Sony Xperia acro S Review

Introduction:

If there is one thing that smartphones do not get along well with, that would be water. Once inside your handset, it is difficult to get out and can easily cause irreversible damage that warranty doesn't cover. Yet the Android-powered Sony Xperia acro S is the kind of phone you actually won't hesitate bringing to the beach or putting on the edge of a swimming pool. That's because it is IP-57 certified, meaning that it can withstand a 30 minute dunk underwater at up to 1 meter. Cool, huh?

But the scuba-diving skills are not all that makes the Xperia acro S stand out as the hardware inside it is also pretty decent: 1.5-GHz dual-core processor, 12-megapixel camera, and a 4.3-inch LCD screen with more pixels per inch than you would find on an iPhone's Retina Display. That definitely sounds like a great combination between specs and features, so let's fire the smartphone up and put it through its paces.

Box contents:

• Wall charger
• microUSB cable
• Micro SIM card adapter
• Wired stereo headset with in-ear headphones
• Charging dock
• Quick start guide and other papers

Design:

"Pink – it's the color of passion", as Steven Tyler once wisely said. And the guy must be onto something as this pink Sony Xperia acro S looks incredibly attractive – like a giant piece of strawberry candy waiting to be devoured. For people who aren't into flashy colors, black and white variants are available as well. The flat front side of the handset is also worthy of being admired for the screen and the bezel blend together seamlessly creating a pitch-black surface your fingers will surely be tempted to touch.



You can compare the Sony Xperia acro S with many other phones using our Size Visualization Tool.



But once that initial positive impression began wearing out, we started noticing its imperfections. For starters, the Sony Xperia acro S feels quite chubby for a 4.3-incher and definitely gets noticed when its resting in your pocket. It is 12 millimeters thick and weighs 147 grams, which could be partly due to its rather hefty 1,910mAh battery, yet still, we are left wondering why Sony didn't make the handset at least a bit slimmer. And that's not all: the plastic-made SIM card tray is flimsy, the lock key is way too soft, and most importantly, the capacitive buttons are tricky to operate as they are small and positioned too close to the screen.

Yet perhaps we can forgive Sony for these shortcomings as the Xperia acro S has a very nifty trick up its sleeve. The handset is IP57 certified, meaning that it is resistant to dust and water damage. That explains why its ports are protected by removable plastic flaps. Moreover, its screen retains its responsiveness even when used with wet fingers (yes, we tried it), and this is something that even the cream of the Android crop cannot brag with.



Display:


It is truly stunning how detailed images look on the 4.3-inch 720x1280 pixel LCD screen that the Sony Xperia acro S has been blessed with. At 342ppi, pixelation is non-existent and even the tiniest of text is legible, no matter how much we zoom out. Reproduction across the entire color spectrum is very accurate. Blacks look slightly grayish and whites seem a tad warmer than they should, but not too much to bother us. What's far less impressive are the display's mediocre viewing angles, but at least its outdoor visibility is way above the average.

Interface:

To no surprise, the Sony Xperia acro S comes with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, and its maker has not forgotten to slap its heavily customized skin on top. Speaking of customization, we are satisfied with what Sony has done with the platform's interface. ICS features like accessing the camera interface or the drop-down bar from the lock screen have been retained. Sony has also thrown in several pretty wallpapers, including a few live ones, of its own. For those of you who are heavy social network users, Facebook and Twitter have been integrated via the Timescape application, which lists the most recent items from your feed and comes with widgets for keeping an eye on what your buddies are up to.



The on-screen virtual keyboard is okay. Its buttons feel somewhat tiny at first, but we got used to it with a little practice. Thankfully, it can correct mistakes and insert punctuation marks on the fly. There is also a neat feature that allows you to finger-paint a doodle and attach it to a text message, which is a nice little trick you probably won't see on most handsets.



Processor and memory:

The heart of the Sony Xperia acro S is its dual-core Snapdragon S3 SoC – the MSM8260, with CPU clocked at 1.5GHz and Adreno 220 graphics. Now, we know that the faster S4 is powering more than a few smartphones already, but in all honesty, the S3 inside the acro S, in tandem with 1GB of RAM, gets the job done as well. Seriously, the smartphone is always responsive, doesn't lag, and can handle even graphically intensive 3D games like Dead Trigger. Below we've included the figures we got from synthetic benchmarks, in case they matter to you.

	Quadrant Standard	AnTuTu	NenaMark 2
Sony Xperia acro S	3013	6882	37.8
Samsung Galaxy Nexus	2000	5503	24
HTC One S	4867	7012	60.7

Since the Sony Xperia acro S comes with 16GB of on-board storage, purchasing a microSD card is not mandatory. The user available storage is as follows: 1.76GB for applications and 11.25GB for photos, videos, music, and other files.

Web browser:

No problems here. Even heavy web pages like our own load quickly and scroll seamlessly with the stock web browser on the Xperia acro S. Zooming in and out also works well, and switching between tabs is as easy as swiping your finger horizontally from edge to edge. We have to note that Adobe Flash does not come pre-loaded, but if you insist on having it, Adobe has a recent version of it available on its web page.

Camera:

About a second – that is how long it takes for the Sony Xperia acro S to take a photo in quick launch mode. In other words, you hold down the dedicated shutter key without even unlocking the smartphone and an image gets taken faster than you can say “aperture”. Perfect for those occasions when timing is of importance. The feature-rich interface looks no different from what we've seen on other recent Sony smartphones, with goodies like panorama mode, automatic scene recognition, and various shooting modes to experiment with.



Outdoor photos taken with the Sony Xperia acro S look really good. Maybe not 12-megapixel good, as a fair amount of graininess becomes noticeable once you fully zoom in, but still, good enough to print and put in an album. There is lot of detail in close-ups, skies look nice and blue, and the shutter responds almost instantly when pressed. When shooting indoors, results are satisfactory as long as there is enough light around, but in low-light conditions, the camera has difficulties focusing on objects even when assisted by the built-in LED flash.


1080p videos look just as nice as the photos, and their sound is of high quality as well. If needed, the LED flash can be turned on while shooting video.

Sony Xperia acro S Sample Video:



Sony Xperia acro S Indoor Sample Video:



Multimedia:

The Walkman music player is what plays back your audio files, and it does a pretty good job at it. The interface is minimalistic, with easy-to-access functions and well-organized playlists, but versatile at the same time as it enables searching for music videos or artist information online straight from the “Now Playing” screen. Several audio enhancements are also included: XLOUD boosts the loudspeaker's volume without distorting the sound, Clear Bass ups or softens the lower frequencies, and the 5-band equalizer allows you to manually adjust the audio to your taste.



Videos are a pleasure to watch on the Sony Xperia acro S, especially when it plays back every popular video file format in existence, from QuickTime and MPEG4 to DivX and MKV. And it does that all the way up to 1080p without dropping a frame and with no lag while rewinding or fast-forwarding. Also contributing to the enjoyable experience is the spacious, HD screen, on which even the tiniest of details are well noticeable. The player interface, however, is as basic as it gets and doesn't offer any advanced features whatsoever.

Call quality:

The Sony Xperia acro S performs really, really well in this category. Its microphone captures clear voice tones that sound undistorted on the other side of the line, and the secondary mic filters out a great deal of the background noise. Perhaps the earpiece could have been a tad louder, but it definitely gets the job done once you crank it up to the max. Moreover, the loudspeaker is pretty loud, which makes video conversations quite enjoyable.

Battery life:

The 1,910mAh battery inside the Sony Xperia acro S is good for 7 hours of talk time, and will last for about 13 days if the device is in stand-by mode. These figures are kind of unimpressive considering the cell's rather high capacity, yet still, not all that bad. During our testing, we managed to get its battery from 100% down to 5% after 4 hours of intensive 3D gaming.

Conclusion:

Let's be serious, people. The Sony Xperia acro S may not be the best smartphone out there, but it is the ultimate water-resistant Android handset that money can buy outside of Japan. Sure, we cannot deny that it is a bit bulky and its capacitive keys are kind of tricky to use, but its flaws are greatly outnumbered by its advantages, such as the catchy design, high-resolution display, capable camera, and rich multimedia feature set.

But those of you who find the Xperia acro S a bit pricy can also check out the more affordable Sony Xperia go, with a 3.5-inch screen, a dual-core processor, and water-tight body.

In case you don't need a water-resistant phone, there's always the slimmer Sony Xperia SL, which has a slightly faster processor, identical, high-res display, and promising camera. The ultra-thin HTC One S is also worth checking out, especially if you are into AMOLED screens. Sure, its display resolution is lower, but the processor inside it is a notch above the acro S' S3 chip.