An Exceptional Phone Perfect for Modern Demands

The very sleek Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc – just 9 mm at its widest point

A great phone with a lot of fantastic features – just don’t sit on it! An intelligent phone that just happens to look great, too.

What We Like

This is an exciting phone!  It has an impressive 4.2-inch screen for starters, but that’s not all it has to offer – it’s a TFT LCD screen, which means in real language, that it gives you precise colours, and with 854 x 480 pixel resolution, it’s very sharp.  It has been bestowed with Sony’s Bravia Engine image processing technology, so it provides the finest colour, contrast, noise and sharpness, which we found remarkable when smoothing out streaming video from YouTube.
   
The camera is a notable 8.1-megapixels with an LED light, and sports face detection and image stabilisation, which is great – but what we found to be even better is the inclusion of the Exmor R CMOS sensor.  This back illuminated feature allows better quality shots in less than perfect light – great for indoors or later on in the day.
 
The Xperia Arc also has a 720p video, and because it is an Android you will have no problems sharing your photos.  Even more impressively, the Arc has a mini HDMI port so you can enjoy, not only your pictures and movies on your TV, but everything you do on your phone, including your mobile gaming – and rather than make you pay for the HDMI cable as an optional extra, it comes with the phone.
Android updates are faster with this phone because the user interface and the operating system have been separated.  Sony have also, we were more than happy to see, refreshed their Timescape social networking app as a widget, making it a lot more user friendly to swipe through your Twitter and Facebook updates.

What We Don't Like

The Arc is a very slender 9 mm at its thickest point, which makes it look great but we were worried about how it is able to deal with the stresses and strains of everyday life.
 
If we’re being really picky, we felt a little let down by the fact that we can transfer our mobile gaming to our TV, but aren’t able to connect the Arc to our PlayStation, as you can on the Sony Ericsson Aino.

Conclusion

The Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc is blessed with both beauty and brains, despite its inability to connect to PlayStation.  The Exmor R camera and the Bravia Engine powered screen have got to impress the most hard-core smart phone lover, and the up to date version of Android and the ability to upgrade make the Arc an even more tempting proposition. This is an impressive addition to the Sony Ericsson collection.