Acer announces Intel-powered mid-range Liquid C1

Chipset makers Intel and Acer have announced the Acer Liquid C1, an Android 4.0 smartphone at an event in Thailand. The C1 is powered by the Intel Atom Z2420 chipset.

The Acer Liquid C1 is by no means a high-end model, but it has decent specs and is positioned as a mid-range device. The display is a 4.3-inch IPS screen of qHD resolution (960x540 pixels) and 1GB of RAM. There is an 8 megapixel auto-focus camera on the back and an LED flash, but the focus of the launch was the Intel Atom Z2420m SoC.

The Acer Liquid C1 is powered by Intel's Atom Z2420m chipset

The chipset, which was announced at CES earlier this year, is codenamed Lexington. It has a main x86 processor running at 1.2GHz. Even though it's a single-core CPU, it has support for Hyper-Threading and is positioned for emerging smartphone markets, thanks to its low price point. Despite its humble clock speed, the Z2420m supports hardware-accelerated 1080p encoding and decoding, and it enables a burst mode that allows the Liquid C1 to snap five still images in a second.

Design-wise, the Liquid C1 looks nothing out of the ordinary. The phone has rounded corners with faux-aluminium trimming and a patterned back that should lend good grip. Acer has gone with capacitive touch buttons instead of the on-screen navigation controls that we saw with the Galaxy Nexus, the first Android 4.0 device.

The Lexington platform was unveiled at Las Vegas by Intel during this year's Consumer Electronics Show. It includes the Intel XMM 6265 HSPA+ modem, which offers dual-SIM/dual-standby capability. The Z2420m also includes support for FM radio, a microSD card slot and Intel's own Wireless Display technology. Acer’s handset is a result of a tie-up with the chipset maker, a deal which also includes Lava and Safaricom, both of which will also be releasing products with the new SoC.

The Liquid C1 features a PowerVR SGX540 GPU and has the usual collection of connectivity options, including 3G, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Wi-Fi hotspot, Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP, microUSB v2.0 and GPS. It has a decent 2000 MaH Lithium-ion battery that should be enough to keep the phone powered on and connected through the day.

Unfortunately, the smartphone comes with Ice Cream Sandwich at a time when most manufacturers are shipping new handsets with Jelly Bean. The Acer Liquid C1 will be available this month onwards in Thailand, and will be followed by availability in other South Asian countries. It is priced at 9,990 Thai baht, which means when it arrives in India, it may be priced at around Rs 17,000.