Hands On With Acer's Liquid Jade Primo Windows Phone

LAS VEGAS—Acer's Liquid Jade Primo was actually the kickoff high-end Windows 10 telephone, announced in September at IFA. But it's taken its sweet fourth dimension to materialize, finally condign real here at CES. And the fundamental question is: how is it different than Microsoft'south own Lumia 950?

CES 2022 Bug Art The Liquid Jade Primo is more rounded than the Lumia 950, with a larger 1080p screen—five.5 inches as opposed to 5.2 inches on Microsoft'south telephone. While the main cameras are similar (20 megapixels for Microsoft, 21 megapixels for Acer), Acer's eight-megapixel front camera may outpace the 950's 5-megapixel camera. Both phones have a USB-C port on the bottom, and both run Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 processors.

Acer's phone has a distinctly unlike Continuum Dock, which holds the phone upright rather than laying it down. That's great for looking at what's on the screen, although it volition be less convenient when the telephone is in "trackpad mode." It's also tidier than Microsoft's dock, which is tethered to the telephone with a cable. The dock has ii USB-A ports, a 3rd marked USB high-speed, and an HDMI out. That maps pretty closely to keyboard, mouse, storage, and monitor.

Acer Liquid Jade Primo in dock

The phone feels slim and light, with a nice cool-feeling matte dorsum and a noticeable camera ridge. The AMOLED screen is very rich, and the 5.5-inch screen gives a slightly roomier culling to the Lumia 950. The camera was dull to focus, only Acer said information technology'southward working on that. The back-ported speakerphone was of decent volume, but like most dorsum-ported speakerphones, information technology's a bit deadened when it's laid down on a table.

Acer is trying to bring the phone to the U.Southward., and discussed the possibility of AT&T, T-Mobile, or fifty-fifty Verizon-compatible models, if Verizon allows LTE-only devices as information technology has promised to do by the end of this twelvemonth. As a high-end Windows telephone, the visitor is looking at the Primo as a corporate device, which means it'south more probable to appear with AT&T than with T-Mobile (AT&T has more than corporate customers.) There are no concrete plans for a U.S. release however, though.

The U.Southward. version of the Liquid Jade Primo volition cost less than Microsoft's culling, Acer said. That means under $549 without the dock, and under $649 with it.

I'm encouraged to run into several non-Microsoft Windows Mobile 10 vendors at this show, with both the high-cease Acer telephone and the inexpensive Alcatel Fierce 40 on T-Mobile. Windows however has too few new phones in too few U.Due south. carriers (Verizon and Sprint don't accept any fresh units), but the trend is looking upwardly. Hopefully we'll see more at Mobile World Congress in February.

Acer'south Iconia One 8
I dearest watching the sub-$100 tablet market heat up. Acer's Iconia Ane eight will hit the U.Due south. adjacent month at the very pleasant price of $99, becoming a swell upgrade from the 7-inch, $l Amazon Fire.

The reward hither is that rather than Amazon's highly Amazon-focused OS, the Iconia One 8 runs the more generically open up Android 5.1. Other specs are plenty to get basic jobs done: a quad-core Mediatek processor, 5-megapixel and 2-megapixel cameras, and 16GB of storage plus a MicroSD card slot. The tablet comes with a parental control app, although, this existence Android, you tin also just download your favorite.

The Iconia One viii looks similar an alternative for people who desire customization options, every bit well as a solid brand proper name and client back up ameliorate than the no-name tablets you may detect fishing around on Amazon.