Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc S Smartphone Review, Specs and Price

  Specification

• Display : 4.2 inches (480 x 854) pixels

• System Memory : 1 GB (320 MB user available), 512 MB RAM | Single core, 1400 MHz, Scorpion

• Camera : 8.1 megapixels

• OS : Android OS, v2.3.4 (Gingerbread), v4.0.4 (Ice Cream Sandwich), not upgradable to v4.1 (Jelly Bean)

• Connectivity : Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, DLNA, Wi-Fi hotspot | microUSB v2.0, USB On-the-go | Bluetooth v2.1 with A2DP, EDR

• Dimensions : 125 x 63 x 8.7 mm (4.92 x 2.48 x 0.34 in)

• Weight : 117 g (4.13 oz)

• Battery Capacity : Li-Po 1500 mAh battery

Design

While some smartphones can appear a little chunky, Sony Ericsson has worked hard to make the Xperia Arc S looks and feel special. It does have a rather tall profile at 125x63mm, but it’s incredibly thin at just 8.7mm. Smaller hands will struggle to reach right across the screen for one-handed use, but that’s always the case with larger phones.

There’s a very gentle arc in the backplate which is accentuated by the shaping of a silver band along the long edges. The combination of optical illusion and real shaping work well together for a distinctive overall effect.

Sharp shooter

The 8-megapixel camera takes some great photos, and you can shoot 720p video too. The side button is a plus point, as is the mini-HDMI connector – and better still, unlike many other manufacturers, Sony Ericsson provides a suitable cable, enabling you to hook the phone up to a large display.

One notable omission, though, is that of a front facing camera. We’d also maybe have liked to see a dual LED flash instead of the single one that’s present. The ability to shoot faux-3D images that are viewable on a compatible TV feels like a gimmick to us.

Sony Ericsson’s overlay for Android 2.3.4 includes its Timescape social networking app – this is slowly growing on us as it gets more features, and you can get quite a few plugins from the Android Market including for Gmail, LinkedIn and Foursquare.

There’s a lot more to the overlay though and plenty to play with. We also particularly like the internet links in the music player which will find lyrics, YouTube video, Wikipedia entries and more.

There is a criticism to be levelled at the amount of internal memory – just 1GB in total and up to 320MB free according to Sony Ericsson, 287MB on our review handset out of the box. You’ll need to shift applications to a microSD card, and an 8GB one was provided with our handset.

Price £300

Sony Ericsson