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.

The Sony Ericsson Vivaz is one of the most interesting phones expected to be released this year, and while it was already known beforehand that the Symbian smart phone with HD video recording would be having a version with a keyboard, it was certainly a bit of a surprise to see the device unveiled during the Mobile World Congress at Barcelona, Spain.

Sony Ericsson announced the Kanna at a time when the Vivaz was still known as the Kurara. Originally, it was meant that the Kanna would have the same exact specifications of the Kurara with the addition of a slide out QWERTY keyboard. Naturally, we expected the new Vivaz Pro to be the same.

Mostly, the Vivaz and the Vivaz Pro are similar in specs, the only thing different is the digital camera on the devices. The Vivaz has an 8 mega pixel camera; the Pro only has a 5 mega pixel camera. This change is pretty big, despite both phones having a 720p HD video recording capabilities, the Vivaz’ biggest selling point is that it has an impressive camera.

The Pro will come in two colors. The first is the standard white and silver color scheme that has been seen in many images of the Kurara. The second is a heavier looking, more serious black finish. In both devices the keyboards are darker (though more significantly so with the black version). It is expected that the Vivaz Pro would be launched during Q2 of 2010.

Aside from the Vivaz Pro, Sony Ericsson had a couple more surprises in the MWC. The XPERIA X10’s variant phones X10 Mini and X10 Mini Pro also appeared during the event (the X10 Mini was first reported as the XPERIA Robyn).

Read more about the Sony Ericsson Vivaz Pro and see the close up images of the device at the SEMC Blog.