixel unit on the back and a 2-megapixel one on the front for selfies and video calls.

Obviously, the device runs Windows Phone 8.1 but will be fully upgradeable to Windows 10 when the new OS becomes available. And yet, since it comes with only 512 MB of RAM, expect it to lack some Windows 10 features, as Microsoft has already confirmed that the limited hardware capabilities of such devices would cause a number of new options to be unavailable.

Design and availability

In terms of design, the new M220 isn't really impressive, but Acer likes to talk big about it and says that it comes with “a sophisticated surface texture design on the cover which sports a Thai Silk inspired pattern.”

And yet, do not expect this device to excel in terms of design because it's in the end just another low-end device and what you pay is what you get.

The new Acer Liquid M220 will go on sale this April in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, and will be available for $90 (€79).

The arrival of this new device shows that Microsoft is working with partners to expand the lineup of Windows Phone models on the market, but it's hard to believe that such a low-end phone could actually do anything good for the Redmond-based tech giant.

For the same price, you can get not only more powerful Android devices but also Lumias that come with superior hardware, including the 535, which has 1 GB of RAM and 8 GB of storage space. Needless to say, the Lumia 535 will also run Windows 10 faster and will come with features that won't be available on Acer's model.

So in the end, it's indeed a good thing to see new Windows Phone devices going out across the world, but Microsoft and its partners need to do a little bit more to make sure that more people give their phones a chance.

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Acer Liquid M220 (7 Images)

This is the new Acer Liquid M220
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