So I Bought Two Sony Ericsson Xperia arc

You smart readers out there.  Looking at the photo above, which wireless phone do you think is mine and which one is Cynthia’s?  I’ll tell you in just a bit.

After I have seen the phone at one of the blogger events, I was sold.  After I have brought Cynthia to preview the phone at one of Sony Ericsson’s concept stores, she was sold.  On the day this phone was launched, we have visited the SingTel hello! store.  I did some bargaining over the phone prior to our visit and was happy with the the final deal.  We even receive four complimentary tickets to watch Jolin Tsai live in Singapore. I hardly know her music.  I reckon I will by May 7.

Xperia arc is slim and beautiful.  It feels light, yet has a generous 4.2 inches touchscreen that is pure black in color when on standby.  When Cynthia brought the new phone to work, it mesmerized her colleagues a great deal.  I will not repeat in detail what the phone does.  You can read it from my previous entry.  My initial observation remains.  On top of that, now that I have used the phone for a couple of days, here are my additional observations to share.

If you have not used Android platform before, you ought to give it a try.  It is the fastest growing platform today, supported by a good number of manufacturers.  Healthy competition is good.  I have observed the hardware and operating system improvement in the past year.  Android phones simply get better and better pushing the limits on camera specification, screen size, memory and processor power, and user friendliness.

Why Sony Ericsson?  I have been shopping for an Android phone for quite some time (by the way, it took me about 5 years to decide on which flat panel television to buy).  I value multimedia offering, form factor, and branding.  This phone seems to fit the bill.  Xperia arc is powered by the latest Android operating system for smartphones (version 2.3).  Sony Ericsson’s implementation includes the infinity button on the music player that does a quick YouTube video search on the artist you are listening to.  I use this often, especially this phone is powered by Sony’s BRAVIA technology, those vibrant videos are a joy to watch.  In this version, I find the standard email application useful to access my Hotmail, Gmail, and Yahoo! Mail.  It may not have the bells and whistles of, say, K9.  However when possible, I prefer to use out-of-the-box applications.  Xperia arc, like the previous Android models, also comes with their TrackID application.  TrackID listens to part of the song played in the surrounding and attempts to identify the song.  I also use that often and am pleasantly surprised that even as I have switched to a new Sony Ericsson phone, my historical search results follow me.

I am not an “app man”.  Unlike Cynthia, who is into surfing the Android Market regularly for new and exciting apps.  I use Whatsapp for messaging, Facebook app, TweetDeck, Advanced Task Killer, and Album Art Grabber.  Of course, some of you may remember that I am not a big fan of virtual keyboard.  I use Graffiti Pro to bypass this little handicap of mine.  I am from the Palm Pilot era.  Graffiti suits me perfectly.

On battery life, I am a heavy Internet and phone user.  Xperia arc can last about 9 hours, which meets my expectation.  Cynthia has a lighter usage pattern.  And hers can last for the entire day and more.  As a phone, like the previous Sony Ericsson models, the voice sounds crisp.  The dial pad can be pulled out with a touch of a “button” on the home screen.  Phone volumes can be adjusted even when the screen is locked.  The moment you pull out the headphone, the music player stops automatically.  Sony Ericsson must have done some improvement to their music player because now, the music sounds fuller, with more power.  Powerful enough for my car stereo.  Notification light is placed on the side and it works for incoming SMS, Internet chat message, and etc.  Swiping the screen from left to right unlock the screen.  Swiping from right to left toggles between normal and silence mode.  Folders on the home screen can be created to hold as many applications as you want.  There are progressive tool tips to show you the tricks to personalize the phone.  OK, I could go on and on.  Let’s not do that.  You can find out more yourself.  Now, back to the answer to the question at the beginning of the entry, the phone on the left with the animated falling sakura petals belongs to me while on the right, Cynthia’s.

Surprised?