ZTE Blade or Xperia Arc

[Guest Gilthoniel]

Hey guys,

I'm kinda new here and i've been reading up on your custom ROMs and such for the Blade. I'm expecting to get my SF next Friday as a friend of mine will be visiting me here (in Malaysia) from the UK. The thing is, I got a good deal to sell off my 3GS, and someone offered 150pounds for my incoming SF. I'm really tempted to get the Xperia Arc, but at the same time I'm thinking that besides the good looks and camera, the Blade offers much more in terms of custom ROMs and a great community here in Modaco, not to mention the amount of money I'd be able to save since the Arc is 4 times the cost of the Blade here!

But the Arc is really awesome looking and I'd say it's gonna be a good upgrade from my 3GS, instead of a 'downgrade' (except for the screen) to the Blade.

What do you guys think?

Any advice is greatly appreciated in advance :)

[Guest Azurren]

Apart from the camera the Arc is low in the specs department

Don't get me wrong its better than the blade but newer devices are moving towards dual core. This one will be superseded before you buy it

Sony have been very hard on cracking down bootloaders etc. making custom rom development hard.. Puts off alot of devs from the start

And imo the SF is an upgrade from any older iPhone.. In some ways its on par and better than the iPhone 4 (In the fact you can actually use it how you like it. Install what you want to install etc.)

Not spec wise.. But iOS doesn't utilize its hardware to its full potential

If you want a better phone why not look into the HTC desire / Galaxy S (Same specs, slightly worse camera). I'm sure you could get one between the SF and Arc price

Or splash out on one of the dual core devices. Chances are they will get alot of attention from the Dev community

Edited April 20, 2011 by Azurren

[Guest tabor56]

The new SE phones all allow you to unlock the bootloaders, they even have a dedicated website showing you how to do it.

I think if you are a fan of SE phones then get the Arc, but there are better phones on the horizon for sure. The Desire S looks good and isnt as expensive as some of the top

end phones that are coming out.

[Guest Gilthoniel]

the only reason i'm attracted to the Arc is because of the sleek and sexy design, plus the phone here comes packaged with a free MW600 bluetooth FMradio Headset, HDMI cable, etc. Very good package.

But somehow like what Azurren said, I'm somehow hesitant due to the fact that the Arc is already lagging behind in terms of specs the moment it was launched. Phones are already going on to dual core.

Hmm... Maybe I should sell of the 3GS and keep the cash, use the Blade (it's my first android btw, might be a good low price entry for an intro to Android) until something awesome comes along!

I'm really into the Blade for the reason that it's cheap and there's a great community here :)

[Guest tabor56]

the problem with Android is there is always something better coming along, if you want a dual core phone then i'd wait for the Galaxy S2 (out April - May) or the HTC Sensation (out May - June). I think the S2 is going to be about £499 unlocked.

[Guest Azurren]

the only reason i'm attracted to the Arc is because of the sleek and sexy design, plus the phone here comes packaged with a free MW600 bluetooth FMradio Headset, HDMI cable, etc. Very good package.

But somehow like what Azurren said, I'm somehow hesitant due to the fact that the Arc is already lagging behind in terms of specs the moment it was launched. Phones are already going on to dual core.

Hmm... Maybe I should sell of the 3GS and keep the cash, use the Blade (it's my first android btw, might be a good low price entry for an intro to Android) until something awesome comes along!

I'm really into the Blade for the reason that it's cheap and there's a great community here :)

Heh I forgot to mention the bloatware that SE dump on their android phones

The stock X10 (1ghz processor) lagged and jolted more than a stock Blade

But honestly. When you think about it 1ghz has been the norm for a very long time. The Nexus one and the desire are "old" now. Chances are a dual core device will be pretty future proof :)

What I'm really getting at here is if you want a new high-end device get a dual core.

[Guest solidchips]

I bought SE Xperia Neo recently from China. Sadly, i find it not attractive as i was expecting.

There was no support for android market in it.

I left a query on SE official support forum and got reply that in your region we provide no android market support. Had i know this before i would not bought this phone.

Anyone looking to buy SE xperia neo/arc, make sure that your phone has market support.

[Guest Azurren]

I bought SE Xperia Neo recently from China. Sadly, i find it not attractive as i was expecting.

There was no support for android market in it.

I left a query on SE official support forum and got reply that in your region we provide no android market support. Had i know this before i would not bought this phone.

Anyone looking to buy SE xperia neo/arc, make sure that your phone has market support.

Luckily you can force the market onto almost every android device (Root)

Manually install it into the android system partition

:)

[Guest HMZX]

bumping pretty much everything above.

wait a while till the Galaxy S II comes out or similar

[Guest Gilthoniel]

with the latest news that SE is gonna allow users to unlock bootloaders, i wonder how the support is gonna be? even the X10 has no custom ROM till now, am i correct? Sorry I'm a newbie and all the android jargon spins my head a lil some times

i think i'm 90% sure of keeping the incoming Blade, mess around with it, sell off my 3GS and wait till the next awesome dual core to come about... or maybe 3D

Edited April 21, 2011 by Gilthoniel

[Guest solidchips]

I tried to root the Xperia neo, tried Z4root etc. Unable to root it. Using it without android market.

[Guest agreenjesus]

Apart from the camera the Arc is low in the specs department

Don't get me wrong its better than the blade but newer devices are moving towards dual core. This one will be superseded before you buy it

Sony have been very hard on cracking down bootloaders etc. making custom rom development hard.. Puts off alot of devs from the start

And imo the SF is an upgrade from any older iPhone.. In some ways its on par and better than the iPhone 4 (In the fact you can actually use it how you like it. Install what you want to install etc.)

Not spec wise.. But iOS doesn't utilize its hardware to its full potential

If you want a better phone why not look into the HTC desire / Galaxy S (Same specs, slightly worse camera). I'm sure you could get one between the SF and Arc price

Or splash out on one of the dual core devices. Chances are they will get alot of attention from the Dev community

Wouldn't it be great if no one mentioned the apple word. I hear they've announced even more profit than they were expecting, mainly through phone sales. The world must have quite a few suckers with money for this to happen. They'll never have my money.

[Guest hecatae]

news over on XDA is the ARC has been rooted

[Guest solidchips]

Really...Thanks for the info hecatae.

[Guest stevec611]

Arc vs. Blade seems a strange decision to struggle over, they really are quite different beasts.

If you want an expensive-looking shiny phone to impress the girls, choose Arc.

If you want a great camera, display and speaker, choose Arc.

If you want the latest and greatest cpu, choose neither. The Arc is a bit faster though it's still on last year's generation. It has an fpu and can support full flash 10.x, which the Blade cannot.

But if you just want a machine to hack around with android and stuff, choose Blade. Things are looking promising for the Arc, but better wait a month or two until Cyanogen is on there and reasonably stable, before deciding its ok for that. My rule is never to make a buying decision based on some future software development. Also, you will be a lot more upset to have a broken Arc with a voided warranty than to have a broken Blade with a voided warranty.

And if you just want to make phone calls (ok, its unlikely for someone on this forum), either will do just fine, but you could get several pink pulse minis for the price of a Blade, and several Blades for the price of an Arc :)

[Guest solidchips]

I keep blade so that i can experiment with android/custom roms. Bought Xperia neo coz of its moderate specs, stunning design and quality of camera.

Arc is a bit big in size and i don't like phones of that size.

So, for me blade and neo combo is best at the moment.

[Guest solidchips]

One thing i do miss is android market on Xperia Neo.

[Guest chealsearock]

One thing i do miss is android market on Xperia Neo.

Is that just a Neo problem - because I don't think the market is available in China...

[Guest BigD18t]

Ive had a play with the Lg 2x, the sgs 2 and the Arc and if i was buying now i would get the Arc, its a fantastic phone, runs really great, i couldnt get it to lag anywhere, the screen is stunning, much better than the Sgs2 i thought, and it feels great in your hand, I tbh dont see the need for dual core in a phone, Tab yes but phones no.

[Guest solidchips]

I think market is not available all over the china. Bcoz when i bought Zte blade i found no maket preinstalled in it. Then i switeched to a custom ROM and got everything working like treat. For xperia neo sadly there is no hope of getting market soon as i can't see a custom rom for xperia neo in near future.

[Guest Gilthoniel]

@solidchips,

so when u get market, is the currency in USD or GBP?