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Acer is new in the smartphone business, launching its first Windows Mobile handset only this year after its acquisition of E-Ten. The company's moving fast though, and has just announced its first Android mobile phone called the Liquid. It comes with a few features available on only high-end Windows Mobile devices--let's see what they are.

Upside

Most Android phones on the market come with HVGA (480 x 320-pixel) displays. When Google released version 1.6 of its mobile operating system (OS), improved support for screen resolutions was added. Taking full advantage of that, Acer put a large WVGA (800 x 480-pixel) screen on the Liquid. This is similar to what you find on devices like the company's own M900 and the HTC Touch HD. With more than twice the number of pixels compared with HVGA, you can expect sharper graphics and videos and be able to view more text in one page without scrolling, making documents easier to read.
Another important specification in the Liquid is the 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor. This is currently found in the Toshiba TG01 and is one of the fastest chips available for smartphones at this point. We've found most Android phones to be pretty responsive, but the most commonly used 528MHz processor stutters sometimes when running third-party apps--an issue we hope the 1GHz Snapdragon will address.
According to Acer, the address book of the Liquid will be tweaked from its default Android version to integrate online services such as Facebook and Twitter. While we haven't seen how well this will work, it's something HTC has done with the Sense UI and Motorola with its Motoblur interface.
Detailed specifications are scant at the moment, but based on an Italian blog which has some hands-on images, the device comes with a 5-megapixel camera, a dedicated 3.5mm audio connector and measures about 12.4mm in thickness.

Downside

Though having a high-resolution screen is good, developers will have to tweak their applications to work with it. Currently, all the apps run on HVGA screens, and logically, software creators will want their programs to work on the most popular resolutions. Is WVGA going to be the standard? Well, we don't know yet and it'll take a few more announcements from other manufacturers before we find out.

Outlook

We spoke to Acer and it said we will see the Liquid in Asia at the end of Q4. That's good news, but it's all we've got at the moment. Further details are unavailable and no price has been announced. The company just launched a series of new Windows Mobile phones and having an Android one is a good addition to its portfolio. We look forward to trying the Liquid out and will bring you more information as that becomes available.