[Dougal25]

Rang TMobile up the other day cos im due an upgrade, they told me they would have theArc in store by the middle of April. But when i went on there site, there is no news of them on phones coming soon!!!
Anyone on the forum work for TMobile. If so, can you give me a heads up. Thanks.

[andy1000]

Originally Posted by nicktrex

I'd suggest keeping 3G / Mobile Internet switched off until it is needed, keep screen brightness to a minimum or on automatic mode and I think initially all smartphones have poor battery life as the batteries need some sort of conditioning. I know for sure the battery life on my HTC Desire was awful but now it often last over 2 days without needing a charge and that is with moderate use.

I can understand any modern phone battery needing to be calibrated to achieve maximum performance, but surely turning off 3G unless it's needed defeats the point of smartphones just a bit?

[Richard]

Very poor battery life here too.

[Tigerblade]

If your using the Facebook and Twitter widgets check to see time between updates, its probably set to 10/15mins at default and if so that's one reason batteries are going fast.....best changing it to an hour.....same with emails. You'll see an improvement straight away.

Also turn off automatic brightness adjustment and leave it around a quarter/third full....it's still plenty bright enough and it stops precious battery being drained on an unnecessarily bright screen.Another thing to think of is amount of homescreens being used and the amount of widgets. If you use alot of widgets that are always checking online then your battery is gonna drain quick, obviously.

All sounds very similar to early x10 users. Once the phone has been routed you will then be able to remove bloatware/system apps you don't want that are memory hogs and/or battery hogs and get an even better lifespan. Timescape is one such culprit.....very pretty but hammers the phone.

If any of you are considering Liveview then consider how that can and does affect the battery too.....awesome idea and works really well now the issues are ironed out just another battery drain as you need to have BT on all the time.

[WhiteHartMart]

Over at XDA people are reporting battery life settles down after 4 days or so average use?

Mine's no worse than any other recent smartphone I've owned - I've browsed the web loads today, been jumping in and out of forums on Tapatalk, Facebook and Twitter access, in and out of 3G areas while driving, connected to Bluetooth car kit for about 4 hours and made about 30 mins of BT connected calls. More calls while at home too.

In total, phone has been off charge for about 11 hours and I still have 32% left - thats pretty good imo considering its only on its 2nd charge.

Think it'll get better over the next few days as well - patience people

Oh and also - if you connect to the PC companion software you'll find there is a Firmware update now out to download (well there was on my sim free phone anyway).

[syko67]

how low can it go????

£399.99 on gum mobile now... I almost pressed the button

[silent ninja]

Originally Posted by davidg1230

Have people also been looking at the forthcoming Xperia Neo? I too am looking at the Arc, but with the battery issues on the larger smartphone screens, maybe the Neo with it's 3.7" screen might be the answer?

It's listed on Orange as on sale already. The specs seem to be the same as the ARc too, but can't seem to find any info on how the new Xperia phones are positioned to each other

Hands on: Sony Ericsson Xperia Neo review | News | TechRadar UK

I hate to sound shallow, but it needs to go on a diet. I'd want something a bit sleeker looking. I wouldn't rule it out though.
I think 3.7" screen is perfect too but a 4" in a small body is great as well. I'm still surprised every time I see a DHD or HD2. They are massive.

[davidg1230]

Originally Posted by silent ninja

I hate to sound shallow, but it needs to go on a diet. I'd want something a bit sleeker looking. I wouldn't rule it out though.
I think 3.7" screen is perfect too but a 4" in a small body is great as well. I'm still surprised every time I see a DHD or HD2. They are massive.

I had the same feeling when I picked up an Arc at the weekend, seemed massive, almost too big? Weight is not really an issue for me and looking at the specs, the Neo is 126g and the Arc about 117g, not much difference other than is it's 'porkiness' The Neo is 13mm thick

[garymontague]

Originally Posted by garymontague

Hi all,

I've had this phone for a few days now and love it. However I find I have very little RAM available.

I have on average around 30-40mb of ram available and the phone sometimes slows down quite a bit. I've ad a look at the running apps and the main culprit was SPB Shell launcher which was using around 50mb. I have since stopped using this but I am still only getting around 40-50mb remaining (with timescape disabled) and again a sluggish phone at times.

How is everyone else's?

I am thinking of doing a factory reset and start afresh to see what app may be causing the problem.

Any other suggestions or is this normal with this phone?

Thanks for your replies.

A quick update. I have done a factory restore but I am still only getting 40-50mb free (only app installed is swype).

Can I ask those that have this phone what their free ram is. Is this the norm or do I have a rogue app/phone.

Thanks

[sonnyy]

268mb free on mine

[nicktrex]

Originally Posted by andy1000

I can understand any modern phone battery needing to be calibrated to achieve maximum performance, but surely turning off 3G unless it's needed defeats the point of smartphones just a bit?

I see where you're coming from however as you will probably find if you use it like me, most of the time the phone is in your pocket and more often than not you are within coverage from a Wifi network - home & work and only on a few occasions do you actually use the phone on the internet through the 3G networks. Hence turning this off does save a huge amount of battery life and yes, such things as emails, Facebook etc.. will not automatically update but I think you can get apps which turn on your 3G connection for you at certain times so these apps stay up to date?

I personally think it's abit like having a built in Satnav in your car, more often than not you know where you're going and don't need it switched on but when you do need it you simply turn it on and it's great.

It takes a matter of seconds for the 3G to turn on anyway and for the increase in battery life it brings a few seconds isn't much really is it?

[alphaomega16]

If you buy one of these from say Carphone Warehouse does it come with any branding like if you buy it from Vodafone / o2 and such

[Idioteque]

Vodafone don't have a clue when/if they will get stock?! Madness. I was told by the end of the week, but that looks slim now.

[WhiteHartMart]

With regards to low ram I have 142mb free on mine at the moment although that with several widgets and apps running.

Not experiencing any slow down at all - phone is just as smooth/quick as any Android I've used inc those with custom Rom/Kernel :-)

[andy1000]

Originally Posted by nicktrex

I see where you're coming from however as you will probably find if you use it like me, most of the time the phone is in your pocket and more often than not you are within coverage from a Wifi network - home & work and only on a few occasions do you actually use the phone on the internet through the 3G networks. Hence turning this off does save a huge amount of battery life and yes, such things as emails, Facebook etc.. will not automatically update but I think you can get apps which turn on your 3G connection for you at certain times so these apps stay up to date?

I personally think it's abit like having a built in Satnav in your car, more often than not you know where you're going and don't need it switched on but when you do need it you simply turn it on and it's great.

It takes a matter of seconds for the 3G to turn on anyway and for the increase in battery life it brings a few seconds isn't much really is it?

I agree completely with you. But it depends on your circumstances and usage really as to how you use it - for me, I pay for a data bundle on top as my tariff doesn't have one included. After having a Nokia 5800 which I barely used for the web or email I then went to a Desire, which I tried to run as you say by just turning on 3G when needed, partly to preserve battery and partly because I wasn't sure about how much data I'd be using and didn't want to go over my allowance. I'd stopped doing that after a few days though as I found it took adage to reconnect when I needed 3G. Since then, having gone through an Omnia 7 and now on an iPhone 4, I just leave it on all the time except for when I'm at home or at friends where it switches to wifi. I wouldn't describe my web usage as heavy, but I've yet to go close to nearing my allowance limit.

What we really need are smartphones that will know a few minutes before we want to go online and switch on 3G automatically Oh, and that can manage battery life better too!

[nicktrex]

Originally Posted by andy1000

I agree completely with you. But it depends on your circumstances and usage really as to how you use it - for me, I pay for a data bundle on top as my tariff doesn't have one included. After having a Nokia 5800 which I barely used for the web or email I then went to a Desire, which I tried to run as you say by just turning on 3G when needed, partly to preserve battery and partly because I wasn't sure about how much data I'd be using and didn't want to go over my allowance. I'd stopped doing that after a few days though as I found it took adage to reconnect when I needed 3G. Since then, having gone through an Omnia 7 and now on an iPhone 4, I just leave it on all the time except for when I'm at home or at friends where it switches to wifi. I wouldn't describe my web usage as heavy, but I've yet to go close to nearing my allowance limit.

What we really need are smartphones that will know a few minutes before we want to go online and switch on 3G automatically Oh, and that can manage battery life better too!

I completely understand what you say yes and oddly enough there is an App called Tasker which is rather good in that you can set a huge variety of things such as: Open the Maps app and it automatically turns on your GPS, open an internet app and it automatically turns on Wifi or 3G etc... Which can come in handy.

[andy1000]

Originally Posted by nicktrex

I completely understand what you say yes and oddly enough there is an App called Tasker which is rather good in that you can set a huge variety of things such as: Open the Maps app and it automatically turns on your GPS, open an internet app and it automatically turns on Wifi or 3G etc... Which can come in handy.

Now I just need to learn to like Android!

[farmergiles65]

No speed or RAM issues here. Still nice and fast, though the Timescape widget can slow things up sometimes.

Battery life isn't a problem so don't let fears stop you buying the Arc for the Neo. Moderate use can still give you a day and a half of usage with ease.

[Deepus]

Originally Posted by alphaomega16

If you buy one of these from say Carphone Warehouse does it come with any branding like if you buy it from Vodafone / o2 and such

No, no branding at all if purchased from CPW etc.

[Idioteque]

If anyones thinking of ordering through Vodafone, at the moment, I'd advise against it.

Their latest reply:

Hi all



I can understand how frustrating it is for you all, and fully emphasise with the issue. :smileyindifferent:



At the moment, we cannot confirm any further information than what has already been posted in our statement, which can be found here.



As and when any further information is received concerning this matter, the thread will be updated as a matter of course.



Regards



Trev

eForum Team

The original quote was

Sony Ericsson has advised us that it will not be able to supply the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play and Arc devices to meet their original launch date of 1 April. Unfortunately, this means there will be a small delay before pre-order customers receive their orders and the device is made available for sale in our shops.

We're working closely with Sony Ericsson to ensure our customers' phones are delivered as soon as possible and we will contact people directly with specific timescales when we know more.

We appreciate this is disappointing and are doing our very best to resolve this as quickly as possible

Yet they are quite happy to take my money from me!

[Richard]

Anybody with T Mobile?

Tried to back up my contacts on their website but says the phone is not compatable with that.

[sonnyy]

Originally Posted by Richard

Anybody with T Mobile?

Tried to back up my contacts on their website but says the phone is not compatable with that.

yes i am with tmobile , i will have to try that.
when i got mine phone wasn't on their site perhaps thats why.

just used pc companion to upgrade all seems the same , but battery life seems to be improving , probably coincidense.

[Richard]

Originally Posted by sonnyy

yes i am with tmobile , i will have to try that.
when i got mine phone wasn't on their site perhaps thats why.

just used pc companion to upgrade all seems the same , but battery life seems to be improving , probably coincidense.

It's on the site now but still no joy with backing up contacts.

[alphaomega16]

How long you think before prices start to drop ?

[Lexic]

I'm one of the many waiting for their pre-order from Vodafone. News doesn't look good although I've heard f* all from Vodafone themselves.


Sony Ericsson Xperia Neo delayed to Q3, Arc and Play facing limited supply due to Japanese quake | Gadget & Tech News

[Lexic]

..thinking about it do you think I have grounds for a refund on my bill if I have paid for an upgraded phone that I haven't received?

[Idioteque]

Originally Posted by Lexic

..thinking about it do you think I have grounds for a refund on my bill if I have paid for an upgraded phone that I haven't received?

I'm in the same boat as you mate. Heres hoping that one of the guys said on the forum that they should recieve them by Monday and ship orders out tuesday/wednesday. Fingers crossed!

[syko67]

Well...I pressed the gum mobile button and am looking forward to my new phone arriving Monday...hopefully

Whats everyone using for protection?? I'm looking at getting the InvisiShield again..worked well on my Satio-must find somewhere to trade it in now too.

cheers

Gaz

[Tigerblade]

Originally Posted by andy1000

partly because I wasn't sure about how much data I'd be using and didn't want to go over my allowance.

Look for an app called 3G watchdog, it will keep track of how much data you use and disable your phone's data connection whenever you near/reach your limit. Has a handy widget and taskbar icon giving info too

[andy1000]

Originally Posted by Tigerblade

Look for an app called 3G watchdog, it will keep track of how much data you use and disable your phone's data connection whenever you near/reach your limit. Has a handy widget and taskbar icon giving info too

I had it when I had an Android phone...now gone over to iOS which I much prefer!