Help me decide if a Liquid A1 is for me?

[Guest magicdanw]

Hey y'all! This is my first post here! Wooooo!

I'm a student in the US stuck on an AT&T plan, and time and again AT&T has denied me a decent Android phone :) It looks like they might be coming out with something soon, the HTC Aria, but given the tiny tiny size, I'm kind of expecting it to be another dud like the Backflip, serving only to point more customers to the iPhone :)

Anyway, if the Aria doesn't pan out well, I can't afford an off-carrier HTC Desire or Nexus One, so I'm wondering if an Acer Liquid A1 would be a good purchase? I'd rather get the E, obviously, since it comes with more RAM and a stock 2.1 ROM, but that doesn't seem to be available in the States. The A1 looks pretty sweet, but I'm wondering how well it performs on the LCR ROMs? (By the way, am I understanding things right? Are all the custom ROMs around here that have E in the name referring to the device the ROM came from, and they all work on the A1?) Basically, is the device relatively snappy, modern-feeling? Is the battery life acceptable?

I guess...at this point in time, would any of you recommend a Liquid A1 for a geeky CS student to hack around with and also use as a primary cell phone? And is it the kind of thing that'll feel really cool for a first time smartphone owner, or is it already fading to the likes of the Nexus One?

[Guest jayziac]

Go for it. you get 3G on AT&T in the U.S. too. All the LiquidE ROMS so far can easily run on the A1. I'm running the LiquidE_1.100_05 stock ROM (rooted & optimized) that was leaked a few weeks ago. Very stable and fast (Froyo would still be nice). The Liquid has very good HW specs and a relatively low price. Battery life depends on how hard you use it. I've had it lasting 5 days with light use and turned off while sleeping, or I can burn through a full charge in 1 day.

[Guest HustlinDaily]

I too am using it on AT&T and get pretty strong 3G throughout most of the greater Houston area, lol everywhere but my house pretty much but 3G was never strong in my house to begin with (as of right now the 1900MHz 3G band which the A1 supports is the stronger AT&T band, they are building out their 850MHz band right now).

All custom roms here are based on bins from either the Liquid E or Acer Stream (both leaked to the public, neither officially released by Acer) and both work well on the A1 (I can confirm for the Liquid E bin, cannot for the Stream but I hear that it does). I am using Liquid Community Rom which is very smooth and very clean, battery life is not much to rave about but I am sure that it will improve once the next leak drops (which should be soon as the Liquid E has been officially released).

In terms of bang for the buck, you cannot get better than the Liquid. I got mine for $360 (some site on Google shopping) which is over $200 cheaper than the Nexus (including tax). It has the Snapdragon processor (slightly undervolted/underclocked), 256 megs of ram is enough and it does run fairly smooth, it has the 800x480 WVGA resolution. At this price, I don't think you can possibly get better.

[Guest magicdanw]

Awesome - that's what I was hoping to hear :)

I think that unless Apple manages to completely win me over with the iPhone 4G (almost certainly not gonna happen) or the HTC Aria, I will probably get a Liquid A1 in the next few weeks!

Only two remaining questions... First, I just realized that only the "US model" supports both 850 and 1900 MHz 3G, and I can't find that one for sale anywhere at all. I understand that if I get the more widely available model, I'll have 3G over 1900 MHz only, so is there any way to find out if that's available in my area? My Dad has an iPhone 3Gs, if that helps - maybe there's some app or config page to show what frequencies are available and in use? Or if there's some map, that'd be great. I'm in New York, but I go to school in Binghamton (upstate) and spend the summer on Long Island (downstate). If anyone in NY uses a Liquid A1 on 3G, that'd be awesome to hear! Also, if anyone knows where to get a US model with 850/1900 3G support, that'd be wonderful, since it sounds like AT&T is building up their 850 support, so maybe they'll phase out the 1900 support at some point? I hope not...

Second question - are those screen leaking problems widely occurring? I'm going to buy insurance just in case, but it'd be great to hear if they're pretty limited in occurrence.

[Guest jayziac]

I believe all Acer Liquids have the same exact hardware (Quad-Band GSM), just the factory ROM may be different for regions. You can always reflash the leaked ROMS which are EMEA region (Europe, Middle-East, America). I flashed the EMEA rom over my AAP_CSL factory version, I bought it on ebay from a distributor in Florida.

[Guest magicdanw]

I understand the GSM is always quad-band, but the 3G connectivity seems to vary. There is talk of a US model that supports 3G on 850/1900, but I can't find that model in any stores, and the model that is all over the place supports 3G on 900/1900/2100. I did check with my current phone, and I think that there is 3G over 1900 MHz where I live on Long Island, so I'm going to call AT&T and see if they can tell me what towers are in Binghamton. If it's 1900 there too, then that's perfect. Otherwise, I'd have to use Edge, which is less that desirable.

[Guest au_stevo]

Don't get one, you'll probably be stuck with a leaking LCD. I'm ****n pissed off.

[Guest jayziac]

Maybe do a search for gsm coverage, or check out this site:

www.wireless.att.com/coverageviewer/

[Guest HustlinDaily]

The only 850/1900 MHz 3G bands Acer Liquid that I know of is the Acer Liquid E from Rogers Wireless in Canada.

It costs $440 Canadian dollars off contract. I think you would have to buy it from Canada. Tho I am sure sometime in the future, retailers in the US will start to get them.

Edited June 6, 2010 by HustlinDaily

[Guest krumbalu]

yes dude it's for you :) :) :)

[Guest magicdanw]

Well, it probably will be for me if AT&T doesn't come out with something good this month...but I just caught wind of the "Samsung Captivate" rumor, and given the specs, plus the fact that on-contract it could cost the same as or less than a Liquid...yummy :) We'll see though, it's only a rumor at the moment...

Anyway, thanks for all the advice! :)

[Guest HustlinDaily]

Don't go Samsung. They don't upgrade their products despite their promises

[Guest magicdanw]

Well, it doesn't look like Acer is doing much to offer upgrades either - releasing the A1 as the E just to push out a software upgrade? That's pretty annoying to existing customers, in my opinion. I've also had a lot of good experience with every Samsung product I've ever owned, including my current phone.

My ideal would be an HTC, as those seem to be the pick of the crop when it comes to Androids, but I'll have to wait and see what is available on AT&T in the coming month. Anyway, about upgrades, the great thing with Android and OSS in general is that the community can often take care of itself :)

[Guest HustlinDaily]

I agree, that is true. BUT the Captivate is going to be an AT&T-exclusive phone meaning their community would be smaller. Who knows how hard or easy it would be to get it rooted.

Maybe you should wait a few weeks after the Captivate comes out to see how large/small the development community is and see how much progress they make.