Sony Ericsson LT15a Xperia Arc Unlocked Phone with Android 2.3 and 4.2-Inch Multi-Touch Display--U.S Warranty (Midnight Blue)
The Xperia family just got a little bit bigger last week when Sony Ericsson announced a new phone for the line called Xperia Ion. Other than being the first full Sony branded smartphone, it is also one of the most powerful smartphones in the country.
It is clearly a superphone. It has a 4.6inch display with a 1280x720p display and full HD playback. It has a 12MP camera at the back — the only smartphone to have this on any US carrier. It is running on the 1.5GHz dual-core Qualcomm SnapDragon S4 processor. One interesting feature about this phone is that it not only supports games that were made for the Sony PlayStation but it also gives you access to Sony’s audio and video. The only shortcoming is the memory — has a great 16GB internal so you can use that to store a lot of files for lot of entertainment on the go with movies and music that Sony offers at the market.
Another point going for the phone is that it will soon be upgraded to Android 4.0. Given the amount of processing power that it comes with, it should have problems dealing with the demand of Android Ice Cream Sandwich. The only foreseeable problem is the custom UI that Sony as a rule slaps on to its phones. It has already been noticed earlier that custom UIs slow down the system considerably and they are quite the drain on the battery too. Case in point — HTC Sense UI. It looks great but does terrible things to the battery and overall performance.
Coming back to the display, the 720p display on this Xperia series smartphone is powered by the BRAVIA engine. It is the same as the BRAVIA line of TVs from Sony. And with the Exmor camera capturing at 1080p, this is one sweet phone to catch for Sony fans.
As mentioned earlier it supports Playstation games and is officially certified for PlayStation compatibility. And you can share all that HD goodness through built in DLNA, HDMI and BRAVIA sync. That should allow you to sync your visual output to almost any Sony screen you might own and other generic displays as well. In fact, anything with HDMI in should work.
The design is absolute sleek and industrial, in keeping with the Sony design ethos. The face is clean and dominated by the screen of course. Its aluminum body ensures that you get a secure feel and reminds you of the build quality.
For those who simply cannot wait to get their paws all over it, it is launching in Spring this year. Till then, you can satisfy yourself with the many hands on videos floating around from last week’s CES.
So far, the devices running Android 4 have by default been devices to talk about and so this one from the Xperia family wasn’t all that different. But the Sony camera is definitely going to make a difference in consumer opinion. Any camera that Sony brans should be pretty much above average at the very least because Sony makes sensors that go in to Nikon DSLRs and also the Alpha DSLRs made by the company.
