Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc S Review

When it comes to sequels, it is usually a dose of disappointment in the waiting. However, with the Xperia Arc S, we are more confused and bewildered. Partly because we are also impressed with the darned phone! Is it replacing the Xperia Arc? Is this phone just an OS and processor update? Or does Sony Ericsson believe that a 1.4GHz single core processor good enough to take on the dual core phones, that start around this price point.

Look & FeelWhile the overall design carries forward from the Xperia Arc (read our review of it here), there are two things quite visible here. First, the plastic feels umm…plasticky. Well, the build quality of the Arc felt classy and gave it the look and feel of a high-end phone. You just don’t get that with the Arc S. Secondly, the actual arc angle on the rear isn't that pronounced anymore. While the name is retained, you will not immediately recognize it as the successor to the Arc if it were lying around on a table.

Below the 4.2-inch display is a straight line with three physical buttons - return, home and options. No dedicated search button. On the right side is the micro USB port, and at the same position on the left is the 3.5mm headphone jack. Just below the USB port is the very slim volume rocker. The only real problem that we see with this is that it is a bit too small, and the thumb does need to feel around a bit before reaching it. Maybe it takes some getting used to. Towards the lower end of the same side is the camera key, but it is slightly too tiny as well! We wouldn’t be surprised of you don’t really notice it there. The chrome border lends a shiny bit to the phone, but being around areas around the charging port and the headphone jack, the inevitable scratches will be very visible with time. The mini HDMI connector has a nice shiny cover, and sits on the top panel with the power key.

Flip the phone over and the pearly white colour does feel impressive, with the nicely done enamel finish. The HD camera, however, is a bit too close to the top, and you will end up touching it either when on a call or when using the phone in landscape mode.

While it does look disappointingly plasticky, the build quality is quite good. It feels good to hold, but somehow doesn’t feel as good as the Arc.

Features & PerformanceThe most important upgrade that the Arc S brings over the Arc is the 1.4GHz single core Snapdragon processor. The Arc was powered by a 1GHz processor, and to be honest, didn’t feel sluggish in any way. Logically, the power boost should ensure that the Arc S performs well. And it does! Android remains smooth as silk in terms of UI navigation and in opening apps. We left a bunch of apps open in the background, and even then, there was not even the trademark “slight slowdown” of the OS.

While the Arc currently has Android 2.3.3 running on it, the Arc S has Android 2.3.4 on it, with a lot of little enhancements and tweaks that SE has done. First off, you can take screenshots using the integrated feature. To do that, you ned to press the power key as if you are switching off the phone. Select Take Screenshot from the menu that pops up. Android Market got its own Sony Ericsson section, with a lot of widgets for Timescape UI. The social networking integration with Timescape may well appeal to those who appreciate seeing all their timelines integrated into one. But we still prefer dedicated apps for Facebook and Twitter.

A tweak that we really appreciate a lot is the ability to do two types of resets - factory data reset and the newer settings reset. The former is the same as we see on all Android devices - restore device to factory settings and delete all data in one clean sweep. The latter one, the newer one, is a more refined one though. You can restore the system settings to default, without deleting any data or apps in the process. This one works, saving you the task of restoring all the data and apps.

The 4.2-inch display (480x854 pixels) on the Arc S is the LED backlit LCD one, which in the day and age of AMOLEDs and Super AMOLEDs seems plain vanilla. However, while it doesn’t have the colour punch of the AMOLED family, it does handle text very well. Web pages, even when not zoomed, had crisp text. The white colour is quite pure, making the other colours look quite vivid themselves. Watching videos on this display is a delight, and even fast moving scenes are blurred a lot less than what we notice in other phones.

The 8MP camera from the Arc has been carried forward on to the Arc S, but with a few extra features. For pictures, you get the 3D Panorama capability. For videos, there is the video stabilization feature that is more than welcome. While the 8MP does well in most lighting conditions, you do see a bit of graining when blowing up images taken in slightly low light conditions. But all images tend to suffer from a considerable amount of edge noise, no matter what. The 3D Panorama sweep shot is good value add, but can be extremely annoying when you get down to working it. For it to take a 3D picture, you need to pan the camera at exactly the same speed as it desires, or it won’t take the image. No matter what, you will need to do multiple retries to get the image you want.

The call clarity on offer is quite good. The earpiece volume is nice and loud, without sounding too sharp. The hands-free speaker is quite loud itself, and works well with the occasional music blast. However, we did have a problem with the way the phone handles data connectivity, from the cellular service provider. At first instance, the Vodafone 3G services got configured automatically on the phone, and worked as expected. However, a couple of days later, none of the widgets would update and neither could we browse through the Market. Weirdly, all websites were opening properly in the web browser. Resetting the phone to factory settings did the trick. If you remember reading the Arc review last year, we had faced the same issue with the EDGE connections back then.

The battery life offered by the Arc S is very good. It will last a couple of days of some voice calls and messages, with constant web connectivity for Facebook, Twitter, weather and Gtalk.

Our TakeThe Arc S does make us wonder - is it a completely new phone, or just an upgrade? If you are treating this as a new phone, then it is pertinent to consider that this is a single core phone, whereas the likes of the Galaxy SII are available for about Rs 2k more. Having said that, we must point out that the Arc S with the 1.4GHz single core processor does offer excellent performance, and refuses to slow down under app load.

If you treat this as an upgrade, then except for the processor boost and the extra tweaks to Android, this is largely similar to the Arc. If you already own an Arc, we don’t see the need to upgrade.

Essentially, this is one smartphone that is punching in a category slightly above its weight. But that is only as far as the processor cores are concerned. Otherwise, the Arc S does have a lot going for it - excellent performance, very good display, sleek form factor, good battery life and those Android tweaks. You can buy this if you crave for the latest. Else, save the pennies and consider the Xperia Arc which we have seen retailing for around Rs 22k now.

Price: Rs. 28,000

Specs:
Android 2.3.4; Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8255T processor @ 1.4GHz; 512MB RAM; 4.2-inch LED display; microSD card slot; 8MP camera with 720p HD videos; 1500 mAh battery

Ratings
Features: 7.5
Performance: 7.5
Build: 7
Value: 6.5
Overall: 7

Contact: Sony Ericsson India
Phone: 1800-111-800
Website: www.sonyericsson.com

Test Scores Log Sheet

Brand	Sony Ericsson
Model	Xperia Arc S
Street Prices (Rs)	28000
Price (MRP, Rs)	28990
Features
Physical Specs
Form Factor	Bar
2G Network Bands	GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
3G Network Bands	HSDPA 900 / 2100
Display Resolution	480 x 854
Display Size (inches)	4.2
Display Type
Maximum Screen colours	16M
Touchscreen / Dual Screen (Y/N)	Touchscreen
Battery Rating (mAh)	1500
Dimensions (L x W x H) in mm	125 x 63 x 8.7
Weight (in grams)	117
Expandable Memory Type	microSD
RAM (in MB)	512
SoC (CPU and GPU)	Qualcomm MSM8255T Snapdragon with Adreno 205
CPU Clock speed (in GHz)	1.4
No. of CPU cores	1
Available Colours	White
Other Features
Operating System (Tested with)	Android 2.3.4
Charging via USB (Y/N)	Y
Hardware Keypad (Regular/QWERTY)	N
Accelerometer (For auto rotate)	Y
Talk Time (3G) *	7 hrs
GPS (Y/N)	Y
Connectivity
Browsing (GPRS/EDGE/3G)	Y / Y / Y
3G max speed (in mbps)	14.4
Connectivity (WiFi/Bluetooth/IR/USB)	Y / Y / N / Y
Bluetooth Version/A2DP support	2.1 / Y
Camera
Camera Specs (Mega Pixels)	8
Video Resolution	720p
Auto focus / flash	Y / Y
Type of flash	LED
Image Stabilization	Y
Video Stabilization	Y
3D Panorama shot	Y
Secondary camera for video chat	Y
Multimedia
Music Formats supported	MP3/eAAC+/WMA/WAV
Video formats supported	MP4/H.263/H.264/WMV
FM Radio / RDS (Y/N)	Y / Y
Size of memory card provided (in GB)	8
Build and Ergonomics (So 10)
Surface materials used	7
Overall build and in-hand feel	7
Quality of moving parts	6
Design and ergonomics	7.5
Keypad design (on-screen or hardware)	6.5
Menu and interface	7
Settings and ease of navigating menus	7.5
Camera menu options	7
Performance
Signal Reception and Voice Clarity (So 10)
Zone 1	8
Zone 2	6
Zone 3	4
Handsfree Clarity	8
Loudspeaker Clarity	7
Earpiece Clarity	8
Handsfree Volume	7.5
Loudspeaker Volume	7
Earpiece Volume	7.5
Imaging and multimedia tests
Captured Photo Colour	7
Captured Photo Crispness	6.5
Captuted Photo Detail	6.5
Captured Video Quality	7
Effectiveness of integrated flash	6
Music Quality (loudspeaker)	6.5
Music Quality (handsfree)	7.5
Volume levels (loudspeaker)	7.5
Volume levels (handsfree)	7
Display (So 10)
Crispness	7.5
Colour	6.5
Contrast	6.5
Font rendition	7.5
Legibility in bright sunlight	7
Video playback	7
* Manufacturer Rated

Google starts rolling out new homepage design

Google has started rolling out its new homepage design, replacing the black strip on the top with a grey logo. When clicked/highlighted, the fly-out menu appears, showing various Google services along with an option to explore more. Google has assigned unique icon for each of its services, making it easy for identification. The new home page design is likely to be rolled out globally very soon. The new Google home page design features access to various Google services, which were missing from the previous home page design. Google has also put its Google+ service among its top services, hoping to expand the social networking site further more. Google's new home page look looks similar to its web-dependent Chrome operating system. However, Google has kept the design neat, giving it greater resemblance to its other products such as Gmail and YouTube. The new home page design was revealed in November last year. In a blog post, Google said that the drop-down menu nested under the Google logo will feature the list of links presently seen on the strip. Also, users will given access to additional services by hovering over the “more” link at the bottom of the list. Google has started rolling out its new homepage design, replacing the black strip on the top with a grey logo. When clicked/highlighted, the fly-out menu appears, showing various Google services along with an option to explore more. Google has assigned unique icon for each of its services, making it easy for identification. The new home page design is likely to be rolled out globally very soon. The new Google home page design features access to various Google services, which were missing from the previous home page design. Google has also put its Google+ service among its top services, hoping to expand the social networking site further more. Google's new home page look looks similar to its web-dependent Chrome operating system. However, Google has kept the design neat, giving it greater resemblance to its other products such as Gmail and YouTube. The new home page design was revealed in November last year. In a blog post, Google said that the drop-down menu nested under the Google logo will feature the list of links presently seen on the strip. Also, users will given access to additional services by hovering over the “more” link at the bottom of the list.

Android 2.3-based Spice Mi-280 launched at Rs. 5,123

Spice Mobiles has launched yet another Android smartphone in the market, the Spice Mi-280. Priced at Rs. 5,123, the Spice Mi-280 is a dual-SIM offering, and comes with Android 2.3 Gingerbread installed onboard. Interestingly, at its price, it also features a front-facing camera for video calling.

The Spice Mi-280 is the successor to the Spice Mi-270, and comes with a capacitive display in addition. Other specifications include a 2.8-inch display with 320x480 pixels, a 650MHz processor, 256MB of RAM, and 134MB of built-in storage expandable up to 32GB via microSD.

Also onboard is a 3.2MP rear camera, 0.3MP front-facing camera, 1,200 mAh battery, as well as such connectivity options as 3G (HSDPA 7.2Mbps, HSUPA 5.76Mbps) / Wi-Fi b/g/n with hotspot functionality / Bluetooth 2.1 and USB.

The Spice Mi-280 also has a proximity sensor and three-axis gyro sensor. The dual-SIM functionality is of the CDMA-GSM type, with the CDMA SIM providing the 3G (WCDMA 2100) connectivity.

 

IRCTC to launch a mobile app soon

After launching a mobile version of its website, the Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) is now planning to launch a mobile app for all the major operating systems. According to reports, the IRCTC mobile app is likely to be launched within a month. The IRCTC mobile app is likely to make rail ticket booking easier, giving users access to all the features available in the full web version of the IRCTC website. The mobile app will also accept credit card, debit card or cash cards for the payment.
The IRCTC mobile app will be additional to the three apps – Paymate, Ngpay and Atom – presently available for the rail ticket bookings. These three apps are accessible via all the mobile platforms including Android and Symbian. The IRCTC yesterday launched a mobile version of its website. The mobile site can be accessed via any mobile phone with active Internet connection. Users can access the mobile IRCTC with their existing IRCTC id and password.

After completion of booking process, users will receive a reservation message on their mobile phones. The message will have the full details of the ticket including PNR, Train no., date of journey and class. The text message can be used as valid ticket, as done with print out of e-ticket taken from the IRCTC website. However, you will need to carry your valid id-proof. Check out the new mobile IRCTC site here.

Samsung gets approval for NAND flash memory plant in China

Samsung has been given the go-ahead by the South Korean government to build a memory production plant in China. The move by the Korean electronics giant is in response to the growing demand for NAND flash memory globally, with the China plant expected to produce 10,000 12-inch wafers a month.

According to the South Korea’s Ministry of Knowledge & Economy, Samsung will now select a site for the plant, and is in process of acquiring the relevant Chinese permissions. Production is hoped to begin by 2013.

Samsung is the world leader in memory production, with a 45% share of the DRAM market, and a 39.1% share of the NAND flash market. Globally, the demand for DRAM is falling, linked directly to the slowing growth of the PC market. NAND flash memory market however - with chips used in tablets, smartphones, and SSDs - is growing dramatically.

The president of Samsung’s memory divsion, Jun Dong-Soo, said Samsung was banking on the new plant to meet the growing demand, and help

maintain its leadership position

Brute force tools crack Wi-Fi security in hours, millions of wireless routers vulnerable

If you set WPA/WPA2 security protocol on your home or small business wireless router, and you think your Wi-Fi is secure, there two recently released brute force tools that attackers may use to bypass your encryption and burst your security bubble. The irony is that the vulnerability which can be exploited was intended to be a security strength, a usability issue to help the technically clueless setup encryption on their wireless networks. Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS) is enabled by default on most major brands of wireless routers including Belkin, Buffalo, D-Link, Cisco's Linksys and Netgear, leaving millions of wireless routers around the world vulnerable to brute force attacks which can crack the Wi-Fi router's security in two to ten hours.
Most wireless routers come with a WPS personal identification number (PIN) printed on the device. When a user is setting up a wireless home network via a network setup wizard, enabling encryption is often as easy as pushing a button on the router and then entering the eight digit PIN which came with it. When an attacker is attempting to brute force the PIN and an incorrect value was entered, a message is sent that basically tells an attacker if the first half of the PIN was right or not. Additionally, according to Stefan Viehbock, the security researcher who reported the flaw, "The 8th digit of the PIN is always the checksum of digit one to digit seven," meaning it only takes an attacker about 11,000 brute force guesses to own the password. Unfortunately most wireless routers don't have a lockout policy after several failed password attempts.
Viehbock reported the Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS) PIN brute force vulnerability to the Department of Homeland Security's U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT). US-CERT issued a warning which included, due to a "design flaw" in WPS, "an attacker within range of the wireless access point may be able to brute force the WPS PIN and retrieve the password for the wireless network, change the configuration of the access point, or cause a denial of service....The lack of a proper lock out policy after a certain number of failed attempts to guess the PIN on some wireless routers makes this brute force attack that much more feasible."
Viehbock released a whitepaper, "Brute forcing Wi-Fi Protected Setup - When poor design meets poor implementation" [PDF] as well as a proof-of-concept brute force tool called wpscrack which is capable of cracking a home Wi-Fi network in about two hours but does not work with all Wi-Fi adapters.
Tactical Network Solutions (TNS), another security team, had also discovered the WPS wireless router flaw that comes enabled by default in "roughly 95% of modern consumer-grade access points." After the vulnerability went public, TNS released Reaver, an open-source tool that also exploits the vulnerability via a brute force attack. "Once you have the WPS pin you can instantly recover the WPA passphrase, even if the owner changes the passphrase," TNS reported. "Reaver is capable of breaking WPS pins and recovering the plain text WPA/WPA2 passphrase of the target access point in approximately 4-10 hours (attack time varies based on the access point)."
The US-CERT advisory states, "We are currently unaware of a practical solution to this problem." The recommended workaround is to disable WPS. "Within the wireless router's configuration menu, disable the external registrar feature of Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS). Depending on the vendor, this may be labeled as external registrar, router PIN, or Wi-Fi Protected Setup."