Our Sony Ericsson Vivaz Review

Sony Ericsson Vivaz Rear

Our first meeting with Sony Ericsson Vivaz, the child of Sony’s creativity and Ericsson’s technology, was a curious one. The super-slim smartphone is much smaller than the photos we’ve seen before receiving the handset. In fact, it fit nicely in our pocket due to its compact size. The Sony Ericsson Vivaz is following the recent design trend in the Sony Ericsson product lines: a sleek curved back, stylish solid casing, and slim backs. Available in a variety of colours, the Sony Ericsson Vivaz is is similar in its design and color variety to the Sony Satio. Vivaz’s body is made of polished plastic to make it lighter and while we definitely miss the polished metal look, we still prefer carrying a lighter phone over having a metal case.

Sony Ericsson Vivaz's HD Screen

Screen

The Sony Ericsson Vivaz’s 3.2-inch touchscreen comes with a high resolution optimum for watching HD movies. It offers vibrant, lively colors with decent brightness and agreeable visibility under direct sunlight. While we would’ve preferred that Sony Ericsson included a capacitive screen for better feedback, the Sony Ericsson Vivaz’s resistive screen is pretty responsive and easy to use. The handy ambient light sensor is an excellent addition to the handset.

User Interface

Examining the Sony Ericsson Vivaz’s interface, we were glad to see that the homescreen is user-friendly. The tabbed interface offers five different homescreens customizable according to preference. Navigation is easily done through horizontal finger sweeps between different tabs. We loved how well-designed the transition animations are no matter how fast you sweep through the tabs. We found the user interface to be one of the best for touchscreen handsets in the market.

Vivaz Right Side

Keypad

Looking under the touchscreen, we found the three function buttons for the menu and call keys. The Sony Ericsson Vivaz is versatile with input as it offers an on-screen QWERTY keypad, a mini QWERTY keypad for use with a stylus, and a handwriting recognition feature. Testing the three input methods proved to be quite pleasing as we were surprised to realize all three work like charm free from errors and freezing. We would’ve loved for Sony Ericsson to embed a predictive text feature as it would’ve saved so much time for the users.

Camera and Multimedia

Ready with an 8 MP camera, the Sony Ericsson Vivaz captures magnificent photos. We tested the camera in different lighting conditions to find that the quality is consistent. Video recording is enhanced with a LED flash that helped us capture several clips in our dim office. The camera also comes with two aspect ratio modes of 4:3 and 16:9, in addition to functional settings such as focus and exposure. While it is no match to the Cybershot handsets, the Sony Ericsson Vivaz’s camera does a decent job.

Vivaz Left Side

In the multimedia department, we weren’t surprised to come across the splendid media center we find in most Sony Ericsson handsets. We didn’t have any trouble browsing through our uploaded library as the interface is straightforward and reliable. One thing that raised a red flag for us was the fact that we were able to play HD clips but not DivX or XviD files. This of course caught us off guard as it doesn’t make sense in a high-end handset such as the Sony Ericsson Vivaz.

Video playback is impeccable with superb resolution, refined detail, and steady performance. We didn’t find the audio quality to be as impressive, since it’s not very loud. It is decent for average users but won’t cut it for hardcore music fans.

Connectivity and Battery Life

Sony Ericsson Vivaz’s connectivity can be used as benchmark; Sony Ericsson covered all possible means of data transfer from GSM, EDGE, 3G, A2DP Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and microSD cards. We loved surfing the web using the Sony Ericsson Vivaz as it offers reliable features and winner connectivity. Through our hours of endless testing, the Sony Ericsson Vivaz’s battery refused to die on us, and thus earned our standing ovations.

What We Liked

We liked the Sony Ericsson Vivaz’s connectivity features, HD touchscreen, and high-end camera.

What We Disliked

We disliked the Sony Ericsson Vivaz’s not-as-perfect audio quality and lack of DivX/XviD support.

Our Final Verdict

We found the Sony Ericsson Vivaz to be a stunner in every aspect. We loved playing games, surfing the web, and watching movies in HD. Some users won’t be too keen on Sony Ericsson Vivaz’s lack of DivX/XviD support, but that is a small quirk that can be forgiven. Overall, the Sony Ericsson Vivaz is a great choice for users of all ages and backgrounds.

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	Sony Ericsson Vivaz
General
Form Factor	Candybar
Dimensions	107 x 51.7 x 13 (mm)
Talk Time	320 mins
Standby Time	440 hours
Weight	96 g
Quad Band	Yes
Photo and Video
Camera	8.00 megapixels
Video Player	Yes
Phone
Polyphonic Ringtones	Yes
Internal Memory	100MB + 8GB microSD
Memory Card Type	microSD (16GB max)
Messaging
Instant Messaging (IM)	Yes
Video Messaging	Yes
Screen
Colour Screen	Yes
Touch Screen	Yes
Screen Resolution	360 x 640 pixels
Screen Colour Depth	16 millions colours
Connectivity
3G	Yes
Bluetooth	Yes
Email	Yes
HSDPA	Yes
Web Browser	Yes
Wi-Fi	Yes
GPS	Yes
Music and Radio
FM Radio	Yes
MP3 Player	Yes
MP3 Ringtones	Yes
Additional Content
Downloadable Content	Yes
Downloadable Games	Yes
Downloadable Ringtones	Yes

Sony Ericsson Vivaz Full Specification

General

Photo and Video

Phone

Messaging

Screen

Connectivity

Music and Radio

Additional Content

Images of the Sony Ericsson Vivaz

Sony Ericsson Vivaz Rear

Sony Ericsson Vivaz's HD Screen

Vivaz Right Side

Vivaz Left Side