After a brief hiatus, Tiawanese electronics company Acer has made a comeback into the smartphone segment. Its first few phones have looked promising but were lacking in some key ingredients. Acer Liquid Z530, priced at Rs.6,999, is their first budget smartphone that has got most things right. At this price it competes against the Xiaomi Redmi 2 Prime (Rs.6,999). The phone, we believe is a solid alternative.
Design: Simple but ergonomic
Acer Liquid Z530 is a modest looking smartphone with wider than usual bezels around the display, which gives it a slightly long appearance. The bezels are bare except the Acer logo—the navigation keys have been integrated within the display. Despite the size, the phone doesn’t feel heavy or unmanageable. The curved edges and matte finish back improves the grip over the phone. It is as thick as the Redmi 2 Prime (9mm) but weighs 145g. The Redmi 2 Prime weighs 133g but then it comes with a smaller display. The solid build quality and good grip of Z530 negates the size and weight issue.
Display: Sharp and colour accurate
The smartphone has a good quality 5-inch display with a screen resolution of 1280x720p. Colours look accurate and natural, while text and icons look razor-sharp. Though it is not very bright, it handles reflections and legibility from odd angles very well. The display also has a Blue light filter, which subdues the display by switching off the blue colour and reduces strain on eyes. The Redmi 2 Prime has a 4.7-inch display with screen resolution of 1280x720p. The Liquid Z530 is a better device here as it offers the same clarity and sharpness on a bigger display.
Software: Plain Android in a new flavour
The Liquid Z530 runs Google’s Android 5.1 (Lollipop) operating system with a slightly modified version of plain Android. The fundamental layout is similar to plain Android, but the icons have been changed as has been the background colour in the app drawer—it is transparent instead of clear white. Acer has also added a HTC BlinkFeed-like feature that opens by sliding in from the left side of the display on the homescreen. It is basically an aggregator where a user can see their Facebook post, news feed, Twitter and YouTube updates at one place.
The Redmi 2 Prime has a more sophisticated and funky looking user interface, but it runs a very old version of Android and that gives the Liquid Z530 an advantage over it.
Performance: Smooth and consistent
Powered by 64bit quad-core MediaTek MT 6736 quad-core processor and 2GB RAM, the device delivers a solid performance and is very much at par with the likes of Redmi 2 Prime. We found the Liquid Z530 quite responsive, smooth and stutter-free as long as it is not strained too much. It even handled graphic-heavy FIFA 15 without any sluggishness or heating up on the back. The phone supports 4G on both SIM cards, and has 16GB of internal storage which is expandable to another 32GB via micro SD. The battery back-up is good. The 2,420mAh battery lasted a full day with mixed use. The Redmi2 Prime runs on Qualcomm’s 64-bit Snapdragon quad-core processor and has 2GB RAM and 16GB internal storage.
Camera: Good daylight snapper
The Smartphone’s 8-megapixel camera is fast and meant mostly for outdoor use. It handles colours brilliantly but struggles when it comes to detail reproduction and sharpness. Close-ups look much better. If the ambient light is good, it can turn in good results with some effort. For example, we had to tap several times on the screen to get the focus lock on the object properly and had to keep the hands really still to make up for the camera’s lack of optical image stabilisation. Low-light results are mostly blurry as is the case in most budget smartphones, including Redmi 2 Prime, which too has an 8-megapixel camera. Though it is fast and gives sharper results, it produces a slightly bluish tint in some photos.
