We must admit to being fans of the form factor and the overall package offered by the Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc that we had reviewed earlier this year. Needless to say, we were indeed looking forward to getting our hands on the Arc S. And it arrived at our test centre, in good time.
Here is what we noticed:
- While the Arc had a beautiful chassis and a dash of chrome added a classy touch to the entire phone, the Arc S is all about plastic. Disappointing, because it makes the phone feel less expensive than it actually is!
- The predecessor weighed 116 grams, and the Arc S weighs 117 grams. Not bad!
- The Arc S seems to have lost the ‘arc’! While the predecessor clearly had an inward arc on the rear of the phone, the curve is less profound in the Arc S. While you could slide a thin slice of paper underneath the Arc if it lay flat on a table, you cant really do that with the Arc S. The wide-thin-wide chrome strip running down the side attempts to give the design a virtual visual element.
- The 4.2-inch LED backlit display has a resolution of 480 x 854 pixels. The text is crisp, and brightness levels quite good. Even in sunlight, we didn’t have a problem reading text with the brightness set at about 70%. However, the display does lack the punch of most AMOLED displays.
- A 1.4GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8255T processor powers the phone. That is paired with 512MB of RAM and an Adreno 205 GPU.
- Sony Ericsson will pack in a 8GB microSD card with the phone.
- There is an 8MP clicker in the Arc S and will do 720p HD video recording. Interestingly, this camera can also take 3D panorama shots, which can then be viewed on a 3D display.
- Speaking of which, there is a mini HDMI port on the phone.
- Performance wise, the Android version on this phone didn’t slow down even after we had multiple apps installed and most of them running in the background. To illustrate that fact, we have the screenshot of the Quadrant Benchmark attached with this feature story.
Overall, we must admit that we expected a bit more from the Arc S, but mostly in the looks department. Performance wise, it does very well. The display is good enough for text and even for video viewing, the touchscreen has a surety about its response and the phone retains its slim and lightweight package.
Anyone interested will find this retailing for around Rs. 28,000 in the stores.
Stay tuned for a detailed review of the Arc S soon. Meanwhile, do check out the images and screenshots of the Arc S and the interface.
click to enlarge
