There are quick options for sending your pics to Facebook using a dedicated app buried in the messaging menu that you can also set it to display your updates on the home screen. You can create web albums and there’s a funky slideshow setting called X-Pict Story that allows you to show off your pics to preset musical and display themes: harmonious, nostalgic, relaxing, joyful and energetic. Picture quality is respectable, with good colour balance and generally sharp edges.
There's certainly more to the Yari than meets the eye
Watching movies on the 2.4in screen is possible, but not recommended – the screen's sharp enough, but just too small to enjoy for any length of time. The music player on the other hand may not have all the bells and whistles of SE's Walkman series but has a few of its own, with the option to show cover art, or a selection of decent little Flash animated graphics, including a reel to reel tape machine or mixing desk. There's a five-preset graphic equaliser too.
It's a nicely presented player, and easy to load using SE's latest PC Suite 6.0 software, but sound from the supplied headphones is less than stellar, with a little too much high-end harshness and thin bass. There's an FM radio too, with auto search and SE's TrackID service for namechecking those mystery tracks. Unfortunately, there's no 3.5mm headphone jack that would make it easy to upgrade, and there's no adapter for the FastPort plug, though wireless Bluetooth headphones are an option.
There's only 600MB of memory on board for storing your tunes, but you can bump up to 16GB with a micro SD card. Call quality was generally fine, though the speaker volume could perhaps have gone a little louder, and e-mail messaging proved easy to set up, requiring just address and password. Battery life was quite hearty, as we managed a little over three days of regular use.
Verdict
The Sony Ericsson Yari scores pretty well in the light/bushel stakes. It has the appearance of a bog standard SE mid to low ender, but manages to pack in a decent music player and web browser, a fine camera and the latest in SE's gaming technology, as well as a fistful of other useful extras. Yes, a bigger screen would have made more of all these functions, but then it wouldn't have been so pocketable. ®
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Sony Ericsson Yari
COMMENTS
No gapless playback?
Still SE haven't managed to put gap-less playback on any of their phones as standard.
I wonder why?
Their media players have this working, so what's the problem SE?
Looks
I think it looks quite smart, myself. It's not overly flashy - it's just neat. Each to their own. :-)
Is it just me or does this look a LOT like the N81?
http://img.gsmarena.com/vv/pics/nokia/nokia-n81_002.jpg
Yeah, not just me it looks a LOT like the N81
No match for a Wii
The great thing about the Wii is that the remotes are separated from the screen. Your arms can be flailing about while you can still watch the action. This phone combination just doesn't work for bowling, tennis, etc. For example, the iBowl game for the iPod Touch is quite nice, but isn't a patch on playing Wii Sports bowling in front of your telly. The accelerometer-based games which work best on the iPod Touch are those which simulate gravity, such as Topple, Jellycar or Labyrinth. The only large-gesture based app I really feel works is the Light-Saber simulator, because it's the sound that's important, not the visuals.
iPint's quite fun, too !
No headphones either
In the case of this particular handset, it's not much of a loss. No headphone socket? In 2010? Not even the option of one of those incredibly annoying adaptor cables? Laughable.
