Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc S - A Second Show

The Second Arc

We covered the Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc extensively in April - from its unique and slim arched design (hence, its namesake) to its 4.2-inch Reality Display touchscreen that featured the new Mobile BRAVIA Engine technology. But barely 6 months later, its updated successor, the Arc S, joins the playground of Android smartphones. So what's new with this refreshed unit? Let's take a look.

Same Arc, Same Looks

If you are looking for intrinsic changes to the overall look of the phone, you might very well be disappointed. That is not to say the Arc S looks bad. In fact, the smartphone retains the stylish and modern look of its predecessor. With the Arc S being outwardly identical to the Arc, this means the good and the bad things on the Arc stay. Fortunately, Sony Ericsson has pumped up the color variations from two to five (Pure White, Midnight Blue, Misty Silver, Gloss Black and Sakura Pink). Otherwise, dimensions, weight, and button size/layout remain unchanged.

Benchmarking the Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc S

So what makes the Arc S different? Hardware-wise, it comes with a faster and more powerful 1.4GHz processor. To give readers a gauge of what to expect in terms of performance, we have adopted a few benchmark tests specific to the Android platform.

Within this page, we'll be looking at two specific benchmarks, both of which are downloadable via the Android Market.

• Quadrant: It measures the device's performance based on its CPU, I/O and GPU. Simply put, Quadrant is a benchmark that gives you a general idea of how your device performs against other Android devices.
  
   
• NeoCore: It is targeted towards the device's GPU performance. This is especially important given how smartphones of today have evolved into an alternative, high-powered device that dabbles in heavy graphical interfaces and gaming.

Do note that the above two benchmarks are not absolute in measuring performance, but they give you a good rough estimate of where the device stands against the competition. Our tests were conducted on devices from a fresh reboot on their respective stock firmwares. To show how the Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc S performed against similar smartphones, we compared its results against the following high-end Android devices (a mixture of dual-core and single-core smartphones) - HTC Sensation, Samsung Galaxy S II and Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc. 

If you look at the Quadrant benchmark scores, the Arc S did slightly better than its predecessor.  Unsurprisingly of course, since the Arc S comes with a faster and more powerful 1.4GHz processor. To give you a good gauge of how the Arc S's score compares to the dual-core smartphones, we have also included the latest two smartphones from that particular category. As you can see, the Arc S sits comfortably almost halfway in between the Arc (1GHz) and HTC Sensation (dual-core 1.2GHz), with Samsung's Exynos chipset still taking the lead.



However, when it comes to the NeoCore scores, all devices gave remarkably similar scores. With an FPS score of 59.3, the device is almost neck and neck with the dual-core phones like the Samsung Galaxy S II and HTC Sensation. while that may sound like a testament  to its capable performance, you can't entirely rely on benchmark scores to gauge a device's performance, especially for a casual consumer device.

From our hands-on experience, the Arc S was pretty speedy and lag-free even with multiple apps running in the background. We experienced no lags and crashes while surfing the web, or opening various apps and switching between them in quick succession during our test run. In essence, you get a responsive phone with smooth transitions and enough horsepower for fluid multi-tasking.

Sounds good so far for raw processing prowess. On the next page, we share multimedia and battery life performance before we conclude.

Imaging & Other Features

The Arc S comes with an 8.1-megapixel camera with an f/2.4 lens and an LED flash (same as the Arc). All in all, the snappy 8.1-megapixel camera produces sharp photos with vivid blacks and colors. Colors do appear white-washed on a few occasions (like the one pictured here) but overall, the Arc S comes packed with a reasonable camera performance. Like the Arc, the revised model's huge 4.2-inch 854 x 480-pixel screen is equipped with Sony’s Mobile Bravia Engine image processing technology to enhance video playback quality. And enhances it does, giving us a rich and bright color display with good viewing angles under bright daylight.



The Arc S also comes with a few additions on the software side with regards to imaging functionality such as 3D sweep camera and screen captures:-

Battery Life Performance

Our final performance test is our regular battery test. This consists of comparing the smartphone to a select group of devices chosen based on their similarities across battery capacities, display sizes, resolution and processing power. Our testing methodology involves testing a video with a 480 x 800 pixels resolution looping under the following conditions:

• Screen brightness and volume at 100%
  
   
• Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connection remain active
  
   
• Constant data stream via email and Twitter

With an advantage of eight minutes, the Xperia Arc did just slightly better than the Arc S. We suppose this might be due to the new phone's more powerful (hence, more battery-consuming) 1.4GHz processor. Given that other factors like battery capacity, dimensions and volume were the same on both devices, results for both power consumption and portability index were almost identical. The Arc was light, thin and had reasonable (but not fantastic) battery performance to begin with, and we were glad that these results were similarly sustained on the Arc S. 



Notably, while rationing the phone for normal day-to-day operations, the phone could last for at least a full day - a pretty standard affair for a smartphone these days.

Arc S the Second?

Like its predecessor, the Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc S is fashionable, thin and pretty to look at. To begin with, they both look the same (just that the Arc S has more colors to choose from). Minor recurring flaws make their reappearances on the device, such as the overly small and finger-cramping buttons. While the newer Arc S comes with an increased horsepower in the form of a 1.4GHz processor, benchmark results show that there isn't that great of a difference between the Arc and Arc S. In other words, both smartphones are in their own rights speedy enough for a regular user. Additional add-ons like 3D Sweep Panorama mode (you can only view these photos on a 3D-enabled screen though), and the ability to do screen captures without much hassle aren't features that we can call big improvements over the Arc.



The Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc was priced at S$888 when it was first released. With the Arc S tagged at $788, newcomers to the Arc series will definitely be better off with the updated Arc S. If you already own an Xperia Arc, there's no reason to upgrade unfortunately. If you are looking for performance, it will be between the existing dual-core smartphones or the Arc S - the latter will be an attractive option in terms of offering more value; in fact, some retailers are pricing it just slightly higher than $600, making it an extremely worthwhile purchase. In a nutshell, the Arc S is a decent choice if you are intending to get a new phone with a large touchscreen. The Arc S is now available at all authorized retailers in Pure White, Sakura Pink and Midnight Blue.

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