The Curvy Android - Xperia Arc Review

By Sahil Mohan Gupta | Updated: 15 June 2012 13:19 IST

Highlights

With the Xperia Arc, Sony Ericsson have broken the stranglehold and launched the first Android 2.3 Gingerbread powered device in the country. So does it live up to the high expectations?

Introduction -

Sony Ericsson's Xperia line has hardware and specs to be proud of, but they have been stuck at Android 1.6 forever. With the Xperia Arc, Sony Ericsson have broken the stranglehold and launched the first Android 2.3 Gingerbread powered device in the country. So does it live up to the high expectations?

Packaging and Content -

Whatever Sony Ericsson does, it is always does very tastefully. The Xperia Arc comes in a very compact package that neatly presents the device and the accessories including headphones, charger, USB cable, and a few manuals. There is nothing ground-breaking here but we do have one gripe with the super compact packaging - the device could be prone to a couple of dings if dropped.

Hardware and Styling -

The Xperia Arc boasts of the latest generation QUALCOMM Snapdragon processor clocked at 1Ghz. QUALCOMM claims it's twice as fast as the Snapdragon, which powers the HTC Desire and the Google Nexus One.

But the main highlight is the large 4.3-inch LCD display powered by Sony's Bravia Engine and the super slim 8.6mm profile with an ARC like curvature, which lends the device its name. The ARC design makes this device extremely light at only 117g and very comfortable to use. It screams class with its super slim profile, tasteful use of plastic, well placed chrome highlights and the beautiful 4.3-inch screen.

Interestingly, the device abandons the default Android search button and has only three hardware buttons for navigation on the home screen. This is a pity, since the universal search button was extremely helpful and served as a shortcut for voice search too.

The sides of the device are covered with a chrome finish, which could fade after prolonged use. The volume rockers are well placed on the right side next to the micro USB slot.

The rear end of the device has an 8-megapixel camera with LED flash. The camera also has a dedicated button but it is very tiny and clicking images using the button becomes a painful affair. We suggest that you use the touchscreen instead.

The battery compartment is covered with a sleek plastic cover that adds some design element to go with the ARC like design of the device, but it feels quite flimsy and comes off very easily.

The top end of the phone has the HDMI slot and the standard power button.

Interface -

The Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc is the first phone to arrive in India with Android 2.3 Gingerbread. It runs Sony Ericsson's own Timescape Android skin, which previously received a bittersweet reception.

Timescape added a lot of under-the-hood utility to Android but had a tedious learning curve. Thankfully, Sony Ericsson has gone to great lengths to make it seamless and now it really comes across as a polished interface. While this is a great improvement over the previous versions of Timescape, it still has to catch up with the class leading HTC Sense UI. One of the gripes is that the device supports only five homescreens unlike others that support up to seven.
With Android 2.3 the Xperia Arc also becomes the first Sony Ericsson device to feature an Android 2x operating system and the advantages were quite apparent. The older Xperia devices boasted of sublime hardware but were let down on the software front, but this is not so with the Arc which feels snappy, user friendly and is gorgeous to look at.

The Timescape widgets looks very pretty and work very well, specially the music player and the photo gallery widgets which are unique to Timescape. The Social feeds functionality, around which the Timescape UI, is built can be a bit cluttered but gets the job done. We clearly prefer the Friends Stream feed which is part of HTC Sense as it is well organized and looks neater.

Multimedia -

When we talk about Android devices we talk about multimedia, because the whole Android experience revolves around the enhancement of our multimedia consumption.

The Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc is a multimedia powerhouse. It's not incorrect to call it the most powerful smartphone currently available in India. (But just for a month, until the dual-core processor powered smartphones join the party)

It boasts of an 8-megapixel camera, which shares the EXMOR-R technology found in Sony handycams. Sony claims this technology enhances the image quality in low-light conditions while adding superior image stabilization capabilities in HD video recorder.

The device shoots HD video at a 720p resolution, the reproduction of the video was very smooth and the image stabilization was quite effective, but the overall quality did not match Nokia N8 which features a superior 12-megapixel image sensor.

The images were also of very high quality but under low light conditions graining was evident. On the whole, the image quality was clearly superior to most of the phones available in the market. The detail found in the images was quite incredible and was superior to the ones found on the N8 in normal lighting, but in low light conditions the N8's Xenon flash proved to make all the difference.

Interestingly, we noticed the images did not re-produce natural colours and the images were decisively brighter.
The 10.6cm LCD screen proved to be delightfully vibrant and clear. Sony Ericsson has employed the Bravia engine on the device, which clearly provided improved contrast ratios, and brightness levels, on par with Super AmOLED display of the Samsung Galaxy S. The screen resolution of the device is 854x480 pixels, which is marginally lower than the iPhone 4. Though this display feels brighter than the iPhone 4, the iPhone's display is still more vivid due to high pixel density and contrast.

The supplied headphones provided were comfortable and provided good sound quality too. The ear piercing highs associated with earphones supplied with most mobile devices were not present and the earphones provided a smooth bass response and very subtle mid-range.

PC Sync -

Being an Android device it automatically syncs all Gmail accounts in a jiffy. The process is painless - just insert your sim-card and you are good to go. It will ask you to sync your Gmail account and, voilà, all your data's on your new phone. The syncing with Timescape is very efficient as it quickly aggregates all your social networking and email feeds, the whole process feels quite seamless.

Essential Apps -

The Xperia Arc comes with some pre-loaded applications too.

Timescape is Sony Ericsson's signature social feed aggregator. It is an animated widget that provides a lot of information. Unfortunately all the information seems cluttered and the images of one's contacts seem blurred as all the information is displayed over the contact images.

Most Android phones these days come loaded with Documents 2 Go, which is the most popular office suite on Android, but Sony Ericsson has opted for Office Suite. The software is not very different from Documents 2 Go, but Office Suite is a paid app and only the trial version of the app comes loaded with the phone. So if you want the real thing, you will have to shell out extra cash for an office suite on an already expensive device. Even lower end Android phones such as the Motorola Defy, Samsung Galaxy Ace and the Acer Liquid metal offer free document editors, so it's disappointing that the Xperia Arc doesn't..

The built-in PostCard app lets users covert their images into post cards. This is again a paid process as only the first post card is free. You can click your photos on vacations and send them as physical post cards from wherever you are. While the concept is interesting each postcard will cost you $1.49.

There is also a Golf game called 'Lets Golf'. It is a fun game and features very nice graphics. The control schemes are very easy albeit a little more tedious than Tiger Woods Golf on the iOS. The game shows off the graphical capabilities of the device and runs very smoothly. We experienced no lags or slowdowns during the testing process.

Performance -

The Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc comes loaded with the latest generation Snapdragon processor clocked at 1Ghz. It is, quite simply, a 'rocket'. Even with multiple apps open in the background the phone rarely slowed down.

While this might sound impressive, the LG Optimus 2x and the Samsung Galaxy S 2 are due for release this month and both the devices will come loaded with dual-core processors, so it will be interesting to see how the Xperia Arc matches up to them.

The phone outperformed all other Android devices we have tested. In the Quadrant test, it managed to out-perform the likes Samsung Galaxy S, HTC Desire HD and scored a class-leading 1355. It was the fastest device on the benchmark.

In the BenchmarkPi test, the Pi was calculated in 1016 milliseconds in comparison the Google Nexus One which runs the previous generation Snapdragon was decisively slower with its calculations being completed in 1432 milliseconds.

In the Linpack test, the device smashed the Nexus One scores too. It clocked 37.934 MFLOPS in 2.21 seconds, to the Google Nexus One's 36.042 MFLOPS in 2.33 seconds.

On the browser mark test, it beat Nexus One's score of 34032 by scoring 37033.

Web browsing was delightful on the large 4.2" screen with it's large virtual keyboard. The browser was fast and loaded flash sites very quickly.

The device boasts of impressive battery life. The addition of Gingerbread has had an instant positive effect on the battery life. It lasted on a single charge for almost two days, even with the Wi-Fi turned constantly on, some phone calls and a couple of hours of the Wi-Fi hotspot usage. On the flip side the phone showed a disturbing tendency to overheat when on call.

Verdict -

For Rs 32,000 The Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc is an expensive proposition but it is currently the most powerful Android device in the market and certainly the prettiest looking one too. But, with the dual core smartphone armada led by the Samsung Galaxy S 2 and the LG Optimus 2x arriving Indian shores, the Xperia Arc is overpriced by a good 5k.

If you like a combination of irresistible looks and power, then this is the phone for you. However, if it's all out power you want, we would advise you to wait for the dual core devices to arrive. With similar price tags but more powerful feature sets, they might give a bigger bang for your buck.

Pros -
Snappy performance
Good Camera
Good battery life
Large Vibrant LCD Display
Super slick design

Cons-
Very Expensive
Overheating issues
Lack of free Document Editor

Ratings
·         Performance    4
·         Price                  2
·         Ease of Setup   4
·         Ergonomics      4
·         Wow Factor      4

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Further reading: Android, Gingerbread, Google, Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc

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