The contrast is low here too, like the still camera, but the sharpening is excessive, which sometimes leads to visible artifacts. The Sony Ericsson Vivaz pro has quite a few connectivity options. The web browser is good at rendering, bad at usability. Sony Ericsson Vivaz pro uses the S60 5th edition browser and starts up with the typical Sony Ericsson homepage. Browsing has quite a few usability issues though.
Strangely, it was a little hard to trigger, so you are better off using the zoom bar. You can view a page fullscreen, which gets the controls out of the way, and Overview, which shows fits the page on the screen and lets you pick which zone to zoom back to. At least the page rendering is quite good, making all the pages look as if browsed on a desktop PC. The high resolution is also welcome here, as it allows more content to fit on the screen.
Finally, the web browser has support for both Flash and Java, which means you can enjoy flash videos straight in your browser without having to use the mobile versions of sites like YouTube.
In terms of speed, the browser performs very well and though there were occasional lags, the videos played smoothly most of the time. So, generally speaking, the S60 touch-browser is nicely equipped but fails to address some basic usability shortcomings. Symbian-grade organizer. The calendar has four different view modes — monthly, weekly, daily and to-do, which allows you to check up all your pending tasks regardless of their date.
There are the same four types of events available for setting up as on S60 3rd edition — Meeting, Memo, Anniversary and To-do.
Each event has unique fields of its own, and some of them allow an alarm to be activated at a preset time to act as a reminder. Quickoffice is also highly functional with preinstalled viewers for Word, Excel and PowerPoint files — Office docs are supported too. DOCX and the like. The PDF viewer was preinstalled on our unit and it was a full version, no trials this time around. If you would like editing enabled you will have to buy the additional license. The organizer package also includes a great unit converter, a calculator and a voice recorder, as well as the Notes application.
The alarm application allows you to set up as many alarms as you want, each with its own name, trigger day and repeat pattern. This is quite convenient for, say, setting up your wake-up alarm.
In addition, the number of alarms is not limited. Thanks to the built-in accelerometer you can also snooze the alarm by simply flipping your phone over.
The DataViz RoadSync is among the most useful preinstalled applications if you plan to use your Vivaz in a corporate environment. You may just as well sync your phone to the Google cloud service — contacts, email and calendar.
You can set up how long the preview lasts. Devices that support DLNA — many TVs and any computer with a supported media player — can view photos, videos and play music off your phone. The devices connect over Wi-Fi — Windows Media Player, for example, found the Vivaz pro automatically, so this is a real hassle-free way to show off your photos. World Mate is a travel advisor for weather, flights, etc.
The Web publishing helps with uploading your photos and videos to the likes of Facebook, YouTube, Twitpic, Picasa and so on. The Facebook app is a full-blown client. It separates things into two tabs — your stuff wall, galleries, messages, contacts, etc.
If the contact has added a phone number to their profile, there are buttons that let you quickly call them or send them a text. Our Sony Ericsson Vivaz pro came with no games preinstalled — this could be a regional thing.
Wisepilot to guide your way. Its sensitivity is nothing spectacular — it managed to get a lock from a cold start in a couple of minutes. The Vivaz pro is equipped with the Wisepilot navigation software on a 30 day trial. Its main downside is that maps are not stored locally but instead get downloaded over the air. Still, we would have liked to have a map downloader as well. It really would have helped avoid roaming data charges. We also wish there was a built-in compass, like on most of its competitors, to facilitate navigation.
But hey, keeping the compact size is quite an achievement. The thickness and weight went up, but in the world of slide-out QWERTY the thickness is to be expected and the weight of the Vivaz pro is more than reasonable. The software side of things is unchanged from the first Vivaz. The camera is an 8MP sharpshooter with p video recording. It does have all its social networking bases covered though. The Sony Ericsson Vivaz pro is not perfect, but the camera is keeping it afloat.
Still images are good enough and p video is a premium feature to have on a phone. Users like to have a choice, and makers seem to understand that.
Even if it means investing into niche products. Overall, the Vivaz Pro gives a fractured user experience. Sony Ericsson have tried to implement kinetic scrolling and single-tap operation where they can, but those areas are few and far between.
This is perhaps more of a criticism of S60 5th Edition than Sony Ericsson. Regardless, having to use your finger to drag narrow scroll-bars, while haptic feedback creates a continuous clunking sensation takes away any sense of smoothness while working with the phone.
However, Nokia have long since remedied some of these user-interface issues and sent updates to all of their touch devices e. N97, N97mini, , , etc. So it is a shame that Sony Ericsson could not, or would not, license these enhancements, or write their own. The areas in which Sony Ericsson have worked on user interface are with their Flash-based home-screen widgets and the multimedia suite; there will be more on these below. While adding or browsing favourites, the user has kinetic scrolling.
However, after viewing a contact, the user is dumped to the default S60 Contacts application, which does not have kinetic scrolling in this implementation. This is perhaps the worst example of the Vivaz Pro demanding users make a mental switch between two different touch paradigms. Standby themes. There are exceptions with some applets that really need the keyboard, although it still seems like a piece-meal approach. Similarly, it seems as if most of the Sony Ericsson customisations have just been imported directly from the Vivaz to the Vivaz Pro without adding support for the keyboard.
All have application shortcuts, which are controlled from a single list accessed via phone settings. Finger Use: Four large shortcuts for the top-four selected favourite applications; shown below the clock and signal indicators. Buttons for messaging, contacts, telephone, applications and profiles are at the bottom.
Sony Ericsson: A specialised five-screen system with Flash-based widgets, more on this below. This toolbar has four icons which each open a drop-down list. The first shows the top seven favourite applications; the second shows imminent Calendar entries; the third shows the now-playing list from the Sony Ericsson music player; and the fourth gives a list of personalisation options.
Power users might want to give consideration to which of these they use. The Sony Ericsson standby theme. This is made up of five screens which the user switches between by swiping their finger left or right. A long press on the current icon opens a list of all available widgets so that the user can set up as they wish.
The available options are: Empty Picture: selected from gallery Adobe Flash: selected from a range of widgets Mobile Aquarium: Novelty. Memo Pad: Typed or handwritten notes on virtual note paper. Beach Marimba: Novelty. Balloon Game: Novelty. However, it fails to remember log-in details between boots of the phone. It is also a battery drain, requiring constant data connectivity.
An abstract layer of water attempts to remain horizontal as the phone rotates. A very vague substitute for a spirit-level application, but is another battery drain. Favourite Contacts: A kinetically scrolling list of selected contacts for quick access. Additionally, there is a floating widget, which appears on all five screens after a period of inactivity. It can also expand upwards to show the currently playing music track. Web browsing would seem to be a natural activity to take up on a phone like the Vivaz Pro, but the experience becomes stilted thanks to Sony Ericsson using an older version of Web as shown in the screenshot below.
There is the familiar finger-friendly menu, although there is no kinetic scrolling. Thankfully, input from the cursor keys is accepted, which serves to scroll the page and move between successive links. Another frustrating part of this version of Web is that zoom levels are not remembered between page loads. Which means the user has to readjust the zoom level every time they return to a previously zoomed page.
In which case, creating and editing Office files would seem quite important. On a brighter note, the Vivaz Pro is supplied with a fully functioning version of Adobe Reader 2. To the uninitiated, 2. The lack of this on Nokia phones has been the cause of many-a-rant in my previous reviews, so it is fantastic to see it here. Sony Ericsson has given the old SyncML application a much needed boost; it now supports scheduled synchronisation. Even if the phone is switched off across its scheduled sync time, it will sync as soon as it is switched on.
The former will be familiar to most readers; version 3. WisePilot is a subscription-based navigation application, taking the place that would normally be filled by Ovi Maps on Nokia S60 phones. All users have a free 30 day subscription to test the service. Fortunately, there a pay-as-you-go payment model.
These can be purchased within the application, although longer subscription periods have to be purchased via the WisePilot website. Google Maps can use cell tower location plus its own Wi-fi location system and thus get rough fixes indoors easily, while WisePilot is dependent just on the traditional GPS network and so any fix requires a decent GPS lock.
Tests for this review saw the Vivaz Pro locking on to nine satellites within two minutes. Other applications. Conversations — Displays SMS conversations. Also built-into the standard Messaging menu. Which means that even though the PlayNow page is closed down, Web is still running these pages in the background, clogging up RAM. The Multimedia application is a complete contrast to the rest of the Vivaz Pro user experience.
Everything flows smoothly, with kinetic scrolling and single-tap operation. Content is presented pleasingly with a stylish monochromatic interface, initially offering the choice of Photos, Music or Videos, each section having their own relevant sub-categories.
The lack of keyboard support is a particular problem when trying to find a specific point in an audio or video file. The playback widget has a small width, which means touching the time-line slider is quite imprecise.
Being able to hold the cursor keys down would allow for more precise movement within a file. However, launching a music or video file from the file manager opens up those familiar S60 applications, rather than the Sony Ericsson suite. Admittedly, this usage scenario will be rare, but does demonstrate the gaps between the S60 interface and the manufacturer customisations. Going into the Photos section gives you the following options: Latest Photos Displays the last photo taken Camera Album Grouping photos by the month they were taken.
There is also an option to add new services. However, tapping this just takes you to the PlayNow store in Web, with no clear route to actually add a new service. Overall, the interface for viewing photos is nicely done.
The user moves between photos by swiping a finger across the screen. Below the threshold, the current photo just oscillates, and beyond, several photos will rush by at once.
Just as with the original Vivaz, the Audiobooks and Podcasts are just filters, there is no means of content delivery here. However, the music application is only looking at the ID3 tags, and not inferring context based on where the files are saved e. The following list of options are given in the video section: YouTube Sony Ericsson have brought this up-to-date by including version 2.
BBC iPlayer This looks handy, but is a complete let-down. Tapping this takes the user to the desktop version of the iPlayer site, which requires a version of Adobe Flash that is not available for the Vivaz Pro. The user is presented with a list of titles accompanied with small thumbnails.
Camera Videos A grouped list of all videos filmed by the Vivaz Pro video camera. Podcasts Just as with the Music application, there is no way to subscribe and download content, this is just a filter. Therefore, any video podcasts copied or downloaded to the Vivaz Pro will have to be found via the main video list, or from the file manager. Video codec support seems slightly better than in comparable Nokia S60 5th Edition phones. Web Publishing.
These are quite easy to set up, only a user-name and password are required. One minor hiccup with the YouTube service was that video uploads were set up to be private by default. However, if a video is inadvertently uploaded with the wrong privacy setting, it can only be amended via the desktop YouTube website. Things get more complicated when adding new services. For example, Flickr is a service that can be added, although there is no wizard or other guidance to help novice users.
Not good. Overall, Web Publisher is clearly an integral part of the usage scenario Sony Ericsson have marketed the Vivaz Pro for, but it needs to be far more user-friendly than it currently is. Given its name and keyboard, it is tempting to label the Vivaz Pro as an enterprise orientated version of the Vivaz. However, the lack of an editor for Office files, paltry battery life and even the flimsy space bar, all mean that is not quite there as an enterprise device.
Programa, programm para mobile9. With the blend of 3G and Wi Fi, the option of quick browsing experience is ensured by the mobile phone business. The camera forever plays an basic position in a smart phone. Sony EricssonVivaz pro realizes in a sensibly excellent camera that has 5 mega pixels and resolution of x pixels.
The other elevated features of the camera comprise LED light-emitting diode flash, vehicle focus, geo category, touch focus, and grin and face detection.
The camera is as well capable to shoot video at HD p, which is a big plus summit. Then, the consumers can take excellent breaks and videos and can split them with friends by uploading on the social networks. Read More. Advanced Search. Softwares by Cell Phone:. Sony Ericsson Vivaz pro Specs. Sony Ericsson Vivaz pro Games. Sony Ericsson Vivaz pro Software.
Sony Ericsson Vivaz pro Screensavers. Sony Ericsson Vivaz pro Wallpapers. Post Your Opinion. Browser Calculator Camera - Viewer Connectivity 3. Dictionary Likewise the keyboard is surrounded by clear plastic that wobbles and flexes beneath your fingers as you type.
Other immediate concerns are the position of the headphone socket, which being on the side means any headphones without an angled jack will snag on your pockets, and the microUSB data transfer and charging socket, which is covered by a plastic flap.
While we can appreciate the merits of protecting the socket from dirt ingress and knocks, these plastic flaps are a right pain when you actually want to connect a cable. On-board storage is limited to just 75MB, but a microSD slot sits under the backplate, giving you the option of adding up to 32GB more storage — you get an 8GB card in the box.
Thanks to a fairly high resolution x for its size, it has above average sharpness and it produces strong yet natural looking colours. Also, despite being an LCD panel, viewing angles are also very good.
Its only other downside is the unimpressive contrast level, and the quality of its blacks. Neither was it quite so mottled and grainy. Likewise, its HD video recording abilities are now far from unique, with both the Apple iPhone 4 and Samsung Wave sharing the same basic hardware. Instead it has two hardware buttons. These sound fine in theory, but in practice it constantly catches you out as you go to start recording some video and press the camera button instead and end up switching modes.
At least it has a button for the camera, though, unlike the iPhone 4. For a start, it just looks drab and boxy. Sony Ericsson has made some changes, including adding multiple desktops and a custom media interface. As for the media interface, it is quite nice, providing a simple, intuitive interface for browsing your music, photos, and videos.
The web browser is okay at rendering web pages and is reasonably fast, but all the interface aspects of it are infuriatingly clunky. Looking finally at price, the Sony Ericsson Vivaz Pro is just about on the money in terms of build quality and features. We test every mobile phone we review thoroughly. We use industry standard tests to compare features properly and we use the phone as our main device over the review period.
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