Unfolding its several aspects, here’s a comprehensive review of the Sony Ericsson Yari. If you recall, the company recently knocked the mobile market with a triad of handsets. One among the Sony Ericsson trio was the Yari, exhibiting simplicity and ‘gaming’. The Yari hasn’t successfully created waves in the mobile gaming world. However, it did ‘pull us off the chair’ with a few functions (literally).
At a glance, it looked like an ordinary phone with a slider form factor. Though, it effortlessly hopped into our pockets, we don’t swear by its sleekness as the device is slightly bulky. Unlike the usual square shape navigation button, the front face of this phone features a round button rather a circular ring with a round button within, below a 2.4-inch QVGA display. Altogether there are four sleek rectangular buttons, two above the screen and two below it. The buttons have been integrated in such a manner to simply gaming in the landscape mode. Further, call, call end, shortcut and Clear buttons beset the circular navigation button. On smoothly sliding the front part (Yes! it does slide smoothly), it reveals a not-so-impressive alphanumeric keypad. The keypad is a flat surface with letter/ numbers segregated in columns. You could pick the device in white with red highlights or demon black with white highlights. We got to lay our hands on the latter.
The phone has a pure white rim on its edges with a camera shortcut and microSD slot on the right edge. The back panel of the phone can be easily taken out with a little curvy space with steel grilles which also try to improve its looks. The backpanel of the phone has Sony Ericsson engraved alongside its logo and trade marked Yari tag. The main menu button reveals a neat and uncluttered menu display. It has twelve essential icons for exploring the several functionalities of the device.
Stepping into the highlight of the device, it does not offer the usual gaming but brings in gesture and motion controlled gaming. This feature successfully sets the phone apart from the rest. Infact, Nintendo Wii fans would be glad to see a ‘similar-style’ gaming while on the go without the bulk of an additional controller. However, those looking for a similar gaming experience can lower their expectations and it is quite justifiable as a 2.4-inch screen can’t deliver the same experience. But taking mobile gaming under consideration, we give it a thumps up. However, a larger display could have given it an upper hand. We can call it one of the major drawbacks of the device. A larger screen for gaming please!
Altogether, it includes a set of nine games – Bowling, Bubble Town, Fifa 10, Fitness, Guitar Rock Tour, LocoRoco, NitroStreet Racing, Quadrapop and Tennis. Games like Fitness and Tennis are gesture enables wherein the user has to prop the phone on a stand included with the device. Well, no grump over the highly portable stand which worked pretty well. We enjoyed the Wii-style Tennis, ofcourse your hand replaces the controller. Though, don’t expect a similar gaming experience. The Fitness game was one of our favorite. Lazy bones need to leave that cozy comfortable chair and gear up for some action. Its like an exercise regime to shed that extra flab which some of us have been ‘planning’ to get rid off from quite some time. Apart from these, we thoroughly enjoyed playing the semi-motion enabled, highly addictive additive Locco Rocco. Bowling turns the phone into a virtual ball, be careful that you don’t fling the handset once in groove with the game. The others are the good ‘ol ones played using the phone keypad.
Another fun element is its motion controlled Gaming Carousel giving instant access to several applications. On launching, the Game Carousel blends with the homescreen and is stationed at the centre of the screen. The queue of icons can be motion controlled we could easily access several features with these shortcut icons such as Music Quiz, PullFace 2, YouTube, Voice Transformer, Walkmate, Wisepilot and Calendar Wallpaper. When users have had enough of gaming, they could simply juggle with the innovative Voice Transformer feature that converts the user’s recorded voice into various tones including, high pitched and backwards.
The Yari hasn’t escaped Sony Ericsson’s renowned Music Player. The device does integrate the latest Walkman Music Player. The music quality is decent and we could change the background with the various background styles included. Also included are Shuffle, Loop, Shuffle/Loop modes alongside functions like Equalizer, orientation and stereo widening. The hassle-free option enabled us to easily send music files. It bundles up the innovatively designed SensMe feature and Stereo FM radio with RDS, but what goes amiss is a 3.5mm jack.
Apart from the front facing camera, the Yari encompasses a decent 5 megapixel camera with autofocus and LED flash. We could take some decent snapshots. The videos recorded were decent as well, doing a comparatively good job in QVGA at 30 frames per second. Similar to various phones these days, Yari features Face detection, Image stabilization and Geotagging. A delight to all social networkers, the Yari embeds the Facebook widget, giving instant access to the Facebook homescreen. It also brings in threaded messaging. Well, a little confusion was over the conversations option, but on realizing it was nothing but the SMS inbox.
With the integrated GPS receiver, users can effortlessly get their hands on several location based services. The handset bundles up Google Maps and Wayfinder Navigator apps. The menu includes the Organizer icon which includes alarm (allowing 5 alarms to be set), File manager, Calendar, Tasks, Notes, Timer, Stopwatch and Calculator.
Another notable attribute it is its intelligently designed body that is glossy on the front but a sheer matte finish on the back, presumably for better grip while gaming. Though it has built-in 60MB of memory, the device packs in a 1GB card. This GSM slider also supports 3G.
In a nutshell, the Sony Ericsson Yari sums up as a pretty decent and simple device. With overall good gaming, though a few gaming aspects go hay-wire. Those looking for a simple to use device with fun features can opt for this Sony Ericsson offering. It has managed a get an 8 on 10 rating from us. The Yari is available in India at a price of Rs. 16,950.
