By Following their press event this morning where they announced a new (and yet-to-be-named) tablet device, Acer’s unveiling the phone that we first saw among the Army of Android phones at Google I/O: the Acer Liquid Stream (but they’re now just referring to it as the Acer Stream). We got some initial details on the phone’s specs through its FCC clearance the other day, and now there are even more details to be had.
Along with everything we heard before (5-megapixel camera, 1ghhz Snapdragon, 1400 mAh battery, WiFi, Bluetooth, HDMI Out, and 720p video recording), we can now confirm that it has a 3.7-inch AMOLED display, 512MB of RAM, 2GB of onboard storage (expandable, of course), GPS, UPnP, DLNA, and – of course – Acer’s new customized UI for Android 2.1. Pricing and availability are yet to be announced.
I know a lot of our readers weren’t too fond of the name “Stream”, but it’s very fitting considering the phone’s DLNA support (streaming video, photo, and music content over a network). The phone includes Play/Pause, Fast Forward, and Rewind hardware buttons to facilitate that functionality. Supported video codecs look to be Xvid, WMV HD, and more. A user by the name of Batista70Phone has the first video that we can find with the phone in action, so if you were wondering about how the interface looks and how well the phone works, be sure to hit the play button above. Full press details are straight ahead.
Acer Stream
the Perfect Entertainment Machine
Powerful. Spectacular. Cutting-edge technologies. State-of-the-art connectivity. Ultra-fast. Highly sensitive. These are just some of the words that best describe Acer Stream, the latest technological jewel of the Taiwanese company. Defining it a smartphone would be reductive. In fact, Acer Stream is the utmost expression of technology, design, performance and entertainment.
Acer Stream is a high-end multimedia smartphone, optimized for watching movies, listening to music and enjoying web browsing like at home. Perfect for most demanding users who look for the best in entertainment.
Elegant and minimalist in design, Acer Stream is made from highly resistant materials and offers truly outstanding user interface and technical features, all in just 11.2 mm, ensuring users a unique and unrepeatable experience.
The completely brand new user interface has been totally redesigned in order to focus on what is essential to users and guarantee a simple and quick access to what matters to them.
– Enjoy smooth animations and fine graphics: surf between photos and video thanks to the stunningly fluid 3D interface and unlock the phone by a ‘peeling’ gesture, assure a cool but very functional detail!
– Read information straight from the lock screen widget: accessing ambient information on the idle screen gives the user what he needs before he even asks for it.
– Quickly start your favorite applications with one tap: the status bar appears as an innovative divider between logical spaces. It shows all the essential information, providing shortcuts to most frequently used settings and its position allows a very easy access to the settings or notifications.
– Easily switch applications with the History panel: the top part of the Home screen has been dedicated to applications history, with the benefit of reducing complexity and providing significant cues for navigation.
– Reorder applications across several pages at their convenience: Apps can be moved around from one page to another or easily uninstalled by simply dragging them to the bin.
– Customize the phone according to specific needs:a simple customization page accessible from the Home screen will be a pleasant surprise, enabling customers to tailor their smartphone through wallpaper and sound personalization.
Coupled with three types of predictive keyboards, a smart dialer and a redesigned contacts list, the Acer user interface makes using the smartphone an efficient and delightful experience.
Social and entertaining: All the most popular applications are pre-installed: Nemo player to enjoy multimedia content to the fullest, Acer UrFooz to create your virtual “look-a-like”, add your profile and bookmarks and post it to your social networks, Facebook™ and Twidroid perfectly integrated into the address book.
And for music addicts Acer Stream features Spinlets™, a completely free streaming service that lets you browse and listen to major music labels and record companies for great music and instantly post what you find to your favorite Social Networking sites.
Main features:
Superb display quality: the touch screen with Amoled technology boasts 1.67 million exceptionally bright colors, through a generous 3.7” WVGA display. Furthermore, its incredible contrast (superior 2000:1) makes for clear images and perfect legibility in any environment and light condition. Moreover, this type of display consumes less energy to help increase battery life.
Ultrafast connectivity 3G+ for streaming: HSDPA 7.2 Mbps in download, Bluetooth and WiFi n, enabling faster transmission of multimedia content than ever!
Power and performance: the Qualcomm Snapdragon 1GHz processor, with its 512 MB RAM, makes the Acer Stream one of the fastest and most reactive phones on the market. The operating system behind Stream is Android version 2.1, better known as Éclair.
Unique and high-quality multimedia features, enabling the recording of HD videos up to 720p. Listening to your favorite music or the radio with RDS has never been so pleasant; enjoy the Dolby Mobile quality, with powerful bass and crystal-clear clarity for an unparalleled purity of sound. UPnP technology enables content sharing with other devices.Furthermore, a 5MP photocamera and integrated GPS system allow photos and videos to be geotagged. Last but not least, you can connect the Acer Stream to your home TV with HDMI port and watch a movie on a larger screen.
2GB of internal Flash memory is ideal for downloading tons of applications and 3D games, while an 8GB memory card as free bundle and a micro-SD card slot support up to 32GB enables users to enjoy their favorite multimedia content at all times.
[via Android Community]
They had to ruin it with a custom UI. Go figure.
No Froyo fo’ you!!!
Need more than 3.7 inches
Why do these companies keep putting money and resources into coding and maintaining custom UIs. For me, at least, OS updates out weigh any customizations that I’ve seen so far. They should just leave the innovation to 3rd party developers, along with the support issues involved. I’d prefer they focus on providing better hardware. My money, and I bet a lot of others’, goes to the first company to deliver the hardware (4.3″ AMOLED, 1+Ghz processor, 32+GB internal memory, QUALITY 8.0+ mp camera, 720+p video, FM radio) and take the easy route on the software — STRAIGHT UP ANDROID WITHOUT CUSTOMIZATIONS!
Why can’t they just build apps and sell them through the market?
I think a 4 inch screen and Froyo would be good.
although i love what Sense offers, i do wish it would be offered through the market, i think the rest of these companies think they have something great as well but things like blur are just a joke!
2GB on board is nice. Second only to the 8GB for the Incredible.
As for custom UIs, that’s how these companies are trying to differentiate their product. Just be glad it’s not a custom/limited build like AT & T does.
SO GLAD THIS IS NOT THE NEW LIQUID.
It is one ugly looking phone.
It needs Android 2.2 Froyo or else out of the question. The media buttons should be more generic customizable hardware buttons. Otherwise they’re ugly and hardly ever used except when playing media.
There is a option in the settings to use the normal android UI. Also their custom Acer UI is pretty good. But even if you don’t like it, you can still use the normal Android UI. So stop freaking out people :)
@Ben: That’s what she said!
@ Steve.
The point is with custom-built UI’s the android updates are not a quick because the manufacturer has to get the update and then integrate their UI. If you we didn’t have custom UI’s we’d get the updates a lot sooner. Look at the htc hero and xperia x10 for classic examples.