We get the impression that Sony Ericsson didn't intend for this release to go out quite yet, but for what it's worth, we've now got official word that the rumored
Kurara is the real deal -- and it'll be known as "Vivaz." Yes, Vivaz. Okay, now that you've had a moment to recover, let's take a look at the specs: S60 5th Edition (we're surprised they don't refer to it as a Symbian build in the release, but whatevs), 8.1 megapixel autofocus cam with image stabilization, face detection, and 720p video capture, FM radio, AGPS, WiFi, TV-out at VGA resolution, and a 3.2-inch WVGA (or 640 x 360... the PR lists both) display. It'll be available in four colors -- Moon Silver, Cosmic Black, Galaxy Blue, and Venus Ruby -- when it launches this quarter in both North American and global 3G variants with quadband EDGE. If you can get over the name, you love Symbian, and the
Satio isn't for you, this might be your new
objet d'envy for the first few months of the year. Follow the break for a hip-looking Sony Ericsson dude showing off the goods.
Update: And it appears Burson-Marsteller has pulled the release, so yep -- it wasn't supposed to go out yet. Enjoy!
posted January 20th 2010 12:05PM
>Symbian
y u do dis
@DestrictoEnse hey i dont see anything to say why do this, care to elaborate? from whatever i could see here, symbian didnt gimme a reason to "oh no", maybe later when there are details and if there are issues, the interface looks good as of now... symbian hasnt been a issue as far as functionality is concerned, imho
Symbian? Really? Why not stick with one mobile OS and actually get it right? They spend all this time on Rachael GUI on top of Android, and can't even seem to get that phone out the door, so they decide to spend other resources on a failure of an OS called Symbian.
I don't like WM, and would rather see WM 7 on this phone then Symbian.
Fail more SE.
@unwynd
Have you ever used S60V5? It's an abomination, no matter how it's skinned. Reminiscent of the HD2 and WM6.5.
@DestrictoEnse Is this filmed on VHS?
@DestrictoEnse yes i have, like i said from what we can see in the video doesnt look bad, i am a hopeful guy expecting things to change, frankly we seen every other phone/ platform evolve? am an optimist
@DestrictoEnse
an opinion is never wrong. You managed to have no opinion...
Great phone. Looks awesome and the feats are impressive.
If SE has learned from the issues with the satio this will be awesome.
I like symbian but might agree on the problems that sony is having by supporting 3 major OSes in their lineup. It might have been faster to focus on one at the time... just saying, they may have had the X2 or the X10 in time or the satio not recalled from stores... or all three!
@DestrictoEnse
Have *you* ever used it?Symbian is as easy to use as you want it to be or as complicated as you need it to be. It is FAR from an abomination.
The only real problem at this point with Symbian on a touch device is the many confirmation prompts; which can be seen as bad or good, depending how you look at it.
The real abomination in the industry are Mobile OS that don't actually DO anything with their homescreens except stick waves of meaningless icons on it.
@unwynd Just as expected the Sony Ericsson Vivaz runs on the Symbian S60 platform and packs an 8 megapixel autofocus camera capable of recording 720p video. The 3.2" display sports a resolution of 640 x 360 pixels and is capable of showing up to 16M colors. The CPU inside the human curvature-inspired body clocks at 720 MHz.
More details: http://bit.ly/sony-ericsson-vivaz-details
Symbian... really... why? whats the point.
@magic6435
What's wrong with Symbian?
@magic6435
Why NOT ? you can make calls , install apps , browse the internet (of course default browse sucks, hey, you have Opera) what else you expect ?
@(Unverified)
What's wrong with Symbian?
How about the fact that the OS hasn't had a major update in 4 years, and that the UI looks about 6 years old compared to palm, windows mobile, iphone, and android. Symbian^4 will be alot better, but they dragged their feet for so god damn long and no S^4 phones will be out until the end of the year. I would NOT waste your money on any devices that run any Symbian build besides Symbian^4. Even Symbian^2 isn't very polished. Symbian is finally getting back on track but the current set of devices are not running the updated versions because they aren't final yet.
@Nokia N900 Listen, other me. The way this whole judgment thing works, is that if it isn't "pretty enough" or what they deem to be "functional" then they rag on it to no end.
Like the lot of people shat on Windows Mobile 6.5, but that OS could run rings around everyone else with it's customization. Symbian is like this, but in functionality as well. There's nothing you can't do on a Symbian or WinMo device, and what these 2 OS' lack in appearance, they make up in pure strength.
@(Unverified) So, it's only about its looks?! Humm, ok...
@N900
Functionality and form are interconnected, cf. webOS. WM and S60 lose out on balance.
@DestrictoEnse That I can give you; I do have troubles with my 5800 now and then. None-the-less, Symbian and the latter WinMo are good platforms, and the continuing support/advancement of both OS' are certainly not maleficent either.
@N900
Except VOIP doesn't work on S60v5 (cept Nokia phones) and most of the API for stuff like accelerometer etc is different from device to device (no standardization like with iphone and android), no support for accessing HW media decoder, alot of the OpenGL ES isn't standardized from device to device (samsung has broken features, kurara \ satio has ALOT of broken stuff).....
@Nokia N900
Actually I find the browser sometimes better than Opera Mini (at least on my N85). I can view YouTube videos in it much quicker than any YouTube app from WM or iPhone.
@(Unverified) umm, fring works just fine on my satio thank you.
needs more Android
@USApple
X10 is the one to watch
@USApple or iphone osx or WM. Less Symbian for sure.
Symbian is nice for featurephones.
But SE needs more smartphones with Android. It won't be a premium phone manufacturer if they use the wrong OS.
@Pyronick Since when was Symbian a featurephone platform? Symbian is a smartphone platform. Real development environment, real applications, enterprise application and mail support, and a multitasking, threaded operating system. If Symbian is featurephone, Blackberry is a 2001 candybar.
@(Unverified): It is a smartphone platform, with decent API's, SDK's, etc.
But it didn't grow as fast as Android, iPhone OS, etc which raised the bar.
My C905 has J2ME multitasking with preempt/idle and push notifications, enterprise mail support (IMAP-IDLE, Exchange ActiveSync, SyncML, etc) and much more interesting features.
Perhaps J2ME isn't fully threaded nor has it got proper development tools but I don't see that as something that makes a smartphone or not (yet).
@Pyronick
What bar?
Android and iPhone OS started a new game. One, I might add, that changes the meaning of "powerful" from "does a lot of things well" to "looks pretty, childishly easy".
@Pyronick
Symbian *invented* the term smartphone. Every single smartphone professional considers Symbian to be a smartphone platform.
Your opinion is wrong.
@xbit: An opinion, per definition, can never be wrong.
@Pyronick Well then I'll rephrase it for him:
Your opinion is null.
@Sony Ericsson,
WTF is a Penis Ruby? erm .. Venus Ruby??!
Sony Ericsson's iphone clone with 8 megapixels?
i choose iphone over this.
@ju1bxmmh well, of course because this is not available yet and you need a phone urgently!
/s
@ju1bxmmh
just because it has a touchscreen doenst mean its an iphone clone,..
sheesh, apple has brainwased so many people,
@ju1bxmmh : Hahaha, iPhone, what a joke. Oh, you were serious. Let me laugh even harder - HAHAHAHAHAHA!
@ju1bxmmh
Looks like you are an Iphone's Clown.
Sweet! I'm so glad they put Symbian on here.
Is it Capacitive or resistive display? if it is capacitive, I want one
@filjosh
Really? as good as capacitive screens are, SE has very nice resistive screens that feel just as responsive but with all the benefits of resistive
Uh, you mean "objet d'envie"? Hah, that'll teach Engadget editors to try to be all sophisticated and shit.
Oh, and no... it's not. I'll take the X10 instead, thanks.
@tonicboy Okay, look, you have to believe me on this one: I was thinking "objet" and typed "object" out of habit (just like I type "sprint" every time I mean to type "spring"). As for the "envie," it really is "envy," so I'll meet you halfway.
@Chris Ziegler
Not like there's ever envy involved in a Symbian device anyway.
@Chris Ziegler
it's still 'objet d'envie'
@Othi
Objet d'envie = 100% french seems understandable.
Object d'envie or Objet d'envy = 50% French/50% English, seems very less likely.
Probably won't be actually released until 2011.
Pretty good looking phone, but Symbian...When Android is getting a lot of buzz you put Symbian on it... bad move SE, bad move.
@madmac
They release a phone through a company that has hardly any experience supporting phone, where you can only buy it online with no way to check it out before you buy it, and they include very limited service options with a company that has a very small 3G print, and you think the low sales are due to the OS??
Wait a moment. WVGA on a 3.2" screen? I'd have thought that a screen with WVGA would be bigger than that, at least 3.5", but probably 3.7" like the Droid's screen
Pixel density on this one will be massive.
@thebolster
i'd say it's 640x360 pixels, not WVGA, otherwise it would have compatibility problems with existing Symbian apps
The guy in the video looks straight out of 1985.
I spent the whole time looking to see if he was wearing a calculator watch.