Sony Ericsson Yari review

The Sony Ericsson Yari isn’t like other phones. With its motion sensing “gesture gaming”, this next-gen slab of wizardry is trying to cash in on the flailing limbs craze started by the Nintendo Wii. Does it work on a phone though? Read our Sony Ericsson Yari review to find out.

Let’s get straight to the point: the Sony Ericsson Yari is surprisingly good for motion sensing gaming. Some of the titles, like the snappily named “Fitness”, are a bit naff as they simply count your squats and step-ups, but others like Bowling and Tennis are genuinely responsive and fun to play. The latter sees you throwing your arm up and down to smash, and swiping on the left or right side of your body to return. Our only real problem was finding a place to perch the Sony Ericsson Yari upright, but for a first-gen bash, it’s certainly promising.

Read our Sony Ericsson T715 review now

That said, once the novelty of the Sony Ericsson Yari wears off, you’re left with a rock solid slider, and one that ranks in our affections above even the Sony Ericsson W995. That’s not just because it’s not so heavy it feels like a Cluedo weapon. We’ve hated the tacky plastic feel of many recent sliders from the outfit, but the big, sharp 2.4-inch screen, lovely control pad and centre button and glazed keys are a completely new look, and one we love. The cursor glides smoothly over menu options with none of the lag in other recent models, the T9 keypad is fine to text with, and the whole affair just feels more polished than a trophy cabinet.

It doesn’t stop there: the Sony Ericsson Yari is an ace media player too. There’s still no 3.5mm audio for your own headphones, but you can quickly launch media straight from the homescreen, store tunes on a microSD slot and snap to landscape mode for video and websites thanks to an accelerometer.

A quality five megapixel camera and GPS for both Google Maps and Wisepilot satnavvery (double thumbs-up) round off all the feature phone extras, leaving our only real grumble as the lack of Wi-Fi, when the Sony Ericsson Yari is capable of nigh on everything else. But hey, unless you live in a concrete bunker, 3G should have you covered plenty. App obsessives should look elsewhere, but if add-ons aren’r your thing, we’d gladly recommend the Sony Ericsson Yari, even without all the games stuffed inside.