Acer Liquid Jade: Camera

The Acer Liquid Jade’s hardware is middle of the road, but the camera is one area where the phone shines. Acer’s opted for a 13-megapixel rear-facing camera, which is atypical for budget smartphones. The 2-megapixel front-facing shooter is less impressive, but it fits the handset’s price tag.

While a high megapixel count on the main camera doesn’t automatically infer impressive photography credentials, it still sets the Liquid Jade apart from similarly priced competitors.

Well-lit outdoor shots come out well enough to share on Instagram and Facebook, but blow the images up to their full size and issues do begin to show. The main flaw is noise, which even appears in some daytime snaps. There was also a problem with sharpness; the edges of most buildings and objects looked soft, even in the foreground. Colour reproduction was good for the most part, however, and photos were suitably vivid; bright blues were particularly impressive.

The issue with noise increases significantly in low-light shots, so don’t volunteer as group photographer next time you’re out in a nightclub if you’re using the Liquid Jade.

Acer also includes its own custom-built camera app on the phone. You can still use the standard app if you like, but it’s worth giving the Acer version a try to see if it suits your tastes. It has several features, including 1080p video capture, still photo resolution adjustment, ISO adjusting for low-light photography, and HDR (high dynamic range) shooting – that means it’s easier to maintain a good exposure balance in photos that contain both bright and dim areas; a shadowy landscape below a bright sky, for instance. There’s also a host of auto-mode settings and filters, which is another boon to the Liquid Jade’s respectable photography credentials.

You can’t expect a top-tier camera from a £200 phone, so we’d say the Acer Liquid Jade’s photography potential is fair cop for the price. Pictures won’t look great at 13 megapixels, but most will look good scaled down for social media.