Acer Liquid Leap+ review – hands on
Acer's new smartband fitness tracker also has smartwatch features
Acer today unveiled its new smartband – the Liquid Leap+. The previous Liquid Leap was a cross between a fitness band and a smartwatch; thanks to its OLED screen, it could display notifications from your phone, such as emails, texts and tweets, and let you control music playback.
The new Liquid Leap+ model does all of the above across Android, iOS and Windows Phone via the Leap Manager app, but with the new smartband Acer aims to address some of the criticisms levelled at the original. The good news is that the straps are now replaceable, so you can fit a new one if yours becomes worn or dirty. Acer also claims the new strap is easier to fit to your wrist.
On the latter front, the new smartband is a mixed success. The strap is still tricky to fit, especially if you want it to be snug on your wrist, but we got better at persuading the strap’s two metal lugs through its small rubber holes with practice.
The Liquid Leap+ has a 1in OLED touchscreen, which you double-tap to turn on – the smartband defaults to showing the time. Unfortunately, getting the screen to turn on was the most frustrating aspect of using the new smartband. Sometimes it would respond straight away to a double-tap, and sometimes not at all – not what you want when you need to quickly check the time.
The Liquid Leap+ can measure the number of steps a user has taken, the distance they have run and the number of calories burned, and is IPX7-certified waterproof, so even though it’s fiddly to put on you don’t really have to take it off between gym and shower. IPX7 is for exposure to water up to one metre down for up to 30 minutes, so this isn’t a device to wear for a serious swim. The Liquid Leap+ is available in Black, Pink and Green to suit your particular taste.
At just €79 (around £57), there’s no doubt the Liquid Leap+ offers an awful lot for the money. We just hope Acer can make it a bit more responsive before launch.