With its slide-out Qwerty keypad and 5-megapixel camera, the Sony Ericsson Vivaz Pro is an interesting phone on paper. Read our review to see if it’s interesting enough to buy or if it’s just all talk.
What we like
Sony Ericsson knows how to make a good camera phone. The Vivaz Pro’s 5-megapixel camera takes crisp shots in daylight and fantastic close-ups. You can spend ages fiddling around with various settings to make sure you get the perfect shot, or if you’re not a tinkerer then auto mode works well too.
Shooting HD video is a snap and we like that Sony Ericsson has added dedicated camera buttons for taking photos or videos. Watching videos and listening to music on the Vivaz Pro is enjoyable enough but the PSP-style interface is a bit fiddly at times.
Unlike old Sony Ericsson phones, the Vivaz Pro boasts a standard 3.5mm headphone jack and micro USB port. Gone are the days when you need to use adapters and proprietary Sony Ericsson chargers. Let’s hope that things stay this way.
While we’re not massive fans on the Vivaz Pro’s screen or Qwerty keypad, we appreciate what Sony Ericsson was trying to do. We like being able to choose how to input text. It’s just a shame Sony Ericsson didn’t put in a better screen.
What we don’t like
Where do we start. Compared to other Sony Ericsson phones which boast capacitive screens, the Vivaz Pro’s resistive display is dissapointing. We found ourselves tapping it several times to select options – it just wasn’t responsive enough.
We hoped that the Vivaz Pro’s slide-out Qwerty keypad would offer refuge from the resistive screen but it didn’t. The keypad looks great but it doesn’t feel right, the keys are stiff and we couldn’t type out emails as fast as we wanted to.
Another niggle is the Vivaz Pro’s interface, which sits on top of Symbian. It looks good but it’s buggy. Sony Ericsson are moving in the right direction by adding Twitter functionality to the homepage but it’s a shame that the Twitter app doesn’t let you send replies or DMs.
Conclusion
We’re not sure that the Sony Ericsson Vivaz Pro deserves to be called ‘Pro’. Sure, it looks nice but it doesn’t deliver a pro experience. In fact we’d much rather buy a Vivaz than a Vivaz Pro, even though we really want a Qwerty slider. We hope Sony Ericsson keeps at it and gets it right with the next one.
Specification
| OS | Proprietary |
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