Sony Ericsson U5i Vivaz

By Ian Knott
With so many mobiles looking so alike these days I was expecting a typical Sony Ericsson stylish but block-like design when the Vivaz arrived on my desk.
How wrong could I be!
The curvaceous, contemporary design just begs you to touch it, hold it in your hand and spin it around on the table. Yes, that’s one of the first thoughts that came to mind and not surprisingly that’s exactly what I find myself doing subconsciously.
You see it’s the cambered back of the Vivaz – the same curved back that lays in your palm like it was made specifically for you, the same curved back that allows the phone to slip in and out of your jeans pocket with ease – that makes it spin around on the desk like some kind of expensive office novelty.
Thankfully, the 8.1MP camera is placed off centre and ever so slightly recessed so you’re not scratching the lens. However with no lens cover, scratches are going to appear some time no matter how much care you take.
Which makes it interesting, because the 8.1MP camera is very much the focus (pun intended) of the Vivaz handset. It captures HD video at 1280 x 720 pixels at 24fps and comes with an 8GB Micro SD card in the box.
Despite some underperformance in low light conditions, the camera is one of the best I’ve seen on a phone, especially in macro mode where the focus is quite phenomenal.
The phone offers dedicated still and video buttons on one edge along with volume up and down which doubles as zoom in and out. The opposite edge has a 3.5mm headphone jack and a Micro-USB port which is used for Mac/PC data connections and also to charge the phone. There is also a rudimentary speaker hole that, much like most mobile phone speakers, isn’t anything to write home about. The power/lock/profile button is on the top edge and can easily be nudged when holding the camera in landscape mode.
On the front we have the usual call/end buttons along with one for menu access. Above them is the 3.2” 640 x 360 pixel touchscreen display that produces some stunning results in the right conditions. However on sunny days it can be very hard to see anything on it with the high glare factor.

Sony Ericsson owners will be somewhat used to the Symbian S60 operating system and the frequent frustrations that go hand in hand with it. The often sluggish response and the convoluted menu systems can be offputting until you get to know your way around. It’s a shame really as the Vivaz boasts a faster processing speed (720MHz) than the iPhone and many Android handsets. But all that power is channelled into the multimedia features instead of helping out with the operating system itself.
(On a side note – keep an eye out for my upcoming review of the Sony Ericsson Xperia Mini 10 running Android – showcasing exactly how a mobile operating system should work.)
Input on the Vivaz is of course via the touchscreen and you can use a traditional multi-tap system to type, flip the phone sideways and have the accelerometer provide a full QUERTY keyboard or keep the phone upright and use a mini-QUERTY option – however the latter will require the use of the included (but fully detached) stylus. You do have the option of attaching the stylus to the cord-tie at the bottom of the phone but trust me – DO NOT do this as your screen will get scratched to hell if you carry it around in your pocket with the stylus attached. And yes, I speak from experience.
There’s the standard collection of Sony Ericsson applications included  – YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Google Maps and a couple of games. The first thing I did was download Opera for Mobile as the built in internet browser just doesn’t hold a candle up to what is the fastest and most user friendly mobile browser available.
The Vivaz includes GPS and comes with (well not exactly comes with, but it arrived when I did my first phone software update) the Wisepilot app for navigation. While Wisepilot will get you from A to B eventually, it still seems like ‘beta’ software to me as it kept going offline without warning (you only notice it when you don’t hear the voice for a while) and it can take a while for the screen to update.
Sadly it just isn’t in the same league as Nokia’s polished OVI Maps navigation.
Frustrations aside, and there are several, I must admit to still thoroughly enjoying the Vivaz. It’s eyecatching and once I gott my head around the menu system, it’s a pretty slick phone to use.
Fingers crossed however that Sony Ericsson are switching over to the superior Android OS and leaving the troubled and almost archaic Symbian S60 system where it belongs – in the annals of mobile phone history.

Sony Ericsson U5i Vivaz specifications:

RRP $999
Sold on the Telecom Network, but I have had no problems using it on Vodafone.