Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc

Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc

Could Sony Ericsson finally be about to deliver on the promise of, well, every smartphone it's ever made that wasn't quite good enough? Maybe it was stupid to hope, but we did anyway.
An attractive design with a curved back that's just 8.7mm thick in the middle? Check. Impressive new Exmor camera technology? Check. Good spec list, including HDMI output? Check. Superb video player? Check.
The hardware is extremely impressive, both in terms of looks and performance. Forget the fashionable dual-core phones – when done right, a single-core 1GHz processor can do it all, although busy, dynamic websites will cause the phone to chug a little.
As it is, we're prepared to overlook the Xperia Arc's few minor flaws (small buttons, odd text entry) thanks to its stunning good looks, superb screen and very decent photo performance. You can't help but love it once you've held its magically thin body and gazed adoringly into its dazzling Reality Display.

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Sony Ericsson Xperia Play

PlayStation. Phone. The jury's still out on whether the two will go together quite as well as such classic double acts as Chas and Dave - but, at least in this iteration, it's turned out to be a damper squib than the time we believed Back to the Future would turn out to be real by the time 2011 rolled around. It features a four-inch screen, slide-out gaming controls and the PlayStation Suite.
With the PSOne-era games that are on offer, we were hoping for a little bit more raw power considering the 1GHz processor chugging away under the hood. While Final Fantasy VII might be a bit much to delve into on the bus, we can only imagine games like the original Rayman keeping people going for a few minutes.
Much of what ails the Xperia Play could be fixed with time and care. As it stands, however, we reckon you could do better for your money. The Xperia Play is too pricey for casual gaming, while we'd suggest serious gamers would be better served by picking up a full-on mobile console. Sony fans have the NGP to look forward too, and we'd seriously recommend the 3DS as an alternative.

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Sony Ericsson XPERIA

Manufacturers and carriers are showing commendable restraint in avoiding totally bastardized, walled-garden versions of Android on their handsets (for the most part), but they're not avoiding it altogether -- take Sony Ericsson here, for instance. The company has announced that it's expanding the reach of its PlayNow app store to cover Android in concert with its launch of the X10, which presumably means that users will be juggling a minimum of two sources for third-party wares on this thing. Long-term, this kind of needless fragmentation seems like one of the greatest threats to Android's ability to become and remain a heavyweight player in the smartphone ring -- but then again, what do we know? It's not like these guys haven't already figured out how to dominate before with UIQ... ah, wait. Anyhoo, yeah, back to the topic at hand: devs are now invited to submit their Android apps for inclusion in the PlayNow store, so hey, you may as well -- the phone's looking to be a hottie, so it can't hurt to have your stuff featured on there, we figure.

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