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Review: Sony Ericsson Vivaz

Form Basics Extras Wrap-up Comments 3

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Photos

The Vivaz has an 8.1 megapixel camera and an LED flash. Given Sony Ericsson's heritage of solid camera phones, I was expecting to be impressed. I was impressed, mostly. Image quality ranged a bit too much between fantastic and merely OK. Photos captured outdoors were often spectacular, with rich, warm colors, sharp focus and no grain. Every now and then, sunlight would blow out certain colors, such as reds, but for the most part that wasn't a problem.

Images that I took indoors were much more inconsistent. The biggest problem is the presence of grain. The Vivaz still does a solid job of getting exposure and white balance correct, but indoor images had a grainy haze to them and weren't as colorful or vibrant as those taken outside.

Despite the grain and haze, the Vivaz drastically outperforms other camera phones both indoors and out. The camera truly is the Vivaz's best feature. Vacation photos taken with the Vivaz will look great on Facebook, Flickr, Picasa, and probably even hanging on your wall.

Video

The Vivaz can capture video in 720p HD resolution. It can be dialed down to VGA, QVGA or CIF for picture messages. It has many of the same controls as the camera, and users can adjust for lighting and scenes.

The quality of video captured with the Vivaz ranks right up there with the best I've seen from other top-of-the-line devices. The Vivaz's sensor does a great job of balancing out light, adjusting to changes in brightness, and movement. The image stabilizer helps to keep everything from looking to shaky, and there is very little grain and blockiness noticeable. I don't know if the Vivaz can stand in for a dedicated HD video camera, but it will certainly suffice for casual video needs.

The Vivaz definitely takes YouTube-quality video, and playback looks pretty decent on an HD TV.

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Sony Ericsson Vivaz

3.2" display 360 x 640 pixels
1,200 mAh battery
Memory Card Slot, Headphone Jack (3.5mm)

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