The Sony Ericsson Vivaz is the latest mobile phone from a fledging manufacturer. The specs look great, but then so did Satio’s.

This does however look like it could be the real deal and Sony Ericsson will have no doubt learnt from past mistakes. The Vivaz operates on S60 5th, which, while a decent OS, is a little disappointing because the platform is pretty outdated now and it would be nice to see Ericsson move forward. Nevertheless, the Vivaz has many winning points.

Sony Ericsson Vivaz comes equipped with an 8.1 megapixel autofocus camera with image stabilisation which will look immaculate on a 3.2” screen. The Vivaz also has face detection which is a pretty nifty feature, 720p video capture, FM radio, aGPS, wifi and a very welcome TV-out for you to watch movies or slideshows on your television. The facebook integration is a strong feature, and with it on your homescreen, you will get instant updates. So when you take a photo you have the option to upload straight to the network site. After all this phone is all about sharing.

Ericsson do very well with the aesthetic side of things and it really is pleasing to see they are at last ditching the square shape phone with square buttons in favour of sleekness.

That being said, it seems they do still skimp on other aspects, like the Vivaz only having 75MB memory – that’s very small at the best of times, but considering the actual amount is usually far decreased by the time you take it out of the box, this could potentially cause a lot of problems with freezing and crashing; Ericsson even admit on their website that “Actual free memory may vary due to phone pre-configuration.” The free turn-by-turn navigation built-in is guaranteed to please customers, and it also boasts Google Maps and handwriting recognition. If it manages to avoid the problems of the Satio, Ericsson could have a real contender on their hands.

QUICK-FIRE FEATURES
Display: 3.2” TFT HD resistive touchscreen
Weight: 97g
Dimensions: 107.0 x 52.0 x 12.5 mm
Camera: 8.1MP autofocus and face-recognition, LED flash
Video: 720p@24fps, continuous autofocus, video light
Music player: MP3, AAC
Operating system: Symbian S60 5th
Memory: 75MB phone memory, 8GB SD card included, up to 16GB available
Connectivity: Bluetooth 2.1, microUSB
Internet: HSUPA, HSDPA, EDGE, wifi, 3G

 ★★★★☆ 

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