Sony Ericsson Xperia arc and Samsung Nexus S are two phones powered by Android 2.3 (Gingerbread). Sony Ericsson is introducing its next generation Xperia series smartphone “Xperia arc” worldwide within the first quarter of 2011. The arc shaped Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) phone is extremely slim with the centre depth only 8.7 mm. The Sony Ericsson boasts its display as the Reality Display with Sony Mobile BRAVIA Engine providing ultimate multimedia and viewing experiences. While Samsung Nexus S was the first phone to run the Googles newest mobile operating system ‘Gingerbread’ The phone was designed to give the full experience of Android 2.3. Nexus S is also no second to Xperia arc in its design and multimedia capability.
One of the added features of Gingerbread is the Near Field Communications (NFC). Gingerbread has integrated NFC in its system, which can read information from “smart” tags, or everyday objects that have NFC chips in them. These can be anything from stickers and movie posters to credit cards and air tickets. (NFC is a simplified data transfer technology to transfer data quickly between devices). This will be a useful feature in future for MCommerce. Gingerbread also allows you to place the VoIP/SIP call directly from your contacts. Voice actions work amazingly better with Gingerbread. Marvellous voice actions; just speak and get things done; from call by business name, alarm setting to navigation.
Sony Ericsson Xperia arc
With SE Xperia arc you can experience the excellent design of Sony Erisson coupled with the power of Google’s Android 2.3. The slim candy bar device comes with large 4.2″ capacitive MultiTouch display-854×480 resolution with Bravia Engine, Shatter-Proof glass, 1GHz Snapdragon processor. And SE always stands out with its camera, 8MP Camera with LED flash, 720p video recording with Sony Exmor R technology. The Camera with Sony Exmor R technology enhance images with its features such as Face/Smile detection, Geo tagging, Image stabilizer, Touch Focus, Touch capture, Video light, Noise suppression, low light capability and video capture.
The smartphone is available in Midnight Blue and Misty Silver colours and expected to reach the global market from Q1 of 2011.
Nexus S
The Nexus S was introduced in December 2010 jointly by Samsung and Google to run the latest Android platform Android 2.3 (Gingerbread). The candy bar Nexus S was specially designed to take the full advantage of Android 2.3 and comes with 4.0” Contour Super AMOLED Display and 880 x 480 WVGA resolution, 1GHz Hummingbird processor and 16GB internal memory. It boasts as the first smartphone to launch with a Contour Display. The contour shape though not very prominent fit in well in to the hand.
Samsung claims that the brightness of Nexus S display is up to 1.5x higher than conventional LCD displays and the super AMOLED screen gives 180degree viewing angle and a better outdoor viewing, 100,000:1 contrast ratio with true blacks. It claims that when you take Nexus S outside, there’s 75% less glare than on other smartphone displays. And the videos, pictures and games won’t be washed-out in the sun.
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Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc |
Samsung Nexus S |
Comparison of SE Experia arc and Samsung Nexus S
| Spec | SE Experia arc | Samsung Nexus S |
| Display Size, Type |
4.2” capacitive Multitouch screen, 16M colour with Sony Mobile Bravia Engine, Shatter proof, scratch-resistant |
4.0″ capacitive Multitouch, Super AMOLED, 16M colour |
| Resolution | FWVGA 854 x 480 | 800 x 480 |
| Keyboard | Virtual QWERTY with Swype | Virtual QWERTY with Swype |
| Dimension | 125 x 63 x 8.7 mm | 123.9 x 63.0 x 10.88 mm |
| Weight | 117 g | 129 g |
| Operating System | Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) | Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) |
| Processor | 1 GHz Qualcomm | 1GHz Hummingbird |
| Storage Internal | 8 GB | 16 GB |
| External | Expandable up to 32GB microSD | No card slot |
| RAM | 512 MB | 512 MB |
| Camera | 8.1 megapixel with LED flash, 2.46x smart zoom, Aperture f/2.4, Face detection, Geo-tagging, Image stabilizer, 720p HD video recording | 5.0 megapixel with LED Flash, 720p/30fps HD video recording, geotagging, infinity and macro modes, exposure metering, three colour modes |
| Front faced Camera | Yes, VGA | Yes, VGA |
| Music | MP3 Media player, Bluetooth stereo (A2DP), TrackID music recognition, PlayNow service for selected models | Details not available |
| GPS | A-GPS | A-GPS |
| Bluetooth | 2.1 + EDR | 2.1 + EDR |
| Wi-Fi | Details not available | 802.11b/g/n |
| Multitasking | Yes | Yes |
| Browser | Full HTML WebKit browser | Full HTML WebKit browser |
| Support Adobe Flash | 10.1 | 10.1 |
| Wi-Fi hotspot | Details not available | Connects up to six wi-fi devices |
| Battery | 1500mAh | 1500 mAH Li-ion removable battery; Talktime 6.7 hours on 3G, 14 hours on 2G; Standby time (max) 428 hours |
| Messaging | Email, IM, Video Chat, SMS & MMS, Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync | Email, IM, Video Chat, SMS & MMS |
| Colour | Midnight Blue, Misty Silver | Black, SIlver |
| Additional Features | HDMI TV out, DLNA modem, NeoReader barcode scanner, Sony Ericsson Timescape in selected models, 3D games Sony Ericsson Timescape in selected models 3D games |
HDMI TV out, DLNA modem, Gyroscope, Near Field Communications (NFC) |
Both the phones look attractive and designed to fit in to the hand well, but Xperia arc is slimmer and sleek. Xperia arc boasts about its Reality Display with Mobile BRAVIA Engine to give an excellent entertainment experience while Nexus S boasts its super AMOLED display giving 180 degrees viewing angle and excellent outdoor viewing. Furthermore, Sony’s cameras always stand out on performance; with the Exmor R technology we can expect high quality pictures. Both phones have the capability to share the pictures and videos in HD on the TV via the built in HDMI-connector. The lacking feature in Nexus S is the non availability of slot for memory card.
On the application side as both are based on Android 2.3 platform and have the full access to Android Market and Google Mobile Services we can’t differentiate much in that aspect.