Design

As mentioned, one of the most important differentiating factors of the Vivaz pro is the slideout QWERTY keyboard. This is landscape-oriented, revealed when you push the screen toward the right. The sliding mechanism isn’t perfect, and on more than a few occasions, it “jammed” when we gripped the phone too tightly while sliding.

Mechanical faults aside, the keyboard itself is decent. It has well-spaced out keys with a sensible layout. The individual keys are not too flat, a problem that sometimes plagues slideout keypads.

Even with the keyboard, the Vivaz pro is still very compact at 109 x 52 x 15mm and light at 117g. It is only 2.5mm thicker than the original Vivaz and 20g heavier. Aside from the keyboard, the layout of the buttons is similar, with camera controls on the right, edge while USB and a 3.5mm audio jack are found on the left. One slight difference is that the audio port is positioned lower along the left edge, under the micro-USB connector. For the Vivaz, the headphone jack was located at the top corner. Either way, we would rather this was on the top or bottom edges as that would make it easier to keep the phone in the pocket while a pair headphones are connected.

Another slight change in button location is the power/lock key. Instead of being on the top edge, it is now on the back of the phone. We found this extremely awkward–it’s simply not intuitive to reach to the back of a smartphone to turn it on. Furthermore, this button is very small and stiff–a poor design decision from Sony Ericsson.

Like the Vivaz, the 3.2-inch 640 x 360 display on the pro does its job. The phone comes with 75MB of built-in memory and a microSDHC card slot for expansion.

Features

The Vivaz pro has a complete set of connectivity features. This includes HSDPA, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and A-GPS for satellite navigation. The operating system is Symbian S60 5th Edition. The Home screen has been tweaked so it’s unique to Sony Ericsson. This gives you quick access to favorite contacts, applications and Twitter updates. It’s identical to what’s found on the Vivaz, all the way down to the included third-party apps such as RoadSync (for Exchange support) and Wisepilot (GPS software), so we won’t go into the details.

What we will say is that Symbian is having a very rough time. It’s getting a lot of flak for not innovating as fast as Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android. Developer support is poor and the outdated-ness of the user interface is evident. If there’s only one reason to avoid the Vivaz pro, this would be it. Furthermore, Sony Ericsson’s implementation of the OS is not great. In certain lists, swipe scrolling in available, but not in others–an annoyance we pointed out in the Vivaz review.

Camera

So, does the lower 5-megapixel camera compared with the 8-megapixel on the Vivaz make the pro less compelling. In short, no. As with the Vivaz, we found the image quality to be great for a smartphone’s camera. The ability to shoot HD-quality clips with active autofocus is still intact and the camera is fast with about a 3-second startup time and very little shutter lag. Our only complaint is that auto white balance didn’t get it right every time when shooting indoors with poor lighting. And as some readers are already aware of, the megapixel count is important only if you are printing large photos. The Vivaz pro’s 5-megapixel sensor will be more than sufficient for most users even if you are printing in A4, so we don’t see any real disadvantage in the reduction of megapixels.

Performance

Battery life was similar to the Vivaz, giving us about two days on a single charge. We had no issues with the quality of the voice calls and reception. Take note that video calls are not supported since the pro has no front-facing camera.

On the matter of interface speed, the Vivaz pro did fine moving between menus and loading programs. It wasn’t fast, but we didn’t pull our hair out waiting for things to happen either. What disappointed was the interface itself, as mentioned earlier, which can be inconsistent at times, making it more laborious to get things done. Expectations change very quickly in the mobile phone world, and what was favored a few months ago can be seen as unacceptable today.

Conclusion

Ultimately, the Vivaz pro will appeal only to those looking for a decent camera in their mobile phone. The Sony Ericsson doesn’t really have much to offer as a smartphone because of the dearth of apps and an inconsistent interface.

The Vivaz pro is now available in Asia Pacific at S$758. It can be had for less with an operator contract, so check with your local telco for details. If you are not on a tight budget, give this device a miss. Other smartphones (that are truly smart) with decent cameras which offer 720p recording include the Android-based Samsung Galaxy S and upcoming iPhone 4. Even Sony Ericsson‘s own Xperia X10 will come with HD-quality video capture after an upcoming update, so it may be a better choice compared with the Vivaz pro.

By John Chan