Acer Liquid A1 Android Smartphone Now On Sale

Acer's first Android smartphone – and indeed the first Android handset to be powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon processor – has begun shipping in the UK.  The Acer Liquid A1 is currently in stock at retailers Expansys and Clove, priced at £339.99 ($556) and £328.99 ($538) respectively.

Your money gets you a 3.5-inch WVGA capacitive touchscreen, quadband GSM/GPRS/EDGE and triband (900/1900/2100) HSDPA, along with WiFi b/g, Bluetooth 2.0+EDR and a 5-megapixel camera.  While the processor is capable of 1GHz speeds, Acer have taken the decision to underclock it to 768MHz, likely in response to the capabilities of the 1,350mAh battery.

At 12.5mm thick the Acer Liquid A1 isn't exactly the most svelte Android handset around, and we're not convinced by the black & white color scheme, but early previews have been reasonably impressed by its performance.  Unlike HTC and Motorola, Acer haven't done a huge amount of customization to the UI, so you'll be living with a pretty standard install of Android 1.6 Donut.

[via Acer Liquid Blog]