By Faye Pablo
THE Acer brand has been known for high-quality desktop and laptop computers. With the explosion of sales in devices smaller and handier than these traditional computers, the brand also became applied to smartphones. One of the handheld devices that carried the Acer brand is called “Liquid Zest,” a unit of which was given by the company to review.
Let’s start with design and appearance, which the Acer Liquid Zest passed but not with flying colors. It’s very handy and didn’t add to the weight of my shoulder bag—it’s slim at 8.4 millimeters and only weighs 125 grams. I kept thinking if the Liquid Zest really has a battery and other hardware inside since it’s very light and slim.
The device’s back cover is made out of plastic, but Acer has gone for a metal-brushed finish that makes the Liquid Zest look nice. The device, I was told, is also available in midnight black and daylight white.
The 720-pixel resolution and 5-inch screen of Liquid Zest makes everything seen on-screen look sharp.
However, what I saw after using the Liquid Zest’s camera—8-megapixel (MP) rear and 5-mp wide-angle front—is not what I got. Everything I took in the photo became smooth, but blurry. The camera’s default setting could be to produce low-quality images. This sucks as my generation is known for generating selfies and numerous images.
Being a quad-core smartphone and with an Android 6.0 version, I was expecting Acer Liquid Zest to be really fast and lag free. It is, indeed, very fast.
But unfortunately, and I really do not know why, there were many times my Facebook app keeps on crashing. I checked to see if the app needs to be updated. However, it is up-to-date and I could not find a reason for the app to keep on crashing.
I also don’t know why Acer installed the NAV app, which is similar to Waze: I can’t even use it. Whenever I open the NAV, I would get this message: “The application is not available on this device.” Hence, for me, the NAV is useless and only consumes space.
When fully charged, the Liquid Zest lasts for four hours active use.
Nevertheless, I enjoyed using this phone, especially when watching missed episodes of different favorite TV series because of the Liquid Zest’s wide screen. The Liquid Zest also offers a great sound because of its DTS sound processor.
Acer Liquid Zest is a budget market smartphone because it only costs P6,999 ($151.28). It’s not advisable for working people rather for teenagers. It’s very useful for assignments and research projects, but not for proposals and on-the-spot meeting presentations. The Liquid Zest is nice for a selfie, but not for taking breath-taking view photographs.
All in all, I like Acer Liquid Zest and I recommend it to all the moms out there whose sons and daughters keep on insisting to have their own smartphone. It’s still actually worth it.