This year we found some great smartphones on the market. Companies have been trying their best to come up with as many innovations as possible to achieve supremacy. This is good news for us consumers. It’s hard to pick the best smartphone of the year, considering the sheer number of great phones available. We are not trying to find the best smartphone, it is a suicide mission. Instead, we’ll help you choose by making comparisons between the best phones. Today’s battle will take place between Samsung’s flagship Galaxy S II and a worthy opponent from Sony Ericsson, the Xperia Arc.
Starting with the shape of the devices, you should know that both are quite similar in size and weight, in terms of design, they are totally different. Both phones are remarkably thin and light, which is definitely a plus. However, if you look closely, you’ll probably agree that the Xperia Arc has some unusual lines and angular corners, which makes its design look impressive. You know they have concentrated on design, since even its name (ARC) comes from the curved shape of the phone. The S II is simple and doesn’t leave much of an impression when you first look at it. Ergo, this first round goes to the Sony Ericsson device.
The second element used to differentiate these high-end smartphones is the screen. Sony equipped its Xperia Arc with a 4.2-inch 480 x 854 pixel LED-backlit LCD capacitive touchscreen, which packs nice features like scratch-resistant surface, multi-touch and accelerometer. Samsung stays true to its own technology with a 4.3-inch Super AMOLED Plus capacitive touchscreen at 480 x 800 pixels. The Galaxy S II screen features a Gorilla Glass screen that is more resistant to cracks and scratches. Also, the gyro and multi-touch sensor, as well as an accelerometer and TouchWiz 4.0 user interface are great elements that give the S II a slight edge. In terms of brightness, color depth, and power efficiency, we simply couldn’t pick a winner as both displays were very responsive. We’d like to call this round a draw, but the S II wins by the nose, thanks to its Gorilla Glass feature.
Processing power is where the Galaxy S II feels most comfortable. Its 1.2GHz Dual Core Exynos CPU with graphics power coming from a Mali-400MP GPU is much better than the Xperia’s processor. And that’s normal, as Sony Ericsson’s phone has a 1GHz Qualcomm Scorpion processor on the MSM8255 Snapdragon chipset backed by an Adreno 205 GPU. The single-core processor gives the Xperia Arc a good amount of power, but it doesn’t close to the performance of the S II. This round clearly goes to the Samsung device.
Storage is the next chapter in this battle, and once again things are not looking good for the Xperia Arc. With just 320MB of space onboard, it’s no match for the 16GB found in the Galaxy S II. The good news is that Sony Ericsson offers an included 8GB card to try and compensate, but it’s too little too late. The Galaxy S II also has double the RAM of the Xperia Arc, hitting 1 GB. Obviously the round goes to the Galaxy S II.
Operating System – Things are pretty simple in this department, as both Android-based smartphones use the latest 2.3 Gingerbread operating system and are viable candidates to receive Android Ice Cream Sandwich, which has yet to be rolled out. This round ends in a draw without much to talk about.
Finally, the last important aspect that we look for is the capabilities of the camera. There are great camera setups on both of these phones, with plenty of great features for both. The Xperia Arc has an 8MP camera capable of 720p blank capture and features autofocus and a video light. Other cool features include geotagging, image stabilization, LED flash, touch focus, autofocus, and face and smile detection. The S II’s camera is pretty similar; 8 MP at 3264×2448 pixels with autofocus, touch focus, LED flash, geotagging, face and smile detection, and image stabilization. Video quality is a bit higher, but there are no video-specific features like the Xperia Arc’s camera. The balance is only seriously disrupted by the presence of a 2MP front camera on the Galaxy S II while the Xperia Arc remains totally blank. The winner is again the S II.
It was a real pleasure to review these Android smartphones and make a comparison between them. However, it is very difficult to make a decision. In general, Xperia Arc does not have the same standard as the S II, but it just depends on the taste of each person. We really loved the Xperia Arc’s design, big screen and nice camera. However, the Galaxy S II is superior in most areas, so it seems like the normal choice between them.
