Sony Ericsson XPERIA Arc

Sony Ericsson XPERIA Arc review: Android de Triumph

The Sony Ericsson XPERIA Arc is back for a second round and this time it will stay a while longer. The company’s new flagship did great in our preview and we’d gladly have more of it.
The statement just couldn’t have been stronger and clearer. The new BRAVIA screen and the impressively slim and fit body are exactly the way to treat a flagship. Android Gingerbread too is as good as it gets in the smartphone world these days.
Just months ago that combination would’ve equaled a license to kill – which the Arc would’ve used without second thoughts. But the competition is insanely intense today and no one is given a second to think.

Sony Ericsson XPERIA Arc official photos
It takes more than a few outstanding features these days, and they’d better be backed by solid performance across the board. Omissions are not easily forgiven so the Sony Ericsson XPERIA Arc better stay focused.

Key features

• Quad-band GSM /GPRS/EDGE support
• 3G with 7.2 Mbps HSDPA and 5.76 Mbps HSUPA
• 4.2" 16M-color capacitive LED-backlit LCD touchscreen of FWVGA resolution (480 x 854 pixels) with Sony Mobile BRAVIA engine
• Android OS v2.3 Gingerbread
• 1 GHz Scorpion CPU, Adreno 205 GPU, Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8255 chipset
• 512 MB RAM
• 8 MP autofocus camera with LED flash and geotagging
• 720p video recording @ 30fps with continuous autofocus and stereo sound
• Wi-Fi b/g/n and DLNA
• GPS with A-GPS
• microSD slot up to 32GB (8GB card included)
• Accelerometer and proximity sensor
• Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
• Stereo FM radio with RDS
• microUSB port (charging) and stereo Bluetooth v2.1
• Voice dialing
• Adobe Flash 10.2 support
• microHDMI port
• Ultra slim (8.7mm at its thinnest point)

Main disadvantages

• Display has poor viewing angles
• No front-facing camera
• Main competitors have dual-core CPUs and better GPUs
• No smart dialing
• microSD card slot is not hot-swappable
• Camera key isn’t particularly comfortable

The Sony Ericsson XPERIA Arc is a sweeping update of the X10. A new generation chipset, more screen estate and a microHDMI port in a well done facelift make the Arc an easy pick even over a Gingerbread-powered XPERIA X10.

The Sony Ericsson XPERIA Arc live pictures
However, in-house competition is by far not the XPERIA Arc’s biggest problem. Competitors have moved so much forward over the past year or so that the question really is whether Sony Ericsson have managed to keep the pace.

More Sony Ericsson XPERIA Arc beauty
LG and Samsung have already gone dual-core and got Full HD video recording, while Sony Ericsson – and HTC – are so far choosing to focus their efforts elsewhere. This review should help us answer – among other things – the question of who made the right call and who will have to play catch up.
We start with the unboxing right after the break.

etail package a cable short of perfection

The Sony Ericsson XPERIA Arc comes in a compact box accommodating the handset itself as well as a few standard-issue accessories. Those include a USB charger, a microUSB-to-USB cable (used for charging and computer connections) and a set of earphones.

The XPERIA Arc box
A socket charger is included too which is to be used with the microUSB cable.
Finally, there are a couple of user guides and an 8GB microSD card in the box. The only thing missing is an HDMI cable – microHDMI to HDMI ones aren’t so widespread and you might not have one at home. And for the price you pay for the Arc, Sony Ericsson could have saved you the effort (and extra cash) of getting one yourselves.
Update 04 April: Of course, the contents of the box are strictly market dependent and as many of you pointed out the Arc does come with an HDMI cable in some regions. And some are also getting a 16GB microSD card and even a carrying case.

Sony Ericsson XPERIA Arc 360-degree spin

The Sony Ericsson XPERIA Arc measures 125 x 63 x 8.7 mm, which is pretty good for a smartphone with a 4.2-inch screen. We’ve seen thinner screen bezels, but the waistlines don’t usually get much slimmer.


Of course, you should keep in mind that those 8.7mm are measured at the handset’s slimmest part – in the middle. At the top and bottom the Arc thickens up to 10mm, but that’s not too bad either.

The XPERIA Arc sized up against the I9000 Galaxy S and iPhone 4
The Sony Ericsson XPERIA Arc weighs in at the remarkably low 117 grams. It has none of the muscular clout of some metal-clad smartphones but is no less impressive with the sophisticated elegance of a subtly curved super slim body.

Design

Design is one of the Arc’s key assets. The slim, inward curved back carries a high-tech vibe that we really appreciate and we do find the gradient color finish at the back quite attractive.

The Sony Ericsson XPERIA Arc is quite the looker
Unfortunately, the glossy materials are easily covered in smudges and the phone quickly loses its appeal. Your Arc will require daily care to keep its great looks.

Reality display is pretty good

The 4.2” 16M-color LCD screen of the XPERIA Arc has FWVGA resolution (854 x 480 pixels). It’s a capacitive touchscreen and we had no issues with its sensitivity and response. As you would expect from a modern day smartphone, multi-touch input is enabled too so as far as touch control is concerned, there’s nothing to worry about.
Dubbed Reality display, the most interesting thing about the the Arc’s screen, is the Sony Bravia Mobile Engine, which is expected to improve the image quality by boosting contrast and sharpness when viewing images or watching videos. We are pleased to report that it’s actually doing a good job, rather than just sound good in a press release.

The Reality display boasts excellent picture quality
In fact, when looked at from the proper angle the XPERIA Arc display is certainly among the best screens on the market. It’s got more vibrant reds and greens than the iPhone 4 Retina display and in case you aren’t into much saturation you will probably prefer it over the Samsung SuperAMOLED screens too (though we still find Nokia’s ClearBlack screens to be the champion in color rendering).
Those observations were confirmed by our new contrast test, which the Arc passed with flying colors. The contrast of its 4.2” screen topped our charts, even though its brightness fell slightly short of the iPhone 4 result.
Of course, an LCD unit is unable to match the deep black contrast of an AMOLED screen, but given that limitation Sony Ericsson has done an excellent job.

Display test	50% brightness			100% brightness
	Black, cd/m2	White, cd/m2	Contrast ratio	Black, cd/m2	White, cd/m2	Contrast ratio
Sony Ericsson XPERIA Arc	0.03	34	1078	0.33	394	1207
HTC Incredible S	0.18	162	908	0.31	275	880
iPhone 4	0.14	189	1341	0.39	483	1242
iPhone 3GS	0.84	134	160	2.51	504	201
Sony Ericsson Xperia Neo	0.05	68	1324	0.10	134	1295
Samsung Galaxy Ace	0.23	160	701	0.34	234	683
LG Optimus 2X	0.23	228	982	0.35	347	1001

In our test we did observe a pretty strange behavior of the Arc brightness setting. As you drag the slider to the middle, the Arc loses about 90% of its brightness instead of the 50% you would expect. Fortunately, the black levels deepen with lowering the backlight so the loss of contrast isn’t too significant, but we would suggest sticking to a higher setting to avoid problems with sunlight legibility. Unfortunately, the XPERIA Arc doesn’t have auto-brightness control.
Update 04 April: Many of you confirmed that they actually do have automatic brightness control on their XPERIA Arcs. However hard as we tried (pointing flashlights at the spot where the ambient light sensor is supposed to be or covering it) we couldn't manage to make our unit to adjust its brightness. We suppose it's some kind of unit-specific issue that we had. We'll try to get another unit so we can double-check that.
Update 05 April: We were able to confirm that all retail XPERIA Arc units will indeed have auto-brightness control.
The Reality screen’s Achilles’ heel is viewing angles. The advantage it holds against the competition quickly disappears as you tilt to wider viewing angles. The text on screen might remain visible but contrast degrades very quickly and colors get vastly distorted. It’s an unpleasant effect that you cannot see with the IPS matrix of the iPhone 4 or the two current best AMOLED technologies (ClearBlack and SuperAMOLED).

Controls and construction

Below the Sony Ericsson XPERIA Arc display we find the same three keys as on the X10. You get a Back button, a Home key that brings up recently used apps tab upon a long press and a Menu key.

You get back, home and menu buttons below the display
The three keys we mentioned are all well defined, so even if a bit thin, they’re unlikely to pose a problem.
Above the display we find the proximity sensor and the earpiece. Sony Ericsson initially claimed there should also be an ambient-light sensor present here, but automatic brightness control was not enabled on either this test handset or the pre-release unit we had earlier.

There’s no ambient light sensor here
The left side of the XPERIA Arc holds the 3.5mm standard audio jack.

The 3.5mm audio jack is on the left
The tiny power key and the microHDMI port are on top of the Sony Ericsson XPERIA Arc. The power key is too small to be comfortable, though being slightly raised helps a bit. It certainly takes some time getting used to.

The HDMI port is neatly covered with a plastic lid • The power button isn’t particularly comfortable to use
Unfortunately, an HDMI cable isn’t supplied in the box so you will need to grab one yourselves if you are into streaming your photos and videos to an HDTV.
The XPERIA Arc’s microUSB port is in the top right corner with a status LED above. The thin volume rocker is below and the miniscule camera key is all the way at the bottom. Considering the solid imaging potential of the XPERIA Arc we would have definitely preferred a larger and more convenient shutter key. This one is too small and placed too close to the corner. On a second thought however, most of the Arc’s direct competitors don’t even have a camera key (think iPhone 4, Optimus 2X and Galaxy S II).

The camera key is pretty tiny too • There’s no protection for the microUSB slot
What we are more concerned with is the location of the 8 megapixel camera lens on the back. Too close to the edge, it is extremely likely to get covered by a finger when holding the handset in a position to shoot. You have to be extremely careful not to ruin your shots. That’s a problem with the iPhone 4 too.

You should mind your fingers when shooting
The loudspeaker grill is the other thing of note at the back. It’s placed on the other end of the backplate and due to the phone’s curved design it won’t get muffed too easily.

The loudspeaker grill
Removing the battery cover reveals the non-hot-swappable microSD slot, the SIM slot and the second microphone pinhole, used in active noise cancelation during calls.
The Arc’s battery capacity is 1500 mAh and it’s said to last for up to 430 hours of stand-by or up to 7 hours of talk time.
In actual usage, we managed to squeeze just over two days of moderate-to-heavy use (a few calls, an hour of browsing and an hour of gaming per day plus the occasional shot).

Unfortunately, the microSD card is not hot-swappable
In conclusion, the general handling of the Sony Ericsson XPERIA Arc is decent, though the sleek design poses some usability questions. The tiny shutter key, the non-hot-swappable microSD card and the lack of auto-brightness are our biggest grudges with the Arc.
The inward curve makes the handset pretty comfortable to hold. It doesn’t sit as nicely in your hand as the Sony Ericsson smartphones that use the human curvature design (outward curve), but the phone’s suave elegance more than makes up for that.