Home » Review: Acer Liquid Jade Z

Review: Acer Liquid Jade Z

Acer-smartphone-Liquid-Jade-Z-Black-photogallery-01

 

Acer’s Liquid Jade Z is the best on offer from them. Featuring a quad core processor, a decent camera and an extremely light package, this retails for only £150.

 

Specs

Quick look a the specs:

 

  • MediaTek MT6732 Quad-core 1.50 GHz
  • 12.7 cm (5″) HD (1280 x 720)
  • 13 Megapixel, f/1.8 (Rear Camera), 5 Megapixel (Front Camera)
  • 1 GB RAM
  • 8 GB storage (3GB is available)
  • Dual SIM (both Nano), or a SIM and micro SD card support
  • Android 4.4.4
  • 4GB
  • Only 111g

Look and Feel

As I already mentioned, the first thing you notice about this phone is how light it is. The 5″ screen is packaged in a candy styled shell, with Acer going for a ‘we’re different’ look all around. The back has a plastic textured feel, while the front shows off a metal grill for the ear piece and an Acer logo a the bottom.

Acer-smartphone-Liquid-Jade-Z-Black-photogallery-02

A similar grill hides away the speaker at the bottom of the back. The design doesn’t quite work like the Motorola dip on the Moto G, but it is a good touch. Specially the textured feel means this won’t be slipping out of your hand any time soon.

The camera peeks out a bit, which is perfectly common these days. The top has the power button and the headphone socket, while the bottom has the micro USB port, on the righter side of the phone. This, interestingly, poses a challenge while I drove around with this phone and needed to charge it in my phone holder, which features a couple of brackets on the edges.

The side features a volume rocker key, and the dual SIM tray on the other side.

A notification LED also features on the front, though it seems to only blink red, and green when the battery is fully charged.

Bloatware

Looking at the phone in more detail, this one comes with an immense amount of bloatware. For a phone which only has 3GB left for the user to play with, and 8GB in total, this isn’t really the best move by Acer.

Apart from a host of Acer apps, you have apps from GameLoft, Booking.com, Amazon Apps, Clean Master, System Doctor, etc.

Performance

Despite having a decent processor, the performance of this phone is a bit sloppy. Often I had to wait a few seconds if I clicked on a Twitter or email notification, or wait for a few seconds when I opened an app. These are apps that are not known to be heavy either, so it was a bit disappointing. In fact, it really puts a downer on a device that could have great potential.

No idea what the issue is, the software skin used by Acer perhaps?

Speaker

Part of what it shows off is an HD Speaker with DTS sound. Spotify a play, the claim isn’t too bad. Yes, it isn’t HTC Boomsound, or replacing a proper speaker, but the quality is decent enough for casual music listening (ironning or washing up, anyone?).

Camera

Camera is one of my favourite parts of a smart phone, and this one does not disappoint. The Jade S left me a bit wanting, but this one corrects that very well. With a f/1.8 aperture, this matches the likes of Galaxy S6, capturing plenty of light and giving accurate colours. Once again though, the slowness of the phone gets in the way, which is even more frustrating in this case.

Battery Life

You get a decent battery life, with a day’s use out of this. With no SIM and just standby, it lasted a good 4-5 days.

 

More information

More information on the Liquid Jade Z can be found on the Acer website:

http://www.acer.co.uk/ac/en/GB/content/series/liquidjadez

It retails for £150, and can be bought from various online retailers.

Verdict

At £150, it is hard to be picky, but the slow performance seems to dominate an otherwise good device. Close, but needs work. This isn’t it yet, but it leaves me with a good feeling about the next one from Acer.

Related Posts

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *