The Mobile World Congress 2015 is officially underway with many key players already done with their press conferences. Earlier today, Microsoft also held a press conference to announce a few new devices. It’s not just Microsoft, we’ve seen a handful of new OEMs get on the Windows Phone bandwagon with their budget-friendly offerings.
Just a few hours ahead of the Mobile World Congress 2015, Acer took the wraps off its cost-effective Liquid 220 smartphone which carries a €79, which should be in line with Microsoft’s Lumia 532 and 435. But, which one among the trio is better? Let’s find out.
All three devices mentioned above feature a similar set of specifications with a few changes here and there. Many users may be reluctant to go for the Acer Liquid M220 not just because of the specifications, but because of the OEM and how the company will handle the software update process for the handset. Traditionally, we’ve seen Microsoft push the latest software updates for its budget-friendly handsets as well, and the case can be the same for the Lumia 532/435 when it comes to Windows 10, but we don’t know how active Acer will be in the Windows Phone ecosystem.
As far as the specifications are concerned, all three devices comes with a 4-inch display sporting a resolution of 800 by 480 pixels, and ships with Windows Phone 8.1 as their operating system, but Lumia devices get some extra perks, thanks to the Lumia Denim update. However, the processor is what differs. The Acer Liquid M220 and Lumia 435 feature a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, while the Lumia 532 comes with a quad-core Snapdragon 200 processor. The most disappointing feature in the Acer’s handset is the lack of RAM — it comes with 512MB of RAM while Microsoft’s duo feature 1GB of RAM, which is needed to run most of the high-profile games.
The Lumia 435 and Lumia 532 comes with 8GB of expandable storage while the Acer Liquid M220 lacks in this department as well — it has 4GB of internal memory, but you can expand it via a microSD card slot. As far as the photographic capabilities are concerned, the Lumia 532 and Liquid M220 are equipped with a 5MP sensor while the Lumia 435 boasts a 2MP main shooter. Last but not the least, the Lumia 532 and 435 comes with a bigger 1,560 mAh battery which can provide users with an extremely decent talk-time on 3G, while the unit on the Acer M220 is quite small, 1,300 mAh.
There are ups and downs of all devices, but the most obvious choice is the Lumia 532 here without any confusion. It may cost a few bucks more than the Lumai 435 and Acer M220, but its worth every extra buck you’ll spend — you can have more RAM, a quad-core processor, a better camera, and obviously, the Windows 10 upgrade when it becomes available from the Redmond-based company. There’s no word from Acer if there’s any chance of the Liquid M220 getting the Windows 10 update (obviously when it’s available) — which we highly doubt.
Further reading: Acer, Lumia 532, Microsoft, Windows Phone, Windows Phone 8.1
