The new Sony Ericsson Vivaz is the second installment in Sony Ericsson’s new lineup of communications entertainment smartphones, a mash-up of its well-known Walkman, Cybershot and messaging concepts. Like its Android sibling, the Xperia X10, the Sony Ericsson Vivaz Symbian smartphone offers a new “human curvature” design philosophy. Sony Ericsson says this will be the way to instantly recognize this type of smartphone in the future, and if you’re looking for an all-in-one smartphone solution tailored to consumers, the Vivaz will be a smartphone to keep an eye on in the months ahead.

Customizable Vivaz UI

When we played with the Sony Ericsson Satio a couple of months ago, its user interface came across as a rich cell phone interface rather than a smartphone interface. With the introduction of the Sony Ericsson Vivaz, however, a new and important tweak has been made: The five “home screen” panels first seen on the Satio have been extended and made more user-configurable on the Vivaz, including the ability to select Flash Lite content such as apps, games and animations.

Sony Ericsson has included Twitter and Facebook apps written using Flash Lite 3.0, and the manufacturer encourages third-party developers to offer Symbian and Flash content through its expanded PlayNow ecosystem, previously only available to music publishers.