SONY XPERIA ACRO S!
EX-DREAM PHONE!
UNBOXING TIME:
Sony Xperia Acro S vs Samsung Galaxy Note 2 HERE
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It has been a long
while since I did a review. For this one, I will review to you, one of my
ex-dream phone. This was what I originally intented to ask for Santa last
Christmas, but I went with Samsung Galaxy Note 2, after almost a month of love
with Note 2, I got a brandnew Xperia Acro S. I was very excited to unbox and
review this one as another dream came true.
A little something I wanted
to share is why I wanted this phone but then decided to pick a Note two. Almost
a year ago, I had Xperia Mini Pro, Blackberry 8520 and Nokia N86. I was pleased
with the three but I did not want to exhaust my sim card so I decided to buy a
phone that packs their three features: Xperia Mini Pro had Bravia Engine and it
was Android, Nokia N86 had an amazing camera and Blackberry had good audio
output earphones attached. Instead of going with a second hand mainstreamed Samsung
Galaxy S2, I decided to buy a Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc S. I was extremely
satisfied with the phone but the lack of internal memory and front camera made
me want more. From then on I had continuously changed and swapped cellphones to
find the one. I had luck with Samsung Galaxy S2 SkyRocket but it was stolen L After the Skyrocket, I purchased another
S2 but it was a Gangnam S2 and it brought me nothing but headaches and
troubles. As I walked pass a Sony store I fell in love with the Acro S, I had
wanted it as my main phone since October, as it had been the improved version
of my beloved Xperia Arc S, and my decision was dead-locked to get one for
Christmas. As I continuously reviewed rebranded phones, Cherry Mobile Titan,
Cherry Mobile Flare, Cherry Mobile SkyFire, MyPhone A919 Duo and CloudfoneThrill 430x, I came to the conclusion that Dual-Cores was out of date. Yes I
know Sony’s phone will trump any other rebranded phone out there, but still, if
I wanted something it better be full worth the money spent. Two of my
classmates had Note 2 and I was extremely impressed so I decided to choose it
since it catered my requirements for a cellphone.
Well that’s the story
of my Note Two, for this review, I like to look back if what the decision I made
to move on with Xperia was a great move or I could have had the one with the
cheaper price tag.
1. THE PACKAGE (9.7 out of 10)
1.1 The BOX
The box looks very nice, looks simple
and elegant and it feels expensive, it’s a relatively huge box as compared to
all my other phones as it was almost double in length but half the height. The box
speaks for itself: I’m not a mainstream phone! Try Me!
1.2 What’s in the Box?
Since my Xperia Arc
S, Sony had always had the best package, as it offered nearly everything you
need. Opening the box you see your magnificent looking phone and yYou get an
amazing in-ear headset, a charger, your micro usb cable, manuals and a dock. Since
these came from Sony you can be assured that they are durable, strong and
reliable. (It has been a year and I still use my Sony Xperia Arc S Green Heart
Charger). The package did not include an HDMI Cable but the dock is a nice
addition.
2. PHONE SUPERFICIALITY (9.5 out of 10)
Not Skinny But Still Sexy! Nothing best describes this phone but these
words. It is thicker than your average phone but it fits your hand nicely and
it has that feel that this is not a mainstream phone, it also has a nice touch
that when you hold it for the first time, its as if you’re going to have the
time of your life. The front houses the front camera with three capacitive
buttons, the back houses the 12MP Camera, Flash and speaker, the bottom houses
the mic, the top houses the 3.5mm jack, microUSB port, and the HDMI port, and
the sides houses the camera shutter, power button, volume rocker, the sim card
slot, NFC and the microSD slot. WOW THAT IS SOME SERIOUS NUMBERS OF BUTTONS ON
A PHONE. The reason for this is its non-user replaceable battery. With all
those buttons, I still think this is one of the sexiest phone out there.
3. PERFORMANCE EVALUATION
3.1 Speakers (8.9 out of 10)
Acro S became my dream phone because I knew it would be an improved and
better version of my Arc S, to my delight, earphones attached, this phone
offered great audio output, the sound quality is simply amazing. Though I have
to point out that its loudspeaker is not as loud as you would expect even if
its xLoud is on. Though I highly doubt anyone would use its loudspeaker
frequqntly, as long as it offered great audio output headset attached, it was
ok for me.
3.2 Display / Video Playback (9.2 out of 10)
The screen looks
bright crisp and vibrant, a definite improvement over Arc S and a definite
skyrocket compared to rebranded phones. The greatness of the display is further
amplified with Sony’s own Bravia Engine. For media playback, it was able to
play almost any video and it was able to play a 1080p video, unfortunately, I used
MX Player Pro to play the movies as the stock video player had limitations on
filetypes.
3.3 Gaming (7.9 out of 10)
Obviously, Acro S
will never compare well if compared to the Note 2 so I decided to compare it
with respect to the former Gaming King, Motorola Photon 4G. If you had been a
follower and a reader of my blog you would know that the only HD Game I play
before my Note 2 was NBA 2k13, unfortunately for this phone, and it saddens me
to say this but it showed significant lags and the players looked messed up. Now
that HD Gaming is out, for mainstream gaming, it was a delightful experience as
games such as Fruit Ninja, Temple Run2 and 1 and Jetpack Joyride played as
smooth as Anne Curtis’ skin. For gaming on Dual Core processor, Motorola Photon
4G is still the undisputed Champion.
3.4 Camera (9.8 out of 10)
These Images are from Xperia Acro S.
Arc S had the best camera of all the
phones I had before my Note 2, ever since Arc S days, I had become a fan of
Sony in imaging department as they delivered best bunch of photos, give it
their Bravia Engine and it was miles beyond rebranded phones and definitely
amongst the top. The Acro S was no disappointment as it continues Sony’s legacy
as one of the best camera phones on the market, there are a bunch of options to
choose from. For neophytes and newbies with camera options better read THIS. The
12Mp camera of the Acro S is definitely one of the best to date. The Auto-Focus
does not disappoint and it takes pictures quickly.
3.5 Need for Speed (9.1 out of 10)
RAM and Clockspeed Review
Many
of you might wonder, what are RAM and the Clockspeed for? Should I go for
higher RAM, fewer clocks or vice versa? The answer depends on how you use the phone.
Random Access Memory (RAM) is used to determine how many apps your unit can run
simultaneously. So bigger RAM means you can multi-task much more applications
without worrying about lagging on the system.
Clockspeed is used to determine how fast your system will run a certain
application. Simply put, higher Clockspeed means faster phone. THIS IS THE
GENERAL IDEA ON RAM AND CLOCKSPEED. Factors on speed are also determined by the
chipset architecture, GPU, etc.
Coming across a bunch of Dual-core
phones, Motorola Photon, S2 i9100, S2 SkyRocket, S2 SHV E110s, Cherry Mobile
Titan and Galaxy S Advance, Cherry Mobile Flare, Myphone A919, Cloudfone Thrill
430x, Acro S performed significantly better than Rebranded phones and SLIGHTLY
better than that of the S2 and Galaxy
Advance. The new Krait Architecture really worked well as it is nearly as fast
as the Samsung Galaxy S3. The 1GB RAM has become a standard for today’s high
end phone. Multi-tasking on Acro S rarely shows lag.
3.6 User-Friendliness (9 out of 10)
Out of the box, you
get a slightly out-dated Ice Cream Sandwich. Jellybean has been planned for
this device so don’t worry! If you can’t wait, tons of Custom Roms are
available on xda-developers to suit your taste. If you are the phone geek, you
would know that custom roms will be the life of your phone and installing one
will significantly improve your phone’s performance! Hooray for branded phones!
As for those who does not care for custom roms, sporting Android, Acro S gives
you a veru user friendly interface, coming from another OS will not be aproblem
as Android is pretty easy to learn and you will be customizing until its
unique. The Playstore will keep you preoccupied for quite some time.
3.7 Battery (7.2 out of 10)
For the past few
months I have slowly disregarded this equation:
ANDROID= BAD BATTERY LIFE
This equation was slowly disregarded as even rebranded phones tend to
manufacture phones with actually impressive battery life. Unfortunately for the
Acro S, it does not have a bad battery life its good but far from great. If you
will use this for gaming battery will drain quickly, it can definitely last a
day on light usage but why did you get an expensive phone for texting? Also this phone has a non-user replaceable
battery so be careful not to drain and kill its battery (commonly termed as
Dead Batt). Its real sad that seeing Sony is siginificantly behind in sales for
smartphones, they still do not manufacture phones which has a factor to turn
heads back around to their favour. Undeniably, Samsung holds the title in
Smartphone section, if Sony won’t make a comeback, we might live in a world controlled
by Samsung and Apple. For the Company’s sake I surely hope Xperia Z will turn
things around.
Miscellaneous:
I forgot to mention, this phone is
said to be water and dust resistant.
CONCLUSION
THE RIGHT CHOICE (8.99 out of 10)
* Performance is 70%, Package and Looks are both 15% for the total of
100% YEHEY I KNOW MATH :))
After all this
time, holding and using the Acro S felt like a dream come true, it was a nice
looking phone packing a lot of features with an almighty camera, though the battery
life and unimpressive HD gaming prowess can surely make or break the deal. After
spending some time with this phone, I can safely and proudly say I made the right choice last
Christmas. Don’t get me wrong Acro S is not bad, but I’m pretty sure you can
get more with its price. Compare it to other dual cores, it shows slight
advantage, compare it to quad cores, it fails to deliver at the same level. Of course,
it will always boil down to you, the consumer. If I did not have any friend
with a Note 2 I would definitely choose this over other phones, yes including
S3 and One X. I don’t care if they are the superior ones, I’m the one who will
use it and I prefer Sony over Samsung or HTC. Finally, the Acro S offers the
same Android experience with other dual cores but with a slightly better
camera. As for today’s standard’s I don’t think it fares well in the market. It
up to you, guys if you want it or not :D
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