Sony Xperia acro S review: Daring droid

Display

The screen on the Sony Xperia acro S promises great things and it delivers - it's mesmerizingly sharp, with punchy colors and very good contrast. It's backed by the BRAVIA engine which, as we've seen before, does very well on screens with high pixel-density - and the Xperia acro S display is one of the most pixel-dense at 342ppi.

The BRAVIA-powered display

The only downside (and it's not a minor one) is the sub-par viewing angles.

Display test	50% brightness			100% brightness
	Black, cd/m2	White, cd/m2	Contrast ratio	Black, cd/m2	White, cd/m2	Contrast ratio
Sony Xperia acro S	-	-	-	0.61	625	1022
LG Optimus 4X HD	0.34	369	1077	0.68	750	1102
HTC One S	0	177	∞	0	386	∞
LG Prada 3.0	0.19	184	993	0.81	835	1031
Sony Xperia S	-	-	-	0.48	495	1038
LG Optimus Black	0.27	332	1228	0.65	749	1161
Apple iPhone 4S	0.14	205	1463	0.52	654	1261
Samsung Galaxy Nexus	0	112	∞	0	247	∞

Sunlight legibility on the Xperia acro S screen is good, if unspectacular, as shown by the readings in our dedicated test.

Contrast ratio

• Nokia 808 PureView
  4.698
• Samsung I9300 Galaxy S III
  3.419
• Samsung Omnia W
  3.301
• Samsung Galaxy S
  3.155
• Nokia N9
  3.069
• Samsung Galaxy Note
  2.970
• HTC One S
  2.901
• Samsung Galaxy S II
  2.832
• Huawei Ascend P1
  2.655
• Nokia Lumia 900
  2.562
• Apple iPhone 4S
  2.269
• HTC One X
  2.158
• Nokia N8
  2.144
• Sony Xperia acro S
  2.119
• Apple iPhone 4
  2.016
• Sony Ericsson Xperia ray
  1.955
• Sony Xperia U
  1.758
• LG Optimus 4X HD
  1.691
• HTC One V
  1.685
• LG Optimus Vu
  1.680
• Sony Xperia go
  1.577
• LG Optimus 3D
  1.542
• Nokia Asha 302
  1.537
• BlackBerry Curve 9320
  1.488
• Nokia Lumia 610
  1.432
• Samsung Galaxy S Duos
  1.400
• Gigabyte GSmart G1355
  1.361
• HTC Desire C
  1.300
• LG Optimus L7
  1.269
• Meizu MX
  1.221
• Samsung Galaxy Pocket
  1.180
• Nokia Asha 305
  1.178
• Samsung Galaxy Ace Duos
  1.148
• Samsung Galaxy mini 2
  1.114

We also put the Xperia acro S screen under our microscope and unsurprisingly we found it to pack the finest pixels we have seen to date.

The display under a microscope

Handling

The curved back fits nicely in hand and the Sony Xperia acro S is generally easy to handle. As we already mentioned, it would have been perfect had it been a bit slimmer, but it's not too bad as it is.

You will immediately notice a difference if you use the acro S after, say, the 8.5mm Galaxy S II, which has a screen of the same diagonal (and slightly larger size due to aspect difference), but the Sony smartphone is not hard to operate by any means.

The Xperia acro S in-hand

Up next is our tour of the software interface on the Sony Xperia acro S.