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I review a lot of mobile and smartphones and one of the common questions is which is better: Apple’s iPhone or one of the Google Android phones. The cult classic TV series “Get Smart” featured a constant fight between the agents of Control and KAOS and I’m going to use this metaphor to describe the main differences between iPhone and Android.

Control (Apple iPhone) offers people the simple choice of one premium priced phone and one cheaper previous generation phone, a strictly regulated environment with rules, an easy inbuilt way to buy content like music etc, consistent design principles with an emphasis on aesthetics/good looks and a vast number of Applications to choose from. One company controlls the user experience from end to end.

On the other hand the agents of KAOS (Google Android) offer people a range of free cloud internet based services, the ability to completely customise their phone and the choice of vastly different phone handsets from many companies eg: the huge 5″ Dell Streak smartphone/tablet to the tiny Sony Ericsson X10 mini and many other shapes and sizes in between. No company controlls the user experience from end to end.

Initial Setup/Activation

An Apple iPhone needs to be connected to a computer to be intially activated and to be updated with new software versions.

Android phones just need a 3G or WiFi internet data connection to set them up, no need for a PC or extra software. Some Android phones receive updates to new software versions automatically over the internet but others need to be connected to a computer to get upgraded so this can be confusing.

Number of Applications

The Apple iPhone platform has both a wide variety and depth of really useful applications (apps) as well as staggering number of them (over 250,000) compared to Google Android phones which have access to around 100,000 apps at time of writing (Sept 2010).

Realistically although the iPhone has many more apps, most of the key apps are common to both phone platforms. The iPhone still has the edge over Android in some areas such as Games and Banking apps.

Amount and Type of Storage Space

Apple iPhone has quite a generous amount of storage space built in to the phone (16gb or 32gb) so people dont have to add it themselves but the downside is there’s no way of expanding this storage space.

Google Android phones can have storage via a microSD card slot, inbuilt phone storage, or both. The benefit is that people can choose how much storage they want to buy and take the microSD card out of their phone to move data to a computer or another phone but on the flip side some apps can be confused by files being split across inbuilt phone storage and a microSD card.

Number of Phone Choices

Apple has long taken the slow and steady approach to adding features to the iPhone with a new phone released once a year. This can be seen as a benefit as features are carefully planned ahead or to take a cynical approach, a way of getting people to buy a new phone every year by drip feeding new features. Either way its easy for people to decide which phone to buy as it’s obvious which is the best or cheapest.

In comparison there are dozens of Google Android phones available in all kinds of shapes and sizes, with prices ranging from a few $100 to around $1000. Quality, features and designs also vary widely with some phones offering an excellent user experience but others a very poor user experience. It’s up to people to do their own research and figure out whether the Android phone they’re interested in is great or terrible.

Music Management

For the moment Apple’s iPhone is better at managing music collections and synching them between peoples computer and iPhone/iPod but that assumes iTunes works reliably, which isn’t always the case.

Google Android phones treat music as a large collection of files which can be copied/synched from a computer by accessing the phone storage as a USB drive which is flexible but not as automated and hands off as iTunes.

Productivity Features

Apple makes people pay AUS $119 a year for Mobile Me, a service which automatically syncs your email, contacts, and calendars over the air across all your devices. You can only use the inbuilt Apple app for certain types of apps eg: Mail.

Google Android phones have all those features built in for free if you use Google Calendar, Gmail for contacts etc. If you want to use a 3rd party mail app, browser etc you’re free to install it.

Multitasking

A multitasking smartphone can do many different tasks things simultaneously and alert you immediately if any of these tasks have a message for you eg: play an Audible audiobook which you’re listening to, track your walking path via GPS and log the speed, check email every 5 minutes, check twitter every 5 minutes.

All Google Android phones can do this for all their applications. Initially only Apple apps on iPhones could multitask but Apple has added a kind of controlled multitasking for certain types of 3rd party apps eg: background audio listening and GPS location apps.

The downside is that if lots of apps are running at once they could all be using battery life and possibly downloading internet data as well.

Who Will Win?

Articles in the technology media are usually styled to ask questions like Who Will Win: iPhone vs Android for retail customers? or Will iPhone edge out Blackberry in the corporate market?

I think they miss that “winning” is relative.

Apple would feel they’ve won if they can hold onto 5% market share in the smartphone market, if it’s the top 5% most profitable customers.

Nokia and Google Android phone manufacturer partners would feel they’ve won if they can keep a substantial stake in the overall smartphone market and make money in volume sales rather than a high profit margin.

Blackberry can survive for a long time if it remains the most trusted corporate communications smartphone which corporate IT administrators can lock down to ensure organisational information is kept safe.

Note and Disclaimer: Thanks to unlocked online phone seller Mobicity for providing the loan Android phones mentioned in this article for review purposes and to 3 Mobile for supplying phonecall credit and mobile internet data for these phones.

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I tested the new Samsung Wave mobile phone for 3 weeks. It feels like a premium phone thanks to the well designed mostly metal case, great screen and multimedia features and yet it is available for an amazing price of $469 outright from online retailer Mobicity or relatively low cost Vodafone cap plans from $29+.

The Wave has many features which are unmatched by competitor phones with a similar price like a Super AMOLED screen, 720P video recording, 5MP camera with flash, fast speed, excellent audio quality for phone calls and many multimedia features like built in H264/DIVX HD/XVID video playback, good MP3 player and DLNA network file share capability.

However while it’s far better than other phones sold for a similar price it still isn’t a smartphone because the internet related features of the underlying Samsung BADA operating system (web browser, GPS, social apps) are nowhere near as good as iPhone or Android phones and there are very few BADA applications and games available at the moment compared to the iPhone appstore or Android app Market.

So is it a Great Budget Phone or a Basic Smartphone? I’d say it’s a great budget phone because a true Smartphone needs to be able to offer a top notch web browsing and social media experience when using Twitter, Facebook etc and have a lot of available 3rd party applications to add to the phone’s inbuilt features.

Strengths

• Excellent audio quality for phone calls – this is an important feature because even expensive smartphones often have only average voice quality these days
• Amazingly low outright phone cost / low plan contract cost
• Well designed partly metal phone body has a premium solid feel
• Great Super AMOLED screen
• 720P video recording and 5MP camera with flash
• Fast speed thanks to it’s ARM Cortex A8 based 1GHz CPU
• Long lasting 1500 mAh battery
• Many multimedia features like built in DIVX HD/XVID video playback, good MP3 player and DLNA network file share capability
• Wifi 802.11b/802.11g/802.11n

Weaknesses

• First generation BADA operating system with very basic web browser that doesn’t always display pages correctly, clunky GPS Maps and other poor internet apps like Social Hub
• Very few 3rd party apps available for BADA compared to iPhone/Android
• The 3.3″ screen is narrower in width compared to current best selling phones such as the HTC Desire which impacts web browsing and DIVX movie watching

LCD vs AMOLED vs Super AMOLED

I was commissioned by Mobicity to record this video comparing LCD/AMOLED/Super AMOLED and explaining why Super AMOLED is best.

Other Reviews of the Samsung Wave

At AU$29 per month, the Samsung Wave lives in a space usually populated with plastic handsets and terrible touchscreens, and stands out as being completely the opposite. The hardware is absolutely top notch, the metal chassis feels great and the Super AMOLED screen stands head and shoulders above phones almost twice the price. The Bada operating system definitely needs a few refinements, but is still better than the vast majority of proprietary systems used by LG, Sony Ericsson and Samsung on previous products.
- CNET Australia

Samsung’s first bada phone is a remarkable achievement, in terms of design and technology. It looks great and feels awesome in the hand. The 3.3-inch screen is incredibly bright and vivid, with some pretty nice detail to it. Although not as spectacular in the photo department, the 5MP camera shoots awesome 720p video, and when you throw the Wave’s prowess at playing back high-resolution video in various formats, we really have a true multimedia powerhouse at our hands. Finally, the Samsung Wave S8500 is super fast, making everything happen almost instantaneously.

Now for the bad. The Bada operating system is far from being perfect right now. It does make things work really smooth, but still has quite a few kinks to get worked out. Most importantly, the small annoying details in the interface that kind of hamper the overall user experience. The other deal breaker here might be the very poor application catalog in Samsung Apps right now.
- Phone Arena

The Samsung Wave is available in Australia for $469 outright from online retailer Mobicity or relatively low cost Vodafone cap plans from $29+.

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I recently bought a Telstra NEXTG compatible HTC Desire Android smartphone and did a video review of it for online retailer Mobicity. Since I’ve tested a lot of Android phones as a journalist I know how to tweak them to add extra features which aren’t enabled out of the box. I’ve listed the best tweaks here for you to enable on your own HTC Desire.

Excerpt from my iTnews preview article: the HTC Desire sports the new Android 2.1 operating system, a snappy 1 GHz Snapdragon processor, 3.7 inch WVGA (800×480) display and phone body which has a similar shape and weight/shape to Google’s Nexus One Android phone, also built by Taiwanese manufacturer HTC.

The HTC Desire improves on Google’s Nexus One in three key ways.

First, the choice of an optical trackpad instead of a mechanical trackball is a good move. Second, the Desire offers physical menu keys that offer tactile feedback which is lacking in the Nexus One because of it’s touchscreen keys, and third – HTC’s Sense interface – which offers a richer user experience than standard Android.

HTC Desire Tips To Enable Extra Features

• Enable Voice to Text transcription button on keyboard
  Difficulty: Medium. Issues: None
• Install the Cooliris 3D photo gallery from the Nexus One android phone
  Difficulty: Easy. Issues: Pressing the camera icon in the Cooliris 3D photo gallery might crash the application.
• Download the Google Earth for Android application and install using the ASTRO file manager.
  Difficulty: Easy. Issues: Use via a WiFi connection as Google Earth can download a lot of data.
• Add Turn by Turn GPS Navigation functionality to Google Maps.
  Difficulty: Medium. Issues: Not as fully functional as the official Turn by Turn GPS available in the UK and USA.
• If you find the startup sound when turning the HTC Desire on annoying install the Silent Boot application which mutes your HTC Desire on shutdown to keep it silent on boot and restores previous volume settings after startup.
• Make sure you don’t accidentally call people by mistake when navigating your list of contacts with the Call Confirm application.
• Easily access the files on your phone’s microSD card with the ASTRO file manager application.
• If you like to read eBooks in the ePub format I suggest trying the Aldiko eBook reader application.
• If you want to use your HTC Desire for emailing a lot from various POP and IMAP accounts use the K9 mail application

Removing Telstra Branding & Software Shortcuts

If you’re annoyed by the inbuilt Telstra website shortcuts which clutter the Application menu you can get full admininstrative access over the phone by wiping it and replacing the Telstra HTC Desire software with generic HTC Desire software. Note that doing so is not recommended unless you know what firmware upgrade and bricking phone mean.

My HTC Desire Video Review

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Business people who send and receive lots of emails prefer Research in Motion (RIM) Blackberry phones. I stated this in my Ignite Sydney 2 talk about the Evolution of Mobile Phones in early 2009 and most people would agree with my statement – but will it be the case in the future?

Blackberry’s benefits are mostly beneath the surface of the actual hardware device and these benefits are “needs” like efficiency, security, reliability and speed rather than “wants” such as a great looking design, large touch screen and the coolest new features and services regardless of whether they’re 100% polished.

Blackberry phones like the Bold 9700 lack the Glamour of iPhone and geek appeal of Android but prove a worthy contender as an efficient, multi-tasking communications workhorse which keeps powering on long after iPhone & Android batteries go flat.

The Blackberry hardware+services solution offers a lot of features that other handsets don’t like:

• Several days battery life
• Security and encryption for corporate users
• Impressive data compression so your downloads are faster and use up less of you mobile phone data plan
• API’s (direct connections) to messaging/chat systems like Facebook/Flickr/Windows Messenger which makes messaging faster and more efficient
• but how many people know about this unless they already use Blackberry? …

Blackberry’s strength is its operating system and services but it needs to better explain it’s hero features and inject some spirit and attractiveness into its handsets (from which makes around 4/5ths of its revenue) to stop people defecting to other smartphone platforms.

That said, some people who switch to another smartphone like the iPhone may well return to Blackberry eg: Why I prefer Blackberry over iPhone for business when they find out how many features they took for granted are Blackberry specific.

Personally as a smartphone reviewer who has tested many handsets including Google Android, Apple iPhone, RIM Blackberry and Nokia Symbian I think RIM’s Blackberry phones could hold their market share if they can provide a broader range of devices which include their trademark usefullness “needs” as well as “wants” like the iPhone’s great looking design and large screens as used in Android phones like the Google Nexus One.

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GUEST ARTICLE: After all the end of year hype Google confirmed that they had commissioned HTC to manufacture an Android smartphone which they had a fair amount of say in the specifications of at a press launch on January 5th 2010

This Nexus One handset is not “Google” hardware but Google influenced HTC hardware and essentially the successor to the first Google Phone (GPhone) the G1 (HTC Dream).

Photos of Google Nexus One Android Mobile SmartPhone

The big change in the way this phone is available for purchase and has been promoted has been the basis of many discussions. I think that Google may be well ahead of their time in online only sales and distribution but leading the way in this area has led to some difficulties because there’s no phone number for customers to call for technical support, just an online help forum/email.

Nexus One Hardware Specification

• Processor – The highlight of this handset has to be the Qualcomm Snapdragon QSD 8250 1Ghz Processor, providing the fastest platform for the Android operating system to date.
• Screen – A large 3.7inch WVGA AMOLED touch screen sporting an impressive resolution of 800×480 pixels.
• Camera – 5 Megapixel autofocus camera with LED flash which is able to capture video at 720×480 pixels.
• Storage – Internally carrying 512Mb ROM, 512Mb RAM and shipped with a 4Gb microSD card upgradeable to 32Gb for media storage.
• Battery- A claimed standby time of up to 250hrs or 5hrs of Internet use when on 3G coming from a removable 1400 mAH battery.
• Network support – Network frequency support for UMTS(900/2100) and GSM/EDGE(850/900/1800/1900). What this means for Australia is complete 3G support, no NextG network support for Telstra customers but you will get a Telstra 3G connection and then roam to GSM when it is not available.
• Other connectivity – Customary Wifi (802.11b/g), Bluetooth 2.1, AGPS, digital compass and accelerometer.
• Dimensions – All of this packed into a slim and stylish handset at 119×59.8mm and 11.5mm thick weighing in at 130grams which is marginally lighter than the iPhone 3GS at 135grams.

The 2 highlights of the phone have to be the screen and the CPU. The size and quality of image the AMOLED screen produces is of an amazing clarity and crispness that I have not seen before on a mobile phone.

There are other devices already on the market and being released soon with comparable resolutions including the HTC HD2, Sony Ericcson Xperia X10, ACER Liquid A1 and others, but this is the first I have had in hand and they are amazing! I am sure Apple will follow with something comparable very soon.

The second highlight is the Qualcomm SnapDragon 1Ghz CPU. This single component provides the speed which Android fans have been yearning for. It finally allows the operating system to reach its full potential in terms of performance and provides the best Android user experience to date.

Camera

The Nexus sports a 5 Megapixel auto focus camera with LED flash. Android 2.1 has seen many improvements in the default camera software and coupled with the SnapDragon CPU the camera now consistently starts up in under 2 secs and has a much lower delay in snapping photos once you touch the onscreen “button” or click the scroll point.

The camera application has features that remind me of some features which HTC ROM’s for Android 1.5/1.6 have, including adjustments for image colour effects, white balance, geo-tagging and now flash settings.

The picture gallery has a totally new 3D look and feel to the top level navigation. It divides your photos up according to SD card location (storage folder) and displays summary of geo-tagging information of the latest photos if available for each folder.

The 3D look of floating galleries and fly in image thumbnails adds a nice UI to what was a very bland Gallery navigation in previous Android releases. The gallery also provides thumbnails and access to any images you have stored in your Picasa web albums, although viewing and having access to these images is dependant on network access.

Battery

The 1400 mAH removable battery provides a full working day of moderate usage with ease. As with all high performance smart phones you will have to manage the battery usage accordingly. I managed to run through an 11 hour working day from full charge with moderate to heavy usage down to about 8% battery charge.

This included audio playback, Twitter, emails, Maps, Instant Messaging and taking photos. That is a marked improvement from the G1 which speaks volumes for Android 2.1 against older Android releases.

Google Integration

The default applications provide all that you could ask for in a modern smartphone. You get full Gmail integration for email, contacts and calendar and now with Android 2.1 you have the option of synchronisation with multiple Google email accounts. This is a real plus for me, we use Google Apps Premier for work and my home Gmail account now all available with the native Android Gmail app.

The contacts sync is smart enough to merge duplicates between accounts and yet provide you the ability to edit each as they relate to the original Gmail account. Contacts system wide are now more highly integrated and provide you access to contact details and various methods of communications anywhere you see a contact entry. You can call, email, SMS, IM, Facebook or just view the detailed contact information right from the contact photo where ever you see it.

As soon as you power on the Nexus you are prompted to sign into your Google account (or create a new one). The single sign on process is, in my opinion, yet to be matched by any other smartphone. With one single sign on process all emails, contacts and calendars are synchronised to your phone. This seamless approach to synchronising your existing information makes it an effortless process to set up and configure the core operating requirements you have from a mobile phone.

Android 2.1

Google Maps turn by turn navigation

One of the more publicized additions to the Android 2.1 operating system is the turn-by-turn voice navigation. The “Car Home” application can be launched from the applications menu or (I have read) will activate immediately once connected to the in car Nexus One mount piece (of which I have yet to see available anywhere). At the moment this feature is only available within the USA

Speech to Text

Another major addition across the entire Android platform is the “speech to text” input available in any text input field. You can select the voice input icon or swipe your finger across the keyboard to activate the voice input option.

Currently Google state that this is an experimental feature which uses the cloud to translate. In the “real world”, it works, as long as you speak slowly and don’t expect it to pick up colloquialisms or slang. You can also have some real fun laughing at what it comes up with

General usage

After the first week I would have to say that 2.1 is nicer to the battery than either 1.5 or 1.6 have been. Even though it has to power the nice big screen I have been getting better battery life than with my G1. Whether 2.1 is faster is hard to say, all I can say is that with the 1Ghz processor the whole thing just fly’s by comparison. In general the Android 2.1 philosophy of operation is functionally the same as the 1.5 and 1.6 releases just with loads more polish, a few UI improvements and greater social integration.

Conclusion

After having a week of solid use with the Nexus One I am now convinced that this phone is going to be the benchmark to which all Android phones will be compared over the next 12 months.

It is fast, very fast when compared to any other existing Android device. I have had, at maximum, 24 applications running in the background at which point I noticed some lag in the phone.

Is it an iPhone killer? Well, no and it is not meant to be. In my view Google and Apple are taking a completely different approach to the smartphone arena. The iPhone is a phone, with a large media player backing, but is still based around the philosophy of being a phone.

The Nexus One (Android) is a small handheld computer which has the ability to make and receive phone calls. Now don’t take this as a harsh or generalistic appraisal of either phone or manufacturer, I am not taking sides or favouring one over of the other. The Nexus One is a great phone, as is the iPhone, they are just approaching the whole smartphone concept from a different angle.

Some would say that the Nexus One is aimed at the “geek” and requires a more “geeky” approach. I would say not, it is a very slim phone with a beautiful display and a simple UI. You can then build on it (install applications) as you need.

The iPhone is the same, a slim, elegant phone with a good display and extendable through the applications which you can install. The one large differentiator is the multi-tasking operating environment on the Nexus One which allows backgrounding of any application. I did hear a rumour today that iPhone 4.x will support multi-tasking, time will tell??

Getting “root” access to the Nexus One

The final chapter in this review is the process of getting “root” access to the Nexus One. What does this mean and what benefit does this provide? Root access to a Linux based device is the equivalent of “jailbreaking” your iPhone. You can then install and run applications needing access to system calls and functions which were previously protected by the operating system access controls.

Such applications include wifi tethering, control over the LED flash, multi-touch native browser support and ultimately the ability to install a completely new and reworked version of the Android operating system such as those for the HTC Dream (G1) previously released by Cyanogen.

Here is the “real” quick guide to how I gained root access to my Nexus One phone. This quick step guide assumes a fair amount of previous Android and unlocking knowledge and should not be followed without it. There are more detailed how to’s out there.

Step 1: Unlock the bootloader

First you must unlock the boot loader. Essentially allow the install of other boot loaders and “open up” the phone. You will need the Android SDK toolkit and I found I also had to download the “fastboot” client app from the HTC Developer center.

I did this from the Linux command line so did not need to install anything else except the SDK. Windows and Mac users will need to install some USB utilities. First check you can see the phone

./adb devices

Should return your phone listed with no errors. Now reboot into the “fastboot” mode by powering off and then holding the scroll point while pressing the power on button. You should boot to the screen with the 3 little androids on skateboards. Now back to the command line and check you can see the phone again, this time with the fastboot command.

./fastboot devices

This should list your phone again. Now unlock the bootloader with

./fastboot oem unlock

You will be presented with a screen asking you to confirm that you want to unlock and that this will void your warranty. Proceed at your own risk Your phone will OEM unlock and reboot.

Step 2: Flash with new recovery image

THIS STEP WILL WIPE ALL OF YOUR PHONE SETTINGS! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!

You will need to boot back into “fastboot” mode again for this step. Once there you will need to flash this recovery image from the XDA forums. Using the command line again:

./fastboot flash recovery recovery-RA-nexus-v1.5.3.img

Now reboot again with

./adb reboot

You may need to re-enable the USB debugging mode at this point to continue with the next step. You can do this under Settings -> Applications -> Development -> USB debugging

Step 3: Flash with Cyanogens N1 addon package

This time you will need to issue the command which instructs the phone to boot to the above recovery image. Then flash the Cyanogen zip package. This package must be copied to the root of your phone’s SD card.

./adb reboot recovery

You will see a new screen with new options. You can use the scroll point to select the option to “Flash zip from SD card”. Next select the Cyanogen package which you will need to have in the root of your SD card – “nexus-addon-0.1-signed.zip”.

Once this is complete, reboot the phone and you are done!

I performed this operation on my phone and have had no adverse effects at all. Since “rooting” my Nexus One I have successfully installed many applications including Cyanogens Browser.apk which enables multi-touch in the default Android browser, various wifi tethering applications, CPU frequency scaling apps and the LED flash controls. I am looking forward to the first round of custom ROMs for the Nexus which are bound to make this little handset fly higher than it does natively!

How To Buy The Google Nexus One in Australia

You’re probably wondering how I’m using this phone and reviewing it from Canberra since Google is initially restricting sales of the Nexus One to people who live in 4 countries (US, UK, Hong Kong and Singapore).

There are several options open to Australians who want to buy the Google Nexus One right now.

1. Relatives in USA, UK, HK or SG – I bought my Google Nexus One through relatives in the USA who posted it to me. This is the cheapest option if you can trust your relatives
2. Buying Through A Freight Forwarder – who provides you with an address to say you live in USA, UK, HK or SG and then charges you a fee eg: $50 to post the phone to you.
3. Buying from an Australian Importer – like Mobicity in Queensland (who charges $899 at time of writing). This option is the most reliable because you get an Australian 12 month warranty but expensive because Mobicity buys the phone from Google and adds a retail margin.

This guest technology review has been written by my friend Michael Manning (@mmanning13 on Twitter). Michael is an IT Infrastructure manager responsible for network infrastructure, server and desktop environment, hardware and support services, specialising in the Linux server environment.

If you’re a blogger or an expert about a topic I cover on this blog I encourage you to contact me and I’ll consider publishing your guest article here including generous attribution and back links back to your website as thanks for your contribution

Visit the Rambling Thoughts Blog regularly to read articles about Technology, Personal Finance, TV Shows, Politics, Environment, Books and more

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EXCLUSIVE FIRST AUSTRALIAN REVIEW: I’ve just tested the Acer Liquid A1 Android smartphone and am really surprised that Acer hasn’t officially released it in Australia yet because for the price (currently $519 at importers Mobicity) it’s the best value Android phone sold in Australia with a big 480×800px WVGA capacitive touchscreen (2.5 times iPhone resolution), 5mp camera, GPS, Wi-Fi and a swift 768 MHz processor.

Photos of Acer Liquid A1

Comparison to Other Android Phones

• Price – Many people don’t have $700 to $900 to buy a Motorola Droid/Milestone or Google Nexus One so the Acer Liquid A1’s price ($519 at time of writing from Mobicity) puts a very good Android smartphone within the reach of more buyers.
• Speed – noticeably faster than the HTC Magic, Samsung Galaxy and HTC Dream. Slightly slower than the Google Nexus One and Motorola Droid/Milestone when many applications are open at once.
• Buttons & Trackball/DPAD – The buttons for HOME, SEARCH, MENU, BACK are all part of the touchscreen like in the Motorola Droid and Google Nexus One. There’s no button for CALL/HANGUP so you have to do that by touching virtual buttons onscreen. The lack of a Trackball/DPAD may annoy some people because these offer more accurate control than a finger. On the other hand removing the Trackball/DPAD simplifies the front screen design and many people don’t like Trackball/DPAD.
• Software Onscreen Keyboard – like the HTC Magic, Samsung Galaxy and Google Nexus One.

  Doesn’t have a slideout physical keyboard like the HTC Dream and Motorola Droid/Milestone

  I prefer to use my paid Better Keyboard application because it’s easier to type more accurately than the standard Android software keyboard.

Strengths

• Screen – big 3.5inch 480 x 800 pixels WVGA capacitive touchscreen (2.5 times iPhone screen resolution). Visual quality is good but not as much as an AMOLED screen. The Liquid’s large screen and rounded smooth design makes it very comfortable to hold the screen sideways in both hands when reading/writing long emails or viewing websites
• Sensors – Accelerometer, Light Sensor, Proximity, Compass
• Connectivity and Storage – 7.2mpbs HSDPA support, WiFi, GPS, 3.5mm headphone jack, standard MicroUSB slot for connecting to computer via USB, microSDHC card support upto 32GB (2GB card supplied),
• Camera – takes photos at 5mp with autofocus and the option of geo-tagging location. Colours and exposure are quite good in daylight but the lack of a flash means its not much use at night.
• Battery Life and Processor – some technically minded readers will wish the processor was 1Ghz rather than 768 MHz but I found the phone was always fast, with no delays even when multitasking.

  In addition running the processor at 75% of its ability means the Battery life is better. The Acer Liquid lasted around 10-12 hours of use for calls, SMS, web surfing, twitter/email auto check apps which is better than average for a smartphone with large touchscreen.

  My big tip to make sure you get the best battery life on the Acer Liquid A1 is to change these settings and run the “Advanced Task Killer” application twice a day

• Useful Status Icons on top of the phone – for incoming e-mail/SMS, calls. (photo courtesy of Frandroid)

  

Weaknesses

• Android 1.6 – Which is the version Acer Liquid A1 ships with has a lot of features but some people will want the extra new features in Android 2.0/2.1 like voice dictation into any application. According to the French Android news site Frandroid a 2.0 update will be released by Acer in March 2010.
• Availablity – At the moment the only Acer Liquid A1’s sold in Australia are from online store Mobicity which imports the Acer Liquid A1 from UK. While their pricing is good, stock isnt always available for immediate delivery. This means you have to buy the phone outright unlocked as it’s not available on a contract from Telstra/Optus/Vodafone.

  When asked whether they were releasing any Android phones in Australia an Acer Australia spokesperson told me : “Acer Australia has not made a decision on the Liquid yet.”

• Unlocking Screen – when the phone is in standby unlocking it requires an unneccessary 2 button presses: first the power button on the left side of the phone then the MENU button on the bottom front of the phone.

Note: thanks to Australian online store Mobicity for lending me the Acer Liquid A1 Android smartphone. At time of writing they had it on sale for $519 including an Australian 12 month warranty.

You can find out more about the Liquid’s features at ACER’s website. If you’re an advanced smartphone user and want to get administrator (root access) to the Acer Liquid so you can upgrade it yourself visit Modaco Forums

Other People’s Reviews of Acer Liquid A1 Android Phone

Similarly to Acer´s latest Windows phones, the Liquid A1 comes with capable hardware that, sadly, is not exactly backed up by elaborate interface personalization, but the difference to Windows Mobile is that Android tends to be more user-friendly barefooted.

Handsets like the HTC Hero and Motorola MILESTONE/DROID are clearly superior in terms of software. Still, if you happen to be on the lookout for a powerful smartphone and interface personalization is not your cup of tea, consider the Acer Liquid A1. It is a good option and you don’t need to break the bank to get one, because its retail price is lower than the amount you have to fork out for one of the afore-mentioned devices
- PhoneArena

Overall the Acer Liquid is an interesting addition to the Android portfolio. It gets some things really right: the screen is a good size and resolution and responsive enough and the essentials are covered: HSDPA, GPS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth. For those looking for an Android device that hasn’t been tinkered with too much, then this might be worth investigating, but beware what looks like some minor software bugs.
- Pocket Lint

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