Acer Liquid review

There's also a power button on the side, which you press to wake up the phone. This is something of a pain, since you have to then press the menu button to unlock it. With the two buttons on opposite sides of the phone, it's a faff to press them in sequence.

The buttons don't include a call or cancel key, so you don't have easy access to the phone dialler, but you could always chuck a shortcut on the desktop, so we don't think it's a problem. Potentially more troublesome is the fact that, during our tests, the screen once fell asleep while we were chatting, preventing us from pressing the on-screen end button. Kinks like this are common, even on high-end smart phones -- for example, the iPhone can barely make a call. But the Liquid makes it so easy to communicate in other ways, from Twitter to instant messaging, that we think it's worth sacrificing the straightforward calling capability of a simpler phone.

Take your best shot
The Liquid has a 5-megapixel camera on the back that takes decent shots in good light. Colours are vivid, although images could be sharper. The camera is almost useless in the dark, as it doesn't have a flash or LED light. The shutter button is also hard to press, because of the way it's hidden behind the front bezel, and there's no on-screen alternative.

A 2GB microSD memory card is helpfully included in the box, along with an adaptor for plugging it into a card reader. There's also a standard 3.5mm headphone jack, so you can use your own cans to listen to music and so on.

Conclusion
The Liquid offers a refreshing gulp of Android goodness, with some average Acer apps sprinkled here and there. Despite a processor that's slower than the pre-launch hype led us to believe, it's still sufficiently speedy, and great connectivity and a big screen make the Liquid an excellent Web-surfing phone. The smooth, touch-sensitive buttons make for a good-looking, although slightly plasticky, handset that's available for a very accessible price.

Edited by Charles Kloet