Sony Ericsson Vivaz Review
In brief
The Sony Ericsson Vivaz is a mobile phone with HD video at its core and a number of additional features housed within its attractive and slim-line case.
Look and Feel
The Sony Ericsson Vivaz has an appealing design. The edges and back are curved for style as well as hand comfort. Considering the features inbuilt in this phone, the size is small and the weight (97g) is incredible. You can keep your Vivaz in your pocket or handbag with ease and you certainly won’t be weighed down by it.
Following on from the popular Sony Ericsson phone, the
Satio, the Sony Ericsson Vivaz shifts the emphasis from the camera to the video function. Not only will you never miss a moment with this phone – whether you capture it on the 8-megapixel camera or the video recorder – you can share images easily and store them as the memory can be increased to up to 16GB. Of course, for those moments when you simply want to look through your photos or play your recently recorded footage, the high resolution 3.2 inch touchscreen ensures this is an enjoyable experience.
The display on the screen supports the viewing of HD videos. Although the screen quality is slightly less than on the
Google Nexus One, it is superior to the
iPhone – and very pleasing to the eyes.
To complete the user-friendly design of the Sony Ericsson Vivaz, the exterior comes in silver moon, Venus ruby, galaxy blue and cosmic black. There are only three physical buttons beneath the screen which are for making and ending calls and accessing the menu.
Special features
The 8-megapixel camera is pretty impressive just on its own – but combine this with extras and an ability to record HD videos, and this adds up to a highly competitive offering. The camera on the Sony Ericsson Vivaz has the fairly standard LED flash, autofocus, face and smile detection functions, but it also has touch focus and geo-tagging.
There is more to the Sony Ericsson Vivaz than its image-capture ability, however. You can enjoy playing games in 3D on the phone, reading Office documents, and interacting on social networking sites. The Vivaz has several applications including for Twitter and Facebook, YouTube and Picasa, so you can update your status, tweet merrily and share your images with friends and family online. The 3G and Wi-Fi connection keeps your browser operating at a swift speed – which is sure to keep you happy too.
The music player onboard is decent and you have the listening choice of out loud or through earphones as the Vivaz has an inbuilt speaker and a 3.5mm audio connector. There is also an FM radio with RDS support so you can read and listen to information from your preferred radio station.
The Sony Ericsson Vivaz offers a lot. The design is stylish and compact; the features are plentiful; and the communication options are reliable. This phone is made for you if you want to be able to record HD videos on the move, and a good choice if you simply want a good looking, capable mobile phone.