Soooo, I had been using my Xperia Arc S since Christmas 2011. That’s right, almost 3 years. It had a single core processor clocked at 1.4GHz, Adreno 205, 512MB RAM, 4.2″ 233PPI screen, an 8MP cam that could record 720p video, 1500mAh battery etc. They look like laughing stock now, but was quite a big deal back then. In fact, it was Sony Ericsson’s flagship model. Yes, Sony Ericsson. The company was re-branded to Sony Mobile Communications a couple of years ago. It was 3 years old on the calendar, but a few generations old in terms of technology.
The phone was quite good. It still is. It’s light, compact, thin and looks sexy. The display is still pretty good. The camera still takes beautiful pictures. The 1500mAh battery lasts a day and the battery backup hasn’t diminished a bit over the years. The XDA community for this device is still pretty big and people come up with new KitKat based custom ROMs even now. I had been using one for over 6 months now. No dead pixels, no hardware issues. The phone once fell of my pocket while I was riding my bike at around 30kmph. It has a few scratches on the side and some bits of the chrome are gone, but no cracks on the screen or the body. The phone also endured 3-4 rain rides and was noticeably wet, but despite not being waterproof, the phone had no issues. It still works like it did on day 1.
I wouldn’t label the phone as perfect in today’s world though. The technology has become obsolete and that can be seen in a lot of places. 512 megs of RAM and a 1.4GHz single core isn’t quite good enough for today’s use. Apps are noticeably laggy. Even trivial apps like contacts or call log take 2-3 seconds (and a lot more when someone else is using or watching) to open up. Apps hog more memory now and the number of apps that can be left open have reduced drastically. Only 300MB or so of internal memory was available and that meant at times I had to uninstall some to get some new one or to update an existing one. Sony had given up on updates after the Ice Cream Sandwich. Though there are tonnes of ROMs based on Jelly Bean and KitKat, the Kernel’s aren’t that impressive. The battery drain is much more compared to the stock kernel. In terms of hardware, I’ve no idea if they would still provide support if there’s a physical damage. The body and panels are not available anywhere. Heck, even a screen guard isn’t.
I had been thinking about upgrading ever since the Nexus 4 was announced. Kept postponing the plan until a stage where it was too late and it was probably better to wait for the Nexus 5. Did that, but that phone turned out to be a disappointment as in it wasn’t a huge upgrade over the 4. Had my eyes on Nexus 6. There were repeated rumours and ‘leaks’ that it would be made by motorola and it would have a 6″ screen. And when motorola came out with their flagship moto X which was a pretty big improvement over its previous generation moto X, i was quite convinced that the nexus 6 would be based on that. I didn’t think it was possible that the nexus would be cheaper than the moto variant, and decided to look for further options.
Had had my eyes on the OnePlus One and the Oppo Find 7 ever since they were announced. Wasn’t quite serious about them because, well, the Chinese image. Anyway, the Find 7 was priced too steep. The OnePlus One (OPO) was priced perfect, not only was it unavailable in India, it needed an invite. Since the moto X launch, I had been searching every day on ways to get an invite and get it shipped to India, but then I wasn’t too serious about it. I had 3 colleagues go on an official visit to the US for 2 weeks or so, and that’s when I got serious, but couldn’t get an invite. Disappointment again. On a random night, just before I was about to hit the bed, did a search and found @abhic who was willing to give an invite (for free!). Buzzed him and he sent it immediately without any hesitation. Had only a couple of hours to claim it and once claimed, I had 24 hours to get it. Had seen articles on how to order it from India and get it shipped but never bothered to read through them. Now had no choice. Long story short, I barely slept that night and somehow made it to the office for the meeting at noon. Made a paypal account, got it verified, made a PPOBOX account, a oneplus account, typed in a lot of addresses and phone numbers and it was done. Also sent copies of id proofs and invoices to PPOBOX for KYC verification and customs clearance.
The order was made on September 29th and it reached PPOBOX’s mumbai hub on October 9th. Paid them the hefty shipping charge (which included the insurace cost and the customs duty) and they shipped it via Bluedart with a guaranteed delivery date of 12th October. Bluedart being Bluedart (that’s another story), made me make a lot of calls, send a whole bunch of emails, hurl abuses left, right and centre and I finally got the item on 18th October. Also ordered a Diztronic case (matte blue) which looks and functions pretty good.
My experience with the phone hasn’t been any different from the million reviews you see online. The only issue I have with the phone is it’s sheer size. It’s big. BIG. BIIIG. 2 weeks today and I still haven’t completely gotten used to it. I’m getting better though. The Galaxy Note 2 seems puny now. I still feel awkward while making calls with a brick sized phone on my face even when nobody is watching. My jeans used to have freakishly huge pockets until 2 weeks ago. Not anymore.
CRAP 