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Acer Liquid E700 review: Energized multitasker that hates good photos

It’s not an easy price band to break into, yet Acer is betting big on the Liquid E700. The Rs 10,000-15,000 Smartphone market in India is a crowded space – heaps of brands vying for consumers who want serious bang for their buck. The E700’s talking points are its triple SIM - as if managing two SIM cards was not challenging enough, and its robust 3500mAh battery. Does the E700 pack enough punch to carve a niche for itself?

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It’s not an easy price band to break into, yet Acer is betting big on the Liquid E700. The Rs 10,000-15,000 Smartphone market in India is a crowded space – heaps of brands vying for consumers who want serious bang for their buck. The E700’s talking points are its triple SIM - as if managing two SIM cards was not challenging enough, and its robust 3500mAh battery. Does the E700 pack enough punch to carve a niche for itself?

The all-plastic build is fairly clean, makes a great first impression and certainly looks more expensive than its Rs 11,999 price tag. The rubberised matte back loves fingerprints and smudges while the slight curves on the top of the display set this device apart somewhat. A volume rocker sits on the top right spine next to an oddly placed micro USB slot. The power key on the top right of the device is not very comfortable to reach, however. There’s a hot key (Acer likes to call it ‘AcerRAPID’) that is placed right below the rear cam that is reminiscent of the signature LG rear power button. While this key fires up the camera, it can also be reset to activate any app of your choice. There’s one niggle though – the AcerRAPID does not activate the camera if you have activated a lock screen, defeating the purpose of a hot key. 

The top and bottom bezels are fairly wide, the 5-inch touch screen (720 x 1280 pixels, 294 PPI – identical to the Moto G) is fairly impressive for its price point; colours look vivid and text is crisp. Movies get a slight shot in the arm with Acer’s DTS powered speaker. While there are a set of perforations on the top and bottom of the device, suggesting the device has two front-facing speakers, there’s actually only one speaker placed under the screen. The output is clear yet not very loud but is still among the best in class.

The E700 is propelled by a Quad-Core 1.2GHz Mediatek processor coupled with 2GB of RAM. It’s not ultra smooth but gets the job done unless it’s pushed over the top – you’re good for Subway Surfer but not necessarily for graphically intensive gaming. There’s 16GB of internal memory and, with support for Micro SD cards up to 32GB, most users are covered. The device’s 3500 mAh battery is truly one of the device’s biggest strengths. With moderate usage – calls, data, some camera usage and a spot of gaming, you might well finish your work day at 60%. That’s better than what most of your colleagues manage with their devices. At a time when devices are upping the game on most hardware features, we wish more devices would focus on the battery, like Acer has done with the Liquid E700.

Both the device’s cameras are boosted by LED flashes. The LED flash makes a bigger impact with the 2MP front facing Cam; this is one of the better selfie-cams in the sub-Rs 15,000 price band, but there’s no wide-angle lens though. The rear cam produces average results in ambient light and struggles even more in low-light conditions. The custom camera interface has quite a few intuitive tweaks, like a presentation capture mode and a live capture mode, similar to HTC’s Zoe short video capture. The Acer E700 manages to pack in three Micro-SIM Cards under the hood, but there’s a small trade-off however - only one of the SIM cards can support 3G networks at any given time.  Acer’s custom UI was probably designed to keep things simple but is too busy for our liking, adding clutter to the Android KitKat.

The Liquid E700 joins a growing band of value-for-money Android devices that have begun to prove that cheap is not necessarily uncool. The build quality is decent, except for the odd placement of some of the keys. The device’s triple SIM support is a huge value-add for multi-taskers who can flit effortlessly between different mobile numbers, and for frequent fliers. The 3500 mAh battery is truly an energizer bunny. The device is slightly underpowered, also let down by Acer’s heavily layered custom UI, and a rear cam that doesn’t shine in quite a few scenarios.

What we liked:
Robust Battery
Support for three SIM cards
Decent selfie cam with LED flash  

What we didn’t like:
Camera struggles in low light conditions
Cluttered UI  

Specifications:
Display:  5-inch IPS LCD, 720 x 1280 pixels / 294 PPI
Memory: 2GB RAM, 16GB storage (plus support for Micro SD cards up to 32GB)
Processor: Mediatek MT6582 Quad-core 1.2GHz
Camera: 8MP main with LED, 2MP front facing with LED

Price: Rs 11,999

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