Sony Ericsson Yari

Available now
28th May 2009

The Sony Ericsson Yari is a 3.5G slider phone with an unusual name, and an unusual approach to gaming.

Using the built-in accelerometer, the Yari allows "gesture controlled" gaming - imagine using your phone a bit like a Wii controller, and you get the general idea. Sony Ericsson say that the Yari is unique in this respect outside of Japan, and give examples of tennis and boxing as the types of game you might play.

However, readers with longish memories might remember the Sony Ericsson F305 which also features accelerometer-based gaming. The F305 sank without trace after launch, and for one quite simple reason - the whole idea is just plain daft.

The main problems are these - while you are busy waving your mobile phone around, then you cannot see what is happening on the screen. Another problem is that most mobile phones are quite fragile and will break if flung around hard enough - the Wii remote controller comes with a wrist-strap and rubber casing to protect it, the Yari seems to have no such protection.

If we ignore the fact that the Yari's unique selling proposition seems a bit unappealing, then the rest of the phone looks to be fairly reasonable. There's a 5 megapixel camera with autofocus and a photo light, GPS, HSDPA and HSUPA high-speed data and a 2.4" 240 x 320 pixel display. Plus there's an FM radio, web browser, multimedia player, stereo Bluetooth and USB connectivity.

You can play other games that don't involve accidentally throwing your phone out of the window, and Sony Ericsson have come up with a games organiser called the carousel and a download service named "PlayNow" to get additional applications.

Unusually for a Sony Ericsson, the Yari comes with microSD expandable memory rather than Sony's Memory Stick Micro. There's a 1GB memory card in the standard sales package, in addition to a wired headset and phone stand.

Talktime is quoted as up to 4.5 hours on 3G and 10 hours on GSM, with up to 18 days standby time. The Yari weighs 115 grams, measures 100 x 48 x 16mm and comes in "Achromatic Black" and "Cranberry White" colour combinations. Sony Ericsson say that the handset should be available during Q4 2009.