Gadget Mobile Technology : Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc Specs - Sony Ericsson is, finally, getting their act together. They have almost completely ditched Symbian and are focusing a ton of resources on Android development, and some interesting and different mobile phones based on Android.
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| Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc |
This is a very good thing, Sony Ericsson have historically made rather good phones, but have taken far longer than the competition to adjust to the massive changes the iPhone started, in the cellular market.
Their latest line of Xperia devices has just hit our shores, and I was rather exited to get an Xperia Arc to review. After using the Xperia Arc for a few weeks, and overall loving the phone, I feel they may be a bit late to the party… again.
Build Quality:
Sony Ericsson have always made superb quality devices, The Arc continues this trend. While the chrome bezel may be a bit much for some, I believe it adds a certain suave character to the device.
The back of the device has a concave, well, arc. This makes it sit beautifully in your hand, making typing on, and using the touch screen, a very natural experience.
Sony Ericsson call the concave arc at the back of the device ‘Human Curvature’ that sounds a bit like a mannequin manufacturing company, but it does make the Arc one of the best built and best feeling Android mobiles currently available.
The build only gets better from there; the screen is marvelous, rocking an 854×480 resolution and very responsive touch feedback. Typing and playing games on the Arc is fast, smooth and just plain swish.
The 8.1 Megapixel camera complements the screen beautifully, and it appears that all the little enhancements Sony Ericsson have picked up from the Sony camera department have worked. Such as, Sony’s ‘Exmor R™ for mobile’ sensor, that adjusts the camera’s settings to get the best picture in low light. The way I see it is one the Sony Ericsson engineers’s girlfriends sent him low quality ‘naughty’ pictures and thanks to that, we now have a tech that improves pictures in low light. Debauchery: essential to technological development. Back to the point, the Xperia Arc has the best camera on a mobile I have ever used. It is clear, sharp, handles all lighting situations brilliantly and most of all it is unbelievably fast.
The other media features are equally as impressive. The sound quality from the media player is on par with the iPhone, which is really saying something. The dynamic range is superb, and it goes loud enough to really do some damage – which is a good thing!
Insides:
Here the Arc is somewhat lacking. It has a single-core 1Ghz processor, with a pretty decent graphics processor. It is by no means sluggish, but it is a generation behind everyone else. The closest competition to the Arc would have to be the HTC Sensation and that is rocking a dual-core 1.2Ghz processor and a mother of all graphics processors. The new technologies which the Arc lacks, result in devices, not only in better performance, but critically, better battery life, and a smoother user experience.
OS and Interface:
Rocking Android 2.3, the Arc is fully up to date with the competition. The overall impression I got using the Arc was it is an extremely smooth and slick device. The menu and launcher customizations add to the usability of Android and the Home screen is beautifully user customizable.
Sony Ericsson has toned down their TouchFlow and CoverFlow interfaces, in this latest version, which pretty much used to suck. Unfortunately they still do just a bit. Simply, I found it difficult to differentiate between TouchFlow and CoverFlow, they purport to offer enhanced management of contacts and incorporate all their social profiles. It fails though, focusing far too much on pretty graphics and not enough on usability.
So, simply turn it off. That is what I did. I used the standard Facebook and Twitter Android apps to sync my contacts social profiles and it worked beautifully. It also made the Arc a bit snappier as it freed up tons of memory.
Conclusion:
The Arc is a brilliant high-end Android device which may be a little late to the party. The OS is cutting edge and so is most of the hardware, but it is really hard to turn down the faster, if somewhat chunkier, but as well-built, HTC Sensation instead of the Arc? Overall the Arc will not disappoint, it does have a short shelf life.
If Sony Ericsson had launched the Arc at the beginning of the year, I would not hesitate to have called it the best Android phone on the market. They didn’t, launching the Arc now is squaring it off with devices a generation fresher. If I was spending real money and had to choose a high-end Android device, I would get the HTC Sensation or the Samsung Galaxy S II.
Now available in South Africa.
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