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Sony Ericsson Vivaz HD Video
Click here to see the full resolution video
Sony Ericsson Vivaz SD Video
The sound quality is better in the HD recording here, as is the image which is much crisper and doesn't suffer from the visual noise in the SD clip (QVGA 320 x 240). While the SD clip looks like it was taken with a camera phone, the HD clip does not.
Click here to see the full resolution video
This was shot indoors in low light using the camera light which washes the van out a little as it's close to the lamp. You can also see the camera trying to auto-focus throughout; this is a nice touch in the right circumstances, but can get a little annoying.
On a number of separate occasions, recording would begin but get stuck on a single frame – sound would continue to record but the images wouldn't.
This was frustrating when filming one-off occurrences like a couple of randy squirrels frolicking through the park, and happened more than three times rendering it really quite unreliable.
On other occasions however, the video function would work without a hitch.
Comparison to Samsung i8910HD
It's hard to work out which of these phones is better - on the one hand, the price of the Sony Ericsson Vivaz is around £70 cheaper than the older Samsung i8910HD - but the latter offers a lot of extra features.
On the media front, both can capture 720p video, and both can do so at 24fps. We're tempted to say that the Vivaz looks slightly better on the PC screen, but once you run them both through a TV there's very little to choose from.
Add in the fact that the 8MP camera on the i8190HD is, we think, a touch better than the Vivaz's, and the fact it has a massive OLED screen to watch media on, and we still believe Samsung's media behemoth is the better option.
