eWEEK content and product recommendations are editorially independent. We may make money when you click on links to our partners. Learn More.
Acer will bring its latest feature-loaded, budget smartphone, the $100 Liquid M330 handset, to the United States later in April.
Sporting a 4.5-inch FWVGA (854-by-480) IPS touch-screen display, a curved chassis, 5-megapixel rear-facing and front-facing cameras, a replaceable battery and the Windows 10 Mobile operating system, the Liquid M330 will be offered for sale in Microsoft stores and on Microsoftstore.com.
The handset, which has a black case that’s styled with a hairline brush pattern, is powered by a quad-core Qualcomm 210 processor with speeds up to 1.1GHz and 1GB of memory. The M330 is a 4G LTE smartphone that also features Bluetooth 4.0 and 802.11b/g/n WiFi connectivity. The device is 5.3 inches long, 2.6 inches wide and 0.39 inches thick and weighs 5.1 ounces. The device was announced by Acer on April 14.
Its 5MP auto-focus rear camera has flash LED, while its front 5MP camera is a fixed-focus unit for selfies and videos. The smartphone also supports 720p @ 30fps HD video conferencing, according to Acer.
The device includes 8GB of onboard storage, a microSD slot for expanded storage and a 2,000mAh replaceable battery that promises up to 15 hours of talk time per charge.
Users get access to a wide range of Microsoft services through the Windows 10 Mobile operating system, including OneDrive cloud storage, Skype video conferencing, Office scheduling and productivity apps, and the Cortana digital assistant.
“The new Liquid M330 leverages the many benefits of Windows 10 Mobile and powerful LTE,” Hugo Hernandez, vice president of Acer America Smartphone Business Group, said in a statement. “Offering a solid feature set at a great price, it’s ideal for students and other budget-conscious customers.”
The Liquid M330 is Acer’s fourth smartphone aimed at the U.S. since the Taiwan-based company brought its first phone here, the $80 Liquid M220, back in April 2015. Acer also launched its Liquid Z410 and Liquid Jade Z phones in the U.S. last year. The M220 is being replaced by the new Liquid M330.
On April 21, Acer will hold a global product event in New York City and is expected to showcase the Liquid M330 and a wide range of other mobile devices.
Acer continues to slowly move into direct competition with Apple, Samsung, LG, Lumia, Google and others in a very crowded U.S. market.
The older Liquid M220 smartphone featured a Qualcomm Snapdragon 200 dual-core processor with speeds up to 1.2GHz, a 4-inch 233-pixel-per-inch WVGA (480-by-800) display, 1GB of RAM, 8GB of onboard storage that is expandable through a microSD slot and a removable 1,300mAh battery. It was the first in Acer’s Liquid smartphone series to run the Windows Phone 8.1 operating system and was upgradable for free to Windows 10 when it became available last year.
In late March, Acer unveiled its latest Chromebook 14 machine for North America in a variety of configurations of included memory, storage space and display types, according to an earlier eWEEK story. The Chromebook 14 by Acer includes the largest display used by the company in a Chromebook so far, with a screen size that’s about 20 percent larger than the displays on its 11-inch models. The new machine is available in versions with HD or full HD displays, as well as with 2GB or 4GB of dual channel LPDDR3 SDRAM memory and 16GB or 32GB of eMMC flash storage.
The Chromebook 14 can be configured with a choice of Intel Celeron quad-core or dual-core N3060 processors for productivity tasks, Web browsing, video streaming and other activities, and either an HD (1,366-by-768) display or a full HD (1,920-by-1,080) display. Each Chromebook 14 includes a fanless design for quiet performance.
Pricing starts at $299.99 for a full HD model with 4GB of memory and 32GB of storage.