Skip to main content

Acer reveals Liquid M220 Windows Phone, Android Jade Z, and Liquid Leap+ wearable

Mobile World Congress 2024
Read our complete coverage of Mobile World Congress

Acer just unveiled a range of new smartphones and a wearable at MWC in Barcelona. The Liquid M220 is an entry-level Windows Phone 8.1 device that will be heading to the States. It was joined by the Android trio, the Liquid Jade Z, Z220, and Z520. Acer also had the Liquid Leap+ active band on display.

Hands on: Acer Liquid M220

First up we have the entry-level Liquid M220, running Windows Phone 8.1, but set for a Windows 10 update. This is a diminutive device with a 4-inch display at 233ppi (pixels per inch). It has a 5-megapixel main camera and a 2-megapixel selfie cam, which can also be voice operated. The back is a strange texture that Acer explained was inspired by Thai Silk suit jacket material. It comes in black or white and it also has ridged sides for extra grip. And it should land in the U.S. some time later this year, but initially it will go on sale in Europe in April for 80 euros.

Recommended Videos

Hands on: Acer Liquid Jade Z

This is an impressively inexpensive variant of the Liquid Jade S that will go on sale in Europe in March for 200 euros. It’s actually identical in size, with the same 5-inch display, but the octa-core processor has been dialed back to a quad-core 64-bit 1.5GHz MediaTek processor. There’s also a 13-megapixel rear camera and a 5-megapixel front-facing camera. At 7.9mm and 120g it feels very light and slim in hand with Acer’s Thai Silk pattern providing easy grip on the back cover. It runs Android 4.4 KitKat out of the box, but should get Android 5.0 Lollipop in due course. It comes in two flavors, 1GB of RAM with 8GB of storage, or 2GB of RAM with 16GB of storage.

Please enable Javascript to view this content

Hands on: Acer Z220 and Z520

Acer Z220
Acer Z220 Image used with permission by copyright holder

Two affordable Android KitKat phones, the Z220 and the Z520, have 4-inch and 5-inch displays respectively. The resolution on the Z520 is 900 x 480 pixels, it has 1GB of RAM, and a quad-core MediaTek processor. There’s an 8-megapixel main camera, and a 2-megapixel selfie cam. The Z220 has a WVGA display, 1.2GHz dual-core Snapdragon 200 processor, 5-megapixel main camera, and a 2-megapixel front-facing camera. The Z220 lands in Europe in March for 90 euros and the Z520 follows in April for 120 euros. There are no plans right now to take them Stateside.

Acer Liquid Leap+

This smart activeband marks Acer’s entry into the wearable market. It’s a fitness band with a 1-inch OLED display and it tracks your steps, sleep, distance covered, and calories burned. It’s platform agnostic so there’s support for notifications from Android, iOS, or Windows Phone devices. You can set alarms on it and control your music. It’s also waterproof with an IPX7 rating. You can pop the screen out and pair it with a range of different colored wristbands in black, pink, or green.

The Liquid Leap went on sale in the UK a few months ago, but the Leap+ is an improved version and it’s poised to hit Europe in March for 80 euros. No word on a U.S. release yet.

Simon Hill
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Simon Hill is an experienced technology journalist and editor who loves all things tech. He is currently the Associate Mobile…
Samsung is going all-in on Snapdragon chips for the Galaxy S25
Samsung Galaxy S24 in Marble Gray standing on park bench.

The Samsung Galaxy S25 series rumor mill has been turbulent, and that's putting it lightly. An unbelievable amount of information has emerged about this phone, but one debate that was never settled is whether it would use the Snapdragon 8 Elite chip or the Exynos 2400 chip. Now we have an answer thanks to leaked benchmarks: it's all Snapdragon, all the way.

The most recent Galaxy S25 Geekbench results show a score of 2,986 single-core and 9,355 multi-core, a base frequency of 3.53GHz, and two separate processing clusters. The first has six cores clocked at 3.53GHz, and the second has two cores clocked at 4.47GHz, according to Tarun Vats on X.

Read more
Get ready for 2025 with Apple’s massive New Year Fitness+ update
The Apple Fitness Plus icon on an Apple TV.

Apple has assembled its largest New Year’s program and feature update for Apple Fitness+ since its launch, all ready for your 2025 plans to be more fit and healthier. In addition to a completely new strength program and a new sport to train for, there are new guest trainers and some in-depth courses for difficult to master yoga and meditation poses and techniques.

An all-new three-week course of full-body strength workouts arrives as one of the two complete programs, and what makes it different from others is the entire training team has come together to create the plan. It’s the first time this has been possible, and there’s a great deal of excitement surrounding it, which promises to make the sessions upbeat and fun. The focus changes each week, and the program has been designed to be repeated to build consistency.

Read more
5 things Samsung needs to do with its folding phones in 2025
The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6 and Galaxy Z Flip 5's weather apps.

2024 was a challenging year for Samsung as its smartphone lineup has fallen stale just as it faces more competition in every smartphone segment than ever before. The Google Pixel 8a and OnePlus 12R challenge the Galaxy A, while the Galaxy S24 series faces challenges in every key market.

Then there’s the foldable lineup, and it’s where Samsung has improvements to make. The company made foldable phones mainstream, but while it drove much of the initial innovation, the competition has begun to surpass it. The OnePlus Open proved that there was an alternative to Samsung’s prowess in multitasking, and the Galaxy Z Fold 6 did little to dispel that notion last year. At the same time, Google made a much better foldable with the Pixel 9 Pro Fold; Honor proved that you can have a slim foldable with a big battery, and Motorola proved that it can outdo Samsung on the flip front.

Read more