Year after year, specs that were once considered “high end” become “mid range” and then given enough time they’re soon classified as “low end”. Case in point, Acer just launched a new phone for the European market called the Liquid E2. It’ll cost 230 EUR all in, and for that you get a 4.3 inch qHD (960 x 540 pixel) screen, quad core processor (unknown model), an 8 megapixel camera, and a cellular radio capable of 42 Mbps HSPA+.

I don’t know about you, but I think that’s stunning. Those specs make the phone more advanced than Samsung’s two year old Galaxy S II, which you had to pay over 600 EUR to buy when it launched. If that’s not progress, I don’t know what is.

Which countries will get the Liquid E2? Belgium, the Netherlands, Ukraine, France, Spain, the UK, Italy, Germany, and Russia. It’ll be available in both black and white, and it should be on store shelves by the middle of May.