This is a global GSM phone. It can be used with T-Mobile USA and AT&T, but without 3G.
Introduction:
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Design:
We said it in our introduction - this is a sexy phone. At just 8.7mm in the middle, which gradually becomes 10mm at both ends, it feels waif-like in the hand in the best way possible. Without fail, everybody who held this phone commented on the slickness of design. The arched profile makes it more comfortable to hold and handle and lends to offset the bulk the 4.2” display could potentially lumber the handset with.
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The Sony Ericsson Xperia arc has an arched profile that makes it more comfortable to hold | ||
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You can compare the Sony Ericsson Xperia arc with many other phones using our Size Visualization Tool.
The screen is a Super LCD, with 480x854 pixels measuring in at 4.2". In turn, while the resolution isn't going to set the Sony Ericsson arc apart, the fact that it's graced with Sony's BRAVIA engine that the company uses in its award-winning flat screen TVs does. We can attest that there is a difference as photo and video playback is truly bright and vivid, though we nevertheless prefer Super AMOLED, as it enables these vibrant colors anywhere throughout the interface. The display is comfortable to use in the bright outdoors which is great, though viewing angles aren't what we'd hope from a premium screen. Nevertheless, when looked at head-on, the screen delivers a distinctly premium viewing experience.
Under the screen are three thin Android navigational buttons – back, home and menu. They are reminiscent of what we have on the other phones in the Xperia line, and are illuminated, however, their icons aren't, which is somewhat unintuitive. The three keys have a nice rubbery feeling to them when pressed and are very easy to operate.
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Under the screen are three thin Android navigational buttons | ||
The Sony Ericsson Xperia arc comes in a “Midnight Blue” and “Misty Silver” version, both of which look stunning. The whole design is made of quality plastic which keeps the weight down, so while not as robust as aluminum unibody handsets for example, the thinness and lightness endows the Sony Ericsson Xperia arc with a huge amount of appeal.
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The “Misty Silver” version of Sony Ericsson Xperia arc | |
The camera sensor is placed in the upper edge on the back - which means you have to be careful not to place your finger over the lens when shooting. Combine that with the rather smallish and somewhat hard to press shutter key on the right near the lower edge, and you definitely need to hold the phone with two hands when taking a picture, unless you use the touchscreen. In addition, there is no front facing camera, which leaves video calls out of the equation.
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Camera shutter key | ||
The back of the Sony Ericsson Xperia arc | ||
The other design element that classes up the Sony Ericsson Xperia arc is the chromed band surrounding it, which encompasses all the rest of the buttons and openings – the volume rocker and microUSB port up right, the 3.5mm audio jack up left, as well as the cover of the microHDMI port and the power/lock button at the very top - which is unfortunately small and takes some getting used to.
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The sides of the Sony Ericsson Xperia arc | |||
Sony Ericsson Xperia arc Sample Video 2:
The camera interface is touch-friendly and intuitive. There are six focusing modes – single autofocus, multi autofocus, macro, face detection, infinity and touch focus. Center, spot and average metering modes are covered as well, and for manual white balance setup incandescent, fluorescent, daylight and cloudy options are available. There are also an image stabilizer mode and four flash modes – auto, fill flash, no flash, and red eye reduction. The extensive capabilities of the 8MP shooter are rounded up with a bunch of scene modes such as Landscape, Portrait, Night Portrait, Sports, Beach and Snow, Night Scene, Party and Document. The smile detection algorithm can even be set to track a faint or a big smile.
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Camera interface | ||
Obviously a lot of Sony’s Cybershot expertise has gone into the camera interface, but a notable exception is the lack of any effects on the Sony Ericsson Xperia arc. No Negative or Sepia, nothing, which is puzzling, considering the wide range of other capabilities. There is a vertical strip with the latest pictures and videos captured on the right, and you can pull it left to reveal the rest in thumbnail view, which resembles the concept in WP7.
The music player is the same as in the other iterations of this UI, with flashy, but minimalistic interface, ten equalizers, the song recognition service Track ID, and the option to show related YouTube videos. The loudspeaker is outstanding. Strong, with deep base sounds and very clean and pure output, even at the highest volume.
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The music player of the Sony Ericsson Xperia arc | |||
The video player and the gallery are stock Android and the handset doesn’t support DivX/Xvid, so we had to download a free player from Android Market to watch our ripped TV shows with subtitles. The Mobile BRAVIA Engine can be turned on and off manually from the Display settings, but we can’t imagine a reason for it to be off, as it adds color and sharpness to the pictures and videos on the handset.
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Gallery |
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Video playback |
Performance:
The 1500mAh battery is rated for 7 hours of talk time in 3G mode, which is slightly above average for a high-end Android phone with a large screen. We can only vouch that the handset got us through the day with our moderate review usage, and left us with a few hours of battery life just in case. Conclusion: Wrapping up our review of the Sony Ericsson Xperia arc we have to say that the company seems to have nailed it this time. The thin arched profile makes you forget that you are holding a gadget with a huge 4.2” screen. On top of that it is very light thanks to its plastic build, and the tasteful design and chromed rim remains sleek and classy. We're extremely thankful that the company has endowed the handset with Gingerbread and simplified its Android skinning efforts, since this improves usability and should speed up the eventual OS updates. Add a great 8MP camera, loudspeaker and screen to the mix and we can safely say that the Sony Ericsson Xperia arc is a solid contender for 2011. Sure we find HTC Sense a more refined UI, and the single-core phone isn't as future-proof as dual core models, but this is one of the sexiest phones we've seen this year and brings all its features together with style and finesse. If you want a dual core alternative with less focus on style, check out the Atrix 4G. Alternatively, the HTC HD7 would provide a similarly-classed Windows Phone 7, while the iPhone 4 is your iOS option, though it has a considerably smaller screen. Software version of the reviewed unit: Android 2.3; Build Number 3.0.A.2.181 Pros
Cons
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Excellent review... Man i`ve been missing out this site all these days... This is one complete review of Arc.
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