Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc user reviews

Ahmed Ragab 5 April 2011

Comment: not yet tried, but looks great

Giles Davies 4 April 2011

Good: Screen, Light Weight, Camera and General Great All Rounder

Bad: Physical Keys too close to Screen and Not Much Memory.

Comment: Picked up my Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc on Friday and have to be honest and say I am loving it! The cost I have paid for it, may also go some way to say why I am loving it.

Got it free on a £25 a month contract on T-Mobile with 600mins, 500 Texts and Internet. Plus £50 cashback! Find it amazing how you can get one of the latest flagship phones for such a competitive price....

Anyway onto the phone...
The screen is stunning, with lush deep colours and very bright. With a great resolution and displays everything crystal clear.

It is extremely responsive and hardly any delay between the different screens and quick at opening up applications and refreshings. I have been using the phone very heavily over last few days, playing with it and its applications and getting a full days usage off the battery.

Camera, is brilliant and love the quality of the pictures, which seem as good as any good compact! Only downside is you cannot zoom in or out on objects, on any resolutions above 2MP. Not used the video camera yet, but offered 720 HD, and HDMI comment is a good little gimmick.

Because the phone is over 40g lighter than the HD Desire, it obviously feels so much light. But, as it feels that much light, it doesn;t have that nice solid feel and some could argue it feels flimsy...

You have the three hard keys Back, Home and Menu, whese are very close to the screen and when pressing can easily press the bottom of the screen by accident. This can be an issue, if there are menu options on the screen and you press one of these by accident.

I am a little concerned about the phones memory, which seems very low, and only have about 270MB to install apps on to, I have used about 130MB so far. Hopefully more apps will offer "Install to SD" option in the future.

Android is pretty much standard, with a few quirky Sony Ericsson changes, but on the whole, pleased it hasn't been played with too much.

There is nothing really major to set the Arc apart from the other flagship Android phones, but is a great all rounder, and definitely keeps pace with its competitors!

Wiz Khalifa 4 April 2011

Good: Best phone ever!!!!``

Bad: Battery life

Comment: Im speechless!

EngAziz Abdulaziz Al-Shareedah 3 April 2011

Good: Nice look and size

Bad: too late

Comment: older phones have better specs and material
ex. Nexsus S, samsung Galaxy S1 and 2 , Motorola artx and HTC desire HD

no dual core
512 RAM good but not grate
no front facing camera
only 3 buttons not Google standard which is 4
LCD rather than LED

Matthew Graves 1 April 2011

Good: Fantastic screen, lovely interface, looks classy and great camera.

Bad: Ability to pick up wi-fi seems weak.

Comment: Now I've only had it for one day, but I do love this phone. I've tried out the camera, which is fantastic especially outdoors even in overcast conditions, where it turned out some very good pictures indeed. The HD video capability is also great. On that note, the shutter button is a proper dual-stage affair, with half-depression focusing, and full depression taking the photo. However, the button is rather small, so it can be a little tricky at first. Once you're used to the size, you'll be fine.

GPS navigation using Google Maps works far better than the TomTom One XL unit that I used to use, and I have already ordered a car mount thingy for the phone for use in my car. The standard voice is a little... dreary, but does the job. Of course, there are a number of other TTS voices which can be downloaded from the Android Market (in return for suitable coin of the realm).

After connecting the arc to my home wireless network, it became apparent that the wi-fi receiver is not terribly sensitive. Even in the room next to the router, the phone was only showing 2 bars of a possible 4 for wi-fi signal. In my bedroom, the bare minimum of signal is indicated, with connection being completely lost on occasion. Compared to the good connection I get from by 2nd generation iPod Touch, this was a little disappointing. That said, even with only the bare minimum of wi-fi signal, loading times were impressively quick.

Another great feature (somewhat by-the-by I admit) is something I discovered purely by accident: All 3 versions of the incredibly popular Angry Birds (Angry Birds, Rio, and Seasons) were free on the Android Marketplace (at least at the time of writing they were).

The OS (Android 2.3) is great, with good features, virtually no laginess at all on the 1 GHz Xperia arc, and live wallpapers are great. After having my iPod Touch for a couple of years now, I'm already preferring Android to iOS 4.3, after just a day and a bit of use.

Battery life isn't great, but then again I have been using it pretty much constantly, and new batteries often need a bit of running in, so I'll reserve judgement for now.

All in all, I would most definitely recommend it to pretty much anyone who's after a smartphone.

Oh, and one other thing, it's massive. Very thin, but massive. Happily virtually all of that space is taken up by the marvellous 16:9 aspect ratio widescreen display.

Mark Francis 1 April 2011

Good: everything

Bad: when i get one, i'll tell you

Comment: looks good, got all the bits in it, will wipe the floor with iphone (search for vs tests) doesnt pretend to be something it isnt. got an x10, in a 24 mth contract, but can get one for free in june after 12 mths. had so many issues early on with the x10, battery life etc, it was pants. had the update and its been so much better. have read gingerbread will be coming to x10, so wont be selling it to whoever, just in case.
ok, so it doesnt have an aluminium, single piece body, but look at it! it is class and way beyond anything out there already! im looking forward to getting one, and i hope other x10 users will give it a try. it was a stepping stone, they have taken leaps and bounds in moving on =) thank god!!

Jade Marshall 26 March 2011

Good: Good Design, Great Camera, Android 2.3, Snapdragon CPU and Ardeno GPU

Comment: Get up to date with your facts people, Sony Ericsson has unveiled that the X10 will be upgraded to Android 2.3 - there aren't many phones that can say that they have been upgraded from 1.6 Donut to 2.3 Gingerbread!
The Arc, Play, Neo have a different implementation of Mediascape and Timescape (there installed as widgets not an alternative OS UI) Which will enable Sony Ericsson to implement future Andoid updates easier - It won't be Honeycomb (thats purely for Tablets) it Will be Icecream.

Pr1964 23 March 2011

Good: Not much ... The camera?

Bad: Cheap plastic, poor battery life and Sony service backup.

Comment: Sony just can't make a good mobile phone. They just feel cheap and nasty like a kids toy.
over priced you are paying half for the name and that's just silly as Sony isn't what it used to be. Htc build quality is way better and samsung is nit far behind.
Sony forget mobile phones concentrate on tvs and playstation...

Michael Calvert 21 February 2011

Good: se-it will work. good screen for movies ect. awesome camera.

Bad: battery life? os updates? screen strength {i broke my x10 really easily}

Comment: contact with my x10 but i like the se design so i will get it anyway i think. the se service was sub standard when my screen cracked so that worries me a bit, but the camera and screen for media playback are major good points. battery life on my x10 is a bit dull even when running limited apps but is the up the battery output it will be a winner for me.

Felipe Estrada 19 January 2011

Bad: Possible lack of Android Updates down the road

Comment: Be aware of the following:

Sony Ericsson has stated it will not release Android upgrades for the Xperia line. If you purchase a SE Arc, there is no way of knowing if down the line they will do the same to that handset.

Citing Markus, the SE rep who moderates the Facebook SE forums:

"We have not had pre-decided tactics to wait as long as possible to let our users know that we are not going to give Froyo to our X10 phones or X8.
I can assure you that there was no decision taken to not go beyond 2.1 before these phones was released on the market."

So, a word of warning if you are considering a SE Arc: You could be hung out to dry if you purchase any new Android Smartphone from SE.