SONY ERICSSON'S Xperia Arc - A SMART ANDROID PHONE

The Xperia Arc is Sony Ericsson's current flagship Android phone and it is proving to be quite popular due to its unique curved design and status as one of the world's thinnest smartphones. Sony Ericsson has just recently announced a new Arc to join its Xperia line-up: the Xperia Arc S. This is not a sequel to the original Arc though, as it offers a few tweaks but retains most of the original hardware design and software. Because of this Xperia Arc S deals should hopefully fall within the same price range as contracts for the original.

The only major difference to the new Arc is that its processor has been increased from 1GHz to 1.5GHz, which is presumably why the updated phone has the "S" suffix (S being the preferred indication for "speed"). The original Arc was a pretty speedy device in itself, despite being slow to load up and occasionally suffering a bit of lag with its Timescape social networking widget (which can be removed). Those looking for a dual core Xperia won't find it here; this will probably be reserved for the inevitable Xperia Arc 2 at the start of next year.


The Arc S also has a slightly updated version of Android Gingerbread, which should mean that this software update will be available to owners of the original Arc at some point too. Aside from that, the Xperia Arc S retains exactly the same physical proportions as the original Arc, and comes with the same 4.2 inch LED backlit LCD screen that made the first Arc such an enjoyable phone to use for video watching and web browsing.


The 8 megapixel camera still remains pretty much the same too. It is still an excellent camera, but now comes with support for Sony's 3D sweep panorama that has been imported from its line of digital cameras. This allows you to take panoramic photos as well as stereoscopic images. Other features, such as the LED flash, touch focus, 720p video and various image effects were found on the original Arc as well.


Like most Sony Ericsson smartphones recently on release, the Xperia Arc uses Sony's Mobile BRAVIA Engine which is used to enhance picture and video quality by removing imperfections. The phone comes with the same 320MB storage space with optional 32GB microSD, access to Android Market and support for YouTube as the original phone.


When the Xperia Arc S first cropped up in public many people got a little excited at the prospect of a new Xperia handset. On closer inspection though, the Arc S is not a whole lot different from the original. The increased processing power will certainly make a noticeable difference and the 3D sweep panorama feature provides the Arc S with a more enjoyable camera. If you had your eyes on the Xperia Arc then the Arc S will certainly be a better option to go for. But if you already own the original Arc it is probably not worthwhile rushing out to compare mobile phone deals for the Arc S and should probably just wait for a full upgrade with the Xperia Arc 2.

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