Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc Review

  It's been a while since Sony's flagship Android Smartphone have been launched here in the Philippines but this is the first time that I was able to take hold of one and test for myself it's features and capabilities.

Hardware-wise, the finish and build of the smartphone is quite impressive owing to the metal finish, large screen and thin profile when viewed sideways. As with other smartphones and tablets. The thin feature which is supposed to be a plus factor easily becomes a disadvantage because of the big possibility of the device inadvertently put in a back pocket and the user forgets that it is there before sitting down, and the thing gets broken accidentally.



One thing noticeably nice about this device from Sony Ericsson is the  comparatively wide body but when held on a single hand, it feels just right without the discomfort or fear of the device falling of slipping from your hands.

The screen is big enough. Surfing the web and watching full length movies is a joy to do with the vibrant colors and superbly smooth playback.

The big screen real state allows for a generous amount of screen space for  pinching, stretching and rotating finger movements while viewing photos and reading ebooks and documents.



 The hardware buttons and ports are strategically located with the HDMI port and power button positioned on opposite sides of the top portion of the phone while the 3.5 mm earphone jack is conveniently located at the upper left side of the device.

 

 

The bottom portion is clear of any port except for an eyelet that lets you put a string for putting accessories or a strap to let you securely handle the device while carrying it without a bag or a pouch.

The right hand edge features the micro-USB port, volume rocker control and on the lower portion a dedicated camera button.

Xperia Android Experience

The Xperia Arc is powered by Android OS version 2.3 without much skinning done. The interface is characterized by animated icons and large widgets and a nice folder creation system which is very easy and nice to use.

Sony Ericsson also included in the device their Timescape Social Aggregator app which lets you organize your  social networking activities in one centralized location.

Zooming, flipping pages and swiping is easily handled by the Xperia's single core 1 Gigahertz processor.


A video of the Android user experience for the Xperia will be posted later for you to see how it performs in action.

For the meantime, the Arc's specifications are the following:

Android OS version : 2.3 Gingerbread
CPU: 1 Ghz Scorpion Processor
Display: 4.2" Led-backlit capacitive touch screen
Camera: 8 Megapixels with auto focus
Memory: Internal 320 MB, 512 MB RAM
MicroSD: Up to 32 GB, 8 GB included
Data: GPRS, Edge, 3G, WLAN and Bluetooth