We knew Sony Ericsson knows how to design good-looking phones. However, their past Android phones were marred with an outdated OS making them an unpopular choice for smartphone buyers. With the unveiling of their new Xperia arc at CES 2011 though it’s clear that SE is back in the Android game.
The Xperia arc has a drool-inducing design coupled with awesome feature set you should only expect from Sony Ericsson. It has a slim form with an arc-like design resulting into a 9mm thickness on both ends and 8.7mm in the slimmest part and is quite light at 117 grams. To give you a comparison, the iPhone 4 is 9.3mm thin and the light-as-a-feather Samsung Galaxy S is at 119 grams. I’m not a fan of thin and light on my phone but I’m sure a lot of people are.
It has a wide 4.2″ capacitive display (854 x 480) with what they call the Reality Display using Sony’s BRAVIA Mobile Engine. Sounds really cool but what does it actually do? SE says that it does real-time noise reduction, sharpness, color management and contrast enhancement on the picture. The HTC Desire HD 4.3″ display but only an 800 x 480 resolution.
What I’m excited to try on with the Xperia arc is its 8 megapixel camera that uses Sony’s Exmor R back-illuminated sensor with a max aperture of f/2.4. I tried a couple of Cyber-Shots with an Exmor lens and they’re quite decent in low-light situations and that f/2.4 would really help. The phone can also do 720p HD video recording which can be connected to your TV via HDMI.
The bane of previous Sony Ericsson Android phones is their use of yesterday’s Android version, but they finally made it right with the Xperia arc. It will come with Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) which can be upgraded to Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) when it becomes available. It has the same 1GHz Snapdragon processor as the Xperia X10 and a 1500mAh battery to boot.
Check out the Sony Xperia Ericsson arc site to know more cool features. There’s lots! The arc is expected to hit the market in 3 months with two colors available: Midnight Blue and Misty Silver.
Sony-Ericsson Xperia arc Specs:
- Qualcomm MSM8250 Snapdragon 1 GHz CPU
- 4.2″³ capacitive display @ 480×854 pixels
- Sony Mobile Bravia Engine
- Reality Display
- up to 32GB via microSD (16GB included)
- HSDPA, HSUPA
- WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, DLNA
- Bluetooth 2.1 w/ A2DP
- 8MP autofocus camera w/ LED flash
- 720p HD video recording
- HDMI output
- GPS w/ aGPS support
- Li-Po 1500mAh battery
- Android 2.3 Gingerbread