March 18th, 2010 
Dan 
Welcome to part three of our in-depth look at the Sony Ericsson Vivaz, Sony’s new all singing all dancing multimedia phone. Today, it’s the turn of the operating system as we get up close and personal with Symbian OS.
Sony Ericsson have dabbled with Symbian devices in the past, stretching way back to the P-Series which used Symbian UIQ. The current range however relies on Symbian S60 5th edition which is currently doing the rounds in the Sony Ericsson Satio and a number of touchscreen Nokia phones. For those of you who remember the software problems found on the Satio (which was later resolved with a software update), the Vivaz is sporting version 2.0 of Sony Ericsson’s implementation of Symbian and so the bugs that plagued the Satio’s launch are a distant memory. Sony Ericsson really couldn’t afford to drop the ball when it comes to quality and with the positive moves made in the build and design, these also appear to have been mirrored in the software.
Powering up the Vivaz for the first time will present users with a home screen that is characterised by two blocks of icons; one at the top and one at the bottom of the screen. At the bottom is a large box that occupies the bottom third of the screen. Within it you’ll find four shortcut icons; one to bring up the dialler, a multimedia shortcut, messaging and a search tool which lets you search on the phone or online. Above these icons are your current profile (Silent, Meeting etc.), the time and date and your network provider. In the top right corner of the box is an arrow to maximise the box, revealing a music shortcut key. The Vivaz is of course a capable smartphone, multitasking with aplomb, so playing music in the background is a piece of cake with the track info and music player buttons added to the box at the bottom of the screen. This acts as a nice way of controlling your music player whilst still having an overview of all the other areas of the phone.
Between the Box at the bottom of the screen and the tabs at the top sits a blank space populated only by a stylish background that swirls and re-orientates itself depending on how you hold the phone. On first inspection this appears to be wasted space but it’s actually the key to navigating the tabs. Swiping from left to right will allow you to flick between one of the five tabs at the top of the screen. Of the five tabs, the middle tab represents the home screen itself (complete with the shortcut box at the bottom of the display). On the home screen tab you can tap on the empty area to hide the shortcut box at the bottom. To call it back up you need to, rather oddly, press the call end button. A slight design quirk but you’ll get used to it in no time.
Back to the tabs, the pre-set tabs on our Vivaz were, from left to right, favourite contacts, Twitter, the home screen tab, a quick view of your media player and lastly yet another shortcut area. This shortcut area hosts up to 8 shortcuts which are all user customisable. The shortcuts can be populated with pretty much anything on the phone, from Bluetooth to the pre-installed GPS software. Customising is a fairly simple affair; clicking on the shortcuts tab with reveal a settings icon and tapping on this will reveal the numbered shortcuts 1 through 8 and the applications currently occupying them. Tap on the shortcut you wish to change, choose the new shortcut and voila.
The combination of tabs, the shortcuts within one of the tabs and the shortcut box at the bottom of the
screen work well. At first they can be a little daunting but once you’re familiar with the layout, you should find yourself navigating like a pro. There literally are so many ways to get to a feature or application that each user will use a method that suits them best. If this is Symbian’s take on Android, we like it and would love to see Nokia implementing this in their own Symbian phones. Away from the tabs and shortcuts on the home screen, there is of course a traditional menu that can be accessed by the middle hardware button. Once you’ve opened up the main menu, any Nokia user of the past few years will be instantly at home with the interface. Users are presented with 12 icons (that can be organised to prioritise most frequently used at the top of the screen) for areas such as messaging, media and so on. Selecting the required icon will take you into that folder and from there you can get deeper and deeper into the menus. Symbian has often been criticised for an overly complicated (and not particularly intuitive user interface) but the Vivaz seems to strike the right balance. The tabbed/ shortcut home screen provides quick and easy access to your most frequently used areas whilst the main menu, whilst not particularly pretty to look at or fun to navigate, is easy to use.
As a smartphone, the question everyone will be asking about the Vivaz is “what about the apps?” We have the iPhone to thank for this of course with its 100,000 + app store. Well, the Sony Ericsson Vivaz is supported by Sony Ericsson’s app store, known as PlayNow. Hitting the PlayNow icon in the main menu will open a web page to take you to the store. Here you can search for specific apps, sort by type (games, apps, music etc.) and check out the latest and most popular additions. There are a good range of apps on offer and the fact that Sony Ericsson include music make this feel more like a revamped iTunes than the app only experience you get with the Android Market. There is one minor drawback though; if you’re after free apps you’re not exactly spoilt for choice. Music tracks come in at £1 per track, games average around the £5 mark and even useless apps that would cost you nothing on an iPhone or Android phone will cost you big bucks here (£3.50 for a fart app, seriously!?). There are some free apps on, good ones at that such as Spotify, but we definitely need more of these to compete with the big names in the app world.
The phone does also include some pre-installed apps such as Facebook, YouTube, the aforementioned Twitter client and a SatNav application called Wisepilot. Wisepilot offers users features such as route planning and general mapping and can also be upgraded to full voice guided navigation on a subscription basis. YouTube is a fairly straight forward app that takes you to a web portal of the popular video sharing site. A search bar lets you find exactly what you’re looking for whilst top rated, most viewed and latest tabs also ease navigation. Click on a video and it nicely zooms to full screen and loads almost instantly. The Facebook app is equally impressive letting you check profiles, upload photos and comment on friends photos. Navigation is quick and easy and the overall user interface is very similar to that found on the full site.
Symbian on the Vivaz is impressive. The user interface is clean and easy to navigate and there are endless customisation options thanks to tabs and shortcuts on the home screen. If you’re new to Symbian you should pick it up fairly quickly and find yourself navigating like a pro. On the apps front, the preinstalled applications on offer are great and the app store is nicely populated, it would just be good to see more free apps coming through. Time will tell how the app community develops but the onus is on Sony Ericsson to make it work.
Join us tomorrow for the final instalment of our review as we check out the web browser and multimedia and give our final thoughts on the Sony Ericsson Vivaz.
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hd video is the way forward! so glad i chose this over the viewty smart
I’ve had one for a month now. I’m pretty happy with the hardware, but beware if you buy it on Vodafone as they replace all the front end user interface with their own and it is rubbish.
Lots of pre-loaded links and shortcuts which cannot be changed or deleted.
@Dan – Have a quick look online as it’s possible to ‘debrand’ your Sony Ericsson Vivaz, removing any network software in the process. Some companies will charge for this firmware (£2-£3) but if you’re lucky you may find someone offering it free. Make sure you trust the source before downloading any software though.
For anyone yet to take the plunge with the Vivaz, the phone we stock here at Mobiles.co.uk is unbranded so will avoid any of the annoying little extras the networks like to throw in like Dan is experiencing.
Hi just wondering, you mentioned the Vivaz could be debranded, if I did this would it mean I wouldn’t be able to send it back to Vodafone if I had any problems in future? The apps on Vodafone are awful & I can’t find the ‘Playnow’ thing as mentioned so presumably would need to debrand – I only ask this tho as I recently had a problem with the charger socket breaking & Vodafone provided an amazing service & immediately sent out a replacement. Worried if I debrand they would not do this in future….?
Have had the Vivaz for a few weeks now, and can truly say that the Facebook App is absoultely awful! It is incredibly unwieldy. After spending 10min writing a msg on the virtual keyboard (no predictive txt possible), I get a “connection problem” error message when clicking on reply. This seems to be the rule.
Have reverted to connecting to fbook through the internet. At least I can use predictive txt there!
Also, the pre-installed SMS Preview app has a life of its own. Sometimes it works, and most of time it doesn’t, even though it’s been enabled.
My verdict, Vivaz shouldn’t try to pretend to do apps.
Im worried about the tocuh screen and the texting on this mobile. Apparently its quite frustarting to text with if your used to the capacitive touch screen (like what i had on my old samsung tocco) is this true? Is the touch screen really that slow? Im a very fast texter, will i still be able to do this on the Vivaz?
@Louise – Having used both the original Samsung Tocco and the Sony Ericsson Vivaz, Sony Ericsson’s phone is streets ahead. Don’t be put off by the fact that it’s a resistive touchscreen, we found it more than responsive in the text messaging app. For more info, read our full Sony Ericsson Vivaz review
What about you other Vivaz owners, any advice for Louise?
Great phone, only one problem, where are the emoticons when texting?
flash is rubbish the photo quality is not as good as expected, the switching between menus is glitchy and i cannot find any useful apps. but the hd recording is good but only in good lighting.I think it has been a risky compromise between style and functionality.
I’ve had my vivaz since the day of release and tbh its not a bad phone, it seems well made and is quite nimble, I’m not too keen on Symbian S60, but I’m getting used to it.
There aren’t any real useful apps available really, if you want apps then get the x10 deffo, it’s camera is really good, i’ve found the flash is actually okay even in dark places. i would recommend the Vivaz though, its a far superior phone to the Satio
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What is everyone’s problem with the phone??? Had mine a couple of weeks now and despite some minor probs with delivery/damaged package which vodafone were very quick to resolve the phone is fab!! great photos, EXCELLENT video recording, easy to use 10 out of 10. Maybe people aren’t using it properly. Previously used nokia n95 (great), samsung tocca ultra (avoid)
What are the 5 tabs for?
I have had the vivaz for a couple of weeks now. still finding new things. found the camera is default set to take 6mp photos. so i thought i was impressed with the quality before. ok it wont take good photos with flash without at least some light unless close up, so in a field in the dead of night its not great. but its a phone. you want photos like that buy a blooming camera. found its easy to text with or without the stylus. i had a tocco from samsung before it was diabolical. so im very impressed with this phone. but yes facebook app is cack. where can i find some apps?
ive had this phone for a few months and ive found that its not great. regret buying it after all the hype. it really did not live up to the reputation that was built for it. Camera is really poor. there is no flash setting. only a light setting. also no useable apps for the phone..unless im using the phone wrong…can some tell me if i am please? thanks
It is the worst phone I have ever owned! Do not get it under any circumstances! Get an Android. Vivaz and Symbian = Fail!
Good camera and video, but crap everything else, regret spending 300 on this! thought it was good at first but i have had nothing but problems with software and it has been returned TWICE for faults!
seems impossible to get apps for this phone, at one stage i could on vodafone, seems as if they have stopped that now.
Wouldnt recomend it
Stay infroatmvie, San Diego, yeah boy!
this is phone is awful. its almost impossible to get any apps that work well for it. the apps which is comes with dont even work properly.
this phones light years behind anything else thats in the same price range. definitely regret buying it. its the laggiest phone i have ever used. sony ericsson have really gone downhill. probably never going to get a SE phone again. moving onto to samsung. i’ve returned it twice due to faults and i am going to return it again after just 5 days of getting it replaced for the 2nd time.
vivaz is an awsum phn must buy! ofcourse no worry of touch screeen writin once u hv buyd it u’ll hv practce……..
n the battry liffee is nt enough biggest probs i gues!!!!!!! lol
This phone is not user friendly or reliable.Worse phone I have ever owned. Been back for same repair three times and the manufactures warranty does not hold out. They are saying I have abused it,and won’t repair it.
Second time they replaced it with a “new one”. I think it was a refurbished one from another dissatisfied customer.Five months in and it has the same fault. won’t charge up.so I have a phone they won’t repair.Carphone warehouse are not looking after their customer saying I have to take it up with Sony ericson.Useless all round,
Has any body else had the not charging problem,due to the flimsy usb plug and socket,as I am trying to build a case.