Acer Mobile Latam revealed the new Sospiro A15 phone earlier this month, which is expected to arrive this summer and will turn heads with its full-color rear selfie display. This would be pretty cool if it were a $1,000+ flagship like the iPhone 17 Pro or Xiaomi 17 Pro Max – from which it borrows a lot in its design – but the A15 is a budget phone that should cost between $150 and $250. Damn affordable, Batman. What gives?
It’s been a little over a decade since we last saw an Acer-branded smartphone in the United States. However, Acer Mobile Latam is not the same Acer you probably know for its laptops, tablets and monitors. The Sospiro A15 is made by Senwa Global International, which licenses the Acer name for electronics in Latin America and is a completely separate operation from anything Acer sells in the United States today. This means the A15 won’t be sold by US carriers, but the phone is still worth a look to see how the brand managed to emulate a flagship feature at an affordable price.
A trickle effect gadget
The back of the A15 is dominated by an iPhone 17 Pro-like deck housing a pair of 64-megapixel cameras, as well as this phone’s claim to fame: a 1.88-inch color rear display. With just 284×240 pixels and TFT technology, it’s surely not the brightest or highest quality screen, but it probably gets the job done, displaying notifications and music controls, and also doubling as a selfie viewfinder.
For comparison, the Xiaomi 17 Pro Max’s 976×596-pixel Magic Back display is a 2.9-inch LTPO AMOLED panel running at 120Hz with a peak brightness of around 3,500 nits – bigger, sharper, and bright enough to read in broad daylight. It’s the same concept, but at a very different level of execution, which makes sense given the very different budgets.
No surprise, Acer uses cheaper components and is betting that budget buyers will settle for a slightly worse screen for a significantly lower price. It’s a smart move considering the phones the A15 In fact compete with don’t have selfie screens to speak of.
A modest technical sheet
Beyond the brilliance of the selfie screen, the Sospiro A15 is a budget phone with budget phone components and specs. The 1600×720 pixel resolution and 120Hz refresh rate of the main 6.67-inch IPS display aren’t bad. The 5,000 mAh battery and 18-watt wired charging are fine. And while 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage aren’t very exciting, its SD card slot with up to 1TB of expansion is increasingly rare in 2026. Perhaps the biggest budget bellwether is the mid-range octa-core Unisoc T615 SoC, which you’d expect to find on phones fighting in the sub-$200 price bracket.
None of this is embarrassing for the segment; it’s just not the segment most tech enthusiasts usually think of. To its credit, the A15 stands out with creature comforts like a side-mounted fingerprint reader, face unlock, and NFC with Google Wallet support. The handset also has an IP64 rating – splash resistance that most budget phones ignore – which is a nice inclusion at its expected price.
Pricing and availability
Acer has not announced pricing for the Sospiro A15, which is expected to arrive this summer. Based on the specs, we’d expect something between $150 and $250 once local prices rise. The phone won’t be sold in the United States, but buyers in Latin American markets looking to fit a selfie display could buy five or six A15s for the price of the Xiaomi 17 Pro Max (which starts north of $1,000 in the markets where it’s sold) and still have money left over for cases.
There’s more to both of these phones than just the gimmick of their rear screens, but that doesn’t change the fact that a budget phone now includes a feature that Xiaomi was charging flagship money for less than a year ago. When everything gets more and more expensive, it feels like a small affordability victory.
Antuan Goodwin
Senior Editor, Electrified Cars
Antuan started in the auto industry the old-fashioned way, turning wrenches in a driveway and collecting speeding tickets. He now has nearly 20 years of expertise and experience behind the wheel of hundreds of cars, including electric, hybrid, plug-in hybrid, hydrogen and traditional combustion vehicles. For each car he tests, Antuan drives more than 200 miles and evaluates the driving dynamics; acceleration and braking performance; range; and efficiency. Antuan’s goal is to use his extensive automotive knowledge to educate CNET readers and help them with their next automotive purchasing decision. Whether you’re curious about electric vehicles, passionate about electric vehicles, or loyal to combustion cars, Antuan will bring you the unbiased advice, reviews, best lists and news you need. You can reach Antuan at antuan.goodwin@cnet.com See full bio
