Acer Liquid Glow

Over time, Acer has proven that it is truly capable of producing noteworthy mobile computers. Just one look at its currently available range of tablets will tell you that Acer knows how to assemble the good stuff. So its tablet offerings are pretty remarkable. Can the same be said about its mobile phone offerings, like the Acer Liquid Glow?

The Acer Liquid Glow kind of feels like an outsider to the whole Android smartphone industry. It has a rather odd-sized screen at 3.7-inches, and is limited to just 512MB of RAM even though its default operating system is Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. If you’re out for sheer power, you may want to avert your eyes. Of course, the Glow is much more than just another Android smartphone with a half-gig of RAM under the hood.

At least it has a 1GHz Qualcomm MSM7227A processor, and comes with numerous wireless features like GPS, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth 3.0. It even comes with a 5-megapixel camera that has an LED flash for use in taking pictures in dark environments. Since it runs Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich by default, it would be no surprise if Acer decides to roll out an update to Android 4.1 Jelly Bean for users of the handset. That should help it make better use of the other hardware features onboard and improve power management for the included 1300 mAh battery.

That’s the problem with the phone, however. Since it’s going to be running the very latest versions of the Android software, it needs to be fitted with powerful innards. It may look nice, and the 1GHz processor may be able to handle the workload at first, but there’s no telling how long it will be able to keep up. With a quick look at what kind of options the competition is offering, the choice might become clear: spend money on something else.

Need To Know: Acer Liquid Glow

1. Runs Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich by default and might be upgraded to Android 4.1 Jelly Bean in the future. (The Good)

2. Comes equipped with a 5-megapixel camera that has a built-in LED flash. (The Good)

3. The touchscreen display is relatively small and low-resolution, considering it will be running a version of Android that has been optimized for HD screens. (The Bad)

4. Low RAM and weak processor may fail user expectations when it comes to performance. (The Bad)