Acer Liquid X2 review
Decent 5.5-inch display
The Acer Liquid Jade X2 is equipped with a 5.5-inch IPS display. Its 1,280x720 resolution is rather low by today's standards - the most obvious victim of cost cutting. That said, 267ppi is still okay, if you're not going to be reading tiny texts.
In the other areas we measure though, the screen is actually an okay performer. Its maximum brightness is good for the class, only bested by the Moto X Play. A touch brighter blacks still don't send contrast down the drain - in fact, it's on the good side of average. The minimum brightness is rather high though, at 13.5 nits.
| Display test | 100% brightness | ||
| Black, cd/m2 | White, cd/m2 | ||
| 0.50 | 473 | 950 | |
| 0.44 | 390 | 879 | |
| 0.36 | 333 | 928 | |
| 0.47 | 442 | 940 | |
| 0.46 | 408 | 897 | |
| 0 | 358 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 500 | ∞ | |
| 0.41 | 620 | 1520 | |
| 0.42 | 403 | 953 | |
| 0.44 | 473 | 1073 | |
| 0.30 | 399 | 1334 | |
| 0.52 | 425 | 816 | |
| 0 | 517 | ∞ | |
Color reproduction is decently accurate - the average DeltaE of 5.8 is only slightly off the flagship G5's 5.6. The grays are mostly accurate, cyan probably the most distant from the truth.
There is a proprietary mode for enhancing photos in the gallery, called LumiFlex, which we found to be working in other apps as well. It dynamically alters contrast based on the content on the screen. While the premise is nice, in practice we found it to perform quite inconsistently.
The standard DeltaE 2000 deviation is used to describe the accuracy of the screen's color rendition. We test the screen with a set of over 100 different color and grayscale patterns to determine the accuracy of the color reproduction.
Even when a phone's screen color reproduction is off, you would still have a hard time noticing a color cast without a reference as the human eye is quite quick to adjust and normalize colors.
Also, the display colors are a matter of personal taste and perception so consider this test data only if you are concerned about presenting color-critical content on the mobile screen.
Any deviation above DeltaE 2000 of 10 is considered a highly visible error in color reproduction on the display. A DeltaE 2000 deviation between 4 and 10 is considered okay or acceptable color performance. A DeltaE 2000 deviation below 4 is considered good, but professional color calibration requires a deviation between 1 and 2.
Even when a phone's screen color reproduction is off, you would still have a hard time noticing a color cast without a reference as the human eye is quite quick to adjust and normalize colors.
Also, the display colors are a matter of personal taste and perception so consider this test data only if you are concerned about presenting color-critical content on the mobile screen.
Any deviation above DeltaE 2000 of 10 is considered a highly visible error in color reproduction on the display. A DeltaE 2000 deviation between 4 and 10 is considered okay or acceptable color performance. A DeltaE 2000 deviation below 4 is considered good, but professional color calibration requires a deviation between 1 and 2.
It's out in the sun that the Liquid X2 doens't fare all too well. Its result is better than the Zenfone Selfie that we tested, and similar to the Zenfone 2 ZE551ML and the Xiaomi Redmi 3. The Moto X Play is miles ahead, but that's one of the better-scoring non-AMOLEDs in our test.
Sunlight contrast ratio
Connectivity
The Acer Liquid X3 is a triple SIM device, so you have flexibility in terms of carriers and plans. The three microSIM compartments are under the rear cover and they all get 2G connectivity. Only one card gets 3G/4G, but you don't need to worry about it when putting the cards in - the networks are managed in the options menu.
Additionally, the cards are not active at the same time. If you're taking a call on one card, and someone rings you on another, the call would just be forwarded to the active SIM card which may or may not be what you'd like depending on your usage case.
Naturally, you get Wi-Fi, but it only operates on the 2.4GHz band, and there's no Wi-Fi ac. There's GPS with A-GPS, Bluetooth v.4.0, and an FM radio receiver, but no NFC.
Wired options include a microUSB port and a 3.5mm jack. The microUSB port can be used to attach an external accessory as it supports USB On-The-Go.
Acer Liquid X2 battery life
Under the rear cover of the Liquid X2 you'll find a large, flat 4,020mAh battery. It blocks access to the SIM cards, so you may need to pop it out quite often. The capacity is pretty generous, and well above the competition, but then again, it needs to be in order to keep all those radios running.
Indeed, the Liquid X2 proved to be a dependable performer in terms of battery backup. In both tests where the display stays on, the smartphone is good for a little less than 13 hours - excellent numbers. What's not as impressive is the endurance in 3G voice calls, but even so, upwards of 15 and a half hours should still be more than enough for even the busiest days.
We do measure standby battery drain, and even though it's not included explicitly in the scorecard, it has its influence on the overall rating. In the case of the Liquid X2, having three SIMs inside inevitably takes its toll, and the otherwise excellent 85h endurance rating gets a 20-hour hit when you put all cards inside - still acceptable.
An Asus Zenfone 2 ZE551ML lasts virtually the same on a call, but is otherwise no match for the X2 with around 8 hours on the web and half an hour more of video playback. The Lenovo Vibe K4 Note outlasts the Acer model by more than 3 hours of talk time, but again, its 9 hour score in the two other tests is far from what the X2 is capable of
13MP rear camera...
The Acer Liquid has a 13MP camera on the back, which we'll go ahead and keep calling primary, even though there's the same setup on the display side of the phone.
Anyway, the rear camera can take images up to 4160 x 3120 pixels in resolution and the lens aperture is a respectable f/1.8. There's no OIS, nor should you expect it, and there's no fancy phase detection or laser autofocus. There is a tick in the LED flash checkbox, though.
The camera interface is a bit more cluttered than recent trends have been heading, but the extra buttons offer some genuinely useful functions. For example, the padlock button is a toggle that lets you save photos directly to a pass-protected Private album. You can also use voice control to activate the shutter with a preset phrase like "Cheese". There's also a zoom slider, and the pinch-to-zoom gesture doesn't work.
ISO is buried in the settings menu, where you can also select resolution - a total of 18 possibilities there! Why you would insist on 4,096x3,072 instead of 4,160x3,120 is a question we can't answer.
A truly convenient feature - Favorite Shot - lets you assign one of the capture modes to the third virtual button next to the shutter release and video record button, so you don't need to switch modes just for that one HDR shot.
Camera interface
The arrow button in the top right pulls up a menu with shooting modes and some more controls. You don't get a proper Pro/Manual mode, and some may find the logic of the grouping of the settings a bit odd. There are four white balance presets on top of Auto, there's a delayed shutter release with 5/10/15s timer, and a slider for adjustment of brightness, contrast, saturation and sharpness. "Slider" may be an overstatement though - they all have just three positions.
You have Scene modes - landscape, night, night portrait and, well, regular portrait, and also a selection of color filter effects (just a few of those, not the kitchen sink). More importantly though, the Capture modes on top offer some interesting options, outside of the usual HDR and Panorama.
Presentation is one, and using that you can just point the phone at the screen and grab a shot of each slide, and it will correct for any skew your off-center position inevitably introduces. The process keeps the source images, so you can correct for any mistakes the software has made. You do need to explicitly save the finished presentation (as JPG or PDF file) - it took us a while to figure it out.
Multi-angle View lets you take stereoscopic images for side-by-side or anaglyph 3D viewing. Picture with sound lets you record a short message to go with the photo you just took, but you couldn't do that with a food shot - Gourmet is a capture mode all in itself.
Camera interface
The images that come out of the Acer Liquid X2 aren't spectacular, but they aren't bad either. There is an overall softness and low contrast to most images. Fine textures gets smeared, but straight lines are reasonably well defined. In terms of color rendition, the output is a touch on the warm side, and colors aren't particularly saturated. The X2 is a little lacking in dynamic range, with highlights in bright daylight often clipped.
Camera samples
HDR mode applies a different tone curve, but in the X2's case it acts in a rather specific way. It does salvage some of the otherwise blown highlights, but the shadows remain as dark as they would be in the non-HDR shot and the midtones get a boost.
An unpleasant aspect of the X2's HDR mode is that it can't handle moving objects, which turn into ghosts.
HDR mode: off • on • off • on
Don't forget to check out how the Liquid X2 compares against other smartphones we've tested in our Photo compare tool.
Acer Liquid X2 in our photo compare tool
Switching to the front camera
On the front you get another 13MP shooter, and even if promo material and the numbers would have us believe the two are identical, there's at least some different processing going on here.
The output is good, don't get us wrong, but it's not on par with the rear camera in terms of detail. Even in normal mode (not Beautification) there's some smearing in fine skin detail, though facial hair is rendered rather sharply.
Front camera samples: normal mode • beautification (sliders in the middle)
The front-facing flash is borderline useless, you're much better off sacrificing precision in framing and shooting with the rear one in complete darkness.
Front camera sample with flash • Rear camera with flash in the same conditions
Video recording fails to impress
The Acer Liquid X2 shoots videos up to 1080p/30fps. There are lower resolutions available, and a timelapse mode, but nothing fancier. Also, the video resolution setting lists two "HD 1080p" options, and we thought one might be 1080p@60fps. It isn't, both capture 1080p/30fps, so go figure
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