We spent a lot of time on the Sony Ericsson Vivaz at Mobile World Congress. A lot of time. We even managed to get some time with one of the Product Planners responsible for the device (and sister unit, the Vivaz Pro).
Since Symbian helped cover out costs to get to MWC, it was a dream — a rareified dream — to actually be able to sit down and cover the device in-depth. So much so that I’ve just produced 6 different videos of the Vivaz (on top of the couple we’ve already published). The device is one of the next breed of Symbian devices really does have me reaching for my wallet. I’m looking forward to seeing what Nokia are able to deliver but until then, the Vivaz is clearly one of the front-running top-of-the-range Symbian devices hitting the Western markets.
And it’s coming soon from Vodafone UK. March 9th, to be precise. I seriously might get one of these. The key reason? It’s camera. It comes with an 8.1 megapixel camera that captures HD video — AND it’s got a wickedly cool autofocus function.
Standby, I’ll be publishing these videos shortly.
It looks quite nice but the shameful thing is it's got a single little LED flash. A great deal of photos people take with cameras (of which this phone is clearly aiming to be a stand in for) are taken in low light without a perfectly still camera (e.g. in the hand) or at night. An LED is probably less use than a candle. Once you've experienced Xenon flashes you can never go back, they really are unbeatable for still shots, and miles in advance of even the best dual LED solutions (as Nokia users have discovered). And contrary to some belief Xenon is not more expensive, battery draining, delicate, or bulky. Nokia proved this in the 6220 Classic.