Sony Ericsson was among the first manufacturers to try and take advantage of the gaming potential in cellphones. Unfortunately for them, the iPhone ended up being the platform that showed everyone how to do it right. The Sony Ericsson Yari is the company’s latest gaming-centric handset, integrating features such as gesture controls and other innovative ideas. Of course, novel implementations never guarantee a good game. So how does it fare?
Physically, it looks like a standard candybar slider. Look closer, though, and you’ll find two odd buttons on top, which are supposed to serve as extra controls that you can use when playing games. Overall build seems solid, the sliding mechanism feels sturdy and it’s got relatively sexy looks too.
For a gaming phone, the Yari’s screen is considerably small at only 2.4. inches. While resolution is good (320 x 240) and colors are bright, the size seriously limits you enjoyment of even the most basic games. Both the navigation buttons and keypad are flat, but they are responsive.
As a phone, it manages below-average calls. Main culprit is a serious lack of volume, even at the highest loudness settings, although signal reception also wasn’t the best. Speakerphone was much better with plenty of loudness, but it suffers from the same reception problems. Expect to charge the battery every night, as you should clean it out in a day and a half at most.
The Yari’s biggest selling point are the gesture-based games, which uses the second camera to approximate the user’s body in relation to the phone. You’ll have to prop it up in the included stand and perform motions ala Microsoft’s Project Natal. Unfortunately, the two titles pre-installed with support for the feature (Tennis and Fitness) are just downright plain. There’s iPhone-style motion gaming here too (Bowling and LocoRoco), which proved much more entertaining. A few other more conventional games are on board, although we do wonder why none of them use the two “gaming” buttons that Sony added on the front panel. Overall, the games are decent but nowhere near the experience you can get from an iPhone (especially considering that this phone isn’t running a very fast processor) – a serious blow to the Yari’s potential for success.
Despite the obvious lack of an actual shot at dominating the mobile gaming landscape, it does come with a smattering of good features: there’s aGPS, a veritable kitchen sink of preloaded apps (from Facebook to Flickr to a pedometer to a torch app with SOS capabilities to a whole lot more), an FM tuner and 3G support (no Wi-Fi, though). Surfing the web, however, isn’t the best with the small screen and a sub-par browser on board. Most pages loaded accurately, though.
It comes with a 5.0 megapixel camera module that offers an overwhelming amount of editing options (which is a good thing). Unfortunately, no amount of tinkering can help with the fact that it only manages average-looking stills (and I’m being generous here). Audio quality, on the other hand, is top notch, making this a great substitute for an actual Walkman phone. The stereo speakers sound great.
Overall, the Sony Ericsson Yari is packed to the brim with features. Unfortunately, throwing in the kitchen sink doesn’t necessarily make a great phone. If the feature set is a good match for what you’re looking for, you may like it, though.
