A phone I’ve had my eye on in Europe for quite a while now is the Acer Liquid. With a Snapdragon processor, capacitive touchscreen and a good-looking set of specifications you’d expect it to cost more than it does but if you’re in the EU, this little pocket rocket can be picked up for under 300 Euros inclusive of taxes. Unlocked! Compare that to the 400-500 that you’ll pay for a Nexus One and you see why it becomes interesting as a sub-year phone or a good device for keeping track of the Android ecosystem. The only problem is that it runs Android 1.6.

Fortunately, Acer will be releasing the Liquid E soon and with Android 2.1 it should bring some great improvements along with the possibility of multitouch, Google Navigation, Buzz and other features that are only possible with Android 2. Unfortunately, when I visited Acer at MWC there wasn’t anyone around to answer my questions so I was left like a schoolboy playing with the device to find out what I could.

Acer will have to keep the price down on this to compete with the incoming HTC Android devices but if they do, it’s a chance  make an lower-risk investment in Android at a time when new devices are coming in thick and fast.

The Milestone/Droid and iPhone 3GS are already with us and showing the way forward for powerful, dynamic and fun smartphones. But what if you’ don’t want to pay 450-800 Euros for a phone?

The Acer A1 Liquid is offering high-power (768Mhz Snapdragon platform), big screen, Android-based capability for an early price of just 360 Euros. That’s a price we expect to drop down to the low 300’s before long making it a real bargain. When did you last see a 3G-capable, WVGA capacitive touch, 5Mp, high-power platform with a huge application library for that sort of price?

Obviously the Liquid could fall flat on its face if it fails to offer the quality that’s expected and that’s what we’ve been looking for in the first reviews. Frandroid is one of the first and via a translation we’ve been able to pick out some important points.

Image via Frandroid

A video review is embedded below but you’ll probably pick up more from the translation which highlights tight battery life and size as negative points. It is indeed a rather chunky device but if you’re looking for a good value, all-day high-end smartphone, it’s still an important one to have on the toplist, especially if you’re looking to get into the world of high-powered Android devices.

Outstanding questions for us:

• Camera quality
• Haptic feedback
• Actual battery life figures