A phone I’ve had my eye on in Europe for quite a while now is the Acer Liquid. With a Snapdragon processor, capacitive touchscreen and a good-looking set of specifications you’d expect it to cost more than it does but if you’re in the EU, this little pocket rocket can be picked up for under 300 Euros inclusive of taxes. Unlocked! Compare that to the 400-500 that you’ll pay for a Nexus One and you see why it becomes interesting as a sub-year phone or a good device for keeping track of the Android ecosystem. The only problem is that it runs Android 1.6.

Fortunately, Acer will be releasing the Liquid E soon and with Android 2.1 it should bring some great improvements along with the possibility of multitouch, Google Navigation, Buzz and other features that are only possible with Android 2. Unfortunately, when I visited Acer at MWC there wasn’t anyone around to answer my questions so I was left like a schoolboy playing with the device to find out what I could.

Acer will have to keep the price down on this to compete with the incoming HTC Android devices but if they do, it’s a chance  make an lower-risk investment in Android at a time when new devices are coming in thick and fast.

The Milestone/Droid and iPhone 3GS are already with us and showing the way forward for powerful, dynamic and fun smartphones. But what if you’ don’t want to pay 450-800 Euros for a phone?

The Acer A1 Liquid is offering high-power (768Mhz Snapdragon platform), big screen, Android-based capability for an early price of just 360 Euros. That’s a price we expect to drop down to the low 300’s before long making it a real bargain. When did you last see a 3G-capable, WVGA capacitive touch, 5Mp, high-power platform with a huge application library for that sort of price?

Obviously the Liquid could fall flat on its face if it fails to offer the quality that’s expected and that’s what we’ve been looking for in the first reviews. Frandroid is one of the first and via a translation we’ve been able to pick out some important points.

Image via Frandroid

A video review is embedded below but you’ll probably pick up more from the translation which highlights tight battery life and size as negative points. It is indeed a rather chunky device but if you’re looking for a good value, all-day high-end smartphone, it’s still an important one to have on the toplist, especially if you’re looking to get into the world of high-powered Android devices.

Outstanding questions for us:

• Camera quality
• Haptic feedback
• Actual battery life figures

Warning. This is another ‘our reliable sources’ story!

Shanzai.com, a website dedicated to tracking China’s tech industry, is reporting that Lenovo, and Acer will launch products based on the Nvidia Tegra platform and running Google Chrome OS.

If it’s true it means that Google OS is months ahead of schedule. Previous Google said that we wouldn’t see devices until 2010.

Apart from those ‘reliable sources’ and a few very strange looking pics that were purported to be Google OS, there’s nothing much to go on here.

Thin and light mini notebooks will come soon, I have no doubt, but there’s a huge question mark hanging over the choice of OS. Linux looks to be the big winner here but what flavor it will have is anybody’s guess.

Exclusive: Lenovo and Acer to launch Tegra devices with Google’s Chrome OS

Got any thoughts on this one?

Welcome to this week’s netbook roundup. In this space every Monday I’ll highlight netbook news items from around the web.

• AT&T Rolls Out Barely-Subsidized Acer, Dell, Lenovo Netbooks Across the Country AT&T fires up a bit of netbook subsidization, offering the Dell Mini 10 [Portal page], Acer Aspire One [Portal page] and Lenovo S10 [Portal page] for $200 with a two-year, $40/month (minimum) contract.
• ASUS Eee PC T101 tablet reportedly facing uncertain future Though the Asus Eee T101H [Portal page] was seen quite a long while back on an Asus’ Eee roadmap, it seems to have a questionable release at this point. Most likely the success or failure of the Asus Eee T91 [Portal page] will decide what comes of the T101H.
• Samsung Go (N310) reviewed, gets 8.5 hours battery life The Samsung N310 [Portal page] which we saw several months ago is being branded as the Samsung Go in the US. Apparently its standard 6-cell battery is good for 8.5 hours which is quite impressive.
• Sony- Netbooks are Here to Stay; Touch Enabled VAIOs This Year Sony recently hoped into the netbook game after sitting on the sidelines since the genre appeared. Now they are recognizing the netbook as something that they need to get involved in. In addition to the release of their VAIO W [Portal page] netbook, they are planning on releasing touchscreen computers after Windows 7 lands.
• Asus Finally Launches the Eee PC 1004DN Another one that we’ve known was coming for a while: The Asus Eee 1004DN [Portal page]. Asus’ first netbook with optical disk drive and the Intel GN40 chipset. Asus has now released it in Taiwan.

Welcome to this week’s netbook roundup. In this space every Monday I’ll highlight netbook news items from around the web.

• Netbook Cover Fashions Itself in the Likeness of an NES Controller This handcrafted netbook slip case has a cool retro gaming style to it as it is designed to look like an NES controller. Looks as though the person who made it uses it to protect their Acer Aspire One [Portal page].
• Broadcom demonstrates video accelerator for netbooks Broadcom has developed a part for inclusion in netbook platforms called Broadcom Crystal HD which works to accelerate video processing, apparently enough that a Mini 110 [Portal page] can play back 1080p video at full framerate, which is pretty impressive.
• Instant-On OS Makers Respond to Chrome OS Makers of instant on pre-OSs Splashtop and HyperSpace response to the news that Google plans to release Chrome OS which will initially be targeted toward netbook users.
• HP Mini 110 Netbook Gains $30 HD Display Option Speaking of the Mini 110, Kevin C. Tofel from jkOnTheRun let’s us know that the unit can now be configured with a 1366×768 resolution display, up from the previous 1024×576 option. Along with the aforementioned Broadcom Crystal HD option, you are getting real HD playback (1280×720) from a netbook!
• Asus Eee PC T101H touchscreen netbook coming later this year Asus UK has confirmed the specs of the Asus Eee T101H [Portal page], the bigger brother of the T91 [Portal page]

We’ve seen Woot feature quite a few netbooks in the past, but today they have gone over the top. Everyone’s favorite (US only, sorry!) deal-a-day website is offering not one, but two netbook choices today, both from reputable netbook makers.

• Behind door #1 | Woot.com – Acer Aspire One D150 for $259.99 (+5 shipping)
  • Windows XP
  • 1.6GHz Intel Atom CPU
  • 1GB of RAM
  • 160GB HDD
  • 6-cell battery
  • 1024×600 10.1 inch screen
  • Available in black, blue, or red
  • Condition: Refurbished
• Behind door #2 | Shopping.woot.com (Woot/Yahoo partner site) – Asus Eee PC 900A for $169 (+5 shipping)
  • Linux
  • 1.6GHz Intel Atom CPU
  • 4GB SSD
  • 1GB of RAM
  • 1024×600 8.9 inch screen
  • Condition: New

Woot really seems to love netbooks. Head over an check out the two netbooks, and remember, if you are interested, you’ll want to buy fast because these deals will only be here for one day (and that’s if they don’t sell out!).

There has been a lot of discussion lately about the prospect of Android being employed full time as a netbook OS. It looks like Acer is taking one of the first big steps and officially stating that they will bring an Android running netbook to market in Q3 according to Acer’s head of IT products, Jim Wong. Acer has been showing an Acer Aspire One D250 [Portal page] around at Computex with Android as the OS. They are saying that this isn’t the actual product, but just a test platform. And that of course would leave one to believe that they won’t just be releasing one of their previous netbooks with Android as an OS option, but instead be developing a new netbook specifically for the inclusion of Android.

I still can’t quite see the major appeal to running Android on a netbook instead of a more mature computer OS. I’m sure costs factor into the equation; maybe Android is cheap and requires little configuration from the selling companies end, but then again, wasn’t that what they were trying for with Linux? Would you buy an Android powered netbook given the choice between Android and XP (or even Linux)? Let’s say that choosing Android saves $100….

[Register Hardware] [Engadget] (additional pics and video through the Engadget read link)

Welcome to this week’s netbook roundup. In this space every Monday I’ll highlight netbook news items that might not need their own individual posts but may still be interesting.

• 9 Cell Acer Aspire One battery good for nearly 9 hours If you are looking for an ugly, but effective super-battery, one has become available for the Acer Aspire One. These are third party batteries, but could give you one hour of run-time per cell (that’s 9 hours, for the math challenged).

• Need help deciding what kind of device you have? Engadget reports on a funny flow chart that will help you determine which exact category your preferred mobile computing device fits into.

• Eee PC 701 with a multitouch display Video A short video from eee-pc.de that shows an Asus Eee 701 with a capacitive multi-touch capable screen. Windows 7 is on the 701 in the video providing the software for the multi-touch demo.

• MSI Netbook Lasts 1.3 Days with Single Charge (On Saturn) Kevin C. Tofel of JkOnTheRun jokes about the endurance of the MSI Wind U115 [Portal page], but it really does last quite long. Apparently eee-pc.de has tested the U115 and was able to run it for 13.25 hours on a single charge, which is extremely impressive.

• RoBe:Do netbook-powered autonomous robots Click through for a cool video of an Eee PC powered robot making and delivering popcorn to its human owner, all initiated through twitter!