Thinking of swapping my HTC Desire for the Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc.....

StevieP

StevieP

StevieP

Soldato
Joined
2 Jan 2004
Posts
7,719
Location
Chesterfield
I'm at the end of my contract with o2 and have got itchy feet and wanted something a bit nicer than my HTC Desire (although its been a great phone and I even went down the road of rooting and trying some custom roms!)

Anyway, I like the specs on the Galaxy S2 but a) its a bit more than I wanted to spend on a monthly basis and b) its a bit bland to look at imo!

So I started to look at the Xperia Arc but I'm a bit unsure if it will provide me a decent enough upgrade from my Desire!

It looks very nice and watching a direct comparison on Youtube with the S2, it compares quite well even though its only a single core CPU!

The deal I have seen is a 12 month contract with Talkmobile, 400 mins, unlimited texts and 1GB internet for £30 p/m but then 6 months free through redemption and £30 Quidco which makes it work out at £12.50 p/m, free phone and I'm free and clear after just 12 months! :D

Anyway, I'm rattling on - any opinions on the comparison between the two is welcome!

Thanks.........
 
Put simply: Cost.

The cheapest S2 deal I can find is £25 p/m with £50 up front AND a 24 month contract!

I'm not keen on the Sensation, as much as I like my Desire, the Sensation just seems a bit clunky and I tend to use other launchers or ROM's rather than Sense anyway!

I know the S2 is technically superior but I like the style and look of the Arc!
 
Don't.

HTC's support, for software version upgrades, bug fixes, etc is much better than Sony.

That alone is a major reason why I wouldn't buy the Arc.

Save up for S2 I would say. I've had both phones and S2 is worth every penny.
 
Quite a big upgrade, I had a Desire for a year and have an Xperia Arc as a second phone to my SGS2 and it makes the Desire look ancient. Much smoother in general, gorgeous Bravia display, proper HDMI port and the camera is amazing. People are blinded by the 'It's not dual core' thing, but I've yet to see it struggle. If you want me to try anything and video it for you let me know.
 
Last edited:
Wicksta said:
Quite a big upgrade, I had a Desire for a year and have an Xperia Arc as a second phone to my SGS2 and it makes the Desire look ancient. Much smoother in general, gorgeous Bravia display, proper HDMI port and the camera is amazing. People are blinded by the 'It's not dual core' thing, but I've yet to see it struggle. If you want me to try anything and video it for you let me know.
Click to expand...

I agree. :)
 
Nice to get some arguments for both sides!

Must admit, my head is turned a little for the performance of the S2 but then I think, its way more money (and its not a case of "saving up" for it - its the continued monthly cost for another 2 year contract!) and I'm not overly keen on the "look" of it - I mean the display is supposed to be outstanding but the phone itself is very much a "slab" with not much of what I'd call style!

The main draw to the Arc deal is its cheap and gives me a better screen ect without tying me in to a 24 month deal!

I have considered keeping my Desire on a sim-only deal but for the right minutes, texts etc I'm looking at around £12 a month so I think its probably worth an extra 50p for a sparkling new phone too!

Decisions, decisions!!

@ Wicksta - how is the storage space on the Arc? The one thing that drove me crazy with my Desire before I rooted it was the stupidly low internal memory for installing apps!
 
Wicksta said:
It has 1gb storage on the Arc, so more comparable to the Sensation's 1.5gb than the 16gb Galaxy S1.
Click to expand...

SE Xperia Arc has 320Mb storage for applications which is more than the HTC Desire. Also with Android 2.2 + you can use App2SD which mitigates the any space problems.

:)
 
As long as the internal storage is enough for a few apps then I'll be happy and I'll be shoving a 16GB micro SD card in it for photo & video storage! (I assume it takes a bog-standard SD card as opposed to Sony's own M3 cards or whatever they were?)
 
StevieP said:
As long as the internal storage is enough for a few apps then I'll be happy and I'll be shoving a 16GB micro SD card in it for photo & video storage! (I assume it takes a bog-standard SD card as opposed to Sony's own M3 cards or whatever they were?)
Click to expand...

That's the current set-up I have. They accept a Micro SD memory cards. :)
 
While the Galaxy S II is quite a lot better than the Arc, £12~ per month is pretty damn cheap and the Arc is a very good phone. In fairness, dual-core is wasted on most people.

andyd said:
They have also updated the old X10 to Gingerbread now, has HTC upgraded the Desire yet?
Click to expand...

Yes, but it isn't a 'proper' update as you have to do it all manually and they stripped a lot of the UI away so that it fit.
 
When you put the Desire on payg plan will that include data?

If not, why not sell the phone and get something cheaper and buy an SGS2 as the main phone and a cheap Nokia for calls/texts. Android phones, in my view, are wasted without data.
 
alchemistkevin said:
When you put the Desire on payg plan will that include data?

If not, why not sell the phone and get something cheaper and buy an SGS2 as the main phone and a cheap Nokia for calls/texts. Android phones, in my view, are wasted without data.
Click to expand...

The best sim-only deal I can find is Talkmobile for a 1 month rolling contract - 500 mins, 1000 texts and 500MB internet - £12 p/m

Compare this to having the Arc, albeit on a 12 month deal, at effectively £12.50 p/m (slightly lower minutes but I can live with 400 tbh) - it seems a bit of a no-brainer!

As for carrying around a 2nd phone, I already have to cart around a works phone so there is no way I'm carrying 3!!! :p
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom