Acer Liquid E3 revealed with front-facing flash for selfie addicts

Acer has played its Mobile World Congress ahead of the show itself, revealing the Liquid E3 mid-range smartphone. With a 2-megapixel front-facing camera and front LED flash, it seems clearly targeted at anyone that can’t stop taking selfies.

First impressions: Acer Liquid E3 Hands-on review

The 4.7in handset might be aimed more at budget-conscious customers, but that doesn’t mean the company has skimped on specs; Acer promises a quad-core processor running at 1.2GHz, 1GB of RAM, 4GB of internal storage, microSD card expansion and a 13-megapixel rear camera with its own flash. Screen resolution has yet to be confirmed, but the IPS panel should provide excellent viewing angles.

The phone itself weighs 135g and has a slightly curved design which should make it comfortable to hold. The all-black colour scheme is offset with some red highlights, which certainly gives the handset a sleek look, but whether it will compete with the Moto G, our current budget favourite, remains to be seen.

Although it will launch with Android 4.3 Jelly Bean, Acer has promised that the Liquid E3 will receive Android 4.4 KitKat later this year. It will be one of the first Acer phones to use the new Liquid user interface, which skins the default Android UI with new icons and a new visual style which promises a “better visual experience” – we haven’t seen the UI in action, but aren’t usually fans of heavily customised custom interfaces – hopefully it won’t slow the handset down.

Acer expects the Liquid E3 €199 when it goes on sale throughout Europe in April, which should translate to around £160 in the UK. We’ve been told to expect both handsets to arrive on the Three network. We’ll be taking a closer look at the handset at Mobile World Congress next week.