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Sony Xperia Acro S Review

Sony’s Xperia Acro S is one of the very few handsets that you never have to worry about getting wet. We took this smartphone to a road test to see if it can handle the stress. Check out our full review of the Xperia Acro S after the break.


The Acro S is the flagship in its category. It resembles the configuration of Xperia S but is weather-proofed so it can stand some levels of dust, humidity and even liquid incidents. We managed to dunk it into a bucket of water, subject it under heavy rainfall and threw it around in the park.

Design & Construction

The Xperia Acro S gets additional manufacturing precautions so the design of the body is more solid and air-tight than your regular Xperia handset. All of the external ports are tightly covered with a thin strip of rubber to seal them in place.

It feels a bit chunky because of the additional weather-proofing done on the exterior. The microUSB port, 3.5mm audio port and the micro-HDMI ports are all at the top with their individual sealed cover.

On the left side is the microSD card slot and the SIM card slot, both of which are also sealed in an airtight compartment. On the right side are the power button, the volume controls and the dedicated camera shutter button. At the back is the speaker grills, a secondary mcirophone and the 12MP camera and LED flash.

The design of the body closely resembles the Xperia Ion — feels very solid on the hands but a bit chunky. The unit has a unibody design which means the battery is built-in and not user-replaceable (this is the same as the other Xperia handsets).

Display

Like the Xperia S, the Acro S sports a 4.3-inch Reality HD display with a resolution of 720p giving it a high pixel density of 342ppi (one of the highest we’ve seen in a smartphone). The screen is really clean and crisp, the colors are vivid and bright although we wish it can be brighter especially in the outdoors.

The entire front panel is made of glass and there are no physical buttons here except the three backlit soft buttons. In idle, they’re not lit so sometimes you’d miss the buttons and end up pressing that area around once or two to hit the right buttons.

OS, UI & Apps

The Xperia Acro S uses the same familiar interface as the entire Xperia line. The Timescape UI is simple, fluid although we noticed that some of the usual navigations (like the slide down menu) have been changed a bit.

The collection of native widgets have slightly increased which is on top of the usual Android widgets that are already available. The Timescape UI is actually one of the nicest UI skinned on top of Android by any handset manufacturer. It doesn’t have that much eye-candy as HTC Sense but you can clearly see the Sony influence.

The Acro S comes with ICS 4.0.4 right out of the box which is mostly the standard these days for flagship handsets but we’re hoping Sony would come out with a Jellybean update before end of the year.

You have access to hundreds of thousands of apps, games and widgets on the Google Play Store, most of which are actually free so you’re pretty much settled from that end. Sony also managed to squeeze in a few of its own native apps like the Walkman music app, PlayNow, Connected Devise for remote playback to other devices and the native Back-up and Restore feature. Still missing are the Music and Movie sections which are a country-specific limitation.

Multimedia & Camera

The sound on the handset isn’t as loud as we expected (sometimes it even sounds a bit muffled). This could be cause by the additional protection done on the handset to make it weather-proof.

The FM radio works well but still requires a headphone to be attached to serve as an external antenna.

Movie playback is very smooth, even with 1080p clips, with really crisp and vivid colors.

The 12MP camera on the Acro S is impressive. Still shots are crisp, well focused and is well-saturated. Here are some sample shots we took:

[fancygallery ID=”acros”]

The handset can record up to 1080p videos and produces really clear and sharp footages. Since the unit is waterproof, you can use the camera in not-so-normal instances like in the beach, surfing, or just the swimming pool.

Here’s a sample video clip we took using the 12MP camera of the Acro S:


Don’t forget to tick the 1080p stream before playing.

Performance & Benchmarks

The Xperia Acro S may not have a quad-core processor but just like its other siblings, especially the Xperia S, it performs really well both with normal handset usage as well as in multimedia. The phone is responsive and snappy, handles multi-tasking really well and can decode 1080p videos very smoothly.

Synthetic benchmarks showed good numbers — it score 3,491 in Quadrant, 6,696 in Antutu and 38.4fps in Nenamark 2.

Call Quality & Battery Life

For call quality, the Acros S works just fine — clear and clean reception at half to full bars, SMS sending is fast and timely, audio quality is good. Some of the missed calls and delayed SMS are attributed to the telco that we use rather than the hardware.

Battery life is actually good and we managed to last close to 2 days on a single full charge, thanks to the high-capacity 1910mAh Li-Ion battery. For the most part, we lasted the entire day with above moderate to high usage. With moderate use, two days is pretty much achievable.

Conclusion

The Sony Xperia Acro S separates itself from the pack by offering features that other flagship handset can only dream of — water-proof and dust-proof. It’s he perfect handset to bring to the beach or on a trek to the rapids of Cagayan de Oro, probably even for surfing.

Of course, it can only take so much beating that you still need to take care of it — the water proof capacity is only up to meter and lasts for about 30 minutes.

The Acro S has a good combination of hardware, performance and ruggedness. Suggested retail price is Php26,990 and is available in mall stores nationwide.

Sony Xperia Acro S LT26w specs:
4.3-inch HD Reality Display @ 720p, 1280×720 pixels, 342ppi
Qualcomm MSM8260 Snapdragon 1.5GHz dual core processor
Mobile BRAVIA Engine
Adreno 220 GPU
1GB RAM
16GB internal storage
up to 32GB via microSD
WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, DLNA
Bluetooth 2.1 w/ EDR
NFC support
FM Radio tuner
GPS w/ aGPS support, GLONASS
12MP autofocus rear camera, LED flash
1.3 front-facing camera
PlayStation Certified
HDMI port
1080p full HD video recording, 720p HD front camera
Android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich
Li-Ion 1910mAh battery
126 x 66 x 11.9mm (dimension)
147 grams (weight)

What we liked about the Xperia Acros S:
• Water-proof and dust-proof!
• Great 12MP camera
• Really good display
• Good battery life
• NFC support
• Playstation support

What we did not like about it:
• Does not run the top CPU in the market
• A bit chunky

Disclosure: Sony Philippines is an advertiser on this blog and a sponsor of our Geeky Nights show. The review unit was however provided to us by Widget City which sells the Acro S for Php22,000 (see listing here). Widget City is also a banner advertiser.

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Avatar for Abe Olandres

Abe is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of YugaTech with over 20 years of experience in the technology industry. He is one of the pioneers of blogging in the country and considered by many as the Father of Tech Blogging in the Philippines. He is also a technology consultant, a tech columnist with several national publications, resource speaker and mentor/advisor to several start-up companies.

44 Responses

  1. Avatar for assonsestache assonsestache says:

    Condivido interamente a causa di le idee espresse ancora. Continuate similmente.

  2. Avatar for dan mandap dan mandap says:

    The price of Sony xperia acro S has been revised to P24,000 in Widget City’s website as of Sept. 14, 2012.

    • Avatar for anjorafael anjorafael says:

      P21,500 na lang po ang Xperia Acro S sa kimstore, while P16,400 naman and Xperia S…

      as of October 8 po yan… :)

  3. Avatar for kitty kitty says:

    this or xperia s? i’m planning to buy one by november and im still waiting on the possibility of price mark down… any comments on the comparison?

  4. Avatar for Ramon Ramon says:

    I’m just curious, did they fix the speaker issue when the phone was submerged in the water? Water always entered the speakers 9n the SE Active so I needed to dry them afterwards

    also, does the screen work underwater now? If not, is there a physical button for the camera?

  5. Avatar for roiji roiji says:

    hahantayin kong maging 15k na lang ito!!! hahahah
    (15k na lang yung Xperia S eh)

  6. Avatar for John John says:

    342 ppi “One of the highest we’ve seen in a smartphone.” Oh, I’m sorry. What’s the other one ? Lol this (along with the XPERIA S) has the HIGHEST pixel density on the market right now. It even eclipses the iPhone.

  7. Avatar for Jacqui Jacqui says:

    Hi Abe!
    I’ve been looking for the pink one at cmk and they don’t have it yet! hehe just wondering if widget city has warranty and ntc.
    i know you’ve been getting a lot of your units there so just want to make sure before I get from them.
    Thanks for the review!!

    • Avatar for John John says:

      Widget city doesn’t have NTC. They get their products outside the Philippines. They are one of the most reliable online stores though !

  8. Avatar for Bob Bob says:

    Ang nice, especially the video shot in BHS! I hope Yuga, Geeky Nights and Sony will give this away, or the Ion! :p

  9. Avatar for Yuja Yuja says:

    Wala bang super nice phone na hindi mahal? urrgghhh

    • Avatar for JiNkeEz JiNkeEz says:

      Meron, Xiaomi Mi-Two kaya lng sa China lng i-poproduce. Around Php 13500 ang price ($315).

      For more info on specs,
      http://www.gsmarena.com/xiaomi_starts_production_on_mitwo_on_september_22-news-4780.php

  10. Avatar for JiNkeEz JiNkeEz says:

    Paki-recheck po ng specs sa White paper ng Acro S. Ang pgkakaalam ko kasi, Bluetooth v3.0.

    And may kasama bang Smart Tags sa box? If yes, ilang pieces? Thanks! :)

  11. Avatar for Ramon Ramon says:

    If this came out a few months earlier, this would have been definitely my first choice, but my old phone broke too soon, needed an immediate replacement xD

    I’d need a very good reason to get this phone =(

  12. Avatar for x x says:

    “Check out our full review of the Xperia Acro S after the break.”

    Just wondering what is the “break”.
    Yugatech review always have this line on reviews.

  13. Avatar for La+ La+ says:

    This is more of a Water and Dust RESISTANT than Water and Dust PROOF.

  14. Avatar for TePz TePz says:

    Try this on your iP4s… =]

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF9Che4TVF4&feature=youtube_gdata_player

    Nice review, I’m waiting for the TVJ (Eat Bulaga) phones to come out para mag price drop to… :)

  15. Avatar for Oliver Twist Oliver Twist says:

    Super-LIKE! Eto ang phone na pinag-iipunan ko hehehe… Thanks Yuga for the review…

  16. Avatar for hanjo hanjo says:

    sir yuga,

    di kaya “pail of water?”

    nway, why do some consumer reviews on some sites say that “we ought not to be too excited to jump to jellybean when you have ICS”

    ano ba binago sa jellybean? sori… medyo di na ako updated..

    thanks in advance… :)

    • Avatar for Barf Barf says:

      hello there. I think one of the reasons is lack of flash support for JB devices. Also, the ‘buttery smoothness’ of the UI comes with the cost of the need of a higher spec device. Meaning ‘lower’ spec’ed machines may not have the same UI experience.

      …teehee… Jack and Jill might just use a bucket next time.

    • Avatar for hanjo hanjo says:

      thanks @barf

  17. Avatar for H H says:

    is this compatible with the sony smart watch/liveview?

  18. Avatar for Barf Barf says:

    pale of water… teeheee… so petty, I’m sorry

  19. Avatar for richard richard says:

    this is my 2nd option phone.
    1st option is the iphone5.

  20. Avatar for Vladimir Vladimir says:

    Sir yuga…. Is it shockproof? you know that it is – IP57 certified..

    do you think it can take a hit?

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