Acer Liquid Z530 review: A no-frills work horse you can rely on

These days we're awash in budget smartphones, especially those in the Rs 6,000 to Rs 15,000 range, and it's quite hard to stand out from the pack. Acer is definitely giving its best shot, though the earlier Liquid Jade was, in our opinion, an utter fail. Thankfully, the Liquid Z530 managed to redeem itself.

The Acer Liquid Z530 is a budget phone through and through, but it does turn out looking better than its predecessors. It’s still a plastic build, but with a textured polish resembling a metal body, and there’s a new ring design for the earpiece and the loudspeaker on the bottom rear of the phone. Call me crazy, but I think it does wonders for the look, with that little bit of symmetry between the camera and speaker. That plastic also means the phone is light in your hands (145g), so maybe hold on tight while crushing candy in transit.

Take of the plastic back and you’ll find dual SIM slots, with one for 4G, as well as a micro SD card slot off to the side. The volume rockers are on the right spine with the power button on the right side of the top edge. I know a lot of you prefer your power buttons on the side for easier unlocking but, considering the size of this phone, it isn’t really a deal breaker. Standard 3.5mm jack at the top with the micro USB port at the bottom.

As for performance, the Liquid Z530 is nothing to write home about. It’s got a 1.3GHz quad-core MediaTek MT6735 processor coupled with 2GB of RAM. There’s 16GB of internal memory, of which you’ll get roughly 10.5GB for storage. However, uninstalling some of annoying bloatware it ships with should fix some of that problem. And let’s be honest, you won’t drop just Rs 6,999 on a phone and expect it to be a powerhouse. But the Z530 gets the job done (within reason); it’s smooth on menus and behaves itself during light gaming, but you don’t want to torture the hardware too much.

The 5-inch HD display is not the brightest around, but I don’t know a lot of people, other than myself, who run around with their phones at max brightness by preference. The colours do look great and, thankfully, the speakers sound a lot better than my past experience with the Liquid lineup as well. The Z530’s advertised dts Studio Sound is loud with decent clarity, as long as you’re not maxing out the volume with a bass-heavy song.

Over to imaging, the Z530 has a 8MP front camera and 8MP on the rear. While the primary cam does a decent job capturing details, colours can appear either washed out (in bright sunlight) or over saturated (with indoor lighting). The selfie camera, however, seems to perform a little better overall, so that’s a definite plus.

The phone is powered by a 2420mAh battery, and it’s enough. Like I said, you’re not going to be gaming heavily on this device, so the battery it has will get you through the day on a single charge with moderate use. Additionally, the Z530 runs Android Lollipop 5.1 with Acer’s custom UI, one that has been redesigned to be a lot more comfortable.

All in all, the Acer Liquid Z530 isn’t a device to show off, but it seems to be the reliable work horse it sets out to be; cheap, smooth running, and comfortable like your favourite blanket. And in case you’re more set on a high-performance machine, I recommend shelling out 6K anyway for a parent in need of a no-frills smartphone.