Review: Sony Ericsson Vivaz, part1: Hardware and overview

I want this! I want this! I want this! I want this! I want this! I want this!

:-)

Looks absolutely gorgious!
...and thankyou SonyEricsson for chosing a proper OS and putting in a fast CPU and graphics chip! YES!

Despite the UI shortcoming S60 5th, it is still the best, period. Esspecially for multimedia Symbian is superior (Android: spit!).

[snoFlake]

I do really quite like it - just had quick play with a dummy in CPW and it really does look very nice and very small indeed in the hand - seems almost 50% size of N97mini and has same screen size.

But I think S60 V5 just isn't going to be good enough for this year, it's been rumbled and I don't think given their parlous finances and the glacial speed at which the Satio is being fixed/upgraded that there's much real prospect of getting SF^2 features on it if they're not in at launch.

Shame cos it really is a nice bit of kit and one of the smallest seeming touch smartphones I think you could find and the cam looks v good too but to compensate for the OS I think it'd have to be £100 less for me and that's not gonna happen. For me there's just too much new stuff and radical OS overhauls in the pipeline. Obviously for the mass market this isn't such a consideration I just think they're going to prove to have been 3 months late to market to maximise is lifespan.

[clonmult]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Looks absolutely gorgious!
...and thankyou SonyEricsson for chosing a proper OS and putting in a fast CPU and graphics chip! YES!

Aye, its good to see its got a graphics accelerator, but precisely how many games or apps will be able to make use of it? That'll sadly be about, mmmm, none?

And the main source of apps for Symbian is the Ovi store. that won't be supported either. It won't run the main selling point of Symbian of the moment - Ovi Maps.

Which is a damn crying shame, as its a good looking piece of kit, but ultimately slightly screwed by not being a Nokia ....

You're right that Ovi Maps is not supported as well as Ovi Store, but you do actually have the PlayNow Arena store on the new SE phones!

Another thing, you're right that their are not many apps that utilise the graphics chip yet, but since it is a standard OpenGL ES 2.0 chip, and the OpenGL ES 2.0 api is supported in the OS, it would take a developer roughly 2 days to port over an iPhone 3GS game to the Vivaz(!!).

Whether the developers actually give a damn, is another matter. But there is NO RATIONAL EXCUSE not to support the device.

I have the Satio now and using it with a Mac, not bad at all. But if it had TFT screen it would make it 60% useless for me in taking photos. I use an iphone most of the time, but like to have a bit of new tech ie good camera with me all the time. I had the Samsung i8510 and whilst it had a pretty good camera (not as good as Satio) it was useless outside, it was literally a black screen in sunlight.
The Satio is very good outside.
Don't be hatin' on the Satio so much please.

Originally Posted by clonmult

Aye, its good to see its got a graphics accelerator, but precisely how many games or apps will be able to make use of it? That'll sadly be about, mmmm, none?

And the main source of apps for Symbian is the Ovi store. that won't be supported either. It won't run the main selling point of Symbian of the moment - Ovi Maps.

Which is a damn crying shame, as its a good looking piece of kit, but ultimately slightly screwed by not being a Nokia ....

Agreed!

Nokia could charge for Ovi Maps on the Vivaz. I know so may s60 users willing to go for the vivaz if Ovi Maps were legitimately supported. Most of the important apps on the Ovi Store can be found lying scattered around the web.

[clonmult]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Nokia could charge for Ovi Maps on the Vivaz. I know so may s60 users willing to go for the vivaz if Ovi Maps were legitimately supported. Most of the important apps on the Ovi Store can be found lying scattered around the web.

From what I've read, its down to specific certificates and/or APIs that are only available on the Nokia devices. I think some of the homebrewed firmwares for the i8910 allow the Samsung to use either the Ovi store or Nokia specific applications.

It doesn't necessarily make sense for Nokia to support Ovi and their specific apps on devices from other manufacturers, especially when they're a unique selling point for Nokia, and are basically being given away.

Hey,
as some1 asked before does it have any kind of blinking light (notification bout new sms/cals etc)?

rly nice phone to be honest, but...d love to see n97mini with this specs(or with this amount of ram atleast)

[dlff]

Here is a question for Steve Litchfield:
Is it worthwhile to change to a Vivaz from a Satio which I am using now?
I do like the size of the Vivaz, faster processor & camera's specs are almost at par with the Satio.
Thank you.

[slitchfield]

Originally Posted by dlff

Here is a question for Steve Litchfield:
Is it worthwhile to change to a Vivaz from a Satio which I am using now?
I do like the size of the Vivaz, faster processor & camera's specs are almost at par with the Satio.
Thank you.

Yes, if you can live with the lack of Xenon flash. Mind you, this never worked properly on my Satio anyway - wasn't a patch on the N82's etc.

[heronfisher]

Looks very stunning and way smaller than i thought, really very faster processor. Think I will pick one up when the ebay prices goes cheap.

I had a n97 mini and i swore to myself that i will never touch a S60 V5 again. First of all it was to expensive, second it was to slow and the main reason was the lack of two (at least for me) basic apps: A smothly working divx Player (like coreplayer) and a offline wiki reader (like mobipocket). Now that i saw the vivaz i am in two minds...

[dlff]

Steve,
After having my Satio upgraded to the latest sw (2nd sw upgrade so far). It has improved quite a fair bit at least it does not freeze like before.
Somehow the UI is still not up to what I expect from a top range camera centric model from SE. I still notice a bit of lag in the UI response. Battery capacity is rather limited for such a high powered phone.
On the positive side, it has the best camera in the market now.
I suspect that it will sell cheaper than the Satio.
Vivaz is still the way to go until Nokia comes out with her 12mp.

Am I the only one that thinks this is quite ridiculous?

"The 3.5mm audio/TVout jack is beautifully positioned, snug in the top left corner"

Beautifully positioned, really? So any standard headphones cable will be sticking to the side in your pocket! Even the curved L shaped end will always be in the way, never mind the standard one that most people will want to use - which is pretty much the point of having 3,5 jack there in the first place.

This is the only position even less convenient than the top of the phone. I cannot understand what's so difficult about positioning this connector in the bottom. The cable would 1) not get in the way in the pocket and 2) you would use the entire length of the cable with ease when you hold the phone in your hand with the headphones connected, which you cannot do if the socket is in the top or in the side.

I understand that with the size of the phone it must've been a tight fit, but this design decision is pure idiocy in my opinion.

Otherwise the phone looks quite impressive, if I was planning on buying another Symbian^1 device, I would probably get this one. I assume that some enterprising hacker will eventually overcome the problem of Nokia only apps.