IFA 2013: Acer Liquid S2 hands-on

IFA 2013: Acer Liquid S2 hands-on

Kicking off the festivities here at IFA 2013, Acer has given us a sneak peek of the new Acer Liquid S2 flagship. It's a 6-inch 1080p phablet that is the first to record video in the new ultra high definition 4K format.

Acer Liquid S2 official shot

Other than that, the main camera shoots 13MP stills and packs a 28mm wide angle lens and a back-lit sensor. Besides capturing 4K UHD video at 24fps, it's also capable of good old 1080p videos at an impressive 60fps, which easily turn into slow motion videos.

Acer Liquid S2 at a glance

• General: Quad-band GSM, dual-band GPRS/EDGE, tri-band UMTS/HSPA, 42.2 Mbps LTE
• Form factor: Touchscreen phablet
• Dimensions: 166 x 86 x 9mm
• Display: 6" 16M-color 1080p (1080 x 1920 pixels) capacitive touchscreen TFT, Corning Gorilla Glass 3
• CPU: Quad-core 2.2 GHz Krait 400
• GPU: Adreno 330
• Chipset: Qualcomm MSM8974 Snapdragon 800
• RAM: 2GB
• OS: Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean
• Memory: 16GB storage, microSD card slot of up to 128 GB
• Camera: 13 megapixel auto-focus camera; 4K Ultra HD (3840 x 2160) video recording at 24fps, Full HD (1080p) video recording at 60fps; 2MP front-facing camera with FullHD video capture
• Connectivity: Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac, DLNA, Wi-Fi Direct, Bluetooth 4.0, microUSB port, GPS receiver with A-GPS and GLONASS, 3.5mm audio jack, NFC
• Battery: 3300 mAh
• Misc: DTS sound enhancement, 4 LED flash plus diffuser

While Acer doesn't have the pedigree of some of its competitors in the smartphone game, the Liquid S2 has the potential to be one of the sleeper hits in the holiday quarter, as the first mobile devices to record 4K video (so far, that is - IFA is just getting started). Either way, it's slated for an October release date, so it will definitely be one of the first 4K-video-recording phones you can buy.

Hands-on with the Acer Liquid S2

The 6-inch screen puts the device firmly into phablet territory, which means you'll have to consider carrying it in a bag or clip-on case, as the Liquid S2 is simply too large for a pant pocket. The display itself is nice, however, and the 1080p resolution translates to a very respectable 367 ppi.

Solid build is another thing the Liquid S2 has going for it, the nicely-textured matte plastic finish is pleasant to the touch, but the weight is something to consider.

Next up, we'll take a closer look at the build quality in detail, as well as how the Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean build with Float UI runs on the quad-core Krait 400 processor.