Sony Ericsson Xperia arc & Neo Rooted

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Sony Ericsson earlier announced that their latest Xperia smartphones will ship with an unlockable bootoader. This seems like an open invitation to hacking, though. Just a week after release, the arc and Neo have been rooted.

The Sony Ericsson arc and Neo finally get the root treatment, after Xperia X10 hackers from the XDA-Developers forum unlocked the phone. Rooting the Xperia arc will require these steps:

• Unlock the bootloader
• Flash the firmware

Currently, the bootloader unlocker is only available for the UK-release of the Xperia arc, but the developers will be releasing a tool for unlocking other regional and global firmware. Aside from the Xperia arc, other new Sony Ericsson phones are in the pipeline for rooting, such as the Xperia Play and Xperia Neo.

Rooting your phone gets you access to performance improvements, tweaks, and applications otherwise unavailable on stock phones. Rooting also does away with certain locks and limitations that your network may have set-up on the phone. Remember that rooting your phone might void your warranty, though, so proceed with caution. Files are available from the XDA-Developers forum.