Two days ago, I nearly emptied a glass of water over a review unit. I was quick enough to save the phone from a watery death. But if the phone had been the Sony Xperia Acro S, there would have been no need to rescue it.
Not because it is not worth saving but because it is engineered to survive being splashed or even dunked. Briefly, at least.
Sony says the Acro S should be okay if it has water poured on it from a height of 3m for up to three minutes.
It can even be submerged in 1m of still tap water for about 30 minutes.
This Android smartphone is sealed tightly to protect its various connection ports.
Its protective plastic covers are not hard to peel off but they are hardly aesthetically appealing. They also get in the way when I plug in the earphones or micro USB cable.
Physical buttons are planted on the right of the phone. The power button is both small and stiff. The same can be said for the volume and shutter buttons.
Weighing 147g and measuring 11.9mm thick, the Acro S is definitely a space hogger in my pockets. But it does feel solid in my hands. However, the combination of a thick, smooth and curvy body means a slippery grip.
Three touch-sensitive buttons – back, home and menu – are clearly marked and located just below the 4.3-inch screen. The buttons are not as responsive as I had hoped.
The Acro S runs on Google Android 4.0. There are hints of the Ice Cream Sandwich interface but mostly buried under Sony’s heavily customised user interface. For example, the music and video player are split into Walkman and Films apps, instead of a single Gallery app.
I noticed an improvement in the images taken by the 12.1-megapixel camera and the autofocus is fast. But noise artefacts do appear when lighting is not favourable.
With the Mobile Bravia display enhancement, videos are rich in colour and details are sharp on the display with a screen resolution of 720 x 1,280 pixels. Audio performance is average at best but you get various equaliser settings, such as bass boost, to work with.
Power consumption is relatively high, judging from how it went flat after I had used it for about 11 hours for WhatsApp, Twitter, calls and Web browsing. Looping a video, with the phone’s brightness and volume set to the maximum level, killed the battery in slightly less than four hours.
Besides the large screen with a high resolution, the Qualcomm dual-core 1.5GHz processor may also have taken its toll on the battery. On the bright side, the processor rendered webpages quickly and video playback was smooth.
Get the Xperia Acro S only if you spend a great deal of time outdoors exposed to the elements so the protective features will make a difference.
TECH SPECS
Price: $698
Operating System: Google Android 4.0
Processor: Dual-core 1.5GHz
Display: 4.3-inch LCD/720 x 1,280 pixels
Camera: 12.1 megapixels
Battery: 1,910mAh
RATING
Features: 3
Design: 2
Performance: 3
Value for money: 3
Battery: 2
Overall: 3
together with go and ion.
