Sony Ericsson Yari review: Move to play

Make way Nintendo Wii and Project Natal – the Sony Ericsson Yari can play both motion-based games and camera-tracked gesture controlled games. A 5MP camera and GPS in an attractive package and of course great audio quality – we might have a winner on our hands.

What’s all this gesture gaming we’re going on about? Simple, well, sort of – Yari uses its secondary camera to track motion so that you can use your body to control the game, like the impressive Project Natal demos you might have seen (and if you haven’t, do – you’ll know joysticks are a thing of the past). The accelerometer also comes into play – the Bowling game puts a Wii in your pocket.

But the Sony Ericsson Yari is not just about games. Even though Sony Ericsson are done using the Cybershot and Walkman labels, Yari’s seems to have both types of genes. It packs a 5MP camera with auto-focus and the audio quality is great. Keep in mind this is a reasonably priced phone we’re talking about here.

Sony Ericsson Yari

Key features:

• Quad-band GSM support
• Tri-band 3G with HSDPA 7.2Mbps and HSUPA 1.8 Mbps support
• 2.4” 16M-color display (240 x 320 pixels)
• 5 megapixel autofocus camera with LED flash
• VGA video recording at 30fps
• Gesture-based gaming
• Accelerometer for automatic UI rotation and motion-based gaming, gaming keys
• Built-in GPS receiver with optional WisePilot navigation
• FM radio with RDS and TrackID
• Bluetooth with A2DP and USB (Fast Port connector)
• Great audio quality
• Stereo speakers
• Support for microSD cards up to 16GB, hot-swap, 1GB card in the box
• Retail package comes with a desk stand

Main disadvantages:

• Signal reception issues (could be unit-specific)
• Uncomfortable soft keys and keypad
• Camera produces bland, low-contrast photos
• No standard USB and audio ports
• Preinstalled gesture-based games not very impressive
• So-called "gaming keys" don't have any actual use in games
• Slow image gallery
• No office document viewer
• WisePilot software is a 30-day trial, downloads map data over the air

Games, music, navigation – the Sony Ericsson Yari is a Swiss army knife of a phone. Tech-geeks will be impressed, but the Yari will appeal to civilians as well.

The Sony Ericsson Yari feels pretty good to handle

Jump to the next page, where we open up the box and begin exploring the Sony Ericsson Yari.