Przedstawiciel PLAY LUBLIN

I managed to grab some time with the Xperia arc yesterday, the forthcoming Android flagship that is expected to launch late March/early April.

The Look & Feel

My first impression was that the handset looks very appealing, aesthetically, when you see it in the flesh. It looks like a slate, the bezeling, the contours, just everything really, combines to make it look sleek and beautiful. Some have said that when you hold it in the hand it feels too thin, but I disagree, it felt just right.

It felt pretty well put together and the sense I got from holding it was that I had a nice bit of kit in my hand. There was a certain impression of quality to it and it reminded me of the first time I picked up an iPhone, there was a little spark of excitement. That’s not a feeling I’ve had too often with Sony Ericsson products over the last couple of years so it was most definitely a good sign.

One rather annoying aspect of the design is that the headphone jack is at the top left hand side instead of being on the top of the handset. This is a pet peeve of mine because I find it very annoying when you have the handset in your pocket with headphones plugged in. It’s a minor gripe to be sure, but sometimes it’s the small things that can annoy you most.

Performance

I didn’t spend too much time checking out apps, widgets etc, I took more of a cursory glance really. For one thing I’m familiar with Android so I wasn’t going to bother sifting through menus etc when I already knew what was there. A few things are worth mentioning though:

The unit I played around with was pretty damned nippy (who needs a dual-core eh?), and this was a prototype so I would expect the same, or perhaps even better, performance from the finished product.

Animations were pretty much flawless, none of the stuttery jittery crap that I saw on my X10 back in the day. Again note that it was a prototype unit so I’ve got high hopes that this will continue over into the final version.

I was interested in the media widget given that I was one of those people who hated the rather obtrusive Mediascape on the X10. With the Xperia arc I was pleasantly surprised, the media widget is far less intrusive and relies more on the stock Android services the handset comes with, which is definitely a leap forward in my book. There’s some polish sure, but unlike the old Mediascape it doesn’t try to be in your face or take over the handset so thumbs up there.

The browser looked pretty speedy too, from what little I interacted with it. Granted that I was using WiFi, but it rendered pages quickly and efficiently, which is pretty much all you want from a mobile browser.

Camera

The camera is definitely one of the handset’s most impressive features. You will no doubt have heard that it’s fast, but it’s hard to appreciate just how fast until you actually use it. I’m not joking when I say that when you tap on the screen to take a picture the picture is taken that instant and the camera is immediately ready to snap another. No lag or little hour glass icons here thank you very much!

The camera comes with an LED flash, no Xenon I’m afraid, but to be frank who cares? Don’t get me wrong Xenon is great to have, but let’s be honest folks, your Xperia arc pictures are more likely to be of your mates downing a pint at the pub than wildlife photography that will be hanging in a gallery. LED will do the job fine here.

F**king Awesome!

All in all it’s a pretty sweet handset and for the first time in years I genuinely felt I was using a handset that hearkened back to Sony Ericsson’s glory days with the T610 or the K750 et al. They seem to have learned their lessons from the X10 and put them into practice, now they just need to make sure they get this out on time.

P.S. I was going to suggest to them that they might like to use the following as the strap line for the handset: ‘Xperia arc: Fucking Awesome!’, but I’m sure they’ll come up with something just as good!

Źródło: Xperia arc: It’s Good, Damned Good

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