Acer has re-entered the Indian market with the new 5-inch Acer Liquid Jade smartphone, priced in the Rs 16,999 range, but will find competition from newly launched Lenovo S580 and others.
The phone, available with Snapdeal.com, marks the reappearance of the Acer brand in India’s smartphone market after several years. The Taiwanese firm was one of the first to enter India’s emerging smartphone market. It had a range of hi-tech Windows and Android phones in the 2007-09 era.
In terms of the phone itself, the models not exactly a high-end player, but a mid-range offering despite stylish looks. It also launched a cheaper model, E700.
The 5-inch Acer Liquid Jade comes with a 720p HD display, Gorilla Glass 3, Android 4.4, 13 MP main camera with 0.3 second focus and F1.8 aperture. The phone runs on a Quad Core processor and 2 GB of RAM, besides a large 16 GB internal memory. The Acer Liquid Jade measures 63 cc in volume and measures just 7.5 mm at its thickest edges.
In other words, not the highest of specifications. Phones with similar specifications can be bought from local Indian brands for around Rs 10,000.
Interestingly, the dual-SIM phone is being launched at time when Lenovo has launched a very similar model, the S580, at Rs 8,999.
Display quality is an area where Acer Liquid phones have outshone their peers in the past. However, Acer had always focused on the premium segment, Rs 30,000 and above. The second-coming, however, seems to be a more mass market oriented one.
That said, unless phones like the Liquid Jade are priced in the Rs 13,000 range, they would find it difficult to make a substantial dent in the market. Official ‘best buy’ prices of the phone have not yet been revealed, so there’s still some more information to come.
While most phone brands, including Xiaomi, Lenovo, Huawei and so on have tied up with Flipkart (with the exception of HTC and ZTE, which also tied up with Amazon), Acer has tied up with Snapdeal.
The cheaper of the two phones, Liquid E700, also has a 5-inch display. It features an “extremely long battery life,” triple SIM capability and Zero Air Gap screen.
“Equipped with a 3500 mAh battery the E700 is equipped to provide nonstop connectivity and entertainment with up to 24 hours of talk time, 60 hours of standby time, 12 hours of video viewing and 100 hours of music playback, allowing users to live their daily lives without interruption. Its crafted and streamlined curved form factor with light 155 g weight is designed to sit comfortable in your hands, minimizing the discomfort that may arise from long periods of holding the device.”
It also comes with Android 4.4 (KitKat), a quad-core processor, 2GB RAM and 16 GB of internal storage and a MicroSD card slot for expandable storage.
“The Liquid E700 is more suited to the upbeat business traveller who demands to remain connected round the clock. Its ‘always on’ capability helps users to multi-task between work and entertainment. All this comes sealed with the promise of quality from the Acer brand name,” it said.
The Acer Liquid 700 is available in India for Rs. 11,999 on Snapdeal.com.
