Whilst not exactly the mobile industries best kept secret, Sony Ericsson have now officially announced the Sony Ericsson Vivaz, the touchscreen-toting Symbian mobile phone we first met as the Kurara at the tail end of last year. Has much changed since those first grainy photos and tentative spec lists surfaced online over two months ago? Can the Vivaz make a name for itself in the wake of the 12 Megapixel Satio and the impending release of the Android powered Xperia X10? Well, read on for our take on the Sony Ericsson Vivaz…

For those familiar with the Kurara, you’ll no doubt remember the HD tag sitting prominently on the back of the phone. Well, Sony Ericsson weren’t telling tales, the phone we now know as the Vivaz is capable of recording video in high definition at a maximum resolution of 720p. Complimenting the HD video capture is a dedicated video key and continuous autofocus to ensure videos are sharp and crisp. Once you’re finished playing director, share your work with the world by posting it on YouTube or Picasa directly from the phone.

Whilst video is definitely its forte, the Vivaz isn’t too shabby when it comes to still photos either with an 8.1 Megapixel camera on board loaded with extras such as touch focus, smile and face detection, an LED flash and geo-tagging thanks to the built in GPS receiver. Away from the camera, the Vivaz boasts a 3.2 inch touchscreen display and runs on the Symbian operating system. This means that, just as on the Sony Ericsson Satio, we get a host of shortcut tabs that sit at the top of the home screen letting you access your favourite social networking sites/ recently watched multimedia etc. and also access to a range of weird and wonderful applications that can be downloaded from the dedicated app store.

Rounding off the specs are the likes of HSDPA and Wi-Fi connectivity, a 3.5mm audio jack and microSD card slot (finally Sony have ditched the proprietary nonsense) all powered by a 720MHz processor and tucked inside a stylish body that Sony Ericsson have dubbed ‘human curvature’. The Sony Ericsson Vivaz makes for interesting reading and we can’t wait to get hands on to see if it can live up to the hype. For now, click here to register for updates, see below for a sneak peak of the phone in action and keep an eye on the blog for our full Sony Ericsson Vivaz review in the coming weeks.