Sony Ericsson Vivaz U5i (Ruby Red)

I have to be honest. When I first saw the Vivaz, I thought it was really cool. Every surface is curved, except the front screen. It made my beloved Satio seem dated, and the Satio only came out a few months ago. But having bought it, I feel it's lost its "wow" factor and I was disappointed by a few things, most of all the photo quality. The camera on a mobile is important to me, so it was the main issue which has made me sell the Vivaz, instead of my Satio. If the photos were as shapr as the Satio, I would most likely have sold the Satio instead, as the Vivaz has some features which are better, such as a 3.5mm jack, improved software and being lighter.

The Good:

1. Stands out from the rest of the large touchscreen brigade.

2. Auto focus video- it really works. I took a vid at a street corner and you could see the focus change as I went from distant cars, to the pavement near my feet, to the traffic light pole a foot away, and then focus far again. Each time the object in the centre focus square changed in distance, the camera focused on the object within a second.

3. Usual excellent phone reception and speaker volume.

4. Has 3.5mm jack, so you can use your favourite headphones.

5. Related to 4. above is the music playback is quite good. I didn't spend much time on it, but just tried it out.

6. Light. 91gms.

7. Some software improvements over the Satio, such as being able to choose which of the five shortcut pages on the main page you want to insert a photo as the wallpaper. Previously you could oonly put the wallpaper on the very middle main page.

8. Dedicated buttons for still camera, and for video.

9. Includes a 8GB memory card.

The not so good:

1. It feels fragile. The back cover is really thin. I was worried I was going to break it each time I opened it.

2. The colour scheme is quirky. For the ruby colour, it's all good. But for the silver, the front and back are silver, but the side plastic is blue. I didn't like that colour coordination, and it's possible some others might not either.

3. Video was great, but photo quality was not as good. Certainly not as sharp as the Satio.

4. No dedicated keylock switch like for Satio. Instead, the on/off button on the top doubles as the keylock button- and what happens is that when you press it, it brings up a menu with a few options, including keypad locking. Doable, but a hassle compared to the Satio, and others with dedicated keylock buttons, such as the Motorola ZN5.

5. It's just as well there is a 3.5mm jack you can use your own earphones with, because the included earphones aren't that great.

6. There's a small flashing LED light onthe same side as the camera and video buttons. It flashes green when you have received a sms, and red when you're charging. However, the loaction isn't that great, as it's pretty easy to miss unless you happen to have the phone with that side gacing you exactly.

As I said, one of the most important things for me was a good camera, and the Vivaz was a let down in this area. The photos aren't so horrible that you'd think they were taken by a VGA camera, but they aren't sharp.

If you can get by with having a mobile phone which actually has decent phone functions and a reasonably responsive touchscreen, then the Vivaz may well be for you. Alas, it wasn't the one for me.

Sony Ericsson Vivaz U5i (Ruby Red) Unlocked, International Version with No Warranty