“We’re committed to ensuring our customers have access to the latest and greatest handsets which in turn open up a world of possibilities for them on our 4G network. The Acer Liquid E700 smartphone is a perfect choice for our style-savvy, on-the-go customers as it meets both their business and personal needs. We are happy to be welcoming Acer to the Digicel family.”
Digicel Head of Group Device Management, Rachael Lindo-Hall, commenting on the Acer Liquid E700 on Tuesday December 2nd 2014
Looks like my theory about Digicel going Dual-SIM is spot on.
They are really falling in line with the Dual-SIM (Subscriber Identification Module) as I’d predicted back in April 2013 in my article Trend towards Dual-SIM smartphones developing in Jamaica as MNP Approaches.
Now I realize while looking through my email, yet another smartphone was released on the same date as the DL800 as mentioned in my article Digicel Launches DL800 aka ZTE KIS 3 Max Second after Digicel DL900 on Christmas 2014, which is really the ZTE Kis 3 Max.
That smartphone was the Acer Liquid E700, which has the dubious distinction of being a Triple-SIM smartphone, was launched on Tuesday December 2nd 2014 in the Caribbean, which potentially means Bermuda, Jamaica and Turks & Caicos Islands.
So says the Press Release on Digicel’s Website for the Acer Liquid E700. The Acer Liquid E700 sells for JA$19,950 plus Tax on Postpaid and JA$15,960 plus Tax on Prepaid, according to Digicel’s website.
Checks with Digicel’s FimiWireless Store in New Kingston did not allow me to confirm the price, as the unit wasn’t available. It may, however, become available at some time in the future via a sale. Possibly it may be in Jamaica and the Caribbean but not yet launched. India too is awaiting this smartphone!
This after launching both the DL900 and DL800 on Tuesday December 2nd and Wednesday December 3rd 2014 respectively noticed that the DL900 has a slot for a second SIM Card, effectively making it a Dual-SIM smartphone as noted in the article Digicel launches DL900 aka Alcatel Pop C7 as Digicel DL750 on Sale for Christmas 2014.
Acer appeared to be thrilled for the opportunity to use the Caribbean as guinea pigs to test out what was effectively their fourth budget smartphone, to quote Vice President of Acer America Smartphone Business Group, Hugo Hernandez: “We’re thrilled to be working with Digicel Group, which has enabled us to expand our smartphone presence to the Caribbean. We believe professionals, consumers and frequent travelers in this region will appreciate Acer’s Liquid E700’s ergonomic design, premium sound quality and extremely long battery life.”
Well, the Acer Liquid E700 one-upps the DL900 aka the Alcatel Pop C7 as it’s packin’ three (3) SIM Card Slots and a Front-Facing Camera. But its got more under the hood and as you’ll see, it’s quite impressive for Acer’s first budget smartphone!
Acer Liquid E700 under the Hood – Good Battery life for a 5” Budget smartphone
Released in August 2014, the Acer Liquid E700 is a featherweight smartphone with a rather large screen real-estate, with dimensions of 147.3 x 73 x 9.9 mm (5.80 x 2.87 x 0.39 in) and weighing in at 155 g (5.47 oz).
It boasts a 5.0” IPS LCD Capacitive touch screen that shows some 16M colors that you can’t really see and has a resolution of 720 x 1280 pixels, which translates to a pixel density of approximately 294 ppi.
The Acer Liquid E700 comes in the following colours:
- Titan Black
- Burgundy Red
The Triple SIM smartphone is powered by a 1.2 GHz Cortex-A7 Quad-Core that sits on a Mediatek MT6582 Chipset, with a Mali-400MP2 GPU to handle the graphics side of the smartphone.
It runs on Google Android OS, v4.4.2 (KitKat) which according to Android Developer Dashboard Stats is becoming the dominant OS as noted in my article Android Kitkat beats Jellybean in the Fragmented World of Android smartphones.
The Processor takes a healthy romp through 1, GB, 2GB to 4GB of RAM, depending on the configuration that Digicel chooses, with 16GB or Internal Flash memory to store all your Apps and Music and a MicroSD card slot to add some 32 GB of extra storage to the Acer Liquid E700.
With that much memory and Storage, the Rear-Facing 8 MP Camera comes on strong with the ability to take picture with resolutions of 3264 x 2448 pixels with little effort thanks to the auto-focus feature as well as at night-time thanks to the LED Flash. It does 1080p videos as well. The Front-Facing 2MP Camera also has a LED Flash, making their camera capable of taking fairly good selfies.
With this hardware and software, its other features are standard fare. It a Quad-Band smartphone that capable of 3G+ speeds of 21 Mbps. You can still piggyback on Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n on your low days. But when you’ve got money for Data, you can become the life of the party and set up a Hotspot for up to five (5) of your friends who’ll use off your Data Megabytes faster than you can say “Digicel 4G Broadband”.
At least the Acer Liquid E700 comes with FM Radio and the usual bevy of sensors such as the Accelerometer, proximity and GPS. As for audio support, playback for MP3/WAV/AAC Audio and MP4/H.264 Video is supported with HD front speakers and DTS Studio Sound deliver and nearly flawless CD Quality sound.
Bluetoothv4.0, however, means that you don’t have to use the built in speakers and disturb others on the bus; you can get some headphones and use the 3.5mm RCA Jack or stream it to a decent set of Bluetooth speakers or headphones.
The Acer Liquid E700‘s HTML Browser supports Java and Flash and the smartphone. It also does SMS (threaded view), MMS and Push Email fairly well and Kitkat comes with the usual Document viewer, Photo viewer/editor and Voice memo/dial.
Data Transfers and recharging of the Li-Ion 3500 mAh battery are done via a MicroUSB v2.0 port and once fully charged, the standby by time is 1440 h, with 24 hours worth of talk time and up to 100 hours of playing music, if you can endure doing these tasks for so long.
Digicel and Dual-SIM smartphones – Defense against the Dark Arts of MNP/LNP come May 2015
My suspicion was awakened after Digicel’s introduction of the Dual-SIM DL900 aka the Alcatel Pop C7 appeared to be a Dual-SIM smartphone as argued in the article Digicel launches DL900 aka Alcatel Pop C7 as Digicel DL750 on Sale for Christmas 2014.
This made me realize that it was a part of a strategy to hold on to customers planning to switch to LIME when MNP (Mobile Number Portability) and LNP (Landline Number Portability) comes into plays switching to LIME.
MNP (Mobile Number Portability) and LNP (Landline Number Portability) is set to become a reality by Sunday May 31st 2015 according to Minister of Science, Technology, Energy and Mining Phillip Paulwell as mentioned on Tuesday December 2nd 2014 at an ICT (Information and Communications Technology) Seminar held at the UTECH (University of Technology) in Kingston.
MNP and LNP basically mean that you’ll be able to retain your phone number while switching Networks. So no more walking with two (2) cellphones, one for Digicel and one for LIME, just to keep a number from a previous Network.
Instead, you’ll be able to transfer the phone number after Sunday May 31st 2015 under the MNP/LNP Regime. For example, if you have God’s phone number e.g. 777-7777 on LIME and you can to go across to Digicel, you no longer have to buy a new phone with a new SIM and tell all your contacts the new phone number.
Thus, you can keep the old phone number on the new SIM with the new Telecom Provider you have switched to become a member. Thus, your old contacts will still be able to call you at the same phone number i.e. 777-7777 and you don’t have to inform them that your number has changed.
Best of all, this coming service works with Landline and Fixed Line numbers too, a coupe for Digicel as they’ll be able to scoop up a lot of dissatisfied customers to their Fixed-Line alternative, DigiHome.
Digicel Dual-SIM Strategy – Cost of Unlocking too high to go to Green Pastures
Dual-SIM and Triple-SIM Quad-band smartphones help Digicel keep LIME at bay simply because if someone wants to switch to LIME, they’ll now have the option of merely unlocking the smartphone and just inserting the LIME SIM, if they can afford to do so.
At JA$19,950 plus Tax, unlocking will cost some JA$8000 to JA$10,000, depending on who you contact and even if the unlock codes are available for this just-released model. Otherwise, they’ll utilize the extra SIM slots for more Digicel SIM Cards, which is actually more likely be seen as a convenience, helping families to save on buying multiple phones.
Albeit this may seem to be a case of Digicel support LIME, it isn’t; Customer still wish to have the best of both worlds. Dual and Triple SIM phones like the Acer Liquid E700 facilitate that wish, allowing them to explore other Green pastures, but returning to the Rolling hills of Red whenever those familiar with their Digicel number need to contact them when MNP and LNP become a reality on Sunday May 31st 2014.
Here’s the link:
One response to “Digicel going Triple-SIM with Acer Liquid E700 smartphone”
Well if purchasing this phone from Digicel then one needs not highlight the three sim slots since, Digicel has labelled the two extra sims with “void warranty” stickers if you try to use any of them.