Vivaz Advances to Neo

Sony Ericsson Vivaz U5i is a smartphone released in March 2010. The phone was promoted with the main focus placed on its HD camera and video. Unfortunately, it appears that the producers barely focused on anything else but these two features. On the other hand, Sony Ericsson Xperia Neo belongs to the mobile phone brand new smartphones category and it was launched only a year later, in March 2011. The Xperia Neo is one of the most complete Android smartphones to hit the market recently. These two phones look practically the same in terms of their outer design. They both have that recognizable sculpted shape which adds to their ergonomics and makes them quite comfortable in the hand. One of the most inventive additions to the Xperia Neo is the HDMI port that is used to connect the phone to TV in order to watch media contents in HD. Another improvement in the Xperia Neo is that it has a front-facing VGA camera which allows for video chatting. When it comes to the phone display, the SE Vivaz has a resistive touchscreen with 16 million colors and the resolution of 360 x 640 pixels. The SE Xperia Neo has an LCD capacitive touchscreen (multitouch support, sunlight legibility, resistant to grease and dirt) also with 16 million colors, but with the screen resolution of 480 x 854 pixels. A novel feature of the Xperia Neo is that it is empowered by Reality display based on the Sony Bravia Mobile Engine. The camera and video quality of these two phones is almost the same. The Vivaz was advertised as an HD cameraphone and its features are quite impressive: 8.1 megapixel camera with autofocus and LED flash, face and smile detection (image resolution 3264x2448 pixels; video resolution 1280x720 pixels). The Xperia Neo has exactly the same features, but in addition it uses the Sony Exmor R backlit sensor that provides better low-light images. The Vivaz is one of the last Sony Ericsson phones to run Symbian. The phone uses the Symbian S60 series, and that is probably its most detestable feature. This operating system makes the phone slow and since it easily grows out of fashion, there is a poor choice of applications offered in online mobile shops for phones that run Symbian. To the joy of users, the Xperia Neo is practically the same phone that operates with the Android v2.3 Gingerbread. The producers are planning an upgrade to the Android v4.0, which is good news. The phone is powered by 1GHz processor which makes the phone really fast and quick to respond. Furthermore, the Android 2.3 Gingerbread offers more than 150.000 applications for this phone. In sum, it could be said that all the defects and disadvantages of the SE Vivaz have been remedied with this new phone. It is a great phone for all of those who enjoyed the elegance of the Vivaz but always longed for a smarter, more superb and powerful device. However, the Xperia Neo should definitely not be treated only as a successor to the Vivaz. It is a great phone by itself, especially because it introduces some original new features in the world of smartphones. In a couple of months from now, when the price slightly decreases, it will surely be the best phone that money can get.