Are you following me on Twitter? If not, its about Time, because then you would have known the Sony Ericsson Vivaz a lot better than you already do. I have been test-driving the Vivaz for the past 2 Weeks to find out the Things i like about it and which i hate about this Handset. So this little Overview about the Vivaz is brought to you twitter-style, each random Sentence in 160 Characters or less!
Out of the Box: smaller than expected, very handy. big fan of the curved Design. Not so much of the pure Plastic Casing.
Ugh – Fingerprints everywhere. The Vivaz is slippery, and totally glossy. I like rubber-like Backplates much more.
3,2″, nHD (640×360 Pixels) resistive Touchscreen. I like the physical Size/Pixel ratio. everything looks crisp.
Only one Speaker? On a Video Phone? What?
I definitely like the separated Buttons for either Video or Photo Application. Big Win!
The On/Off Button needs to be placed elsewhere. The Phone has the best Size to hold it on Top/Bottom. Result? Phone shuts down too often!
Connectivity? 3,5mm Jack WITH TV OUT on Top of the left Side, microUSB with a stupid Cover thats in your Way when you connect the Cable?
Connectivity2: Bluetooth, WLAN, Infrared – yes there is Infrared, but i dont have anything to actually test it. Do you need it?
Fingerprints, Fingerprints and more Fingerprints..
Backside of the Phone, even more Gloss-ness and i just have to mention Cosmic Black, a black Paint that has a slight blue touch. love it!
Love the Fact that the Camera Part is separated in another Colour from the Rest of the Device.
Speaking of Camera: Clearly the Vivaz’ Goal is Video. Only a Single LED for the 8.1 MP Camera, with the Highlight 720p Video recording.
First Boot.. Nice Boot Video there. Are you watching, Nokia? You need get rid of those Hands and get something flashy in.
Symbian S60 5th Edition (Symbian^1) with SE Overhaul. 5 different “Panels” with Shortcuts, Media, Flash Content like an Aquarium or Twitter
Accelerometer is on Board – view your Screen in either portrait, 90° or 270°. Nice!!
There’s a separated little Field in the Start Screen with Profile Settings, Clock and Dialer/Media/Messaging/Search Options. Nice.
Internals? a 720MHz Projector, combined with with PowerVR SGX Graphics. I don’t feel big Speed Differences though. 720p videos run fine though
Oh holy moly, around 150MB free RAM after booting. Impressive, well done Sony Ericsson!!
Btw, if you dont like the SE Homescreen, there are several other Options, incl App Shortcuts like 5800 or N85-like Shortcut Bar on the Side.
Jumping in the Menu – basic Symbian, with the Exception of “Play Now”, Sony Ericssons home-made Download Platform. Google Maps preinstalled.
There’s a SE Facebook Application installed that works okay, but uses its own, ugly as hell Keyboard. Annoying, so back to Opera Mini and FB mobile.
SE’s TrackID is another Application on Board, like Shazam it recognizes Songs when played and, it actually worked quite well.
Battery Life? 1200 mAh Battery + Symbian S60 5th Edition (which improves Battery Life) = about 30 Hours of Battery Life. Great Result!!
Did I mention already that i LOVE the curved Design? If not, i love it. Feels great in the Hand, yet quite small.
Back to Software – very basic Mail Client, Messaging, Contacts, Setting are all very equal to Nokia’s Symbian Devices.
There’s also a build in Youtube Application, that works nice, Playback is okay, could be clearer though.
Over the past 2 Weeks i noticed several Hangups, which were not welcome. Texting Messages were a pain to do sometimes due to hangups.
So that are some twitterized, collected Thoughts that come into play when I think about the Sony Ericsson Vivaz. First Impressions of the Handset leave me split-minded. While i love the stylish Form, that feels great in the Hand, i could’ve lived with a slightly bigger Device and other Materials on its Casing, rather than this downright stupid superglossy Plastic Materials. Here’s me, begging for some Aluminium, you hear me Sony Ericsson? The Battery Life was okay for 1200 mAh, and almost better than the Nokia Touch Devices. I could go on and rant about the resistive Touchscreen, but in some Cases i even wish i had a Stylus with me. Symbian S60 5th Edition, or Symbian^1 is absolutely not suitable for Touchscreen Devices, especially not small ones like the Vivaz. The On/Off Button needs to leave its Position from the Top immediately. Oh and I hope the Software gets some Improvements soon, some of my Hangups were not even funny anymore. Anyways, considering the Price Tag of about € 330,–, the Vivaz is clearly made for a young Myspace Generation of People, who are always up to snap a quick Video or Photo. And for this Audience, the Vivaz will sell. More Coverage in a bit!
Any Questions? Let me know in the Comments!