Sony Ericsson Xperia arc S Review

Call quality on the Sony Ericsson Xperia arc S was excellent in the earpiece, very loud and clear, however on the other end they complained that our voice sounds a tad artificial, and the background noise swooshed in without any filtering despite the dual-microphone setup on the phone.

The manufacturer promises slightly more battery life out of the handset, compared to the Xperia arc, from the same 1500mAh battery – 7 hours and 35 minutes of talk time in 3G mode, which is pretty good, along with 35 hours of music playback.

In our review of the Sony Ericsson Xperia arc we said the company has nailed it, but now with the Xperia arc S, we’d say we have a minor upgrade on our hands. The thin arched profile that makes you forget you are holding a gadget with a huge 4.2” screen stays, as well as the light weight and sleek and classy look. The Timescape UI is also very pretty and functional with its “Facebook inside Xperia” addition.

The second generation Snapdragon chip is bumped to 1.4GHz for a slight increase in performance, which, however, you could have done yourself with an overclocking program. The added 2D Panorama option in the camera interface is also nothing you couldn’t have obtained via an app in Android Market. Thus, the only tangible benefits of the Sony Ericsson arc S over the predecessor are the 3D Panorama option, which is nice, but not a must-have feature, and the 14.4Mbps baseband radio,  instead of 7.2Mbps. Download speeds are so very network dependent, though, that you’d have been lucky to max out the previous radio even.

The nice 8MP camera with back-illuminated sensor, which produced good results and the excellent loudspeaker we have in the Xperia arc too, so you can save yourself the price difference between the Xperia arc S and its predecessor, unless you find it somewhere cheaper 

In its price range you can get phones like the HTC Desire HD, which sports similar specs but a more solid and heavier unibody design, or the Samsung Wave 3, which sports a Super AMOLED display, but is hindered by the Samsung Apps store. If you step it up a notch in the wallet department, you can grab theSamsung Galaxy S II or the HTC Sensation 4G, which will bring you 1080p video capture, faster browser performance and future-proof dual-core processors.

In case 4.2” screen is too big for you, an even thinner and more compact handset for this price is the Xperia ray, which has the same camera and 3.2” display with very good pixel density. Now that the Apple iPhone 4is falling in price, it is also a great alternative to the Xperia arc S, and has memorable design too with the best App Store out there, but is heavier and with no Adobe Flash support. 

PROS

• Thin, tall and narrow chassis makes it more comfortable to use than other big-screen Androids
• Camera with good low-light capabilities and native Panorama options
• Excellent loudspeaker

CONS

• Still no front-facing camera
• Minor upgrades compared to the Xperia ar