The Sony Ericsson Vivaz (U5i) is a smartphone

Smartphone

A smartphone is a high-end mobile phone built on a mobile computing platform, with more advanced computing ability and connectivity than a contemporary feature phone. The first smartphones were devices that mainly combined the functions of a personal digital assistant and a mobile phone or camera...

, announced by Sony Ericsson

Sony Ericsson

Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB is a joint venture established on October 1, 2001 by the Japanese consumer electronics company Sony Corporation and the Swedish telecommunications company Ericsson to manufacture mobile phones....

 on 21 January 2010. It was released on 5 March 2010 in the color schemes Moon Silver, Cosmic Black, Galaxy Blue and Venus Ruby.

The phone is compact and has its focus spread to multiple functions, photography, HD video recording, music playback and internet connectivity. The camera is located on the back, together with the LED flashlight. It is not covered by any special slider. The side of the phone features 4 buttons on one side, one for activating the camera functionality and starting/stopping video recording, one for taking pictures once the camera is enabled and the remaining two in the form of a rocker for volume control / camera zoom depending on the active mode. The other side has a covered Micro-B USB slot for charging and connecting to a computer.

The front of the phone is dominated by the 3.2 inches (81.3 mm) resistive touchscreen, with a 360x640 resolution. Below the touchscreen are three buttons, green (left), white (center) and red (right).

Software-wise, the Vivaz uses the Symbian

Symbian

Symbian is a mobile operating system and computing platform designed for smartphones and currently maintained by Accenture. The Symbian platform is the successor to Symbian OS and Nokia Series 60; unlike Symbian OS, which needed an additional user interface system, Symbian includes a user...

 operating system (S60 series 5th Edition). It also uses the PlayNow service, Sony Ericsson's mobile content platform. In addition to the usual GPRS/UMTS/EDGE connectivity, the Vivaz also has Wi-Fi (b and g standards) and Bluetooth.

Since June 2010 the Sony Ericsson Vivaz Pro is also available which is a similar phone to Vivaz, but sports a slide-out QWERTY keyboard and a 5 megapixel camera.

The Vivaz and the Sony Ericsson Satio are the last Sony Ericsson phones to run Symbian. After that, all Sony Ericsson smartphones run Android under the Xperia

XPERIA

Xperia is the range of Sony Ericsson handsets which are smartphones. Since 2010 the company's main focus has been on these devices which now account for more than half of all sales. Xperia is derived from the word 'experience' which was used in the branding of the Xperia X1 in the catch line, "I ...

 brand.

Features

• 16:9, 3.2 inch widescreen
• 8 megapixel camera U8 Vivaz 5.1 megapixel in U8i Vivaz Pro version.
• U8i Vivaz Pro build in - Fully Function QWERTY keyboard, -
• Accelerometer sensor for UI auto-rotate, Scratch-resistant surface, Turn-to-mute and snoozing alarms.
• Handwriting recognition
• Symbian S60 5th Edition Operating System
• Touch navigation

Display

• HD TFT resistive touchscreen
• 16 million colors
• 360 x 640 pixels
• 3.2 inches

CPU

• Texas Instruments
  Texas Instruments
  Texas Instruments Inc. , widely known as TI, is an American company based in Dallas, Texas, United States, which develops and commercializes semiconductor and computer technology...
  
   OMAP3630 Cortex-A8 @ 720 MHz
• 3D Accelerator PowerVR
  PowerVR
  PowerVR is a division of Imagination Technologies that develops hardware and software for 2D and 3D rendering, and for video encoding, decoding, associated image processing and Direct X, OpenGL ES, OpenVG, and OpenCL acceleration....
  
  SGX530
• Internal Up to 75 MB
• External up to 16GB, 8GB included, microSD
• CPU 720 MHz, PowerVR SGX graphics

Memory

• Internal storage: 75 MB
• RAM: 256 MB
• microSD memory card support up to 32gb (8 gb card included)

Connectivity

• aGPS :First time location detection might take longer than usual
• Bluetooth technology
• Modem
• PC Synchronization
• USB support
• USB mass storage
• Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g, DLNA
• PictBridge
• Google Maps
• TV Out(AV)

Camera

• 8.1 MegaPixel
• Digital Zoom - up to 4x
• LED Flash (there is LED flash facility Build in)
• Video recording (640x480 @ 30 frame/s, 1280x720 @ 24 frame/s)
• Geo-Tagging
• Face detection (Smiling Face Detected)
• Image stab (Still Image)
• Video Player MP4/H.264/H.263 player
• Video Call No

NetWork

• Network 2G : GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900,
• Network 3G : HSDPA 900 / 2100 HSDPA 850 / 1900 / 2100

Internet

• Web Google (Google Talks, Gmail, Google Map,GPS Maps)
• Web Yahoo (Messenger Chat latest version)
• Web MSN - Hotmail (Msn messenger Chat)
• Web browser - WebKit
• Web feeds

Applications

• TrackID
• Media Server
• Neo Reader
• SMS Preview
• YouTube
• Record Sound
• Web Publish
• Facebook Application
• Twitter Application

Entertainment

• 3D games
• Java
• Media
• Radio - FM radio with RDS (Radio Data Systemeaming
• YouTube
• HD Games

Messaging

• Email
• Exchange ActiveSync
• Instant messaging
• Picture messaging (MMS)
• Predictive text input
• Sound recorder
• Text messaging (SMS)
• Conversations

Communication

• Polyphonic ringtones
• Speakerphone
• Vibrating Alert
• Video calling(Main 8.1 Mega Pixel Camera)

Organiser

• Alarm clock
• Calculator
• Calendar
• Document editors
• Document readers
• Flight mode
• Handwriting recognition
• Notes
• Phone book
• Touchscreen

Sony Ericsson Vivaz Pro

The Sony Ericsson Vivaz Pro has a few differences from the Vivaz, such as a downsized 5 Megapixel camera with HD video recording, a slide-out QWERTY keyboard and a larger-size device (109 x 52 x 15 mm, 117g). Other than those differences, both devices are very similar.

External links

• Review @ Engadget
• Sony Ericsson Vivaz stress test