Sony Ericsson Vivaz Review

The new Sony Ericsson Vivaz is the second installment in Sony Ericsson's new lineup of communications entertainment smartphones, a mash-up of its well-known Walkman, Cybershot and messaging concepts. Like its Android sibling, the Xperia X10, the Sony Ericsson Vivaz Symbian smartphone offers a new "human curvature" design philosophy. Sony Ericsson says this will be the way to instantly recognize this type of smartphone in the future, and if you're looking for an all-in-one smartphone solution tailored to consumers, the Vivaz will be a smartphone to keep an eye on in the months ahead.

Customizable Vivaz UI

When we played with the Sony Ericsson Satio a couple of months ago, its user interface came across as a rich cell phone interface rather than a smartphone interface. With the introduction of the Sony Ericsson Vivaz, however, a new and important tweak has been made: The five "home screen" panels first seen on the Satio have been extended and made more user-configurable on the Vivaz, including the ability to select Flash Lite content such as apps, games and animations.

Sony Ericsson has included Twitter and Facebook apps written using Flash Lite 3.0, and the manufacturer encourages third-party developers to offer Symbian and Flash content through its expanded PlayNow ecosystem, previously only available to music publishers.

Cybershot on steroids

While 720p HD recording is old news in the mobile industry, the Sony Ericsson Vivaz will take it all to a new level. A new dedicated video key will allow users to shoot HD video instantly with continuous auto focus, and footage can be shared via Wi-Fi to for instance YouTube while still using other phone features. Third-party Symbian developers will also get access to the HD recording capability through a Symbian Camera API, enabling a range of possibilities when it comes to for instance augmented reality apps.

Vivaz Specifications

The Sony Ericsson Vivaz has a 3.2-inch resistive touchscreen with a resolution of 360 by 640 pixels. The 8.1-megapixel camera is as mentioned above capable of recording HD video, and also packs face and smile detection. An 8GB microSD card will be included out-of-box, while up to 16GB cards are supported. Gamers should also be aware that the Vivaz supports OpenGL ES 1.1 and 2.0 for improved 3D graphics. The smartphone is powered by Symbian^1 (S60 5th Edition), a 720 MHz processor and offers up to 75MB phone memory. The phone also offers Quickoffice's Microsoft Office viewer and Road Sync, in addition to Microsoft ActiveSync Exchange support out-of-box. Check out more specifications here.

Price and availability

Two GSM versions of the Sony Ericsson Vivaz will be released in Q1 2010, one supporting AT&T's 3G network and one supporting European and Asian 3G networks. A price tag or specific market availability has not yet been announced, but the phone will be available in the colors Moon Silver, Cosmic Black, Galaxy Blue and Venus Ruby.