Do you still like your Arc?

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skiba

Senior Member
Jan 2, 2006
139
8
So i've had my Arc over 8 months now. I bought it for 2 reasons, the camera and it's size (slimness and screen), all other high-spec phones seem(ed) to be substantially bigger.

Now quite honestly the stock sony rom was bloated and slow, I think we can all agree, cue going down the CM route. However that took an eternity to get the camera working. Now we have 7.2 with a working camera but most people seem to experience significant battery drain which limits the usefulness of the phone, me included.

Cue waiting for CM9.0, all seems to be going well but it's not ready yet (credit to the devs on both of these releases). Now I think about it, i've been waiting all this time for a decent workable rom to make this phone as good as it should be. Shouldn't it have been released fast enough for the mass market? Do SGS2 owners have this? GN owners? I highly doubt it.

Anyway, just intrigued to know if anyone else has similar thoughts to me. Don't get me wrong, I still have hope that this can be the phone I want it to be but when it is it will be outdated and superceded. My 2 cents...
 

rashid.fairus

Senior Member
Dec 6, 2011
1,073
233
Klang
try acronium dude,fully stock,combine with doomkernel,have it supercharge,theme it a little bit,add this add that,it is not the phone itself made it perfect,its you who made it perfect,so my opinion is xperia arc was indeed perfect if you know how to perfecting it..

Sent from my LT18i
 

Xajel

Senior Member
Mar 2, 2011
227
42
Bahrain
Arc is a nice phone, but only if you want to keep it stock.. don't install too many apps ( just very few )... the reason for this is the low RAM and Internal ROM... both making the phone slower and sluggisher when ever you install more apps...

Normally all Android phones have memory management, and all apps if you exit it will stay in the ram to make re-launching it faster... this is nice if you have plenty of RAM... but if you're running low on both RAM and ROM ( like with any mid-low phone ) then this will be hard, as in most cases the RAM will be almost full, the internal ROM will be like this... the phone will try to free some space in order to run any new app you want as the old apps keeps it self in the memory filling it up...

Xperia arc is a nice phone, but the main problem is it's RAM and ROM being too much low... you have to depend on 3rd party apps to free some space in order to make your phone run smoother and faster... you must move every app to the microSD to save the precious internal space... and for some cases this is not enough !! considering the phone comes already with pre-installed apps that most users won't use but they can't remove most of them without root !!

personally, I rooted the phone, installed Titanium Backup pro.. and removed all apps I don't want to save the ROM space, and installed my preferred apps but still running low !! currently I have only 50MB free for the internal ROM, and less than 60MB of free RAM...
using the phone more will make the RAM less slowing up everything in the phone !!

Yeah I know, the best way to use the RAM is to make it fills, but you MUST have free space to make the phone smoother for any new apps/work...
If you have plenty of RAM ( lets say 1GB at least ) then let it takes 700 - 800 meg but just keep some free for the UI, new apps and so on.. something like 100 - 200 is very nice...

that's why 512MB RAM is too low, while 1GB is very nice !! ( talking about GB and earlier, I don't know about ICS ) as the phone normally with a user that loves apps will require at least 600-700MB of RAM which is more than what is already available on the phone !!
this is the story of RAM alone, there's another talk about ROM !!, basically while I have 50MB free, it's on the edge.. any apps will need update will take the ROM, if the app is a system app ( pre installed ), it will be saved to the system app space, the update will stay on the user internal ROM, it will not be integrated to the system space.. so it will eat more of the internal ROM unless you integrated the update to the system space which requires root and a 3rd party app ( Titanium backup )... sometimes even with 50MB free if there's multiple apps to update I can't update them all as the ROM will get filled up and when it reach's 40MB and lower, the system will alert me of low ROM space... and depending on the app it might not be possible to update it as some apps needs to save the update on ROM first before going any where else !!
 

abrarabbu

Senior Member
Jul 23, 2009
414
49
Toronto
I think wit the new firmware .69 we will have sony logo and cool xperia boot animation...
just like in Xperia s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbb8j...eature=related

---------- Post added at 12:46 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:40 PM ----------

I got my arc 15 days back
previously owned both x10 and galaxy s
x10 is good but is slow with low gpu
galaxy was blazing fast but i didnt like touch wiz
HTC sense looks good but eats lots of ram

Arc is slim, sexy, speed, smooth and powerful.
have been a fan of SE ui.
I haven,t rooted it yet and maintaining it stock :D
 

realfelix

Senior Member
Apr 4, 2011
1,595
334
30
Trier
well the arc is not that fast i have to agree on that one.. but still it is the sexiest phone out there :D ! and dont worry about lags with low memory, ICS is optimized for a MUCH better memory management, so if sony does it right you won't have to worry about laggy or slow experience because of low ram :)
 

sinkster

Senior Member
Aug 25, 2010
1,253
379
57
Glasgow
Google Pixel 5
Google Pixel 6 Pro
I prefer the SE ui compared to sense/tw, and modded stock roms like arconium or festa20's rom. Link2sd sorts out any internal memory issues, Dooms kernel lets you overclock(or underclock), supercharger script or juwe11s ram manager take care of ram issues, linux swap ensures smooth running during intense usage...and so on. Android is open source for a reason.

sinkster©
 

skiba

Senior Member
Jan 2, 2006
139
8
Thanks for the replies. I'm running 7.2 but maybe i'll move to Arconium. But regardless, that makes my point, I have to install a custom rom to make the phone fast. I don't mind so much about space, I don't install that much, I need it to be a phone, take photos and use a small selection of apps. I shouldn't really need to spend hours of my time unlocking it, playing around with custom roms etc. For us that can do it then great, but what about the 99% of normal users that don't have the knowledge to do any of this, I wonder how they feel, will they buy a Sony again having run with the Sony rom from day one? Unlikely...
 
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tyrand3

Senior Member
Apr 20, 2011
86
20
Jakarta
honest answer:no
-i need repair it three times
-i got bad battery life only 3-4 hours browsing.
-the body is not solid like lumia/n9.
i hope ICS and a new battery will solve this problem.
and i can start loving my arc.:D
 
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alsaqr

Senior Member
Oct 27, 2010
367
88
Florida
i have the japanese version of the arc for a year now

best phone i've owned
looks great
great in hand
never froze
reasonable battery
all apps work without any force closing
stayed on stock since day one
great sound
nice video streaming
nice cam

just missing the front cam

the xperia S has the same launcher lag as the arc
so lets hope this is fixed on ICS
 

emanuele95

Senior Member
Dec 14, 2011
80
14
I'm proud for buyng this phone...i like it bat i think gs2 is not better...i'm testing cm9 actually but it's full of buggs...the battery drain, the flash off the camera band the network...i'm gonna try to install miui...anyway i can't stand the stok rom too (even if is very nice)
 

doministry

Senior Member
Sep 25, 2008
4,241
432
Bytom, Poland
doministry.blogspot.com
I have Arc since April 2011.

It's basically a perfect device.

There are two issues:
1. Crack, which looks bad but doesn't influence anything else (shame...)
2. RAM too low, which can be dealt with by rebooting once a week.
3. The internal memory could be bigger.

I have like 60 apps or so and this phone flies, still on Stock ROM. Seriously, no single freeze or reboot since the .42 FW. It's just brilliant.

So, for the first time I'm not even anxious to get my Xperia S just because I think Arc could work for another year.
 

bartbla

Senior Member
Dec 15, 2006
114
20
Oosterbeek
I have Arc since April 2011.

It's basically a perfect device.

There are two issues:
1. Crack, which looks bad but doesn't influence anything else (shame...)
2. RAM too low, which can be dealt with by rebooting once a week.
3. The internal memory could be bigger.

I have like 60 apps or so and this phone flies, still on Stock ROM. Seriously, no single freeze or reboot since the .42 FW. It's just brilliant.

So, for the first time I'm not even anxious to get my Xperia S just because I think Arc could work for another year.

I totally agree, and it can only get better with ICS :)

Sent from my Sony Tablet S using xda premium
 

doomed151

Senior Member
Dec 5, 2009
1,521
2,184
I like it but since CM9 is buggy and there's nothing else new, I think I've already explored every nook and cranny of the arc.

Let's hope the ICS update will bring a totally new experience. I'm thinking of UXP NXT.
 

sennyqtek

Senior Member
Feb 6, 2006
81
5
I'm still an Arc fan, have it for 8 months now. My only problem is the crack. Have it repaired 2 times now. Bought a cover so I don't have to see the crack again if it comes back.

But besides the crack it is perfect. Also stock rom, 75 apps installed and no lag. Perfect camera! I love it!

Sent from my LT15i using Tapatalk
 

pecholino

Senior Member
Aug 27, 2010
296
83
Koper
well..
today i got a chance to try out the dual core HTC Sensation.
i have to admit, that occasionally, it is much snappier than the arc but it lacks something.
i don't know.. maybe is it the camera, the display.. but i just like the arc better.
i can get the sensation for a very low price (the price i could sell my arc for no problem) but i decided to keep the arc.
it's just... yes! It's a better phone! An all-arounder.
 
Last edited:

chiefy009

Senior Member
Oct 29, 2010
4,158
796
I have had my arc s for two weeks now before that I had a ray, nexus s and sgs after my x10

My arc s was sim locked and bootloader locked, I got jinx13 to unlock my boot and I installed miui

I love this phone, it is fast, looks awesome and I really really like it.

Should get my barely there case to protect it tomorrow, really happy at least till upgrade when I will get the Xperia S , all the moaning I did when I had my x10 about Sony and the Arc S is superb and the xperia S looks even better

Sent from my LT15/18i-Dimiui using xda premium
 
Feb 21, 2012
19
0
Zutphen
Good since rooting

I've had my arc for about 5 months now,

It had become really slow just from using it (loads of apps and all that)

So I rooted it about a month ago with the doomlord method. (never got my head around how to get CM on it though)
And since rooting I'm pretty much happy with it speed-wise.

Oh, and I hated the SE Interface so I run GO Launcher.


This has been my first post. Thank you.
 

daveybaby

Senior Member
Apr 15, 2011
203
41
Had my arc now for about 10 months (i think).

Using rooted stock ROM with a few tweaks here and there (v6 supercharger, appwidgetpicker, transparent dock). Deleted a fair bit of the bloatware.

The only problems i have with it are that it's still occasionally laggy, and could do with more internal storage (although its obviously not that much of a problem or i would've gotten around to using apps2sd+).

However, the camera is amazing, the screen is fantastic, we get regular firmware updates and it's the still best looking phone on the market by miles (including all of the new sony phones). It could do with a dual core CPU, more RAM, and more internal storage, but i knew that even when i bought it 10 months ago. Still love it.
 

kenmystro

Member
Nov 11, 2011
20
2
never knew why any1 bothered with stock rom or any custom rom

Ok I been using the arc for 10 months had it rooted for 9. I am totally new to hacking phones but think iv done a sweet job.
I could never understand why any1 would waste time having a custom rom, if they all leave parts of the phone not working.
Personally iv been usong go launcher from the market since day 1. Used titanium to delete the bloatware and all stock apps including launcher.
Move apps to sd and have always got more than 150 available in rom. Ram is an issue seeing as there is so little but iv got 214 apps and hav 60-171 free depending what's running. This still proves lacking if you want to open a massive word or excel document. Simply need to break down the fiLe on a pc before putting it on phone that is a pain.
Battery life has always been gash until I found out about patching baseband this should be step 2 for all arc users the battery increase is phenominal,especially in standby. However using 3g with a bright screen and bravia still only3/4hours video playpack.
That being said I phoned tmobile and gave them an ear bashing about battery life on smartphones in general and they sent me another free of charge so 2 batteries works a treat.
 

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  • 7
    try acronium dude,fully stock,combine with doomkernel,have it supercharge,theme it a little bit,add this add that,it is not the phone itself made it perfect,its you who made it perfect,so my opinion is xperia arc was indeed perfect if you know how to perfecting it..

    Sent from my LT18i
    2
    Ive not even had this phone a year yet (Arc S) but I'm going to make it last 3 years. I'm not going to waste money on the wagon when this phone meets all my requirements, especially with a custom ROM.

    Sent from my LT18i using xda app-developers app
    2
    I have Arc since April 2011.

    It's basically a perfect device.

    There are two issues:
    1. Crack, which looks bad but doesn't influence anything else (shame...)
    2. RAM too low, which can be dealt with by rebooting once a week.
    3. The internal memory could be bigger.

    I have like 60 apps or so and this phone flies, still on Stock ROM. Seriously, no single freeze or reboot since the .42 FW. It's just brilliant.

    So, for the first time I'm not even anxious to get my Xperia S just because I think Arc could work for another year.
    2
    I agree with the majority of comments posted here. I've owned my Arc for just under a year, was fascinated by it as soon as the roadtests were released.

    I agree that the crack in the casing up by the light sensor is a pain and that is down to Sony Ericsson's design, but as with other people's experiences it generally seem to be something which SE have been unable to permanently rectify.

    I took the move to unlock the bootloader on mine about 6 months ago and I find myself freely switching between boot loaders and ROMS depending on what catches my eye. Restoring never takes that long if you select the backup option in the Google set up, so I've been merrily switching between, stock, stock tweaked, fully custom, ICS and MIUI without trouble.

    You will get some functions that don't work, but unless you regularly use the HDMI output or wireless tethering you won't really miss them.

    With so many exciting develoments due to the Arc (ICS, Arc S official MIUI rom to name a few), I have to say that I'm struggling to find something that will do all the things an Arc does...and so well. The camera is effortless and clear, the screen is bright and faultless and although the SE launcher is fairly simple I've gone full circle with Go launcher, Launcher Pro, Launcher 7, SPB and more recently I tried out TSF, all worked without a hitch but still found myself using the stock launcher when the Xperia S bits came on the scene.

    Yes, the phone is lacking in internal ram, but with some tweaks as mentioned by other members in this thread, you can get round that fairly easily.

    Personally I can see me sticking with my Arc until it breaks, then I'll probably either invest in a new one or plunge in to an Arc S, no other phone is as light and as thin but offers such a good screen. Battery life is average and I can usually get a good day's worth of usage out of most roms before recharging overnight, but every other smartphone I've had has been the same, even an iPhone, you've got to expect less battery life when a phone carries so much....phone, camera, multimedia device, internet, office, games machine and much more. A spare battery, a USB lead or a car charger cures most of the limited battery range.

    Hope this helps, I've never felt so passionately about another phone I've owned, even with the small niggles.
    2
    Yes, the hardware is a little bit outdated, but with all due respect to other manufacturers, and other phone models (including Sony 2012 line-up), I still haven't found a better looking phone.
    I can sacrifice some hardware "limitations" (this is very arguable) for the sake of beauty and originality.
    Let's compare this phone with two most talked-about phones lately:

    299370-apple-iphone-5.jpg
    Xperia%20Arc%20S%20White.jpg
    293875-samsung-galaxy-s3.jpg


    These two are looking silly alongside Arc, from design point of view strictly.