Preview: Sony Ericsson Vivaz
by edit@cnet.com.au (John Chan)First impressions
While HD-quality video capture is becoming more common on compact digicams, there still aren’t many mobile phones that can do the same. The Samsung i8910 HD is the most prominent example with its ability to shoot 720p videos, and now, Sony Ericsson has joined the league with its Vivaz smartphone. We managed to get our hands on a prototype unit and here are our observations.
The first thing that struck us about the Vivaz design was how compact it is. Given the number of features it packs, we would have imagined it to be larger. Instead, the Vivaz is smaller and lighter than the i8910 HD and Sony Ericsson’s own Satio, at 107×52x12.5mm and 97g.
The device looks sleek with a curved back battery cover and clean, simple front. Like other Symbian S60 5th Edition touchscreen phones, the display has a resolution of 640×360 pixels. This is of the resistive variety, which means it will respond to stylus tips.
Buttons on the front of this smartphone include your standard Call and End buttons with a menu key between. The left is where you will find a micro-USB port for charging and syncing and a 3.5mm audio connector. This is great news for music lovers as you will be able to plug in your favourite headphones without an adapter. Take note that since it is located on the side, you should use a pair of headphones that come with an L-shaped jack. A single power/keylock button sits at the top of the Vivaz.
The right side of the phone is where you’ll find all the camera controls when holding the device in landscape mode. The Vivaz’s main draw is its 8-megapixel camera, so we’ll discuss that and its controls in more detail later.
The Vivaz has no lack of connectivity features. It comes with HSDPA, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS for satellite navigation.
On the software end of things, the custom S60 5th Edition interface is similar to the Satio’s. This means you get a tabbed home screen which gives you quick access to items such as favourite contacts, internet bookmarks and even Twitter updates. And like the Satio, there are quirks, too. Swipe scrolling is implemented in some lists, but not in others like the menu screen - an annoying issue.
For memory expansion, a microSD card slot is found behind the back battery cover. The device itself has 75MB built-in, which is pathetic. So having an expansion card is critical, especially if you are using the phone as a music player. If you get tired of your own music library, the Vivaz also has an FM tuner for listening to live radio.
By far the most outstanding feature of the Vivaz is its 8-megapixel camera capable of capturing 720p videos. Even though what we have is a prototype unit, we were quite impressed with the shooting capabilities of this smartphone.
Controlling the camera is done using the touchscreen and buttons on the right side. It is meant to be held horizontally like a compact digicam with your right index finger on the dedicated shutter button. Right beside the shutter button for still shots is one just for recording video, which further goes to show how important the imaging features are on the Vivaz.
The speed of the camera is commendable. It starts up in about three seconds and shutter lag measured just 0.3 seconds in our tests. There are many shooting options, including face detection, “touch to focus” and even one to geotag images using the built-in GPS. Videos can be shot at 720p, VGA, QVGA and a lower-quality mode for MMS use.
Outlook
As mentioned earlier, what we have is a pre-production unit so we won’t attempt to assess the quality of images and videos. What we have seen so far is encouraging, and we can’t wait to see the final commercial product.
The Vivaz should be available this quarter, but we don’t know at what price yet. Hopefully, it won’t be too expensive as that would hurt its competitiveness compared with the Samsung i8910 HD which shares very similar features.
Related Articles
