Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc review

The last time Sony Ericsson attempted a big-screen Android phone, we weren’t very impressed. The [a href a=”http://www.pcpro.co.uk/reviews/smartphones/357235/sony-ericsson-xperia-x10″]Sony Ericsson Xperia X10[/a] boasted a large, bright, and high-resolution 4in display, but it had major flaws. The Arc is the successor to that handset, and it makes a stunning first impression.

As with the X10, that’s mainly down to the screen, which completely steals the show. It’s larger than the X10’s at 4.2in, and matches its resolution at 480 x 854, but it’s much brighter and punchier than before.

In fact, at maximum brightness, and with the help of Sony’s Bravia Engine picture enhancement technology, the Arc’s LED backlit screen looks as stunning as any phone screen we’ve seen, including the iPhone 4’s Retina display.

It’s a fabulous screen on which to watch movies and also to browse photos; if you fancy watching on a bigger screen, the HDMI output lets you go large too.

The looks are also worth dwelling on: at its thinnest, the Arc measures just 8.9mm from front to back and it weighs only 116g. The rear panel curves in slightly, too, so it sits comfortably in your hand. That curvature means it doesn’t scratch and scuff as much as others when you lay it on a flat surface.

The touchscreen is more responsive than it was on the X10, with scarcely a hint of delay or shudder as you sweep from one Android desktop to another, pan around web pages and zoom in and out. That’s despite a healthy selection of Sony Ericsson’s own widgets, apps and OS customisations.

Of these, we have the same mixed opinion as we did before. We like the tweaks Sony Ericsson has made to folders – they pop up in an attractive transparent overlay window – and when you create folders you’re given the option to name them there and then, instead of having to edit later. The toolbar that runs along the bottom of the screen is useful, too, and you can customise it with either shortcuts or folders.

We like the idea of TimeScape, which amalgamates not just Facebook and Twitter feeds, but also recent phone and text activity, displaying items as cards in a 3D rolodex-style view. We don’t, however, like the fact you can fit only six cards onscreen at any one time; give us a less fancy 2D list view any day of the week.

Performance

Under the hood, the Arc is powered by the same single-core 1GHz Scorpion processor and Adreno GPU (backed up with 512MB of RAM) found in the Xperia Play, HTC Incredible S and the HTC Desire HD. Games are dispatched with aplomb, and it’s a darned sight slicker in general use than its predecessor too.

This combination of bits and bobs secures sound benchmark figures. We ran the SunSpider JavaScript in the native browser for a score of 5 seconds; the BBC homepage loaded in an average of 7 seconds; and the Android-specific Quadrant benchmark app returned a score of 1,378. All these compare well with the immediate competition – it’s slightly quicker than the Incredible S in SunSpider, and slightly slower in Quadrant. Against the iPhone 4, it’s competitive too.

More notable are the Arc’s battery test scores. We measured 70% remaining after our 24-hour test, which is impressive for a large-screen smartphone. It’s a result that suggests a couple of days of moderate use are well within the Arc’s compass, and in use we found we needed to charge it only every other day.

The 8-megapixel camera is worthy of high praise too. The big screen makes a wonderful viewfinder, and the pictures and 720p video it produces are top-notch. There’s good detail and contrast, reliable colour production both inside and out, and performance is good. The only gripe we had was the JPEG compression. It isn’t disastrous, but the compression is very aggressive, and it’s obvious when you zoom in that some fine detail is being lost. The iPhone 4’s 5-megapixel camera produces lower resolution but cleaner shots.

Weaknesses

There are other flies in the Xperia Arc ointment, too, and the first concerns build quality. It may look gorgeous, but the plastic rear panel feels flimsy, and it creaks and moves a little, even when snapped in place. The three buttons below the screen feel plasticky and insubstantial, and we take objection to the positioning of the headphone jack on the side. With a phone this large, having anything poking out of the side doesn’t make it particularly pocket friendly.

Perhaps more serious is that the GPS radio is inconsistent, sometimes locking onto satellites in a trice, while at other times taking many minutes to give a positional fix. That’s a concern if you plan to rely on your phone as a satnav.

That leaves the Sony Ericsson Arc in a somewhat difficult position. In most respects it’s a fabulous phone, and it’s reasonably priced, too, from around £25 per month on a two-year contract. It’s quick, has a sumptuous screen, good battery life and a largely excellent camera. But it has flaws, and these are serious enough to hold us back from a recommendation.

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