[Xperia Arc Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] JayMot:
Hi. I switched phones from a Samsung Galaxy Ace to a Sony Xperia Pro a year ago (got fed up with the touchscreen keyboard, wanted a real QWERTY keyboard.) I like the phone, but now that the warranty's expired I'd like to try a custom ROM or three, just to play with. Also I'm having battery life issues since upgrading to ICS (It's weird; the first time I upgraded it seemed to be OK, but I had to send the phone in for a warranty repair and they went and reflashed the firmware to Gingerbread on me. I reupgraded to ICS via Sony's PC Companion and now the battery life's terrible- about what it was on my Galaxy Ace.)

What I want is:

Everything working. I don't want to encounter problems such as the camera not zooming via the volume buttons, the front camera not working, keyboard layout problems, no wifi/bluetooth, etc. All hardware needs to work at least as well as when using the stock ROM.

Stability. No, or very few, crashes (nothing is perfect, I know), not a lot of force-closes of apps.

Good power management, even if this means slowing down the CPU clock. I'm willing to sacrifice some performance if that means that I don't have to recharge more than once a day. Also I'd like to be rid of some of the background services that I don't need or want, and that use up some juice. (BTW, my typical phone use is sending and receiving 3 to 4 texts per day, one or two voice calls daily, around 6 to 7 hours of web browsing using wifi, maybe 30 minutes playing solitaire, reading ebooks for an hour or three instead of web surfing, and occasionally using the camera or the flashlight, weather apps, calculator, etc.)

I want to be rid of Sony's bloatware. I don't need it.

I don't really care if the ROM has a lot of eye candy, bells & whistles, etc. or if it's a lot like the stock ROM in look and feel. However, k3wl things would be k3wl, so I'm willing to try them and play a bit. :)

BTW I'm a newbie when it comes to working with the Xperia. I got pretty good about rooting, modding and changing ROMs on the Ace, but Sony is a whole different ball game than working with Samsungs. So whatever ROM I end up choosing needs to have step-by-step instructions somewhere, with download links to everything I'm going to need.

Please post your ROM recommendations. TIA!

Edit: I've turned off data connections as I only use wifi, I've dimmed the display as low as it will go, I only turn wifi on when I'm actually going to use it and turn it off afterward, I never use GPS, I set it to flight mode at night- basically I've done everything I can think of to conserve power. I used to have around 50% of battery life left when I'd go to bed at around midnight or 1AM when I had Gingerbread, but now I have to stop and recharge at around 9 or 10PM. I start using the phone at around 6PM when my wife gets home as she tends to monopolize the computer- she's taking some online classes, and likes to sing along to YouTube to relieve work stress. So I'm typically on the phone and the web for 6 to 7 hours a day, and need enough excess juice to let the phone run idle all night so the morning's alarms can go off, and also to check the time if I wake up during the night.

There's no power outlet near our bed, so I have to do my recharging during the day (when I can use the computer), and besides, we have a bunch of dogs that might chew up the charger's USB cable- they already destroyed one. So I want to try to get 7 hours of web surfing/ebook reading, plus another 5 or 6 hours of idle/standby time.