In recent months we’ve had a veritable cornucopia of smart phones to play with: the Samsung Galaxy S II (GS2), LG Optimus Black (OB), HTC Desire S (DS) and Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc (XA). For comparison, we have the Goggle Nexus S (GNS), by Samsung, supplied by Vodafone.
LG Optimus Black
The OB is an interesting device in that it is a compact, light and nicely designed Android device. The OB sports a 1GHz Cortex-A8 processor, PowerVR SGX530 graphics chip (GPU) and the TI OMAP 3630 chipset. The screen is 800×480 pixels, with Gorilla Glass and the Optimus 2.0 and Gesture 2.0 user interface (UI) overlays. Internal storage is 2Gb, but expandable to 32Gb via MicroSD with 512Mb of RAM. The OB offers a complete range of apps for social media, productivity and a few others besides. The only real drawback is that the version of Android shipped is 2.2.2, which is a little behind the curve, as most other devices here were on some variant of 2.3 Gingerbread, with the GNS having been updated to 2.3.4.
The OB display was vibrant, with excellent colour reproduction, and worked well in bright sunlight. Build quality is very good, even if the OB goes for the rather understated look.
HTC Desire S
The HTC Desire S is somewhat smaller handset. It matches the OB for resolution but is 94mm in size. Its dimensions are 115×59.8x 11.6mm, making it noticeably smaller than the others. Its build quality seems a little better, as it uses what could be best described as a monocoque; the aluminium body giving it most of its strength.
Sony Ericsson XPeria Arc
The Sony Ericsson XPeria Arc (XA) is the current flagship and has one of the most heavily overlaid instances of Android. With TimeScape and MediaScape, first seen on the X10 series, Sony Ericsson has created a slick and pleasing to the eye set of applications for aggregating media and social network activity. As an approach, you’ll love it or hate it, but it works well.
The big differentiator for the XA is its screen and its multimedia performance in general. Getting the Mobile Bravia processing engine, as seen on Sony’s high definition TVs, the XA performs like a high end display, but the TV integration could be better. The screen itself is 854×480 pixels and 107mm in size. Build quality is very good and the device feels solid in the hand, apart from a somewhat flimsy battery cover, which looks like it could easily become scuffed and worn.
Despite being only a single core processor, the XA performed well in all benchmarks, but cannot match the sheer processing power available to the Galaxy S II.
Samsung Galaxy S2
The GS2 sports a massive screen which dominates the front of the device. At 109mm, it is the biggest on test, with 800×480 resolution, larger than that on the XA but with slightly lower resolution. The GS2 also boasts a dual core processor in the 1.2GHz ARM Cortex-A9. Samsung has said no special coding is required by applications to take advantage of the dual core, as this is all done at the operating system level. When processor load on the first core comes up to about 70%, the second core kicks in to keep performance high. However, this does have the expected effect on battery life. That said, with reasonable usage, it will last a full day, but do not expect to get far without nightly charging.
All these cameras boast a 5 or 8MP camera, with forward facing cameras too. All have the usual bells and whistles one might expect from high end Android devices in terms of sensors, connectivity and media, so what differentiates them, especially with respect to our reference GNS? Well, not a lot.
The busy IT professional who wants to have just as single device in their pocket could get away with any of these devices, happily. But, if you have particular penchant for, say, multimedia or photos, then the Xperia Arc beats everything else hands down, and may even trump the GS2 for battery life while doing it. If out and out power and boasting about your benchmark scores are what you like, then nothing really can compare to the dual core punch.
Overall
If you are one device person, but don’t like the bulk of the likes of the XA and the GS2, which are, it has to be said, pushing the bounds of pocket comfort, then the DS, or the OB are perfect candidates, particularly if you like your devices ready loaded with apps for common usage.
As regards criticisms, there’s little to complain about with any of these. An update of the Optimus Black is likely soon, and the relative size of the devices is a matter of taste. This goes for the overlays too, whether you want the full fat LG/HTC approach, the transformative Sony Ericsson approach or the more vanilla GNS approach. It has to be said, though, the 2.3.3 implementation on the XA does look a little dated in terms of its icons, despite being bang up to date.
If one had to pick a winner from the bunch, it would have to come down to the Samsung Galaxy S II for its futureproofing performance, with the Xperia Arc a very close second for its unparalleled media capabilities. In joint second would be the Desire S and Optimus Black for being very complete offerings all of which have the wonderful flexibility of Android underneath. The GNS remains the solid performer that gets a boost everytime Android moves on a step too.
Paul Hearns
An extended version of this article appeared in the July 2011 issue of ComputerScope
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