Sony Ericsson Arc S Sim Free Smart Phone - Midnight Blue

I bought the Xperia Arc S because of a limited promotion my carrier has offered (in Portugal). For under 100 euros it was a steal, even if the result might prove to be just average.
Surprise, surprise. All the pros and cons of the other reviews are true and no need to repeat them here. But I must stress again the picture quality. Completely awesome in that 4.2" screen. Sony is top at making TVs and I hope it stays in the market.
I was thinking of getting a tablet for browsing, watching videos and checking email while on the sofa or in bed. My laptop is with me wherever I work, so it would be just for fun and I didn't want to spend a lot.
The Arc S is the perfect match. Light, efficient, big enough to be an hand-held TV and small enough to be in the pocket and to use as a phone.
And Sony says it will upgrade all Xperia line from Android 2.3.4. (the current OS) to 4.0 in some weeks. Can't wait!
Brilliant.

Update: battery life is really long but you must remember two things: (i) disable wifi when off range or you do not need it (while at work, for instance); (ii) put it on energy saving mode at night or during a long meeting. Two days on a single charge guaranteed.

I was in my early 20's when mobiles started becoming more main stream (yes, now pushing 40). In those days we got excited about the fact that you could choose up to 5 different ring tones when someone called you. Something like the Xperia Arc S was true science fiction. I now have a device in my pocket which is my (excellent) camera, music player, GPS device (gets a fix in about 5 seconds), movie player, eBook reader, emailer, and Word/Excel editor. And phone. And this doesn't even cover the zillion or so apps out there that do everything from measure your heart rate (via the camera), turn your phone into a torch, and find the nearest free parking space. My one concern is...what on earth will I do if I lose it? Quite extraordinary.

After doing some research, I purchased this phone from Amazon and I wasn't disappointed. This is an excellent, full-featured phone for the price and the first review quite frankly says it all.

I did have a slight problem when trying to download the mobile network settings for Vodafone during the initial setup process. Instead of automatically downloading the settings from Sony Ericsson, it would just hang for eternity on the download screen. After further investigation, it was found that there was a slight bug with the built-in software and an upgrade was available (New Build Number: 4.0.2.A.0.42) to overcome this issue.

When you buy the phone, you can avoid this problem during the initial setup (if you experience it) by simply skipping downloading your mobile network settings for your network. Once you've completed the initial setup, just go into the menu screen and select Settings -> Sony Ericsson -> Internet Settings and follow the instructions to automatically download your mobile network settings. When you get a bit of time, make sure you update your phone's software to the latest version so that this bug is eliminated.

Apart from the above, I would highly recommend this phone, especially given its impressive features, build quality plus the 2-year warranty. The only negative I would give is it could have done with more RAM than the 512MB that's installed plus with the majority of apps having a tendency of using only the onboard storage instead of the SD Card, the phone should have had more than 1GB of onboard storage installed. Mind you, I suppose Sony Ericsson couldn't have fitted any more into this phone, given how slim it is :)

If you're looking for a reasonably priced, quality and feature-packed SIM Free (any network) Smartphone, then the Sony Ericsson Experia Arc S is the one to choose.