The bad: Many from the phone's buttons are tiny and hard to push, plus its unlocked sticker price is pretty large, especially for a single-core handset that lacks Glaciers Cream Sandwich.
The bottom line: Sony Ericsson follows up its ultrastylish Xperia Arc using the Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc S , a slightly faster version from the posh European model that runs Android 2. 3 Gingerbread and rocks a strong camera. Its high price, single-core CPU, and sluggish data speeds will leave Android experts wanting much more.
The first Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc S turned heads using its fashionable design, razor-thin good looks, and Android Gingerbread software program. Now Sony Ericsson has launched a flashier alternative, but oh, what a difference a few several weeks makes. Despite a faster processor and two thrilling new color options, splurging on the unlocked $439. 99 Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc S is definitely an even tougher argument to make.
Design
A splitting image from the Xperia Arc, the Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc S sports exactly the same ultrathin design and seductive curves that helped it stick out from typical boxy Android devices. Also identical in order to its predecessor, the handset measures a svelte four. 9 tall by 2. 5 inches wide through 0. 3 inch thick, and weighs in in a light 4. 1 ounces. These trim dimensions make the Arc S just like compact as the first Arc and its sleek yet premium plastic exterior slips into tight wallets easily. My hands also wrapped around the phone comfortably as opposed to other monster-sized devices like LG's Nitro 4G that boast a bigger 4. 5-inch screen.
Perhaps the S in its name means style since Sony Ericsson has added even more pizzazz for this already fashion-forward smartphone. The device now comes within three additional colors (pure white, gloss dark, and sakura pink) which complement the original two hues how the first Arc shipped with (misty silver as well as midnight blue). My Arc S came designed in pure white, which coupled with a sliver plastic band caught its edge lends even more sophistication.
The front face from the Arc S is dominated by its 4. 2-inch, 854-by-480-pixel quality LCD screen. Even though it's not a fancy HD screen available these days in a few premium smartphones, image quality had been excellent. Watching HQ YouTube movie trailers was a genuine treat with crisp details and colors that appeared pleasingly accurate. To be fair, blacks weren't because deep as I've seen on phones with AMOLED shows and viewing angles weren't as wide either.
Above it would be the proximity sensor and the earpiece, but no front-facing digital camera, unfortunately. Under the display sit three thin bodily buttons for basic Android operations (Back, House, and Menu), which are attractively curved to complement the contour of the device's bottom lip. About the right side are a trim volume rocker, the Micro-USB port, and a tiny, dedicated camera switch. Meanwhile the phone's left edge holds a headphone jack port. Up top is a minuscule power key that's quite challenging to press, often requiring the use of both of your hands. In fact I found that all of the Xperia's buttons were tricky to use, especially for big mitts like mine. Opposite the ability key is a Micro-HDMI port to output video and pictures to HDTVs along with other compatible peripherals.
The Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc S uses a basic virtual keyboard that's near to the one found in stock Gingerbread. Keys are big and well spaced both in portrait landscape alignment. Unlike other phones, buttons don't double as shortcuts to often used punctuation marks but there's a dedicated symbol key. Haptic feedback is enabled automatically and is nice and light, just how I love it. Swype can be activated too for fast one-handed texting. It all adds up to an appropriate and accurate typing experience.
The back of the actual Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc S houses its 8. 1-megapixel digital camera and LED flash and single speaker. The phone's plastic battery cover is equally as thin and flimsy-feeling as the first Arc, but it is a snap to pry it off and uncover the actual 1500 mAh battery. You'll have to remove the actual battery, though, to get at the included 8GB microSD greeting card and SIM.
Features
Like some other device manufacturers, Sony Ericsson tries to differentiate its Android experience using its Timescape social networking interfaces. First premiering on the actual Xperia X10, Timescape is similar to Samsung's Interpersonal Hub and HTC's Friendstream software by aggregating Tweets and Facebook updates, e-mail, and text messages in a single handy location. Timescape also displays updates on virtual index cards you are able to efficiently flip through rather than by scrolling vertically.
Like a UI, Timescape, like Samsung's TouchWiz interface, is thoroughly clean and relatively unobtrusive. Android purists, however, used to getting together with their handset without any special software skins confusing them will without doubt prefer unadulterated Gingerbread. Still, some users will definitely appreciate the usability tweaks Sony Ericsson made.
Another departure from stock Android is really a navigation bar running along the bottom of the screen which has convenient shortcuts including the handset's multimedia folder. This puts the photo gallery, music player, and the FM radio just a couple taps away. Like on other Android phones you can include home screen folders easily by dragging and dropping app icons along with one another. What's more, power app users will appreciate getting the option to sort the app tray alphabetically, or even by favorites, install date, and even their personal preference.
Sony Ericsson loads the Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc S with an array of its own apps too. Sure, its bloatware for many, but there are a couple of standouts such as the FM radio and TrackID, an app that labels recorded music. Sony Ericsson also installed are the actual PlayNow store, the Let's Golf game, and LiveWare Supervisor, which automatically loads personalized apps when you link peripherals like headphones, a postcard creator. Other staples incorporate a few clocks and alarms, the HTML WebKit internet browser, a calendar, and a bare-bones music player. Not to mention, the phone also connects to the latest version from the Android Market with access to more than two hundred and fifty, 000 apps plus Google books and Music for sale.
We found images we taken outdoors of shrubs, trees, and winter street scenes to become crisp, with vibrant colors. The same can be said of indoor shots and low-light pictures while using fill flash were especially pleasing. Subjects were illuminated although not blown out by overly aggressive lighting.
Yet, Used to do run into a few annoyances. The dedicated shutter button will launch the camera but won't wake the telephone up if the screen is locked. Also, for whatever reason, the default resolution of the camera is 6 megapixels, not really 8, forcing you to make that change within the settings (the other resolution options are two megapixels in both 4: 3 and 16: 9 element ratios). Similarly, in auto-scene mode, the Arc Utes lists only basic camera options like geotagging, the self-timer, and the digital zoom. Kicking the telephone into Normal capture mode, however, unlocks manual configurations like White Balance, Exposure, and Image Stabilizer. The telephone can also create pictures in standard wide panorama shots as well as in a 3D panorama format. You accomplish this particular by placing the camera in Panorama mode, hitting the shutter button and panning the telephone slowly across its field of vision. You may then view 3D panoramas you've created on compatible three dimensional HDTVs via the phone's HDMI port. I plan to test this feature and update the review as quickly as possible.
The Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc S imaging prowess extends to video too. Its 720p HD camcorder captured very smooth movies both indoors and outside with no pixelation or stutters. The handset's microphone also did a great job of picking up subjects, an improvement within the previous Arc.
Performance
Calls made through the underpowered speakerphone weren't quite as pleasing. People on the other end said which i sounded free of distortion and they had not a problem understanding me. But things got worse when I moved several feet away from the phone since volume was low even inside a small conference room and callers reported hearing minor background hum.
Certainly no multicore superphone, the Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc S comes moderately designed with a single-core, 1. 4GHz Snapdragon S2 MSM8255 processor chip, 512MB of RAM, and 1GB of internal storage space. These days, any cutting-edge handset worth its sodium, from Samsung Galaxy S II to the apple iphone 4S, all rely on dual-core CPUs. Also, quad-core Tegra 3 chips from Nvidia could hit the moment early 2012. Still, the Arc S launched applications quickly, and menu navigation was nimble, with absolutely no noticeable lag.
Conclusion
There aren't many handsets with lovelier lines compared to Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc S , except perhaps the unique Xperia Arc. While this refreshed model features peppier processing and is available in four spiffy color schemes, not much has truly changed. Still, much of what the phone offers remains compelling for example an outstanding 8. 1 megapixel camera, smooth 720p movie recording, the smart Timescape UI, not to point out long battery life. On the other hand, the unlocked phone's prohibitive $440 cost, lack of both dual-core power, and Android Glaciers Cream Sandwich, in addition to slow data, allow it to be a tough sell.