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The third installment in Acer's Liquid Jade series of smartphones, the Liquid Jade Z is more aggressively priced than its immediate predecessor, the Jade S. Back at around the £150 mark, the Jade Z enters a very saturated market. Can it make its mark above phones including the great Vodafone Smart ultra 6 and the Motorola Moto G?
With most changes ‘under the hood', the Liquid Jade Z looks very similar to both its predecessors – the Liquid Jade S and the Liquid Jade. The Jade S was a big improvement on the original Jade, so let us see how the new Jade Z fares.
Features
- 5-inch HD display
- MediaTek MT6732 quad-core CPU, 1.50 GHz
- 1GB RAM
- 8GB internal storage
- Android KitKat 4.4.4
- 13MP primary camera, 5MP secondary camera
- 2300 mAh battery
- 4G ready
The Liquid Jade Z comes in a burgundy, grey and white box, which is fairly attractive. The grey area uses the same pattern as found on the back of the smartphone itself.
It is a good-looking box and does the job. On the front is a picture of the phone and product branding, while the base of the box details a few key specifications of the device.
Inside, you get the phone, an AC adapter, microUSB cable, earphones and a wad of guides and user booklets.
While the general shape and chassis of the Jade Z is identical to the Jade S and the original Jade before it, the design of the rear casing has been altered somewhat.
The Jade S introduced a dark purple criss-cross pattern across the back of the phone, which I found helped grip the device. The Jade Z is dark grey in colour and while it does not have the same criss-cross pattern, the back is lined with ribbed markings which you can see in the above pictures. It does not feel especially nice in the hand, despite looking fairly smart. I found it felt somewhat like sandpaper, and it did not even aid the grip of the phone. Still, on a purely aesthetic level, it is a nice touch.
The Jade Z does remain incredibly light, weighing just 110g. For a 5-inch phone this is mightily impressive, and as I have mentioned previously – the Jade Z is light almost to a fault, as it feels rather insubstantial. Still, the weight of the device makes the Jade Z very pocket-friendly, and reflects well on Acer.
As for product dimensions, the phone measures in at 143.5 x 69.8 x 7.9 mm (LxWxD) – which is also impressive. With the 5-inch display, this gives a screen-to-body ratio of 68.8%, which is not bad but not market leading. Overall, though, the weight and size of the Jade Z make it a good option for those not looking for a ‘phablet'. One-handed use is very possible with the Jade Z.
One other mainstay of the Jade design has been a protruding camera, and this is unfortunately the case again with the Jade Z. It is only an extra 2 or 3 millimetres, but it does not look especially great and does mean the Jade Z does not lie perfectly flat on its back.
As for power buttons and the like, the right edge houses a volume rocker while the on/off button is on the top edge iPhone 5-style. A microUSB charging port is located right-of-centre (when the phone is face up) at the bottom edge.
The display found on the Jade range of phones has impressed me previously, and that is certainly the case again here with the Jade Z. We have the same 720p, 5-inch display as found on the previous models, and this gives a pixel density of 294 PPI. Regular readers will know I favour a PPI level of around 300 and above for a crisp display, so the Jade Z has enough pixels for me and it gives a crisp image.
Actual image quality is also decent, as we have an IPS LCD panel. Viewing angles are as good as they have always been on other Jade phones, so flip this phone any which way and you will be able to get a clear picture without colour shift.
Brightness levels are a slight let-down, but nothing horrendous. Indoors it is fine (as ever), but once the phone is taken outdoors it does struggle in bright sunlight. It is not awful, but a brighter screen would make life more comfortable for outdoor use.
While the display remains dependable, it is sad to see Acer happy to leave things be without improving on them. This is the same display as found on the original Jade, and while it is perfectly competent, Vodafone managed to fit a FHD IPS Quantum display on their Smart ultra 6 – for £25 less than the Jade Z. Acer seem happy to tread water with the Jade Z's display, which consumers (and this reviewer) may well find tiresome.
The OS included with the Jade family has always been my biggest issue with other Jade models, and it is unfortunately the case again here. Acer simply have not learnt from previous mistakes, and insist on giving consumers the same, old and tired version of Android KitKat.
Do not get me wrong, it is nothing against KitKat itself. As a mobile OS, I like it a lot. It is just that Acer insist on including their own system skin and drop-down menus which look more suited to a smartphone from 2010 than 2015.
For instance, we have the home screen. A cheesy default background starts things badly, and the weather widget is a huge ‘no-no' for me as it is rather tacky. Icons need to become flatter, too, to give a modern look. There are also a few home pages filled with cheap looking widgets, including a mobile data tracker and an ‘Acer suggests' widget which gives Acer-recommended apps.
As we continue to the settings menu, the drab theme continues. There is no colour here at all, which makes everything look terribly dull. We have a monochrome list which is exceptionally boring to use, and could do with being separated into different tabs for different setting categories. This would save users scrolling down and down and down until they find the desired setting.
The drop-down quick settings menu follows a similar pattern. Everything is black and white until you activate a setting – e.g. turning on WiFi – when the icon turns an unappealing shade of green. Everything looks very blocky and dated, too, which is an unfortunate theme running throughout the OS.
So on the whole, we have a terrible mobile OS. If Acer want to include KitKat, fine. But they should have had the sense to leave it alone, as stock KitKat 4.4 is a strong OS in its own right. What Acer have done is to include a mobile operating system from (what feels like) 2010 on a smartphone for 2015 – which simply does not work. What makes Lollipop and iOS 8 good, modern operating systems are their flat icons and bursts of colour. Acer's OS does neither and as such it is a massive turn-off for me.
In terms of system performance, things appear to have taken a step backwards from the Jade S to the Jade Z. The Jade S had an octa-core MediaTek CPU, but the MT6732 processor included with the Jade Z is a quad-core unit. It is paired with a comparatively low 1GB RAM.
For everyday usage, performance is adequate but not phenomenal. Apps can take a moment or two longer to load than I would like, and there is occasional lag switching between open apps. While it is understandable that processing power has been reduced to bring the overall cost of the Jade Z down, it is a bit disappointing.
The benchmarks were actually fairly decent, which surprised me. In Geekbench 3, the Jade Z scored 707 for single-core performance and 2122 for multi-core performance. This is only slightly less than the 639 and 2393 scored by the Smart ultra 6.
Indeed, the Jade Z even edged the ultra 6 in the Ice Storm Unlimited test. It scored 7911 against the 7668 of the ultra 6. I can only conclude the extra ‘layer' of software Acer have included within the Jade Z is slowing real-world performance, as the benchmark scores are quite strong for a £150 phone.
Finally, 4G performance is also high, with the Jade Z recording the fastest download speeds I have seen on a phone at KitGuru.
The 13MP camera fitted with the Jade Z takes photos at a native resolution of 4160 x 3120. There is also a 5MP secondary camera – something which is becoming more common these days.
The camera unit on the Jade S improved things from the camera from the original Jade – and it seems Acer have left the camera alone, meaning it is essentially the same piece of hardware as included with the Jade S.
This is not necessarily a bad thing, as the camera is fairly decent. There is an effective HDR mode, while images are fairly sharp and well detailed thanks to the high pixel count.
Colour reproduction is also good, with some rich colours – particularly the velvet, lush green grass as you can see above. Occasionally I found the camera struggled to focus, particularly if there was even slight movement from the object in question, but on the whole this is a decent camera for the money, and I would say it is in the same league as the 13MP unit included with the Vodafone Smart Ultra 6.
The included battery is a 2300 mAh unit, which should hopefully do the job for a 720p display and a quad-core CPU.
Simulating real-world usage, meaning WiFi or mobile data was always on (as was auto-sync), I found the Jade Z performed better than its predecessors. It could last a day, perhaps not as comfortably as the impressive Vodafone Smart prime 6, but you should have around 10% spare after a day of regular usage.
This is more-or-less confirmed by the Geekbench 3 battery benchmark. The Jade Z lasted for 6 hours 39 minutes, behind the Smart prime 6 but well ahead of the Smart ultra 6. This indicates solid battery life under duress.On the whole, the Acer Liquid Jade Z seems like it just can't quite deliver on its potential.
The design is attractive, with a new, grey back – but it is rough underhand and does not provide the best user experience for consumers. As always, the Jade Z is incredibly light at 110g, which is in its favour.
A 720p display, with an IPS panel, does a good job too. However, Acer have not improved the display since the original Liquid Jade, so it is a bit disappointing that they seem content to tread water. Nonetheless, it is a solid screen.
The OS is by far and away the biggest of the Jade Z's problems, though. It is simply not fit for a modern smartphone, as it looks very dated. There is no colour, and far too many clunky widgets. Icons, too, should be flatter. Considering that this is the same OS as found on the original Liquid Jade, Acer should be doing much better here.
I also believe that the additional software Acer have added prevents the Jade Z as performing as well as it could. It delivered good benchmark scores, but real-world performance was not quite at the same level. Without the extra software ‘layer' I think we would be seeing better everyday performance from the Jade Z.
The Jade Z is helped by a decent camera unit, though – colours are very rich and the detail in the images is high. Battery life also is in the Jade Z's favour, too. It will last a day of real-world usage with a room to spare – but do not expect a two-day battery life from the 2300 mAh unit.
Overall, given that the Jade Z costs around the £150 mark, it is hard to recommend ahead of the Vodafone Smart ultra 6 – which costs less at £125 while having a better display and a faster processor.
Still, if you want a smaller and very portable smartphone – even though its performance is not always perfect – the Jade Z could do a job. You can get it from Dabs for £152.24 inc VAT here.
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Pros
- Thin and light
- Attractive back
- Solid display
- Decent battery life
Cons
- Awful OS
- Everyday performance is occasionally shaky
- Display has not been improved since the original Jade Z
- Uncomfortable to hold
KitGuru says: With stock Android included, we could be looking at a good little phone in the Liquid Jade Z. Unfortunately, it is held back by an outdated operating system which also affects real-world system performance. Nonetheless, a thin design and decent battery life claw things back for the Jade Z – so we have a phone ‘worth considering.'
