Sony Ericsson Yari
Theo Boshoff
A lost gesture
Yes, we know the name sounds funny, and more like that of a Greek boy fishing off the shores of Mykonos, but the Yari phone from Sony Ericsson is far from funny.

It’s been a while since we had a slider (top to bottom) that is not a QWERTY side-slider phone cross our desks. The Yari is, from a design perspective, not a bad-looking phone and it is nice and light at only 115gm. The keypad keys are slimline and flush with the body, allowing for a compact device, but it can pose a problem when trying to type messages.

Much talk focussed on the Yari is around its gaming capabilities. This is the company’s first gesture-controlled gaming phone. Five of the ten games pre-installed on the phone work with the gesture-controls, but not really well. They can be entertaining, but due to the problems experienced with the control mechanism, they can also be very annoying and frustrating.

As a music playing device it should have rocked. It features Sony Ericsson’s fantastic media player, making accessing and navigating through your songs great, but why not then include a standard 3.5mm headphone jack for people to use their own headphones? The speakers on the back do, however, compensate a bit for the lack of the jack.

The five-megapixel camera with flash takes unexpectedly good photos. There is still a small lag between capturing shots, which can be annoying. However, the picture quality is good.

As a phone with which to access the web, we missed the WiFi capability. It’s okay for quick searches and reading short bursts of information, but the small, 2.4-inch screen doesn’t make browsing all that fun. And to quickly get back to the gaming aspect, it isn’t much fun either.

The Yari also features a GPS built in and has Google Maps already installed as well as a navigation app, called WisePilot. WisePilot, however, lacks the functionality of other, bigger-name mobile navigation solutions you can install on the phone. It also features Bluetooth and an FM radio.

The greatest thing about the Yari, according to what a user told us, is its battery life. The user says she got about three full days of battery life doing average tasks, making calls, playing – or rather trying to play – games, web browsing and listening to music. Good one, Sony Ericsson. Now please extend this to your other phones.