Just been released alongside the Experia Play phone and has been getting some pretty good reviews and great write-ups all across the board. Seems you don't need a dual core phone to come out on top since 2011 has been classed as the year of dual-core processors.

Android 2.3.2, super slim and slim-line design, very light 117g, 4.2inch screen, 1GHz processor, impressive Reality Display screen quality, excellent 8.1 MP camera with Exmor R sensor and more.

Got 4.5/5 Techradar, 4/5 CNet UK, 4/5 Pocket-Lint, 5/5 What Mobile and GSMArena, etc.

One of the below will be my next phone:

Samsung Galaxy S2
Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc
Motorola Atrix
LG Optimus 2X.

My contarct is up and I'm very tempted by the Arc, I'm going to try and hold out until the Galaxy S 2 is released.

I can't wait to get the Arc. I've been lusting after it for weeks!

Stuck in o2 iphone contract until June though. Was unsure whether to stick with o2 or change to Vodafone. Will depend on price.

From the new o2 tariffs, it's looking like I'll stick with o2 as will be cheaper for me.

It's the HDMI capability that's the main selling point of the Arc for me.

It does look good, but I'm failing to see why its getting reviews claiming to have an excellent camera - its not really that great, although it is definitely better than the iPhone 4.

Head over to the gsmarena camera comparison tool, makes for interesting viewing.

This looks great, its about time Sony gave a real alternative. I agree with MrSupers list, I think those are the big 4 iPhone competitors.

It actually is very good. The resolved detail is much better than pretty much any phone except the Nokia N8. Noise reduction is also much less aggressive, and colours are generally much more natural than the iPhone 4, for example. Many phones artificially over-saturate the colours to make images "pop", which can look better to a lot of people, but actually damages the image for post-processing.

The Arc does sound like a good phone, with one glaring flaw being the screen having shocking viewing angles (not a problem for most people but still), although as GSM Arena points out it's currently fighting it out with the top end phones but very soon it'll be mid-range, so if you really care about having great hardware for the length of your contract I'd either get the Optimus 2X or wait for the Galaxy S II or the HTC offering (which rumours suggest will be overclocked to 1.2GHz so will be the most powerful handset available at launch).

You're totally right on the colour saturation - thats something that can be squarely directed at the iPhone 4 more than any other current phone.

I think that the (now quite old?) N86 also has a better camera, but thats more a case of Nokia normally doing a good job.

Last comment is interesting - with the speed of new Android based product releases, you don't stand a chance of having something leading edge for the length of a 12 months contract, let alone an 18 or 24 month contract.

As always, just buy on what fits your expected current and short term requirements thats currently available.

I think Sony Ericsson have not particularly pitched the phone at the top-end. Low-£400s on launch, probably dropping to £400 or below over the next few weeks - a good £100 under the launch prices of the Galaxy S II et al. I would probably argue that it's already pitched "mid-range".

As for the phone itself, I got hold of mine on Friday of last week so have had plenty of time to play with it now. Compared to the 3.7" of the HTC Desire I now have sitting on Amazon Marketplace, the 4.2" screen of the Xperia Arc is a significant difference. It is also so light, though I've not held an iPhone 4 without a case on it so I'm not sure how it compares. The phone is fast enough but Lord knows what SE were thinking when they loaded three widgets onto one homepage and the Timescape widget onto the next - slows the phone down like a dog. I wondered if it was faulty at one point! But once those shitty widgets were gone, the phone sails along like a breeze - really beggars belief that SE think the best first impression they can give is to slow the phone down to a crawl.

A quick and personal summary:

+ really nice screen, not noticed any viewing angle issues; videos look amazing
+ battery life seems a bit better than HTC Desire
+ decent camera, loud loudspeaker
+ some SE tweaks (eg. messaging, contacts) are quite good
+ light, thin, attractive
+ phone seems to stay cool, even when working hard

- have had to replace SE keyboard for standard Android one. Perhaps I'm too used to, say, holding down 'o' to get a '9' appear, but I couldn't adjust to SE's
- has rebooted twice now during heavy use of Google Navigation. Don't know if the phone is overheating (but see last + point), but it's happened twice out of probably ten or so uses
- booting seems to take forever
- no automatic brightness

Overall, though, this is a better phone than the Desire IMO and so a worthwhile upgrade. Am hoping that a couple of OTA updates might iron out a few of the minor bugs, as this is a really good phone that could do without being spoilt by a few niggles.

Great review. And a lot of the tech sites have said the exact same thing as yourself, a OTA update or two would make the phone even more impressive than it already is! Hopefully SE are taking note because this phone could be the making of them once more.

Great review, i'm waiting on o2 to launch it as my upgrade has been due for a month. I work for them & even i can't get a confirmed launch date

Its available now on the three website, which is quite cool

If youre interested: http://threestore.three.co.uk/pricep...ode=SEXPRAARC3

I had a play with the ARC last week when SE came in to our workplace and I am amazed how light the phone was in my hands compared to others I have felt. Although I am a little put off by a bad experience with an old SE phone I had, it looked knackered after about 6 months. Another phone I have my eyes on is the HTC Incredible S. I have a Desire already and would prefer something else with sense when I upgrade.

Thanks for that but i work for o2 so will wait so that i keep my staff discount

On a sidenote does anyone know what the UK reviews for the Motorola Atrix and LG Optimus 2X have been like? I'm pretty sure they've been released in the UK for a while too. What's the general concensus?

Its a good phone but it is dissapointing it has no front facing camera.

Does anyone use front facing camera for anything? Unless i had a wife and kids, possibly, but otherwise it does nothing for me.

It is very important to me because I use gtalk and skype to connect to family overseas.

The Motorola Atrix looks like a very interesting phone. I've got the Motorola Defy and I love it - it's super speedy and even though it's still 2.1, it does everything really well. The Atrix has a good processor, more memory, highest quality screen pixel wise on a phone and runs will run 2.3.

It will probably be my next phone - Samsung refuse to get rid of "TouchWiz" and HTC's Sense got old.

Should i buy this phone, or wait for one of the dual core phones, i'm not interested in gaming but want a phone with a good camera.

If you're not interested in gaming, it's hard to imagine at this point what you would need dual-core for.

The Xperia Arc has a pretty good camera in it, you should be able to find plenty of example shots from it around the net. For instance here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnkar...7625761318039/

If your prime focus (sorry, bad pun) is on the camera, then you only have two choices :
- buy a dedicated camera
- but a Nokia N8 - honestly, there isn't a single phone that even begins to come close in the N8 in all round imaging ability.

Dual core won't make the slightest difference in the ability of a phone to take photos or videos (video processing should be handled on the GPU).

I still like this phone a lot but it seems to have been overshadowed by HTC Sensation and Samsung GS2 with some even suggesting it's specs are now outdated compared to what's about to be released. But yeah, if you're not interested in dual core and any of that whizz and bang (most average punters aren't!), i would certainly opt for Xperia Arc. It's a quality smartphone.