It’s been almost a year since Sammy’s flagship has been released. Xperia Arc S, on the other hand, was announced in Sept 2011. Galaxy SII, though more powerful, looks less fancy than Arc S. Sony has really put in a lot of effort to make its flagship stand out in the crowd. Has it achieved its purpose? Read on to find out.
Comparison Attributes:
Screen:
Both of them are of candy-bar form factor. Arc S weighs 117g, while Galaxy S II weighs 116g. Arc S has got a 480 x 854 pixel 4.2-inch display, whereas Samsung Galaxy S II displays 480 x 800 pixels on a 4.3-inch screen. Arc S might have a slight edge here, considering the 0.1 inch display area. Don’t forget though, that the S2 has got an AMOLED display, whereas Xperia is fitted with your run-of-the-mill LCD TFT display.
UI/Custom Skin:
Sammy has fitted its dearest with its homegrown TouchWiz 4.0! Now, I know many people, who simply loathe TouchWiz. The skin, undoubtedly, is no Sense, but Samsung surely could have done better. Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc S has been fitted with Xperia Arc Launcher. Now, I’ve been using the ported version of this very launcher on my Galaxy Apollo for quitr sometime and I must say it’s superb.
Camera & Multimedia:
The camera’s what we’ve come to expect from superphones lately. 8 megapixel auto-focus sensor with LED flash adorns both these beauties. It’s only in the video department that the difference is obvious. Sammy has 1080p video recording at 30fps, whereas the Arc has only got 720p 30fps recording. This is solely due to the processor though. Samsung sports a front facing 2MP camera as well, which is absent in Xperia.
As far as interface is concerned, my favorite is the Xperia launcher gallery. It wins hands down over the S2’s resource-hogging “3D” gallery. Then again, people might appreciate S2’s gallery as well.
Processor & Memory:
Samsung Galaxy S2 uses its in-house developed Samsung Exynos dual-core chip clocked at 1.2GHz, whereas Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc S, which still sounds too much to say in one breadth gets a 1.4GHz Scorpion single-core processor. Though Xperia is 200MHz faster clocked than the Exynos, it’s still a single-core. So, there are areas in which it shows its weakness( 1080p recording for example) and its strengths (battery life).
The graphics processor in Xperia is Adreno 205, whereas Samsung has got a Mali-400 GPU. RAM’s scarce on the Xperia as well with only 512MB of it being given. The S2 on the other hand boasts of the now-defined-industry-standard 1GB of RAM. The extra 512MB of RAM shows its help while running 3D games and other memory intensive apps. This may be deal-breaker for some as the extra 512 WILL FOR A FACT come in handy. Take it from a person whose phone has 256MB RAM.
Storage:
Note to Sony: Never charge above $400 on a phone with a measly 320MB of usable storage. Yes, you have read that right. Xperia has got 1GB of flash memory of which, about 320MB is usable for user apps. This is simply pathetic on Sony’s part. They should have, at least included 8GB of memory. Galaxy S2 sports of 16GB of storage.
Both the phones have microSD card slots, which let one expand the memory to 32GB.
Connectivity:
Both the super-phones sport a plethora of connectivity. You name it and it’s there. There are 3G, HSDPA, WiFi, Bluetooth, A-GPS, USB. Bluetooth’s with A2DP and USB comes with USB On-The-Go. The international version of the S2 sports an NFC chip as well. This is one brownie point to the S2!
Battery:
The battery on Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc S is a standard lithium polymer 1500mAh battery. S2 sports a monstrous 1650mAh lithium-ion battery.
Pricing & Verdict:
There is nothing new here, the Galaxy S2 still remains the king of Android. Surely, Xperia Arc S is a new design with a few nifty features. But, for a person paying so much, I think performance would be a major factor rather than design. Thus, performance is one major area, amid others, where the Galaxy S2 clearly has a lead. If looks could kill, then Sony would win.