Acer Liquid Z520 Quick Review

The Acer Liquid Z520 is Acer’s latest Android smartphone for the budget-conscious. It has a 5-inch display, 8GB of internal storage, DTS sound technology, MediaTek quad-core CPU and Android KitKat. For the price of under Php5K, is the Liquid Z520 worth getting or are you better off shelling out a bit more for something more competitive? Read on to find out.

Design and Construction

The Liquid Z520 is a very plasticky device meaning the surrounding frame, back plate, and buttons are all plastic and it looks and feels like one. On the front is the 5-inch display with 854 x 480 resolution or 187 ppi. Colors are okay but it is ruined by a very reflective screen with very poor viewing angles.

Above the display are the earpiece, 2 megapixel front camera, and the Acer branding. Down below are three unlit capacitive buttons for navigation. Found on the right side are the buttons for power/lock and volume.Located right up top are the microUSB port and headset jack. Down at the bottom is the pinhole for the mic and a tiny gap so you can pry open the rear plate.

Put it on its back and you will find the 8 megapixel shooter, LED flash, speaker, and Acer and DTS branding. Going back to the speaker, the sound quality is mediocre and falls short in loudness even with DTS. It will suffice if you’re just listening privately in a very quiet environment, otherwise, you’re better off with a good pair of headphones.

Although plasticky, the Liquid Z520 feels solid and doesn’t show any sign of creakiness. It features a gray strip with rough texture to aid in gripping. The rear plate, on the other hand, has a textured finish with criss-cross design which is nice to look at.

Camera Samples

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Performance and Benchmarks

Running the software side is Android 4.4.2 KitKat with Acer’s skin on top. It comes with a lot of pre-installed apps but mostly games, Google, and Acer’s own apps. There’s one app that can’t be uninstalled though which is the Agoda app.

The Liquid Z520 is powered by a MediaTek quad-core processor clocked at 1.3GHz, Mali-400MP2 GPU and 1GB of RAM. So far we didn’t encounter problems or serious lags when using basic apps and games like Marvel Future Fight.

We did, however, encountered an “Over Battery Temperature” notification while playing the game which is disappointing. That being said don’t expect stellar performance when it comes to more demanding games.

As for the benchmark scores, take a look at the results below:

• AnTuTu – 19,013
• Quadrant Standard – 5,771
• NenaMark2 – 57.4fps
• Vellamo – 740 (Metal), 1,204 (Multicore), 1,794 (Chrome Browser)

Battery Life

If you’re expecting a large battery on the Z520 then we’re sad to report that it only has 2,000mAh worth of juice. It should last you a whole day if you’re just using it for SMS, and moderate on calls and WiFi internet browsing. We ran PCMark’s battery bench and the result is 5 hours and 44 minutes of battery life.

Conclusion

The Acer Liquid Z520 is an affordable entry-level smartphone for those in a tight budget. At Php4,990 it’s not going to hurt your pocket that much. However it’s a tough sell considering that there’s the Php1K-cheaper Cherry Mobile One which offers the latest Android OS and better display. Or, if you can shell out Php1,500 more, just get the Alcatel Flash Plus instead.

Acer Liquid Z520 specs:
5-inch display @ 854 x 480 resolution, 187 ppi
1.3GHz MediaTek MT6582M quad-core processor
Mali-400MP2 GPU
1GB RAM
8GB internal storage
expandable up to 32GB
8MP rear camera with LED flash
2MP front camera
Dual-SIM
Bluetooth 4.0, A2DP
Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Wi-Fi hotspot
3G
DTS sound technology
154 x 86 x 6.4mm
118 grams
Android 4.4.2 KitKat
2000mAh battery
Black, white
Php4,990

What we liked:
* Solid build
* Affordable price
* Decent camera quality

What we didn’t like:
* Low-res display
* Poor viewing angles
* Mediocre camera
* Below average battery life