Sony Ericsson Vivaz Pro - Enhancing the Best Symbian

Sony Ericsson Vivaz Pro

"Having announced Sony Ericsson Vivaz™ in January we are now adding a sister phone that includes a QWERTY keyboard along with the touch screen for a superior messaging and entertainment experience." Those are the introductory words of Sony Ericsson's Marketing Business Manager Daniel Sandblom when unveiling the Sony Ericsson Vivaz Pro at the recently concluded 2010 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

At first glance it does look every inch like the Vivaz but now it has a tactile QWERTY keyboard sliding out. The Vivaz Pro is consistent with what seems to be a new emerging trend in the Sony Ericsson portfolio for 2010 releasing smartphones in tandem with the "pro" affixed to the brand to indicate QWERTY slider model.

It is positioned to compete with the serious QWERTY smartphones aimed at business and executive types. And yet this is a Symbian phone using the more consumerist S60 5th edition platform with none of the desktop feel you find in the multitasking Windows and Android smartphones.

It's really just another media and entertainment-centric smartphone that aims to look serious with a "pro" appended to its name. But just like the Vivaz, the pro is one competent high end smartphone worth waiting its release this 2nd quarter. It is expected to come in two body color choices, black and white and will have a free 8 GB microSD card included in its retail package.

Remarkable HD Vidcam Features

Its exquisite imaging and video recording features belie any pretense to being a corporate smartphone for the no-nonsense executives. But for the young and trendy corporate geek who likes to be entertained besides, the Vivaz Pro is one top gear to consider. It uses a PowerVR Series 5 SGX graphics engine that the earlier Satio used but clocked at 720 MHz instead of 600 MHz. This enables the Vivaz Pro to do its stand-out feature - deliver high definition 720p video recording with video light and continuous autofocus.

Few handsets can approach this feature, except the flagships from Samsung and HTC. Unfortunately, HD video playback lacks DivX and Xvid video file codec support, but there's nothing a 3rd party app can't solve.

Other High End Features

Imaging from the Sony Ericsson Vivaz Pro is downgraded from the 8-megapixel resolution of the Vivaz to the just 5 megapixels in the Pro. But you still get anautofocus and touchfocus camera with LED Flash, face and smile detection and geo-tagging. Stills and HD video taken from the Pro gets brilliantly displayed on its 3.2-inch Wide-VGA resistive touchscreen with 16 million colors and comes with a scratch-resistant surface. You also get an accelerometer but no proximity sensor that can disable touchscreen sensitivity in a call.

Its other hardware specs include 3G radio on the dual band UMTS with the HSDPA/HSUPA a quad band GSM/GPRS/EDGE radio on 2G. There's WiFi 802.11b/g with DLNA, Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP, microUSB 2.0, built-in A-GPS, stereo FM receivers, 3.5mm headphone jack and TV-out (VGA resolution) ports. You get a decent 75 MB phone memory expandable to 16 GB from its microSD slot. Talk time is simply outstanding at 12.5 hours and 18 days in standby from a 1200 mAh Lithium-polymer battery.