Sony Ericsson Vivaz Pro

The Vivaz Pro adds a slide-out alphanumeric physical keyboard to the Sony Ericsson Vivaz, the so-called hybrid mobile phone—pocket camcorder. 

It has many of the same strengths and weaknesses, so here we'll be looking at the few areas where the handsets differ.  If you'd like to know more, then take a look at our review of the Sony Ericsson Vivaz.


A bit of weight behind the keyboard

There really aren't that many differences between the two phones, but adding a keyboard makes the Vivaz Pro 20 g heavier and 2.5 mm thicker than the Vivaz.  That's not really problematic, and the physical keyboard has to go somewhere.



But let's take a closer look at the keyboard.  Sony Ericsson has foolishly decided to use hard, flat keys that don't respond well to the touch.  Typing is very unpleasant and it's hard to tell if you're typing in the right place.  That left us wasting time correcting spelling mistakes or checking we had our fingers on the right buttons.  It's really not very fun.



Photo and video: fewer pixels, fewer problems

It's easy to see that the cameras on both Vivaz phones didn't benefit from adding extra pixels.  Although the two phones share 95% of the same components, the Pro's sensor changes from 8 Megapixels to 'just' 5 MP.  And the photos are much better—or at least, they're less awful.

A 5 Megapixel sensor isn't the magic solution though, and the 5 Megapixel sensors on the latest iPhone and some of Nokia's cameraphones do a much better job.

The same is true for video: despite capturing 720p footage, the results aren't very impressive unless you film outside on a sunny day and with very bright conditions.


We're left wondering just what the interest is in this phone, especially given that the same manufacturer's Xperia range outclasses it in every area.