Sony Ericsson’s story is an odd one. At first, they tried to set themselves apart from their competition by integrating Sony’s other innovative technologies into their mobile devices, but they didn’t seem to catch on the way Sony products did in decades prior (e.g. Walkman, PlayStation, PlayStation 2). After a few questionable decisions, Sony Ericsson has gone on to become a player in the Android arena with the Xperia X10, but not without its shortcomings. The newest product, the Xperia arc, is a return to form; coupling high quality hardware with fashionable style. Have they succeeded to these ends or does this phone fall short of expectations?

First Impression

The first impression of this phone is probably of its shape and size: impossibly thin for all it offers, with a nicely sized 4.2” screen and few buttons clutter its appearance (home, back and menu on the front, volume controls to right side of the phone and a power/sleep button on the top left). This is a nice looking phone which instantly draws attention from the slew of generic looking phones out there. Picking up the phone also leaves an impression – at 117 grams this phone is so lightweight, you’ll barely feel it in your pocket.

Hardware

Sony Ericsson has chosen a 1GHz Scorpion processor, Adreno 205 GPU, and Qualcomm MSM8255 Snapdragon chipset. This may be wise from a stability standpoint but there will soon be much more powerful processors this generation, making this choice of processor a bit of a risk, but the OS runs so smoothly that you’ll quickly forget this. Glitches and bugs are inevitable – I had an issue with the screen not detecting my touch and another issue with it stubbornly reverting to a particular screen – but a quick refresh by pushing the sleep button and turning it on again usually takes care of such issues.

Marketed as a multimedia device, the LED-backlit LCD display boasts 16 million colors and a 854 x 480 resolution “Reality Display” all of which is enhanced by the Mobile BRAVIA engine – not to mention the Exmor R camera sensor. The former makes the experience of viewing pre-loaded videos and pictures on a mobile device one of the best out there. There are, however, some improvements to be desired with the video watching experience: the built-in speaker isn’t on par with the display even in the quietest of conditions but the included headphones are great and the display’s brightness is sometimes unsatisfactory.

The camera is 8.1 MP, utilizing the Exmor R sensor technology; there is an LED flash and auto-focus. The pictures that can be taken with it are something to behold but, unfortunately, in order to get the full 8 megapixel experience the picture must be taken at a 4:3 aspect ratio – not ideal for the 16:9 aspect ratio of the screen itself. There are perks of the still-photo camera software, such as smile detection and scene recognition (adjusts the settings automatically based on the lighting situation).

Video taken with the camera can be shot in high definition 720p and there are many features available in the software: image stabilizer, white balance settings and exposure value adjustment. These may seem insignificant to most, but this offers a breadth of options that most phones don’t have and may serve as a portal into more interesting-looking videos. There is also a micro HDMI out – making it easier to share videos with a room full of people. Once connected to the Xperia arc the television will mirror the phone’s display exactly with letterbox (of course) and will even change when the phone is turned to landscape.

The battery life is alleged to last 400 hours in stand-by mode and in my testing, the phone easily lasted a day of light to moderate use with a good amount of battery left – certainly above standard.

Software

Featuring the latest and greatest Android build, (2.3.2) the very intuitive Sony UXP is triumphantly utilized like it has never been before – it runs much more smoothly than it does on the Xperia X10. The pre-loaded widgets and applications make sense, for the most part, with the exceptions of a few that you are unable to delete, making a Micro SD expansion a must. The music folder, camera and “urMusic” widget are all featured on a page intelligently and without clutter; also preinstalled are the Google Search Bar and “Timescape” widget. (Timescape combines the feeds from your Twitter and Facebook accounts into a series of slides). Media folder, text messaging application, contacts and phone are in the dock, at the bottom of the screen.

The aforementioned pre-loaded, undeletable, and possibly unwanted applications are the “MLG” app, “Let’s Golf”, and “Postcard”. These are a bit of a nuisance because, if you don’t want them, they take up space on your phone and they are a little aggravating to see every time you go through your applications.

Unfortunately, the browser also leaves much to be desired – it doesn’t run as quickly as you’d expect and features like zoom are too choppy when used. Video streams excellently using the YouTube application and, while Flash works, it slows things down considerably and eats up the battery – so it is best used in small doses.

Besides these things, the software is standard for Android phones except that this phone probably runs them much more smoothly.

Verdict

This phone is a formidable opponent as a multimedia device. Although it doesn’t threaten the iPhone 4’s dominance in that field, it’s a beautifully designed phone that packs a lot of power and is a cost-affordable option that offers its own unique experience. This chapter of the Sony Ericsson story will likely be seen as a bold move in the right direction.

The Sony Ericsson Xperia arc is available in Canada exclusively from Rogers here.