Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc vs. Motorola Atrix 4G
The Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc attracted our attention as it is the most punctual, the most stylish and probably the most powerful smartphone of the Xperia line. This smartphone was launched at the exact launch date that had been announced, it looks very attractive and it sports many awesome features. Good enough, huh? However…
…the best way to see what’s Ericsson’s device worth is to compare it with another not less gorgeous handset, and our choice stopped on the Motorola Atrix 4G. You’ll probably say duh! one is dual core another one has only one of those, but still, both are flagships and we do consider them both, yes both!, when looking for the best phones around, especially for Android powered ones.
This phone (Atrix 4G) was revolutionary in some sense. Back in 2007 Nokia (talking about the N95) said “that is what computers have become.” Not many manufacturers paid much attention to those words, but, most likely, Motorola was listening to Nokia attentively and after 4 years it designed a phone that can be turned into a laptop with the help of a special dock. The Atrix was fairly called “The World’s Most Powerful Smartphone,” though recently UK denied this claim.
Anyway, the Motorola Atrix 4G is the company’s current flagship, just like the Xperia Arc is the flagship of the Sony Ericsson. So let’s see how these giants will defend their interests and what features they will use as a shield.
Design
The Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc is very thin, the top and bottom parts of the phone are flared slightly around the back. I guess it’s a fine design attempt, and the appearance of this phone is one of its key points.
The phone is rather light; it weights only 117g and its dimensions (125x63x0.857mm) make us think how the designers managed to pack so many perfect features in this “tiny” case.
Such a phone just has to sport a large display, and it does. Under the 4.2-inch Super LCD touchscreen are located three Android navigation buttons. They are similar to the ones found on the other smartphones of the Xperia line, moreover, they are illuminated. So they are designed quite well, and it’s a pleasure to touch them.
The top of the phone includes an HDMI out port hidden behind a little dust stopper, and on the other end we can find the power button. On the left edge only the 3.5mm headphone jack is located, while on the right side we’ll find the micro-USB, a small volume up/down rocker and a physical camera button near the bottom. On the back we’ll see the 8MP camera with LED flash and SE’s logo, plus the XPERIA word is located in the middle of the phone reminding of where it comes from.
The Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc comes in “Midnight Blue” and “Misty Silver” versions, both look stunning.
The Motorola Atrix 4G has a more “modest” appearance; it has no convexity or physical buttons, and it is a standard Motorola smartphone. I even remember there was a man saying it looks like a large Defy. We don’t want to discredit the Atrix, but it has nothing to offer against the Xperia Arc in terms of design. It sports a 4-inch TFT capacitive touchscreen and under it we can find four touch controls. Probably the back of the phone is more attractive as it is patterned with a plastic-looking carbonfibre weave. There are not many details we can talk about, so let’s see how the designers located the other features. On the left side they fitted a microUSB port followed by a mini-HDMI port, and the right side includes a volume up and down rocker. The power button and the 3.5mmheadphone jack are on the top. The 5MP camera with a LED flash and the rear external speaker can be found on the back.
So the Motorola Atrix is a classic Android phone. It weighs heavier than the Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc (135g), and generally it’s a little bit bulky (I tried to avoid this word, but I couldn’t…).
Display
Both handsets sport a qHD touchscreens and here I’m afraid we can’t choose which one is better. Sony Ericsson used its own Reality Display technology, which is not as cool as the iPhone’s Retina Display, but is better than Samsung Galaxy S’ Super AMOLED screen. Motorola’s product features a smaller display but it offers a pixel density of 275ppi, which means everything will be reproduced finer, clearer and sharper on it. Moreover, the screen is protected by the Gorilla Glass technology.
Cameras
The SE Xperia Arc is packed with an 8.1MP camera with Exmor R sensor that captures photos at maximum resolution of 3264 x 2448 and saves them in JPEG format emerging between 1MB and 1.5MB. Though the camera app is very easy to operate with, there are problems with the camera button while shooting. Moreover, when you touch the screen with the same goal, the result is the same…
The camera comes with auto-focus, which is a serious problem because you can’t get macro images – it just doesn’t focus. I guess single LED flash is also not enough — this leads to serious problems with indoor shooting. Plus there are no fancy shooting modes, no effects, which is a lack, definitely. BUT users can switch from an 8MP 4:3 shot to a wider 6MP 16:9.
The Arc also captures HD videos at 720p, but do not be fooled as the 8MP camera cannot make miracles without additional features. At the end, the phone lacks a secondary camera on front, but do you really need it with Gingerbread?
The Motorola Atrix’s camera is not the best one we have seen on a phone, but it is very easy for use and users can easily take quick shots when they need it. Anyway, it sports a 5MP camera with LED flash, which mostly ineffective when it comes to image capture in low light, but works well as an illuminator for the video camera. Here we must say the photos are not perfect and the phone captures bluish, slightly soft pictures with a 0.7-second shutter delay, which can’t be compared with the iPhone, but it pretty nice to see it doesn’t yield to the 8MP one of the Arc.
The phone also records HD videos at 720p and 30fps that look nice, moreover, the company promised there will be an update to pack in those extra pixels.
The Motorola Atrix features a VGA camera on the front for video calling, but I’ll repeat — it can’t be used in Gingerbread.
Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc sample photos:
Motorola Atrix 4G sample photos:
Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc sample video:
Motorola Atrix 4G sample video:
Hardware
As I said at the beginning both handsets are well armed and here we meet two of the most powerful Android devices. The SE Xperia Arc is packed with a 1GHz Scorpion processor with Adreno 205 GPU. Of course, it provides awesome performance, but we can’t say it is the fastest processor in the world. Moreover, the device features 320MB storage, 512MB RAM and supports a microSD card to enlarge the memory. It is good in the connectivity area, too, supporting Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, DLNA, Wi-Fi hotspot and Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP. Finally, the Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc is packed with a standard 1500mAh battery that provides up to 7 hours of talk time and up to 400 hours in stand-by mode in 3G network.
We must be honest and say the Atrix is stronger, since it sports a dual-core 1GHz ARM Cortex-A9 processor with ULP GeForce GPU and Tegra 2 AP20H chipset. Together with 16GB storage and 1GB RAM it provides really good performance. Both handsets offer a very acceptable pack of features: Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, DLNA, Wi-Fi hotspot, Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP and EDR. The standard Li-Po 1930mAh battery of the Motorola Atrix sounds better and provides longer talk time (9 hours) and less hours in stand-by mode (350 hours).
Conclusion
The Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc was launched in the UK in April via several mobile operators (O2, Vodafone UK, Three, T-Mobile UK and others). Its unlocked version was priced about £459.99 (about $738). Now the phone’s price dropped to £330 ($538), and besides, you can find many attractive Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc deals offering very comfortable data plans starting from £14 ($22.85). Of course, Orange and T-Mobile UK are in the leading positions. The handset was released in the U.S., too, but without any contract, which means it wasn’t launched via any carrier, but the price was cheaper than in the UK, $600.
The Motorola Atrix 4G was launched in the UK in July. I didn’t manage to gather information about all possible deals, but I know for sure Orange UK offered it for free, though its unlocked version was available too for £474.99 ($775). Unlike the Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc, the Atrix was an anticipated smartphone in the U.S. and was launched via AT&T for $149.99.
So we can’t say these handsets are similar, though they run Gingerbread (the Atrix — after an update). However, we saw these handsets have many awesome features to surprise each other and the public. I guess you’ve caught up why they are compared with the iPhone 4, because they are really worthy to be there on the peck of glory.
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Category: Reviews
i think moto atrix 4g is way better… sony ericsson cannot ever make such devices…