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MagyarReview Acer Liquid Z3 Duo Smartphone
For the original German review, see here.
The Acer Liquid Z3 Duo is an entry-level smartphone available for a low price and is available in blue, red, white and black. The Taiwanese manufacturer has set a retail price of 99 Euros (~$136), but currently the device is available starting at 80 Euros (~$110). Of course, for such a low price, the buyer will have to make a few compromises: the 3.5-inch TFT screen of the phone has a resolution of 480x320 pixels and it runs on a 1 GHz dual-core CPU with 512 MB RAM. The storage is 4 GB and can be extended via MicroSD by up to 32 GB. The operating system is Google Android 4.2.2.
In this price range, the Z3 does not have much competition. The Huawei Ascend Y300 (starting at 95 Euros, ~$130) and the Nokia Lumia 520 (starting at 99 Euros, ~$136) are probably the biggest competitors. Other devices, like the Mobistel Cynus E1 (starting at 74 Euros, ~$102) and the Wiko Ozzy (starting at 79 Euros, ~$108) have not yet been tested by Notebookcheck.
Case
The case of the Acer Liquid Z3 measures 109.9 x 60 x 10.4 mm - very compact. The phone will fit in any pocket. The front is made of glossy synthetic material, which is a magnet for fingerprints, whereas the back is made of a soft, matte material. The removable battery flap is made of the same material and is seated securely and snugly in its place.
If the back cover is removed, the battery can be swapped out. Beneath, the user will find both SIM slots and the slot for the MicroSD card. The smartphone is robust: we could not bend or otherwise deform it. The gaps between the materials are even and the pressure points of the volume rocker and power button are a bit spongy. This leaves room for improvement which would provide better feedback.
The workmanship of our test model is good.
Connectivity
Due to the price class, it should not be surprising that the Acer Liquid Z3 Duo has meager connectivity. The Micro-USB 2.0 port allows charging of the device and data transfer from a computer. The MicroSD card reader accepts the SDHC format and can extend the memory by up to 32 GB.
Software
The operating system is Google Android Jelly Bean (version 4.2.2). The customizations have been kept to a minimum and are thus limited to a few widgets. The settings offer the options to configure the DTS Sound and register the phone with Acer.
Communication & GPS
The Acer Liquid Z3 Duo has a WLAN module. It supports the IEEE-802.11 b/g/n standards and operates at the 2.4 GHz frequency. This is not a high-end module as testified by our test. Although the smartphone shows a medium signal quality at 10 meters from the router (Fritz!Box 6360) we did not note any limitations on surfing the web. However, if you move 20 meters away, you will lose the signal.
The mobile features of our dual-SIM test model are also quite ordinary. The Acer Z3 supports Triband-GSM and HSPA (900 and 2,100 MHz) with a download speed of up to 20.5 MB/s. However, only the first SIM slot supports the fast data transfer. Within Europe, we did not encounter any issues with this combination.
The GPS receiver does not acquire a signal to a satellite indoors. Outdoors, it requires a few minutes to find the signal, but then shows our position accurately. However, in comparison to the Garmin navigator, our Acer test model puts on a poor show. Thankfully, it correctly picks out the route.
Telephone functions and Speech quality
The telephone app of the Acer Liquid Z3 Duo does not hold any surprises for any user who has experienced Google Android. The visual customizations are a nice extra.
When held up to the ear, the speech quality of the smartphone is average. Although the caller is easy to understand, our own voice comes across very quiet. This means that the ambient noises can be very disturbing above a certain level. This speaker is not very loud and we recommend its use only in quiet surroundings. The headset delivered with the smartphone is very bad. At times, the speech is not processed and both sides seem very dull. Overall, the Z3 does not offer very good speech quality but for this price class, it is acceptable and can be easily rectified by a better headset.
Cameras & Multimedia
A front camera is not provided in the Acer Liquid Z3 Duo. The camera on the back offers three megapixels (2048x1536 pixels) and lacks flash. The camera quality is not great: the pictures are easily blurred in the borders and tend to be tinted blue in bright surroundings. Snapshots worth keeping are not going to be possible with this camera. However, taking a quick picture to send via a messenger server is possible with this camera.
Accessories
The accessories of the Acer Liquid Z3 Duo are not extensive. The environment-friendly packaging is easy to take apart. The smartphone, a 1,500 mAh battery, a USB cable and a 5 W power adapter (5 V, 1 A) are included. The USB cable is used to transfer data as well as to charge the phone via the power adapter.
The manufacturer does not offer any accessories specifically for this model. However, third-party manufacturers should offer plenty of protective display flaps, headsets and more.
Warranty
The manufacturer ensures the device for 24 months. This cannot be extended. EU buyers will enjoy the 24 month manufacturer's warranty.
Input Devices and Interface
The Acer Liquid Z3 Duo has a 3.5-inch capacitive touchscreen, which serves as the primary input device for the phone. The screen supports only two fingers at a time. This may not be much, but is sufficient for this small surface. The touch properties are decent, but in the borders, the touch input is often not recognized. Thankfully, in all other areas, the gestures are quickly recognized and executed.
The virtual keyboard is quite small due to the limited screen size and low resolution. In portrait mode, typing long texts can quickly turn into a game of skill. We recommend landscape mode as the keys are much larger which makes typing messages much easier.
Display
The screen of the Acer Liquid Z3 Duo measures 3.5-inches. It has a 480x320 pixel resolution and a display ratio of 3:2, all of which translates to a pixel density of 165 PPI. These may not be amazing values, but they are sufficient for everyday use. The Android home screen is a bit cramped but the captions are legible.
The display of our test model is quite bright: up to 355 cd/m². The illumination of 86% is also good. The Nokia and Huawei competition (both offer max. 300 cd/m², 92%) have better illumination but are not as bright as our test model.
We did not detect any bright patches on the screen, but the backlight gleams through the edges. However, this is only noticeable if one looks at the phone from a flat angle.
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Brightness Distribution: 86 %
Center on Battery: 355 cd/m²
Contrast: 798:1 (Black: 0.44 cd/m²)
ΔE Color 11.9 | 0.5-29.43 Ø4.95
ΔE Greyscale 14.42 | 0.5-98 Ø5.2
Gamma: 2.4
The black value of our panel measures 0.44 cd/m² and is at the same level as the Lumia 520 (0.52 cd/m², 577:1) and the Ascend Y300 (0.45 cd/m², 667:1). The contrast ratio is much better at 798:1.
The colors of the small smartphone are not great. Both gray levels and mixed colors measure on average at or above 12 points on the DeltaE scale. The color saturation and accuracy is also lacking. Cyan (dE 23) and white (dE 18) show clearly visible deviations. However, as a great color representation was never a goal for the Z3, we recommend that the reader look past it.
The high brightness of the panel and the good contrast ratio mean that the user can enjoy the smartphone outdoors, even when it is quite bright. The reflective display can be a little problematic as direct sunlight can make the panel of the Acer Liquid Z3 Duo illegible.
The viewing angle stability of the TFT panel in the Acer Liquid Z3 Duo is modest. The picture remains stable over a wide angle along the vertical axis (in portrait mode). Once we pass the 120 degrees mark, the brightness changes. However, horizontally, the display is prone to color changes and visible drops in brightness if the viewing angle changes by even a few degrees. If the angle exceeds 40 degrees, the colors will be inverted.
Performance
The Acer Liquid Z3 Duo runs on the MT6572 processor from MediaTek. This is a dual-core processor, which operates at up to 1.2 GHz per core, but it seems that the Taiwanese manufacturer has chosen a lower-clocked version, which runs at 1.0 GHz. This CPU is a 28 nm Cortex A7 processor which is supported by the somewhat outdated ARM Mali-400 MP graphics chip. Furthermore, the system is equipped with 512 MB LPDDR2 RAM.
The limited performance of the SoC is clear when we run graphics-intensive apps. The GFX Bench 2.7, Basemark X and Epic Citadel benchmarks all crashed. The 3DMark Unlimited test notified us that the hardware of our test model was not compatible. The remaining tests seem to agree that the hardware delivers weak performance. In 3DMark Ice Storm, the Liquid Z3 scores 1,655 points. Only a few devices, like the ZTE Blade III (Adreno 200), are slower. The processor performs quite well, according to Linpack: in the single-core test, our test model is about twice as fast as the Blade III and much faster than the Xperia J.
| Geekbench 2 - 32 Bit - Total Score (sort by value) | |
| Acer Liquid Z3 Duo | |
| Huawei Ascend Y300 | |
| ZTE Blade III | |
| Sony Xperia J | |
| Xtreamer JoyZ | |
| 3DMark | |
| 1280x720 Ice Storm Standard Score (sort by value) | |
| Acer Liquid Z3 Duo | |
| ZTE Blade III | |
| Xtreamer JoyZ | |
| 1280x720 Ice Storm Standard Graphics (sort by value) | |
| Acer Liquid Z3 Duo | |
| ZTE Blade III | |
| Xtreamer JoyZ | |
| 1280x720 Ice Storm Standard Physics (sort by value) | |
| Acer Liquid Z3 Duo | |
| ZTE Blade III | |
| Xtreamer JoyZ | |
| Smartbench 2012 - Productivity Index (sort by value) | |
| Acer Liquid Z3 Duo | |
| Huawei Ascend Y300 | |
| ZTE Blade III | |
| Sony Xperia J | |
| Xtreamer JoyZ | |
| Linpack Android / IOS | |
| Single Thread (sort by value) | |
| Acer Liquid Z3 Duo | |
| ZTE Blade III | |
| Sony Xperia J | |
| Xtreamer JoyZ | |
| Multi Thread (sort by value) | |
| Acer Liquid Z3 Duo | |
| ZTE Blade III | |
| Sony Xperia J | |
| Xtreamer JoyZ | |
The browser performance of the Acer Liquid Z3 Duo is quite good with Google Chrome 30. Still, we should mention that during our test, the Peacekeeper and Google Octane 2.0 benchmarks both crashed.
Otherwise, our websites loaded quite quickly, even though it is by no means as fast as a high-end smartphone. In SunSpider 0.9.1, our test model beats all its competitors. Only in Browsermark 2.0 does the Lumia 520 perform a bit faster and the same goes for the Huawei Y300 in Mozilla Kraken. Due to the small screen size, we recommend loading mobile versions of web pages.
| Sunspider - 0.9.1 Total Score (sort by value) | |
| Acer Liquid Z3 Duo | |
| Sony Xperia J | |
| Huawei Ascend Y300 | |
| Nokia Lumia 520 | |
| Octane V1 - Total Score (sort by value) | |
| Acer Liquid Z3 Duo | |
| Sony Xperia J | |
| Huawei Ascend Y300 | |
| Nokia Lumia 520 | |
| Browsermark - --- (sort by value) | |
| Acer Liquid Z3 Duo | |
| Sony Xperia J | |
| Huawei Ascend Y300 | |
| Nokia Lumia 520 | |
| Mozilla Kraken 1.0 - Total (sort by value) | |
| Acer Liquid Z3 Duo | |
| ZTE Blade III | |
| Sony Xperia J | |
| Huawei Ascend Y300 | |
| Nokia Lumia 520 | |
* ... smaller is better
The storage of the Acer Liquid Z3 Duo is quite fast in comparison to the competition. Sadly, it is limited to 4 GB internally, but can be extended using the SD card slot. As the Android OS requires some space, the user will only have a mere 2.4 GB available. We recommend using a 32 GB MicroSD card to upgrade the storage. This will prove quite useful, as otherwise the user might not even have enough space to install the system updates.
| AndroBench 3-5 | |
| Sequential Read 256KB (sort by value) | |
| Acer Liquid Z3 Duo | |
| ZTE Blade III | |
| Sony Xperia J | |
| Huawei Ascend Y300 | |
| Sequential Write 256KB (sort by value) | |
| Acer Liquid Z3 Duo | |
| ZTE Blade III | |
| Sony Xperia J | |
| Huawei Ascend Y300 | |
| Random Read 4KB (sort by value) | |
| Acer Liquid Z3 Duo | |
| ZTE Blade III | |
| Sony Xperia J | |
| Huawei Ascend Y300 | |
| Random Write 4KB (sort by value) | |
| Acer Liquid Z3 Duo | |
| ZTE Blade III | |
| Sony Xperia J | |
| Huawei Ascend Y300 | |
Games
The gaming performance of the Acer Liquid Z3 Duo is quite good. The weak ARM Mali-400 MP graphics chip gave up when we ran a variety of synthetic benchmarks. Thus, we recommend staying away from the latest 3D games. Furthermore, the games would require a lot of space and this could quickly push the internal storage of our device to its limits. The modest reaction times of our touchscreen are also another reason to stay away from smartphone games, especially ones which require quick reflexes. Sensors work reliably.
Still, we could run classics like Angry Birds on the Z3 and even games like Plants vs. Zombies can be run well.
Emissions
Temperature
The surface temperatures of the Liquid Z3 reach a max of 33.3 °C while idle. At load the phone heats up to 39.1 °C. The device can get quite warm, but not uncomfortably so. These values were achieved by running the demanding app, Stability Test, on our test model for an hour, which pushes the CPU and GPU simultaneously to their limits. This scenario should not occur in everyday use and thus the Z3 will not heat up so much.
(+) The maximum temperature on the upper side is 39.1 °C / 102 F, compared to the average of 35 °C / 95 F, ranging from 21.9 to 56 °C for the class Smartphone.
(+) The bottom heats up to a maximum of 35.7 °C / 96 F, compared to the average of 33.8 °C / 93 F
(+) In idle usage, the average temperature for the upper side is 30.8 °C / 87 F, compared to the device average of 32.7 °C / 91 F.
Speakers
The small mono speaker on the back of the Z3 Duo performs surprisingly well. Even at max volume, the speaker output, which is heavy on the high notes, is not distorted. However, voices can be a little dull and middles are nowhere to be found. The bass is very weak.
The headphones delivered with the smartphone do not perform much better. We find the DTS optimization a great option which cannot do much with the default factory settings but it might be really helpful with the optional accessories.
Energy Management
Power Consumption
The power consumption of the Acer Liquid Z3 Duo is relatively high. While idle, the smartphone consumes between 1.1 and 2.2 W. The Lumia 520 (0.8 – 2.2 W) and the Ascend Y300 (0.7 – 1.3 W) consume a lot less despite having bigger displays.
At load the Z3 is very power-hungry and requires up to 3.9 W. Both competitors require 33% less energy in the same scenario.
| Off / Standby |   0 / 0.1 Watt |
| Idle |  1.1 / 2 / 2.2 Watt |
| Load |
2.8 / 3.9 Watt |
    
| |
Battery Life
The Acer Liquid Z3 Duo is equipped with a removable 1,500 mAh battery (5.6 Wh). We measured the max runtime with minimum brightness and all wireless modules turned off. The smartphone ran for more than 23 hours.
The minimum runtime was measured with max brightness and all wireless options turned on. The Z3 lasts for more than four hours which is quite good.
The WLAN test is far more practical and allows us to estimate a realistic runtime for everyday use. The display is set to 150 cd/m² and, except for WLAN, all other wireless modules are turned off. We then run a browser script which loads a different website every 40 seconds. After nine hours, the smartphone needs to be recharged.
The Z3 offers quite good battery life. The Lumia 520 (WLAN test 13 hours, 1,430 mAh) is more efficient despite having a smaller battery. The Ascend Y300 (WLAN test 14 hours, 1,950 mAh) lasts longer but has a much larger battery. The Acer Liquid should last an entire workday without problems.
Verdict
The Acer Liquid Z3 Duo is a low-budget smartphone and this is noticeable. The design is plain and simple but the color choice is quite extensive. The workmanship is good and the second SIM slot gives the user a lot more options. The display does not have a very high resolution, but it is quite bright and offers strong contrast.
Acer aims the Z3 at buyers looking for a cheap smartphone for making calls or sending messages, although it seems they are prioritizing messenger programs and social media platforms over traditional telephone calls.
The performance is not great, but it is sufficient for everyday use with the Google Android OS, which is available in an updated version. Price-conscious buyers, who are satisfied with the most basic of smartphone qualities, should pick this smartphone up without a second thought.
