Sony Ericsson Vivaz – more than meets the eye!

Keeping an ever beady eye on the latest mobile phones to enter the market, Sony Ericsson has decided on an innovative way to capitalise on the rising popularity of compact, high definition camcorders. The new touch screen Vivaz is a media phone with an 8.1 megapixel camera and a very impressive 720p high definition video recorder.

Lurking in the middle of the battery cover, the camera shoots video at 720p with motion that remains smooth and clear (videos at this resolution are often distinctly jerky) and there are two dedicated buttons – one for stills, the other for videos, which makes operation a breeze. The still shots are crisp and detailed, although they’re just a little muted in the colour department. You’ll probably be aware that HD footage guzzles a lot of storage space, but the Sony Ericsson Vivaz comes with a capacious 8 GB micro-SD card as standard. There’s an irritating design glitch here, though: to get at the card, you have to remove the battery. Hurrumph to that.

At 3.2 inches, the display is generous without being massive (the Sony Ericsson X10’s screen is a stunning 4 inches). For the size of screen, the 640×320 pixel resolution is more than adequate, making browsing the web a delight – videos, graphics and even text look fabulous.

The main downsides lie in the use of the cumbersome and sluggish Symbian S60 OS and the choice of a resistive rather than a capacitative touch screen. But there are plenty of preloaded apps (including a YouTube player), the GPS is excellent, and the phone’s HSDPA and Wi-Fi will permit fast data downloads wherever you are. And you’ll get at least 2 days out of a single charge of the battery. If you like contract mobile phones, you can pick this one up for a not too unreasonable £25-a-month over two years. SIM-free, it’ll set you back about £350.