At CES 2016, Acer officially announced the rollout of the Liquid Jade Primo, and it's packed with powerful components to take on the market by storm.
With the new Acer smartphone running on Windows 10 Mobile, Microsoft's Lumia 950 is more or less getting a direct competitor. Now, the question of which one is better is probably on everyone's mind, so here's a closer look at the two smartphones that are determined to blow the other out of the water.
Acer Liquid Jade Primo
To start things off, the Acer Liquid Jade Primo first made the headlines back at the IFA 2015 in Berlin, and it's touted as a "PC in your pocket." It can pretty much live up to that statement, as it houses the necessary parts to support Continuum, which makes it the first smartphone minus the Microsoft stamp to have the feature.
"The Liquid Jade Primo provides ultimate productivity for professionals through Continuum, allowing Windows 10 universal apps to provide a PC-like experience when the smartphone is connected with a secondary display," Acer says.
Specifications
The Acer Liquid Jade Primo sports a 5.5-inch Full HD AMOLED display with a 1,080 x 1,920 resolution (401 ppi), and it's topped off with an ergonomic 2.5D Corning Gorilla Glass.
Performance-wise, it's powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 808 hexa-core processor along with an Adreno 418 GPU. Also, it's crammed with 3 GB worth of RAM and 32 GB of native storage that's expandable up to 128 GB via a microSD card.
Moving on to the cameras, it's fitted with a 21-megapixel f/2.2 rear snapper with dual LED flash and support for 4K video recording. On the other side, it has an 8-megapixel f/2.2 front shooter that's capable of shooting at an an 84-degree wide angle, supporting Full HD 1080p video recording.
What's more, it has a USB Type-C port, which means that it likely offers fast charging.
More details have yet to come, including battery life and special features the smartphone might have.
Price And Availability
Acer says the Acer Liquid Jade Primo will be available starting February in EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa) with a price tag of €569 (roughly $613). A release in the U.S. market is set to follow, but as of now, there's no solid date or price yet.
Microsoft Lumia 950
As for the Microsoft Lumia 950, it stirred the market for all the right reasons, building up an even more solid fan base for the company's line of smartphones. More to the point, it's one of the first handsets to offer Continuum along with the Lumia 950 XL, which comes as no surprise at all.
"The company also reinforced its commitment to mobile with the introduction of Lumia 950 and Lumia 950 XL," Microsoft said back in October.
However, the smartphone and the phablet got off to a rocky start with Wi-Fi connectivity issues. On the plus side, Microsoft seems to be hard at work in releasing firmware updates to iron out all the wrinkles.
Specifications
The Microsoft Lumia 950 comes with a 5.2-inch Quad HD AMOLED display with a 1,440 x 2,560 resolution (564 ppi), and it's covered with Corning Gorilla Glass 3.
Just like the Liquid Jade Primo, it has Qualcomm's Snapdragon 808 hexa-core processor under its hood and an Adreno 418 GPU. As for the memory, it offers 3 GB RAM and 32 GB of internal storage that's expandable up to 200 GB with a microSD card.
It's equipped with a 20-megapixel f/1.9 rear-facing camera with triple-LED RGB flash and a 5-megapixel f/2.4 wide-angle front snapper. It also supports 4k and 1080p video recording.
With a 3,000 mAh battery pack, it can last for quite a while, not to mention it also has a USB Type-C port and offers fast charging.
As an advantage over the Liquid Jade Primo, it comes with an iris scanner.
Price and Availability
The Microsoft Lumia 950 rolled out back in November 2015, and it's priced at $549.
Comparison Chart
| Acer Liquid Jade Primo | Microsoft Lumia 950 | |
| Display | 5.5-inch Full HD AMOLED display, 1,080 x 1,920 (401 ppi), 2.5D Corning Gorilla Glass | 5.2-inch Quad HD AMOLED display, 1,440 x 2,560 (564 ppi), Corning Gorilla Glass 3 |
| Processor | Snapdragon 808 | Snapdragon 808 |
| GPU | Adreno 418 | Adreno 418 |
| RAM | 3 GB | 3 GB |
| Storage | 32 GB internal storage, expandable up to 128 GB via microSD | 32 GB internal storage, expandable up to 200 GB via microSD |
| Camera | 21 MP f/2.2 rear, 8 MP f/2.2 front | 20 MP f/1.9 rear, 5 MP f/2.4 front |
| Port | USB Type-C 1.0 | USB Type-C v3.1 |
| Battery | N/A | 3,000 mAh |
Verdict
On paper, the two Windows 10 Mobile smartphones are almost on par, sharing similar specifications.
Looking at the display, Acer's model has a slightly larger screen. If that's your cup of tea, then the 5.7-inch Lumia 950 XL could be a better choice. It's a bit more expensive, though.
In other words, the only advantage that the Liquid Jade Primo has is probably the few extra megapixels packed in the sensors and the nifty 2.5D glass.
In the end, the Lumia 950 comes out on top because of the pixels it can push out, the built-in iris scanner and the 200 GB support of expandable storage. Perhaps if Acer launched the Liquid Jade Primo earlier or upgraded the specs since the September 2015 announcement, it could have made a bigger splash.
