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After a long break, there is finally some news from Sony Ericsson - the Xperia arc has just been announced! We can offer you live pictures and a hands-on video of this Android-beauty right after the break.

Long time no official hear from Sony Ericsson - until today. In the course of the upcoming CES in Las Vegas, SE has announced what is obviously the successor of the Xperia X10, called the Xperia arc. Before we go into a bit more details, here are the

Main features

• 4.2" screen, powered by Sony Mobile BRAVIA® Engine
• 16 mio. color TFT, capacitive, multitouch
• 854x480 pixels (FWVGA)
• Android 2.3 (Gingerbread)
• Qualcomm processor @1GHz
• 8.1 MP Sony EXMOR R™ sensor, f/2.4 aperture lens
• HD video recording @720p
• HDMI connector
• DLNA enabled
• Size: 125 x 63 x 8.7mm
• Weight: 117 grams
• Battery: 1500mAh
• Available in the first quarter 2011

Details

The X10 has been around for a while now, and it seems like a logical step for SE to continue with a follow up for their first Android device. Talking about visual comparison, the arc is mostly one thing: slim. This impression is even enforced by the clever, arched design of the handset. It feels very elegant and light-weighted in one's hands, switching back to the X10 makes the latter feel like a little brick in the palms.

The size of the screen with its 4.2 inches in diameter is in our opinion the absolut upper limit when it comes to one handed operation of a mobile phone. Regarding the display quality, we will be covering soon what the Sony Mobile BRAVIA® Engine (a brand Sony has been using in their flatscreen TV line for a couple of years now) does to the image quality and the overall display impression. Sony Ericsson launched a BRAVIA® Engine powered mobile already in 2007 for the Japanese market, not a lot has been heard of that since then though. We expect and hope for it to be more than just a marketing label.

The camera in the Xperia arc shoots pictures with 8 MP resolution. More interesting than the megapixel count however is the fact that Sony Ericsson is using an EXMOR R sensor for the first time in a mobile phone. This sensor has been developed by Sony and is supposed to enhance picture quality in dark environments, thanks to a back illuminated sensor which reduces the noise. This addresses one of the problems that have been around with CMOS sensors in mobile phone cameras: the bad performance in low light conditions. This special sensor was so far only used in Sony's snapshot cameras, more details on the backlit EXMOR R technology can be found here. Sample picture shots and an idea of the video capturing capabilities will follow shortly.

Considering Sony Ericsson's Android update strategy with the very long update cycles (the Android 2.1 update took SE almost one year to make it available to the X-owners after the launch by Google), it is certainly worth mentioning that the Xperia arc is planned to launch with the latest Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) version. Let's hope that this is the start for a more time-to-market like upgrade policy for the Xperia arc and all future Android devices from SE.

Our impression

The Xperia arc is a solid upgrade to the X10 - design-wise, as well as feature-wise. It is however certainly not THE top-notch uber-device in the Android sector that some you folks out there had wished for. If you are curious how the EXMOR R sensor and the BRAVIA® Engine will do in this astonishingly thin and light-weighted mobile phone, check back soon. For the time being, we leave you with a first-look video including size comparisons with the X10 and the iPhone 3G, as well as with a large live picture gallery. Stay tuned for more on above topics (why not trying our News Alert App, so you get notified immediately when our updates become available? :) )

Hands On Video

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Live picture gallery