Acer Liquid Leap Smart Watch

BallGum · June 2, 2014

It can be said that every year there are a few trends in technology. Last year it seemed to be about bigger and bigger phones, but this year the two that should define 2014 were wearables and 4k.

So far, arguably no one has seemed to have got the concept right (besides Pebble), and now, its Acer's turn. Today the company unveiled its first smartwatch device; the Liquid Leap.

The Leap comes in a variety of bright, cheerful colours. It looks like a rubber wristband, with the segment that contains the thin display thickened slightly. Sleek is the word that comes to mind, as the screen sits flush with the band.

Speaking of the display, it is an extremely thin, one inch touch screen, and you can tap it to wake it up; no awkward shaking gestures here, thankfully.

The feature list for the Leap is rather impressive:

Call and SMS notifications
Sleep tracking
Pause, play, and skip songs
Step counter
Distance travelled
Water Proof
Calories burned

The UI did seem a little clunky unfortunately, and the lack of physical buttons only made matters worse, but the omission is understandable. It consists of screens that display different pieces of information, but they aren't adjustable. If the screen to skip a song lies three screens in, you're going to have to swipe twice, from left to right, three times.

Another issue is compatibility. At launch it will only work with the newly announced Jade smartphone, with other smartphones added as time goes on.

The Liquid Leap connects using Bluetooth 4.0, and boasts between five to seven days of battery life. Not bad.

Information on pricing is as sparse as the buttons on the device, with Acer quoted as only saying that it will be under 99 Euros.

All in all, it's a solid effort from Acer.

Engadget's more in depth article: http://www.engadget.com/2014/06/02/acer-liquid-leap-hands-on/?ncid=rss_truncated&utm_campaign=socialmedia_gpl&utm_source=socialmedia_gpl&utm_medium=gp

My blog (from where this post came from): http://theballofgum.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/acer-liquid-leap-smartwatch-more-than.html