Sony Ericsson XPERIA Arc goes official sporting Reality Display – Nokia N8 rival?

After several leaks, Sony Ericsson having finally come clean about the latest addition to their XPERIA line-up, the new Sony Ericsson XPERIA Arc handset, which was previously rumoured as the Sony Ericsson Anzu & X12.

The curved Sony Ericsson XPERIA Arc handset measures in at 8.7mm thick in the middle (it’s slimmest part) and features a 4.2″ capacitive touchscreen of FWVGA resolution (854 x 480 pixels). Like Nokia (ClearBlackDisplay), Samsung (sAMOLED plus) and Apple (Retina Display), it seems that Sony Ericsson are jumping on the screen name calling wagon as they are marketing this display as a Reality display, which coupled with the Bravia Engine Mobile, should improve the image quality in the XPERIA Arc.

The device also has a mineral glass installed on top of the LCD screen which should protect it from scratches; how well it does is yet to be seen of course. For reference, the Nokia N8 Gorilla Glass screen is virtually scratch resistant. It’s been in our pockets, bags, hands alongside keys and although it has fingerprint marks, there are no scratches!!!

The handset, despite rumours of a 2.4 Android version, is running Android 2.3 Gingerbread and the camera is capable of 8MP pictures. The photography part of the XPERIA Arc doesn’t stop there, as the device is capable of shooting 720p HD videos and features a new backlit Sony Exmor R sensor. The camera lens also features f/2.4 aperture which should improve the low-light quality of the camera.

The XPERIA Arc is powered by a 1GHz Qualcomm CPU and comes with 512MB RAM. The internal memory of the handset is unknown, but with Android 2.2 (FroYo) and above supporting installation of apps to the SD card, the bundled 8GB memory card in the box should provide ample storage space.

The XPERIA Arc also offers 3G with HSDPA support (either Quad-Band or dual-band depending on your region and/or carrier), Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n with DLNA, GPS & Bluetooth v2.1 with A2DP support.

Similar to the Nokia N8, it also comes with a microHDMI port which will allow you to share pictures & videos on a TV/Monitor/Projector in HD resolution. The device also comes with a 3.5mm audio jack on board.

The XPERIA Arc should be available in late Q1 or early Q2 and will be available in Midnight Blue & Misty Silver. Pricing, region, exact availability, carrier subsidies and the usual stuff is not yet known but hopefully we should know that soon!

We said in the title that the Arc could be a potential Nokia N8 rival and the reason we say that is aside from Nokia, Sony Ericsson are well known for the ability to product great pictures from their high-MP cameraphones; if the same software algorithms are used and the f/2.4 aperture/Exmor R sensor are a success, then we could see the Arc posing a real challenge to the Nokia N8 as the king of the camera-smartphone world (we made that up; smartphones that possess the ability to product stunning photos is what we were going for!)

Overall, the XPERIA Arc is definitely a very sleek looking device and with the latest version of Android on-board, it could certainly be one of the devices that puts Sony Ericsson back on the map!

We’ll be buying one; will you? Let us know what you think in the comments! We leave you with a final video showing off the XPERIA Arc!

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Category: Opinion