Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc S now out on Vodafone

The follow up to the Xperia Arc is now available on Vodafone.

The Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc S boasts a couple of upgrades over the original Arc smartphone.

These include a chunkier 1.4GHz processor, and the 8.1 megapixel camera now has a 3D panorama sweep mode, meaning it can capture panoramic 3D images (and it has an HDMI output to pipe these to your 3DTV).

Otherwise, it benefits from the same slim form factor as the Arc, and the same 4.2 inch Bravia engine-powered 854×480 display, with Android 2.3 on board.

The phone also comes with comes with Sony Entertainment Network services – Music Unlimited (with a library of some 10 million tracks) and Video Unlimited.

Vodafone is offering the handset for free on two year deals starting at £31 per month. For that, you get 600 minutes, unlimited texts and 500MB of data.

That’s an online-only deal at the Voda website, however, it’ll be a fiver more in the shop, plus with the online offer you get 2GB of BT Openzone Wi-Fi access for free.

Scale it up to £41 per month and you bag 1200 minutes, unlimited texts and 750MB. The cheapest contract is pitched at £26, which gives you a rather thin-on-the-ground 100 minutes, 500 texts and 250MB – plus the handset will set you back £99.

Meaning you’re only actually saving £21 over two years compared to the £31 per month contract, which makes this a pretty terrible deal considering the minutes and data you’re losing out on.