Digital camera technology has gone a long way since the very first digi-cams have been introduced to the consumer market. These days, it seems all too easy to slap on a camera on almost any handset. The average laptop and netbook comes with a built it webcam, even handheld gaming consoles such as the PSP and the DSi have cameras (in the case of the PSP, it is an external accessory; the DSi has it built in.) Naturally smart phones also have digital camera technology as well.

Nokia is already promising the industry a massive 12 mega pixel camera on the upcoming N8 and N9 smart phones (which use the Symbian^3 and MeeGo operating systems respectively). Sony Ericsson’s Vivaz and the Motorola Milestone XT 720 each bring an 8 mega pixel camera to consumers everywhere.

These days, taking a high resolution image of anything basically means simply pointing a phone at a subject and taking a quick snapshot. But for the more discerning graphic artists, the concern does not stop with the mega pixel count alone, having zoom, autofocus, LED flash and other additional features are also important.

For users who like to upload straight from the phone to a Flickr account or in Facebook, a smart phone with integrated social networking features are recommended, as well as having pre-loaded image editing software (which would really help a lot when it comes to sizing down images to make them viewer friendly as full resolution images shot with an 8 mega pixel camera takes a while to load).

In both cases, it pays to have hot swappable micro SD cards. While 32GB cards will take a while to fill up, they eventually will. And having other media such as music and videos are certain to fill up the cards as well (most phones are also capable of recording video in 720p, 30FPS, which is also pretty space consuming).

Sony Ericsson is finally getting ready to release its Vivaz and Vivaz Pro handsets, with the Vivaz Pro featuring an impressive-looking QWERTY keyboard arranged in four rows. Handily the keyboard also slides out and, unlike its sibling Vivaz device, has the integral keyboard that only serves to add an extra two millimetres to its overall thickness. In other terms the Vivaz Pro is almost identical to the Vivaz with one big difference coming in its integral camera which has 5-megapixels to the Vivaz’s 8. It does, however, have Touch Focus, geotagging as well as smile and face detection to name but a few useful features.

As a 3G phone the Vivaz Pro has excellent connectivity through GPRS, EDGE Class 10, WLAN Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and USB. It also features a decent 75 MB of internal memory storage space which can be bolstered to around 16GB via a MicroSD card. The display measures 3.2 inches and sports a TFT touchscreen with a 16 million colours, 360X640 resolution. The pictures are extremely sharp and vivid as well, and the Vivaz Pro supports a wide range of apps including Google Maps, Facebook and Twitter as well as supporting MMS, SMS and e-mail. The standard Li-Po battery gives a very reasonable potential talktime of just over five hours.

The Vivaz, as stated, has a slightly better camera than the Pro boasting 8-megapixels and also featuring an LED flash – vital for those all-weather shots – although the flash could ideally be more powerful. Like its sibling Vivaz Pro also has smile and face detection as well as picture geotagging, though naturally the lower camera quality does put some pinch on snapshots. One slight downside is that the camera doesn’t have any lens protection, which could cause a problem after any harsh outdoor usage

Structurally speaking the phone is also quad-band with full GSM support, and has a MicroSD card slot that enables a memory upgrade of around 16GB. The standard Vivaz package features an 8GB card to get users going. The Vivaz is also smaller than it had seemed in promotional photos, and actually slides very comfortably into the jacket or trouser pocket. At a very modest 97 grams it has a real size and weight advantage over the majority of the competition – particularly when you take its wide range of features into account. It is also very ergonomically designed and user-friendly with the screen taking up the majority of the device with the call keys located to the side and the menu in the middle.

Despite the otherwise impressive screen it can be difficult to read clearly in direct sunlight, although is better than its comparable competitors such as the Nokia 5800. Also, the device has no auto-lock feature, making the display prone to accidental presses during calls – making it mildly irritating at times, especially during business calls. It is to be hoped that Sony Ericsson’s future software updates will resolve this issue. The design is smart, although the display – along with the black plastic that surrounds it – are magnets for fingerprints, making it look fairly grimy after a few calls despite fitting very naturally into the hand during both calls and messaging.

The call performance of the Vivaz was good, with no reception problems at either end and a very loud and clear earpiece that gave absolutely no interference. Unfortunately the Vivaz does not feature either voice dialling or smart dialling which could come in very useful and are, in fact, featured on other Symbian versions. It also features the standard Symbian phonebook, which is quite excellent with almost unlimited capacity and excellent usability. Contacts can be arranged by either family or names, and contacts can be searched by gradual typing. Personal ringtones and videos can also be allocated to individual contacts as well should you feel so inclined.