We loved the design of the Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc, we loved the 4.2-inch 854 x 480 display, we loved the 8.1-megapixel camera and we even found that Sony Ericsson’s user interface wasn’t too bad. But what we were a little suspect of was the processing power, or rather the power moving forward. 

The Xperia Arc S finds itself with not only a run of software updates that have rolled out to the Xperia line in recent weeks, but an upgrade to a 1.4GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8255 chipset, mirroring the recent upgrade we saw from Samsung to make the Galaxy S Plus.

With a design as stunning as the Xperia Arc, it would have been a shame to rotate it out with the next iteration of device, so we wholeheartedly approve of this small change in hardware.

Externally though, you won’t spot any differences, which is fine - just make sure that you know which phone you’re getting if you decide you want to get yourself an Xperia Arc.

From our brief hands-on with the new device it seemed slick and fast, although obviously we weren’t able to put it through any serious testing, so we’ll have to wait until we get it in for a full review before making any final judgements.

New features we did have a play with, however were those tweaks to the camera, which now opens much faster than before. It’s nice to see the likes of 3D Sweep Panorama making the jump from Sony’s camera line-up into their phones, although naturally you’ll need a 3D TV to enjoy the results. 

There isn’t much else to say on the Xperia Arc S - it’s a welcomed upgrade and we’re sure it will be a much better phone for it and better able to handle the growing demands we’re putting on handsets moving forwards.

Whilst we’re waiting for the Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc S to land, why not read our review of the model it updates?