Acer Liquid Mini phone adds a splash of colour to dreary old Android

So far we've been indifferent to Acer's Liquid Android phones. Relatively impressive on the inside, it's the design and build that have let down the last two models we have reviewed.

Acer is hoping to change all that with the Liquid Mini, a phone it describes as ideal "for those loving subtle curves, chrome details and soft touch casing", whatever that is.

We'll have to hold our judgement on whether this is built any better until we've, you know, actually seen one and all that. Whatever the build quality is like, the most striking thing about it is that you will be able to buy it in one of five different colours: blue, pink, green, black and silver.

Acer will pre-install its own app on the Android 2.2 device called SocialJogger. This combines your Facebook and Twitter updates into one feed, but unlike other manufacturers' efforts, you'll be able to create filters to get rid of the people who update too often, although why you wouldn't just unfollow them is beyond us. Stop being so polite.

Acer has also added shortcuts to the Wi-Fi settings and music player, and bunged in a copy of Documents To Go for basic editing of Microsoft Office files.

The specs seem reasonable enough. The phone features a 5-megapixel camera, a proper 3.5mm headphone jack and a microSD slot that'll support cards up to 32GB.

The battery will last for 6.5 hours of talk time, and the whole thing weighs a perfectly acceptable 109g. The touchscreen is a 3.2-inch job with a mediocre resolution of 480x320 pixels. An FM radio, Bluetooth 2.1 and 802.11g Wi-Fi round the spec list off.

The Liquid Mini will appear in the UK on 11 April, but we don't yet know how much it will cost.