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This is Sony Ericsson's second effort at a touchscreen phone after the disappointment of the Sony Ericsson Satio, so there's a lot of pressure riding on it.
HD video recording is the headline grabber, but the rest of the phone needs to impress as well in this smartphone-heavy age.
We liked:
The Sony Ericsson Vivaz is lovely to hold – that ergonomic design really does pay off and the near-HD screen also plays a part in making it look and feel like a quality phone.
The touchscreen does a great job considering it is resistive, and the camera quality is high – not solely for recording HD video; still shots using the 8.1-megapixel camera come out very nicely too.
The clean and tidy home screen pleased us, and the tabbed functions were handy for quick access to our favourite apps and media.
We disliked
For all its nice design and screen, we couldn't help but feel the chassis was still a bit too plastic, particularly the back panel which gives it a slightly cheap feel.
The Sony Ericsson Vivaz also has quite a few little glitches and niggles – not least the frustrating screen and key lock mechanism.
Also having to constantly reassure the handset that yes, we do want to connect using the default internet connection made our techno-hackles rise.
The Android-esque interface lends itself to apps, so we'd have liked to have seen more good quality, low-cost apps in the PlayNow app store, but these may come with time.
And, although it may have been one of the best resistive touchscreens we've seen, it's still not a patch on a capacitive screen.
Verdict:
For a mid-to-high range feature phone, we were pleasantly surprised by how much we liked the Sony Ericsson Vivaz.
As a phone it performed well and we were impressed with the music player and camera functions – the main features of the phone.
Such a shame, then, that little things let it down; we were constantly annoyed by the key lock function, the temperamental auto-rotate and the schizophrenic internet settings.
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