The bottom line: The Xperia arc S is a worthy update to the original handset and a good buy for those new to Android. Owners of the arc may want to give this a miss though and wait for the next version.
We liked the original Sony Ericsson Xperia arc. It was a good looking handset and featured a great display and camera. Having only debuted earlier this year at CES, we were quite surprised to see that the smartphone already has a successor in the form of the Xperia arc S, which was announced last week at the IFA tradeshow in Berlin.The new handset comes equipped with a faster 1.4GHz Qualcomm single-core processor, but retains the same form factor. Sony Ericsson has implemented software tweaks for additional functionality--you can now take screenshots, panoramas and 3D images with the camera.
The issues that we encountered with our review unit (mentioned below) did not reoccur with another set. This does not affect our review score. The arc S looks exactly the same as the original Xperia arc. It's 8.7mm at the thinnest point, and the chassis is made of plastic with a glossy finish. It also features a large 4.2-inch display with a FWVGA (854 x 480 pixels) resolution that's dubbed the "Reality display with Mobile Bravia Engine".
While we would have preferred an updated qHD screen, we found the LCD to be pretty good at displaying text, images and videos clearly. Colors were also vibrant. We did have some issues with the touchscreen turning unresponsive at times, and the only way to fix this problem was to put the handset into lock mode by hitting the power button and turning it on from there. This issue occurred randomly on only a few occasions (we weren't able to replicate the problem). We have requested for a new review unit to see if this was specific to our set.
Like the arc, the arc S has three physical buttons--Back, Home and Menu. Located on the right are the volume controls (which also serve as zoom buttons when the camera app is turned on), camera shortcut key and micro-USB port. On the top is where the power button and micro-HDMI port are found. On the left is the 3.5mm audio jack, and the placement is not pocket-friendly if you use a headset.
Lastly, an 8-megapixel camera with an LED flash is located on the rear of the arc S. There's also a second microphone for noise-cancellation and underneath the cover is where you'll find the SIM and microSD slots. The microSD is not hotswappable--you'll need to remove the 1,500mAh battery if you wish to remove the microSD card.
Sony Ericsson has also made some improvements with its Timescape UX, including a new feature that lets you take a screenshot by holding the power button and selecting the "Take screenshot" option. There's also a new fade animation when you lock the phone that's pretty
The company has also added the ability to take panoramic and 3D (stereoscopic) images by panning the phone, though the 3D images are only viewable on 3D TV. The 3D effect works, but it takes a bit of practice to get your subject centered correctly. The quality of the 3D image is definitely not comparable with the HTC Evo 3D or LG's Optimus 3D though, but it's still good despite being taken with just one camera.
Camera performance seems to be similar to the Xperia arc, it's using the same Exmor R CMOS sensor and features a backside-illuminated sensor (BSI). Images were pretty decent, and the shutter was quick.
Sadly, despite the improvements, the custom keyboard remains terrible compared with the stock Gingerbread version. We've previously covered in depth much of the Timescape UX in our Xperia arc review, so if you're feeling curious, do head over.
Battery life was good, with the phone lasting for about a day and half on a full charge. This includes our normal test settings where we have a Twitter and two Gmail accounts on push, with Facebook set to a two hour sync.
The 1.4GHz Qualcomm processor also helped to speed things along, with the arc S showing significant speed improvements when starting up the camera app. We did encounter the odd slowdowns during our test period, which we put down to buggy software on our review set. We will update with our impressions when we get our hands on another unit as previously mentioned.