Acer’s Liquid Leap goes a step beyond being a fitness band, thinks it’s a smartwatch too

By Andy Boxall Updated November 17, 2014

Acer has put its Liquid Leap wearable on sale, after giving us a sneak peak way back in April, and finally revealing it during the IFA tech show in September. The Leap has shown up on Amazon’s website in the UK, priced at £80, or about $125. It’s a competitive price, particularly given Acer’s wearable turns out to be smarter than the average fitness band.

It’s Acer’s first go at making a sporty wearable, and is similar in style to Garmin’s VivoFit and the new Sony Smartband Talk. The slim strap houses a 0.9-inch, 128 x 32 pixel OLED touchscreen, which displays your step count, distance traveled, and calories burned. Wear the Liquid Leap through the night, and it’ll track your sleep patterns.

These features are standard for most modern fitness bands, but Acer’s Leap goes one step further, by incorporating smart notifications delivered from your phone. Provided it’s linked up using the Bluetooth connection, the Liquid Leap will show incoming calls, SMS notifications, email, provide control over the music player, and even activate the camera shutter.

Wrapped up in a rubber strap, the Leap is waterproof and weighs a mere 20 grams, and the battery should last for between five and seven days before needing a recharge. Amazon’s selling a black or white model, but Acer has said other, brighter strap colors will be available in the future, including one in pink or orange.

Acer has produced a companion app for the Liquid Leap, which can be downloaded for Android and iOS smartphones. According to the company’s website, the band is compatible with iPhone models from the 4S onwards running iOS 7 or iOS 8. The Android list is a little limited. It does included Acer’s own Liquid X1, Jade, and E700 devices, plus the Galaxy S3, S4, and S5. Both the Nexus 4 and the Nexus 5 are covered, along with the Moto X, Moto G, the HTC One M7, and the One M8.

The Liquid Leap’s ready for delivery in the UK now, but we’re still waiting to hear on any U.S. release.

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Andy is a Senior Writer at Digital Trends, where he concentrates on mobile technology, a subject he has written about for…

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