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MagyarReview Acer Liquid Z5 Smartphone
For the original German review, see here.
After a decrease in PC and laptop sales, Acer is increasingly adding tablets and smartphones to its range. A new offer from the Taiwanese manufacturer: The Acer Liquid Z5 that is located in the lower mid-range, but nevertheless features a large screen.
The price of just 170 Euros (~$234) catches attention, and barely a device from the current smartphone mid-range undercuts it. The Motorola Moto G would be an alternative for price-conscious buyers, just like the ZTE Blade III that, however, states 30 Euros (~$41) more in the price recommendation. The prices of LG's Optimus L5 II, Sony's Xperia M or Huawei's Ascend G525 can also keep up fairly well. None of the contenders can offer a 5-inch screen though.
It cannot be said that Acer's Liquid Z5 has a colorful casing. The front is always black, and the back is either white or gray. As to the back: It is made of matte plastic that does not have a very high-quality feel, but its stiffness is still acceptable. That cannot be said about the front: When higher pressure is applied to the screen, visible image errors that first disappear after a few seconds appear.
However, the build is quite decent. The silhouette of 8.8 millimeters is quite slim, and the weight of 147 grams is acceptable. Finally, the speaker grilles on the upper and lower front side provide a hint of design; nevertheless, the Liquid Z5 is rather restrained.
Connectivity
At first glance on the feature list, we notice that Acer's Liquid Z5 accepts two SIM cards at the same time. Thus, it is possible to combine a low-priced Internet rate on one SIM card with a low-priced telephone rate on the other. Or to insert both a company and a private SIM card in one device. It is quite easy to manage owing to Android. However, this feature is not really new.
We like the fact that Acer uses both SIM slots for something else: There is a full-size SIM slot and one for micro-SIMs. Consequently, an adapter, or a new card in a different format are not needed; the card is simply inserted into the corresponding slot.
Software
The operating system Android 4.2 is installed, which has been slightly expanded via Acer's Float UI. Pressing the lower left button for a longer time opens a popup menu where specific, frequently used apps can be placed over the current screen in the form of a window. This, for example, works with maps or a calculator.
The installed software is rather moderate with a flashlight app and Polaris Office 4.0. Both are also available in the Play Store.
Communication & GPS
Wi-Fi standard 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, quad-band GSM and GPRS, and dual-band HSPA+. Those are the key specs of the communication modules in Acer's Liquid Z5. The Wi-Fi module's reception quality is satisfactory but the signal quickly drops from three-quarters down to one-half at a distance of ten meters from the router and through three walls.
It took a long time on the open field before the GPS receiver found enough satellites to locate us. We rode over a bridge and through the woods by bike and compared the logged GPS route with the professional Garmin Edge 500 navigation system. The result: Acer's Liquid Z5 is very inaccurate; it could not detect the bridge crossing in either direction and also deviated from the actual route in the woods.
It gets increasingly more difficult for the sensor to locate the position near buildings, and the reception ultimately completely fails. Consequently, GPS reception is not possible indoors either.
Telephony and Speech Quality
Basically, the used phone app is Google's standard software, but Acer has added a feature dubbed Float Caller. Incoming calls are displayed in a floating window below the presently opened app. Thus, it is possible to quickly stop any operations and answer the call or, when unwanted, to completely ignore it.
The speech quality is quite good; however, callers sometimes sound a bit tinny. The big speakers on the front are well-suitable for hands-free conversations. They have sufficient volume, and the caller is quite clearly intelligible.
Cameras and Multimedia
Acer's camera is on par with the contenders - at least in terms of resolution. The camera can display up to 5 megapixels (2560x1920 pixels). However, when the image quality is compared, the Liquid Z5 clearly loses ground. The pictures are overexposed and have a bluish cast. For example, Nokia's 1020 renders details of dark areas considerably better without overexposing bright areas.
The 0.3 megapixel front-facing camera will really only satisfy undemanding users. The popular selfies are pixelated and exhibit color freckles even in medium bright light. Although video conferencing is possible, an acceptable image is only achieved in bright light.
Accessories
Only a power supply and a stereo headset are included. Flip covers are optionally available, but they cover the Rapid button on the back when opened. This unfortunately limits the usability for left-handed users. At least they include a window which allows reading the time, weather and battery status without opening the cover.
Warranty
Acer included a 24-month warranty on its smartphones.
Input Devices and Controls
The aforementioned Rapid button on the back is a clever idea. It can be freely mapped, and opens the camera app in default settings. Positioning it on one of the edges might have made it more suitable as a shutter release.
Acer installs Swype as the default keyboard. A special focus is placed on smooth text inputting without lifting the finger from the screen. The letter keys are high but also fairly small in portrait mode due to the added umlaut keys. The wider keys of the default Android app subjectively feel more accurate.
The touchscreen responds reliably up into the corners, and the three touch buttons under the screen also operate well.
Display
"Not the brightest" - this verdict about a student would be quite mean, but it must be said about Acer's Liquid Z5 - or to be precise, about its screen. It has a size of 5-inches, and a category standard resolution of 854x480 pixels. Only Motorola's Moto G offers a 720p resolution among the comparison devices.
Our review sample's average brightness of 307.1 cd/m² places it at the end of our comparison devices. Only Huawei's Ascend G525 has a darker screen. The screen in Sony's Xperia M has a higher brightness of averagely 115 cd/m².
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Brightness Distribution: 85 %
Center on Battery: 339 cd/m²
Contrast: 547:1 (Black: 0.62 cd/m²)
ΔE Color 10.95 | 0.5-29.43 Ø5
ΔE Greyscale 12.53 | 0.57-98 Ø5.3
Gamma: 2.29
Since the screen's black level of 0.62 cd/m² is fairly high in the comparison, the contrast drops to a poor 547:1. This ultimately puts the Liquid Z5 in last place among the comparison devices. This is expressed in pale colors and black colors that have a grayish cast, and consequently they do not look very vivid in image reproduction.
The screen's intense bluish cast is noticed in the more accurate measurement using the colorimeter and CalMAN software. The colors are also remote from the original rate of the reference color space. The average DeltaE shift is 10.95. The grayscale deviates extremely, and the display has a clear bluish cast that is visible to the naked eye.
Those who frequently use their smartphone outdoors will be familiar with the fact that the reflective touchscreen is usually not perfectly suitable for that purpose. The only middling brightness of Acer's Liquid Z5 does not make things better. It makes it increasingly difficult to recognize anything on the screen in bright surroundings.
The colors and brightness remain stable for a fairly long time when looking at the screen in portrait mode from the sides. However, the brightness changes very quickly from above and below, and the image distorts.
Performance
It becomes clear that the dual-core processor in MediaTek's MT6572, which clocks with 1.2 GHz, calculates on category average when looking at the benchmarks. The same is true for the ARM Mali-400 MP graphics chip with a clock rate of 500 MHz. However, it also becomes clear that the performance of the similarly priced Motorola Moto G is considerably higher. It sometimes has an advantage of 53% in the AnTuTu 4 system benchmark, and even as much as 223% in the 3DMark graphics rating. Sony's Xperia M also particularly has a clear lead in graphics calculation.
Routine use of the smartphone is usually smooth. However, there are occasional stutters or lapses when the relatively low-clocked dual-core processor cannot keep up.
Users who mainly use the smartphone for Internet browsing will be content with the Liquid Z5. The performance in the benchmarks is overall slightly above the comparison field.
We still have to note that many benchmarks completely refused to run or crashed on the device; even Octane that runs as a JavaScript benchmark in the browser crashed. The system does not make an especially stable impression, and it cannot be excluded that other apps will crash or even run.
| AnTuTu v4 - Total Score (sort by value) | |
| Acer Liquid Z5 | |
| Acer Liquid Z3 Duo | |
| Motorola Moto G 1. Gen XT1032 | |
| Huawei Ascend G525 | |
| Geekbench 3 | |
| 32 Bit Single-Core Score (sort by value) | |
| Acer Liquid Z5 | |
| Acer Liquid Z3 Duo | |
| Motorola Moto G 1. Gen XT1032 | |
| Sony Xperia M | |
| 32 Bit Multi-Core Score (sort by value) | |
| Acer Liquid Z5 | |
| Acer Liquid Z3 Duo | |
| Motorola Moto G 1. Gen XT1032 | |
| Sony Xperia M | |
| 3DMark | |
| 1280x720 Ice Storm Standard Score (sort by value) | |
| Acer Liquid Z5 | |
| Acer Liquid Z3 Duo | |
| Motorola Moto G 1. Gen XT1032 | |
| ZTE Blade III | |
| LG E460 Optimus L5 II | |
| Sony Xperia M | |
| Huawei Ascend G525 | |
| 1280x720 Ice Storm Standard Graphics (sort by value) | |
| Acer Liquid Z5 | |
| Acer Liquid Z3 Duo | |
| Motorola Moto G 1. Gen XT1032 | |
| ZTE Blade III | |
| LG E460 Optimus L5 II | |
| Sony Xperia M | |
| Huawei Ascend G525 | |
| 1280x720 Ice Storm Standard Physics (sort by value) | |
| Acer Liquid Z5 | |
| Acer Liquid Z5 | |
| Acer Liquid Z3 Duo | |
| Motorola Moto G 1. Gen XT1032 | |
| ZTE Blade III | |
| LG E460 Optimus L5 II | |
| Sony Xperia M | |
| Huawei Ascend G525 | |
| Peacekeeper - --- (sort by value) | |
| Acer Liquid Z5 | |
| Motorola Moto G 1. Gen XT1032 | |
| ZTE Blade III | |
| LG E460 Optimus L5 II | |
| Sony Xperia M | |
| Huawei Ascend G525 | |
Emissions
Temperature
The section "Temperature" is pleasing for Acer's Liquid Z5. We can unhesitatingly rate it with "Very Good." At most, a slight temperature increase to 30.3 °C is felt on the upper front. The back does not heat up much more with 33 °C. That is barely noticed, and thus the Liquid Z5 can be held comfortably in all operating modes.
(+) The maximum temperature on the upper side is 32.4 °C / 90 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 33 °C / 91 F, compared to the average of 33.8 °C / 93 F
(+) In idle usage, the average temperature for the upper side is 27.8 °C / 82 F, compared to the device average of 32.7 °C / 91 F.
Speakers
Acer installs a total of two front-facing speakers in its Liquid Z5 - has Acer maybe copied this from HTC's One? Probably, but it is not illegitimate to adopt cool features from high-end devices and add them to the mid-range.
The speakers' sound is also decent, though they cannot compete with high-end devices. Occasional distortions are heard in maximum volume, which is quite high. Besides that, it almost completely lacks low ranges. Nevertheless, it is likely the best sound in the lower mid-range.
Energy Management
Power Consumption
The power consumption of Acer's Liquid Z5 is midfield. Motorola's Moto G manages to consume much less power in idle mode, and the same is true for both Sony's Xperia M and Huawei's Ascend G525. However, these smartphones have higher maximum power consumption than Acer's Liquid Z5. But the maximum power consumption is rather insignificant because smartphones are usually busy with easy tasks. Thus, the Liquid Z5 might very well be at a disadvantage in battery runtimes.
| Off / Standby |   0.01 / 0.1 Watt |
| Idle |  0.8 / 1.4 / 1.7 Watt |
| Load |
2.4 / 2.7 Watt |
    
| |
Battery Runtime
In fact, the relatively high idle consumption plus the battery with roughly the same capacity results in clear disadvantages for the battery runtime of Acer's Liquid Z5 in the comparison field. Only 5:41 hours of continuous Wi-Fi Internet browsing is possible before the battery is drained.
Thus, the Liquid Z5 is in one of the last places. Motorola's Moto G lasts almost three times as long. However, ZTE's Blade III and LG's Optimus L5 II offer similar runtimes. The runtimes are generally just still practicable, but the charger will need to be taken along on an excursion.
Verdict
Do buyers of a 170 Euros (~$234) smartphone have to be frustration-resistant? Very likely, because Acer's Liquid Z5 comes with a few major points of criticism that should be considered before purchase. The performance is decent and quite suitable for routine use. However, it also occasionally causes waiting times when booting, and it stutters in the menu. We deducted 3% from the final score because apps recurrently crash. This might be eliminated with a software update though. Nevertheless, games like Iron Man 3, which is a rather speedy 3D game, run satisfactorily in the screen's resolution.
As to the screen, the user will have to live with low brightness, distorted colors, and an intense bluish cast. In addition to that, there is the very imperfect picture quality of the camera, the inaccurate GPS, and the not very stable display.
But there are certainly things about the Z5 that have been adroitly solved, and which might support a purchase. The two differently sized SIM slots make the smartphone flexible, the Rapid button is a good supplement to the operating concept, and the front-facing stereo speakers are mainly only found in high-end devices.
Users can give Acer's Liquid Z5 a chance if they do not often use the smartphone's camera, they can ignore the screen's bluish cast and if the phone is not to be used for navigating. Other users will want to cast their eyes on Motorola's Moto G, which offers more power and a better build for the same price. Its camera and GPS are also superior, so it could cut deeply into the Acer Liquid Z5's target market.
