[R1king]

I used to have an iPhone 3GS whilst in Japan but have come back to the UK and have realised how expensive iPhones are (they were expensive in Japan too, I just didn't realise cos I wasn't using Sterling).

So - I wanted a cheap phone with a decent screen and nice camera and went for the Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc S.
It's a beautiful phone with a brilliant screen and an 8mp camera (though unfortunately there's no front camera). It's also very quick and very smooth which I was worried about as most other Android phones I've looked at are laggy and unresponsive.

I'm having to take time getting my head around the way Android is set up and the widgets and shortcuts etc. but this phone is trying to mimic the iPhone as much as possible so I'm getting used to it quite quickly.
I do find it annoying that apps ALWAYS download straight to the internal memory (which there isn't much of) so I got a free app that shows which apps can be moved onto my SD card though annoyingly not all of them can.

I'm also worried about the battery length though this phone got good comments regarding the battery but I feel overall the battery length isn't all that great.
I got the free version of Battery Juice so I can save a little bit of battery but it looks like I need to fork out about £3 to get the extreme version and get all the features.

So does anyone know of any tips or tricks in general for this phone / Android? Or does anyone know of any essential / good apps that I should consider?

[Tamawaipsemek]

Don't use power-saving apps or task killers as, generally, they're useless.

If you are not using wireless, turn it off.
If you are not using GPS, turn it off.
If you are not using BT... you get the idea.

Manually set brightness. Saves a little power disabling the sensor (if your phone has it).

Get used to the phone before thinking of using custom firmware and do a lot of reading on XDA or wherever doing something like rooting; however advantages can be huge if your phone has a crapload of bloat apps and services.

[mobiphones]

If you occasionally use the wifi, setting mine to never sleep saved a huge amount of power for some reason.

[HedgeYourBets]

There are a few pointless Sony Ericsson apps that I can't delete and they are always running in the background.
I got advanced task killer which disables a lot of pointless background tasks when the screen is off but I just can't stop them forever. Hmmm, annoying

[Seasmillets]

Don't use power-saving apps or task killers as, generally, they're useless.

If you are not using wireless, turn it off.
If you are not using GPS, turn it off.
If you are not using BT... you get the idea.

Manually set brightness. Saves a little power disabling the sensor (if your phone has it).

Get used to the phone before thinking of using custom firmware and do a lot of reading on XDA or wherever doing something like rooting; however advantages can be huge if your phone has a crapload of bloat apps and services.

You know, I used to watch that stuff when I first got my phone, but now, it's just not worth it.

I keep my BT on 24/7 because I don't want to have to remember to turn it on again when I get in my car (yay for handsfree). I keep my WiFi on all the time because everywhere I go, I opt for using WiFi instead of 3G.

I used to use a power saving app (Juice Defender) and it did save me power at the time, but I just don't worry about it enough anymore. I keep auto brightness on, because on my phone, it works.

But all that stuff combined really didn't save enough battery life to really make it worth doing for me. I just got to the point where I had to ask myself why I was doing it. So now, I just keep it all running and without trying, I can still go 2 days or more on a battery. And that's an OEM size battery, not one of those extended batteries that requires a new back cover.

Honestly though, if you really want to save power, you have to root and get rid of all the bloatware crap the carriers put on the phones. And there's other tricks (like undervolting/underclocking the cpu) to save a bit of power.

I do agree with you about the task killers, they are crap. And XDA is definitly a good resource to know.

There are a few pointless Sony Ericsson apps that I can't delete and they are always running in the background.
I got advanced task killer which disables a lot of pointless background tasks when the screen is off but I just can't stop them forever. Hmmm, annoying

Titanium Backup can be used to freeze those kinds of programs. I do this with the DRM and SNS services on my phone since I don't need them and they tend to drain battery.

Unfortunately, Titanium Backup requires root to do this. But at the same time, if you had root, you would probably be able to get rid of those programs anyways. Unfortunately, I can't uninstall the DRM and SNS services on my phone.

[mensforyouthis]

I agree. Rooting and removing bloatware and using custom ROMs or even kernel will have your batterylife/performance way more than turning off WiFi. Besides, when wifi is not being used it hardly uses battery. I've set my wifi-check for 120seconds rather than the default.

[Piemonedmow]

Well, for one, BT is a security risk as well as a battery user. Undervolting saves battery, but underclocking is a bit debatable; if you underclock you risk the app taking longer to run, thus consuming even more battery life than running standard. Now, until processors are released with the ability to turn themselves off (ARM recently developed), disabling the second core can save quite a bit of battery as many apps are poorly designed anyway and if you're using the phone as a phone rather than gaming system, turning off the second core has a lot of benefits.

Task killers are almost certainly a waste of time as many apps will keep auto restarting when killed, so you're wasting CPU on keeping the TK running and killing an app that is running that will then restart.

[Catalogov]

Well, for one, BT is a security risk as well as a battery user. Undervolting saves battery, but underclocking is a bit debatable; if you underclock you risk the app taking longer to run, thus consuming even more battery life than running standard.

Depends on the CPU Governor. A governor like "Conservative" is meant to improve battery life, so it ramps up slower and in some phones, doesn't allow the phone to reach full speed. Then you have a governor like "On Demand" that immediately jumps up to the highest clock needed and tends to jump around a lot.

A newer governor that people are liking is "Lazy". When you activate the phone (come out of sleep). It jumps up to the highest clock and watches the useage. If what you are doing doesn't need that speed, it drops down to the next lower frequency after a predetermined time and checks again until it finds a balance.

I use Voltage Control on my phone and with my current kernel, I have like 10 governors available to choose from.

Here's some good reading material
http://forum.xda-developers.com/show....php?t=1369817

[gDGwm8BC]

Go to the xdadevelopers forums, im sure theres a rom for your phone which will allow you to install apps straight to memory card? As well as other things.

Why didnt you get the galaxy sii if you wanted an iphone clone?

[Pznrrmaf]

Go to the xdadevelopers forums, im sure theres a rom for your phone which will allow you to install apps straight to memory card? As well as other things.

App2SD
https://market.android.com/details?i...e.app2sd&hl=en

But I wouldn't bother with that one unless you have so many apps installed that you start running out of internal storage.

Why didnt you get the galaxy sii if you wanted an iphone clone? BLASHPEMY.

[effebrala]

Why didnt you get the galaxy sii if you wanted an iphone clone?

I much prefer the usability / interface of the Xperia Arc to the Galaxy SII. I really don't see what all the fuss is about with the Samsung phones.

Yeah I got Apps2SD which is good but you still have to transfer files across after you've downloaded them.

I'm gonna have to research into this 'root' and 'rom' stuff as it's all very new to me.

I charged my phone over night and began using it around 8:00 today and it died at about 21:00 this evening after low / moderate usage.

[Indinehon]

App2SD
https://market.android.com/details?i...e.app2sd&hl=en

But I wouldn't bother with that one unless you have so many apps installed that you start running out of internal storage.



BLASHPEMY.

LOL the SII is the perfect android clone of an iphone or wannabe iphone?

[lrtoinbert]

LOL the SII is the perfect android clone of an iphone or wannabe iphone?

I just wouldn't consider it a clone. Would you call a Samsung TV a clone of a Sony TV? Would you call a Honda Accord a clone of a Toyota Camry?

But that gets into a whole can of worms I don't want to open and derail the thread any further.

[pushokalex1]

I much prefer the usability / interface of the Xperia Arc to the Galaxy SII. I really don't see what all the fuss is about with the Samsung phones..

The Galaxy S2 has twice as many cores, better GPU, twice as much RAM, significantly more internal storage, gorilla glass, can record 1080p video, a better camera and a front facing camera. (LCD vs SAMOLED+ is down to personal preference.)

As far as interface, it was no more than a week before I started using custom ROMs and have never looked back to TouchWiz.

I just wouldn't consider it a clone. Would you call a Samsung TV a clone of a Sony TV? Would you call a Honda Accord a clone of a Toyota Camry?

But that gets into a whole can of worms I don't want to open and derail the thread any further.

I would call a Samsung TV a clone of the Sony TV if the physical design and the menu system were as eerily close as the international SGS2 and iPhone are as far as design, as well as TouchWiz vs. iOS. [yes]

[Flieteewell]

I would call a Samsung TV a clone of the Sony TV if the physical design and the menu system were as eerily close as the international SGS2 and iPhone are as far as design, as well as TouchWiz vs. iOS. [yes]

Well, I gotta agree about touchwiz. It mirrors iOS a bit more then it should. But at least you have the option of not using it if you don't want to. I got rid of touchwiz on my phone long before I even started rooting my phone.

As for the design though, I think there is enough difference physically between the devices they one should not be considered a clone of the other.

[BuyNetHosting]

They look physically similar as well, to me.

[Ufkkrxcq]

They look physically similar as well, to me.

http://img97.imageshack.us/img97/960...andiphone4.jpg

You see what you want to see. You are looking at the similarities in the devices, I'm looking at the differences in the devices.

I'm not going to argue with you about this any further.

[maysubers]

Who's arguing?

Anyway, I am quite happy with my iPhone clone. [rofl]

[55TRATTERENRY]

Who's arguing?

Anyway, I am quite happy with my iPhone clone. [rofl]

So you should be!
Its the best high end android phone on the market currently, one of my best mates has it and i have the Senation XE- we done a compare on the phones.
The Galaxy SII is one great bit of kit, i only chose the HTC because i prefer their interface, out of all the android phones i played with the Sense UI i like the most.

[kjsdiuwe]

I much prefer the usability / interface of the Xperia Arc to the Galaxy SII. I really don't see what all the fuss is about with the Samsung phones.

Yeah I got Apps2SD which is good but you still have to transfer files across after you've downloaded them.

I'm gonna have to research into this 'root' and 'rom' stuff as it's all very new to me.

I charged my phone over night and began using it around 8:00 today and it died at about 21:00 this evening after low / moderate usage.

You will find that because of the size of your screen it will drain juice faster ( a wise choice by the mr late jobs to keep the iphone smaller) and if i remember correctly its a slcd screen? If so i find they drain juice faster then the alomed.

As for rooting your phone all you need is on the xda site.