Overview
The Sony Ericsson XPERIA x10 mini pro isn't short of hype. Following on from the success of its big brother the XPRIA, the mini has picked up bags of good reviews, averaging out at around 4 stars out of 5 across the board and it has just won phone of the year. Bloggers are fussing about its combination of power and compact size but is this latest Android smartphone as good as they say? We take a look.
Review
Sony Ericsson themselves stated that the mini was designed to fill the gap in the market for smartphones that can be both compact and powerful. Fair enough, not everyone wants a hefty Galaxy S or iPhone 4 in their pocket. But there are alternatives, the XPERIA mini is not the only compact smartphone on the market.
In my opinion the T-mobile Mini Pulse for example is an inappropriately overlooked and underrated handset. It's been slated for it's difficult texting and 'inability to handle Android 2.1,' in my experience it is perfectly suited to 2.1 and handles it smoothly, the texting is slightly annoying, it must be said but the difference is not only is the handset compact but so is the price. Tesco are shelling out the thing for just over £80 now which is worth the sacrifice of super efficient typing unless money is no issue to you. The HTC Tattoo is another example of a compact Android smartphone that doesn't hurt the bank.
Back to the XPERIA mini, does it have enough to justify a £249.99 price tag? Its role is fulfilled perfectly. It's got a 1GHZ processor and 5MP camera crammed into a nice sized device and the QWERTY keyboard is simply fantastic. It's so well hidden you'd be forgive for not realising it was there and when it slides out you see that it's a stylish good quality keyboard that's going to come in very useful for quick emailing and texting.
But for me, that's almost as far as it goes. The problem with reviewing an Android based phone is that Android OS does all the work. The things that make the XPERIA mini pro shine, like the Google mail integration, Google maps with navigation, the ever expanding app market, youtube, web browser etc are brought to the handset from Google.
The handset itself is compact and the keyboard is good plus the three main solid buttons: menu, back, home, that work well to provide easy and intuitive navigation along with the 2.5 inch touchscreen (which is big enough to do what you want but not too big to make the handset bulcky and fragile) but the rubber style backing and the dodgy faux-chrome trimming make the 'high-end smartphone' look and feel a little tacky.
Of course the handset does run extremely smoothly and browsing is very fast. It can certainly handle Android not problem at all and the mega pixel camera with flash and geo-tagging are a great addition from Sony. (Plus there's the smartphone standard, wi/fi and 3G)
They've also combined Android with their own UI but it doesn't offer much. The corners of the homescreen provide quick acess to your favourite apps and features and the menu is an iPhone style scrolling menu compared to multi screens seen on most Androids. The advantage is obviously that you don't have to have the fuss of seperate screens, but some people like to have the option if they're anal about app organisation. There's also Timescape which combines social networking into one but there are apps out there which can do the same.
We say
It's easy to see why the XPERIA mini is doing well, It does offer high end specs in a (minus the chrome trimming) stylish and compact package and it runs as well if not better as some of the big players in the Android industry but at the moment doesn't offer anything special. It's somewhere in between the budgets phones of Tattoo and Pulse and the giants like the DROIDs and the Galaxy S.
I'd go all out and get the best or keep the price low with one of the budget phones which are definitely worth a look.
Gaj-it verdict
6/10
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