The Pocket PC is back, apparently. Acer today officially introduced the Windows 10-powered Liquid Jade Primo smartphone in the Philippines, and it threatens to replace not just your regular smartphone–which usually tends to just kind of sit in your pocket or rest on your table all day–but your desktop PC as well. Because according to Acer Philippines, the Acer Liquid Jade Primo can turn into a full-blown PC just by being docked to connect to an external monitor. So it’s a phone in your pocket in one moment, and a good old-fashioned desktop PC in the next.
It does this with Windows Continuum, one of the many new features added by Microsoft in Windows 10. And the way it works is that you will be able to run “regular Windows apps” through your phone while it is connected to any external monitor. The use of Bluetooth accessories, like a Bluetooth wireless keyboard and a Bluetooth wireless mouse, will then allow you to use these apps just like you would on an actual desktop PC. It’s not exactly a new concept, but it’s something that’s seriously wishing for some good execution. It looks like Acer just might be up for it.
The Acer Liquid Jade Primo is primarily a 5.5-inch phone with Full HD resolution on a vibrant AMOLED display panel and what appeared to be scratch-resistant glass protection. It runs on a 64-bit hexa-core processor, comes with 3GB of RAM, and has 32GB of internal storage. It’s also equipped with dual cameras–21MP rear camera with dual-LED flash and 8MP front camera–and as earlier mentioned, will arrive in the market with Windows 10 pre-installed.
At a press conference held after today’s local unveiling of the Acer Liquid Jade Primo, Acer Philippines General Manager Manuel Wong mentioned that there are plans to sell the Liquid Jade Primo in certain “bundle” configurations, so that users can really utilize it as the smartphone-as-a-PC that it is. However, that won’t be until quite a ways from today, as the Liquid Jade Primo isn’t set to become available in stores until around December of this year. By then, it should start popping up in various retail locations with a price tag of Php 18,990.
