Acer announced the Liquid E2 smartphone on Wednesday, which is an affordable Android 4.x Jelly Bean handset.

Following in the footsteps of the Liquid E1 which made its debut in January, the Acer Liquid E2 looks to attract "multimedia" smartphone users with its decent specifications and budget price tag.

Chief amongst the E2's specificatins is a quad-core 1.2GHz processor, which comes paired with 1GB of RAM and Google's Android 4.x Jelly Bean mobile operating system. Acer has yet to confirm which version of Android the handset will run, but we've contacted it for further information.

The firm was keen to talk up the fact that the Liquid E2 comes with a dual SIM slot, however. The firm boasted, "The Liquid E2 is the first Acer quad-core phone with optional dual SIM card slot giving users all the convenience of having two mobiles in one and easily manage personal and business communications."

Looking to challenge the likes of the HTC One and Sony Xperia Z, the Acer Liquid E2 sports a large 4.5in touchscreen, although with only 960x540 qHD resolution it's not quite on a par with its high-end competitors.

The handset also features an 8MP camera with "zero shutter delay" and HD 1080p video, HSDPA and WiFi connectivity, 4GB of internal storage expandable via microSD card, a Swype keyboard and Acer's own custom user interface.

Acer said that the handset will be available in the UK from mid-May, priced at €229. The phone will also be available in two colours, "rock black" and "classic white".