Acer Liquid X2 review: Switchboarding

Telephony and loudspeaker

The phonebook and dialer have a very stock Android look, only they're a blend of Lollipop and Marshmallow. The latter lends the three-tabbed arrangement with favorites, log and contacts, but instead of icons the tabs get names like in Lollipop.

As part of the Float apps, the Liquid X2 has a Float caller toggle, which makes incoming calls appear in a small pop-up instead of full-screen. Smart dial is supported too, naturally.

Phonebook

The headline feature of the Liquid X2 is its triple-SIM support and it inevitably has a settings menu on how to handle them. You can assign a name to each card, as well as a color to identify it more easily. A preferred card must be selected for data, while calls and short message can be left on a case-by-case basis.

SIM card settings

The loudspeaker of the Liquid X2 performed rather poorly in our test, falling in the Below average category. The Zenfone 2 ZE551ML isn't better, but Moto X Play is a few notches up and so is the Xiaomi Redmi Note 3.

Messaging and text input

The Liquid X2 has a generic messaging app with threaded view of conversations. There are two email clients, the stock one and Gmail, guess which one is which in the screenshots below. You can't remove either, mind you.

Short messages • Email • Gmail

Text input is handled by the Swype keyboard. It has word prediction, swipe input (imagine that), can be detached and moved around as well as squished to one side for easier one-handed access.

Swype keyboard