Skip to main content

Acer enters phablet market with 5.7-inch Liquid S1 device

acer liquid s1Another day, another phablet. This latest one, the Liquid S1 from Acer, was unveiled on Monday at the Computex trade fair in Taipei and marks the company’s first foray into the phablet market.

The palm-filling Android 4.2 handset features a 1280 x 720 5.7-inch display, 8-megapixel rear camera and 2-megapixel front, a Mediatek quad-core 1.5 GHz processor, 1GB of RAM, 8GB of storage (a microSD slot can take that to 32GB) and single/dual SIM cards.

The device’s Float User Interface takes advantage of the large screen, allowing users to keep several app windows open at the same time – a feature certain to keep avid multi-taskers happy.

“The press of a key brings up the Float Apps shortcut; apps on a translucent screen float over the function being used,” the Taiwan-based company explained in its release, adding, “It is easy to access or switch Float Apps anytime. These apps include camera, maps, calculator and notes.”

The Liquid S1 also features Float Caller, preventing your entire screen being taken over by a call notification. Instead, a “Float Caller mini-window” pops up on your screen, allowing the user to decide whether to take the call or respond with a message.

The phablet’s camera incorporates Voice Shot, a feature that enables snappers to activate the shutter simply by bellowing “cheese”. There’s also Smile Shot, which recognises smiling faces – “especially useful for taking pictures of babies and young children” – effectively ending the need to actually look at the subject you’re photographing. More point-and-wait than point-and-shoot.

Audio-wise, Studio Sound claims to deliver “astonishing” cinematic sound thanks to its “bigger sound field and higher vocal clarity”.

The Liquid S1, which comes in matte black or white, is set to hit Europe first, with shipping beginning in Q3 2013. France, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Ukraine, Russia and the UK will be among the initial markets for the new phablet, which will hit stores with a €349 ($455) price tag. We await information on a possible release date for the US and other markets.

[Source: Engadget; Image: Slashgear]

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Trevor Mogg
Contributing Editor
Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…
How to master your equalizer settings for the perfect sound
An equalizer from eqMac.

While most people will simply flip on the radio or load up Spotify to listen to music, audiophiles like to dig a bit deeper and customize their experience. This often comes in the form of adjustments to the equalizer, which offers the freedom to tweak every aspect of the sound booming out of headphones or speakers. Even some streaming services now have built-in EQs, giving you more ways than ever to play with your music and find something that best fits your ears.

Tinkering with the equalizer can be daunting to newcomers, as there are tons of cryptic settings you can manipulate. And if you mess with the wrong one, your sound quality might take a nasty hit. Thankfully, learning the basics isn't too difficult.

Read more
How to change your iPhone’s notification sound in iOS 17
how to change iphone default notification sound ios 17 sounds screenshot

Apple made a change to the default notification sound when it launched iOS 17, replacing “Tri-tone” with “Rebound.”Users have been unable to switch back to the original sound or select a different one as the default, and not everyone is a fan of the new tune. As you'd imagine, that's left some folks rather annoyed.

Read more
5 things I want to see in the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra
The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra and S Pen stylus on its screen.

The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra is definitely one of the best smartphones on the market right now, no doubt about that. You get incredible performance with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip, plenty of RAM and storage, a whopping 200MP camera, two telephoto lenses for 3x and 5x optical zoom, S Pen integration, and more. It’s certainly an impressive package.

But it’s not perfect. In fact, some weaknesses could be improved in the next version, the Galaxy S25 Ultra. Here’s what I hope to see next year.
A new design
Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra (left) and Galaxy S23 Ultra Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

Read more