Times have changed from phones with small screens and limited functionality to ones with bigger screens with endless capabilities. Both Acer liquid S1 and Samsung Mega fall in the category of phones with big screens and are also called phablets.
Acer Liquid S1
After its success in laptop segment, Acer planned to make big numbers in the mobile and tablet segment. As a matter of fact, it has been successful in giving tough competition to a number of existing competitors by selling good quality phones at affordable prices.
Design and Display
It comes with a black front and optional white or black back plate with power button on the left and volume keys on the right (slightly unusual as compared to most of the phones in the market). It has a 5.7 inch 720*1280 pixel LCD display screen with 258 ppi pixel density. The display is somewhat below average as compared to other phones of the similar price range.
Specifications, Camera and Battery
The Liquid S1 is powered by 1.5 GHz quad core processor with 1GB RAM, 8GB internal storage and runs on android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean. It has a decent 8MP rear camera with LED flash and 2MP front camera for video calling. The autofocus feature is very slow and jittery both in day and night light. A 2400 mAh battery is pretty not very desirable for a phablets of this screen size (it should be somewhere near 3000 mAh).
Samsung Galaxy Mega 5.8
Samsung has carved for itself a reliable and successful name in the smart phone segment since quite some time now. After the success of the Note 2 phablet, Samsung has launched yet another phablet for the mid consumer segment.
Design and Display
There is not much change in the design pattern of Samsung as all the smartphones look similar in design and build except with the differences in the screen size. It has the power button on the right and volume buttons on the left side with home button and capacitive menu and back buttons at the bottom of the display. It has 5.8 inch 540*960 pixel TFT screen with 190 ppi. Images and videos are not very sharp and colors appear to be less vibrant as compared to other Samsung models with AMOLED screen.
Specifications, Camera and Battery
It is powered by 1.4 GHz dual core processor with 1.5GB RAM and 8GB internal memory. Though the processor is dual core, 1.5GB RAM gives it a good performance as compared to other phones with better processor and less RAM. It comes preloaded with Android 4.2.2 with Samsung Touch Wiz UI with added features like lock screen widgets, multiple home screens and multitasking capability. Its 8MP camera takes good quality shots in day light only, while low light shots are of poor detail and quality. It comes with 2600 mAh battery which lasts full day with mixed usage.
Overall
We tested both phablets and found Samsung Mega’s better as compared to Acer Liquid S1 in terms of screen quality, hardware performance and battery life. Though it has a dual core processor, the additional 0.5GB RAM covers up the performance.
