Acer announces 6-inch Liquid S2, 'first 4K-recording smartphone'

joe1946

joe1946

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Compared to many other companies, Acer's taken a rather cautious approach to super-sized phones. Its first attempt was the 5.7-inch Liquid S1, a rather straightforward Android handset unveiled back in June at Computex. The second time around, though, the company's taking a more ambitious approach, announcing the 6-inch Liquid S2 with 4K recording capability, a full HD IPS display and a Snapdragon 800 processor.Acer's touting the S2 as the first phone to offer this 4K functionality, though all signs point to Samsung's next Galaxy Note shipping with the same feature. The device sports a 13-megapixel rear camera with LED ring flash along with a 2MP front shooter capable of 1080p video. The company's also loaded up the S2 with several software enhancements on the camera side. For one, a "quick first shot" feature lets you snap a picture right from the phone's unlock screen, and you have the ability to adjust focus and exposure separately. There's also a "favorite mode," which lets you create up to five profiles with customized settings and effects.
Though 4K recording is clearly the phone's marquee feature, other specs are decidedly more high-end than we're used to seeing on Acer's Liquid lineup. As mentioned, there's a Snapdragon 800 chip under the hood, clocked at 2.2GHz and bolstered by 2GB of RAM, and the battery is a sizable 3,300 mAh. There's 4G LTE connectivity on board as well.
As usual, Acer will sell this handset in Europe, not the US (at least for now). The Liquid S2 will launch at the end of October, and we expect pricing and more exact availability information to drop soon. We'll be getting our hands on the 6-inch handset here at IFA, so check back for a hands-on!


Features and specs
Display 6", full HD (1,920 x 1,080), 368 PPI, IPS
Main camera 13 MP auto-focus, f2.2, 28 mm lens, BSI sensor, LED ring flash, 4K video
Front camera 2 MP, f2.2, 24 mm lens, 88° wide angle, BSI sensor, 1080p video
Processor: Quad-core 2.2 GHz
Storage / memory: 16 GB / 2 GB
Battery: 3300 mAh, non-replaceable Li-polymer battery
Click to expand...
http://www.engadget.com/2013/09/02/acer-6-inch-liquid-s2-smartphone/

In addition to 4K video, the Acer Liquid S2 captures 1080/60p HD video and 4x slow motion video (presumably 120fps) at lower resolution. The display is a whopping 6″ IPS display and is powered by a Snapdrag0n 800 processor at 2.2Ghz and 2GB of RAM.
Acer’s press release doesn’t specify what codec Acer is using for 4K video; however, it’s going to have to be something that is highly compressed. JVC’s MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 used in its HMQ10 is quite compressed at 144Mbps (and it’s obvious when viewed on a 4K display); however, I can’t imagine the Liquid S2 offering data rates that high (it uses a single microSDXC card after all) – so I would expect the compression to be even worse.
Click to expand...
http://www.photographybay.com/2013/09/02/acer-liquid-s2-smartphone-shoots-4k-video/
 
This is a joke. 4K? I'd go for sharper 1080p video with less rolling shutter, every time. And don't even mention DR...
Unless the sensor is moderately big. If it's 1/2" or bigger, then they have done something right and they have my permission to do all the silly things they want :)
 
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Seems like Sony's pussyfooting with respect to a consumer-level APS-c-format video camera. I was hoping that they'd build a stacked, backside-illuminated sensor with global-shutter circuitry behind the photodiodes and dual-readout for improved dynamic range. It would be good if the sensor oversampled at, say, 5,120 x 2,700 to improve postdebayer resolution. An OLPF would be kinda nice, too.
 
Samuel H said:
This is a joke. 4K? I'd go for sharper 1080p video with less rolling shutter, every time. And don't even mention DR...
Unless the sensor is moderately big. If it's 1/2" or bigger, then they have done something right and they have my permission to do all the silly things they want :)
Click to expand...

The way I look at it is like this. They are already pushing 8-13 megapixel sensors in these phones anyway. Just for the photo marketing side of it. So the "resolution" is already there for 4K video. Rather than window the video mode for 1080p, just give us 4K recording and let us use it to downsample to better 1080p.
 
Samuel H said:
This is a joke. 4K? I'd go for sharper 1080p video with less rolling shutter, every time. And don't even mention DR...
Unless the sensor is moderately big. If it's 1/2" or bigger, then they have done something right and they have my permission to do all the silly things they want :)
Click to expand...
It looks like the first smartphone with 1080p60 so that should be more usable.


Now, Acer is upping its game with a 6-inch smartphone that can record 4K video. The Liquid S2 has a ring flash around its 13-megapixel, f2.2 camera and has room for a 128GB memory card — very handy if you are recording a lot of 4K-resolution video.
Click to expand...
http://connect.dpreview.com/post/9884002029/acer-liquid-s2-announcement
 
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