It is quiet common that mobile manufacturers have a model that is
virtually identical to other models in the port sequence. Sony Ericsson
Xperia X10 Mini Pro is one such phone. The inside is in fact almost
identical with Xperia X10 Mini.
Keyboard Pro
This Pro version differs considerably from the regular X10 Mini and has
the sliding full keyboard. This also means that the X10 Mini Pro has
grown slightly in all directions.
Although this is still a compact phone, it lacks the extremely charming
format of the original X10 Mini. In particular, looking at the thickness
of the phone, we can say that this is not a tiny phone. There are
however other phones with thinner keyboards, although this usually
extends slightly longer in height and width. Although the keyboard is
one of the smaller full keyboards, it works very well anyway. The keys
are slightly elevated and easy to distinguish from each other.
For some reason, Sony Ericsson did not use the entire width of the phone
for keypad. And why did they done so; it would perhaps provide room for
common keys and not just the arrow to the right and left on either side
of the keyboard.
Apart from the keyboard, it is mentioned little that separates X10 Mini
Pro with X10 Mini. The majority of what we wrote about X10 Mini is
applicable also for the Pro version.
Amateur Screen
Unfortunately, the similarities also apply to screen of X10 Mini Pro.
The screen is sharp to look at, but the size is still tiny tab.
Obviously, this is a natural consequence of this is a small phone, but
for a phone with professional ambitions is the screen too small. If you
use your phone as a professional phone set to different requirements of
what to show on screen. With the keyboard pushed out, screen appears
naturally in landscape mode. Unfortunately, the screen is quite
difficult when, for example, you are trying to reply to a message.
In practice, this ensures that even if you can see text messages as
conversations, but you will find yourself in a situation where you are
unable to see previous messages as you type. It is not at all different
from X10 Mini. Thus, with the keyboard in place and "Pro" in the name,
you might expect a bit more functionality.
Menu Pro
We recognized that the menus are similar to the X10 Mini. This is a very
successful adaptation of the Android operating system for a small phone
like this. Among other things, you have a good Time Cape
implementation, which collects and shows what happens in the social
media you use. The only difference in the menus is that the screen can
now be displayed in landscape mode in many situations.
Since the menus are the same as the X10 Mini you can, in other words,
use X10 Mini Pro freely with sliding out the keyboard. However, you will
notice that the phone is stripped of advanced menu options. Thus, this
seems not a typical pro phone. Like previously mentioned, the amount of
information that can fit on the screen at times is less, which does not
give any prof sense.
Another complaint is that the Android version is still 1.6. Many will
probably upgrade to 2.1 when this will hopefully be available from Sony
Ericsson this fall.
Something that is not specific to this particular model, are dedicated
buttons for calling and power off. In many situations, it is convenient
for example to respond by pressing a separate button, instead of having
to squint their way on the screen to answer a call.
Standard accessories
Accessory kit contains pretty much what you expect. Data cable is also
here, combined with the charging cord and plugged into the charger when
to charge via wall outlet. The memory card of 2 GB is the bare best team
if you need to upload large amounts of music, but holds lots of images
and applications.
With the package you can get:
- Mobile Phone
- Battery
- Chargers
- Data cable
- Stereo Handsfree
- Memory 2 GB
Technology
Although X10 Mini has "Pro" in the name, the price is still reasonable.
X10 Pro Mini now costs about the same as X10 Mini did. The latter has
fallen slightly in price, so there are a few hundred notes in the price
difference between the two.
Anyway, there is little doubt that here is much technology for the
money. Of course, you have super-3G for fast browsing through the mobile
network. On the journey you might appreciate the Wi-Fi functionality
that makes it possible to surf cheap or free even in remote corners of
the world.
Speaking of surfing, we have a mixed experience. The website is indeed
for the most part correct, but both the dashboard and the service suffer
from the size of the screen.
You can download the e-mail using the usual POP3 and Exchange. If you
are an avid user of the built-in e-mail reader, you will probably notice
that the times are a little slow and it can display the wrong number of
unread e-mail. Synchronizing with Exchange using the supplied Roadsync
program makes things easier.
The Android phones are automatically notified when it made upgrades to
the programs you have installed on your phone, and usually then choose
to upgrade to the latest and greatest version of your programs.
This also applies to Roadsync, but to upgrade this you suddenly will
notice that you have only a trial version of the program. At startup you
will be notified that update to the full version of Roadsync is
available on their websites, but there are unfortunately no new versions
to find. Fortunately, you can just uninstall this patch via the
application menu on the phone, so you do not have to reset the phone to
restore full functionality.
Sometimes you may need to open attachments to e-mail. If you, for
example, want to display a Word document, you pretty much have to
download and buy a program for the most common document formats. It’s
not often we see phones with full keyboard that comes with this
built-in.
Still you can only have one application on every start screen. If you
use the calendar more often, you’ll appreciate that you can view the
calendar on the home screen. The functionality is somewhat limited
because you can only see one entry from the calendar and you will not
see any other information from there.
A limitation of our readers has noticed, and that applies to both X10
Mini and the Pro version, is that you cannot transfer files via
Bluetooth. Hope this comes in place when Sony Ericsson launches Version
2.1 of the operating system.
As in most Android phones, there are plenty of applications from Google
already installed, not surprising since it is Google that is developing
Android. This should not be enough; it is easy to install a host of
additional Google applications – and other applications for that matter –
from the Android Market.
Do you want further want to know more; the X10 Pro Mini has a built-in
GPS. Whether you can find using Google Maps, or you can use the complete
and elegant Wise pilot program to show the way. Unfortunately Wise
Pilot is also here delivered as a 30-day trial version.
Battery life is important for many. In the test period we were in two to
three days between charges. This is about the same as we saw with the
X10 Mini. The difference is that the X10 Mini-Pro has a removable
battery so you’ll find on most phones.
Another not inconsiderable factor is the coverage and call quality. We
did not notice any particular problems with call quality on our test
sample, and our impression is that the X10 Pro Mini also works well as a
telephone.
Multimedia
The X10 Mini Pro is quite a minimalist on the multimedia front. For
example, the music player is of the simple kind. Fortunately, this does
not come at the expense of sound quality, and X10 Pro Mini waited, like
the other X10-phones with decent sound.
Of course you also have the mini jack input and thus you could use your
own headphones. The entrance is conveniently located on top of the
phone, and is of the type that also allows you to connect to specific
Sony Ericsson headphones with extra functionality such as remote.
Even though the headphones supplied are good quality, you can easily
upgrade the sound quality by plugging in a couple of decent-quality
headphones.
Games
Even if it only included one game in full, it’s the road to more fun on
this card like most other Android phones. Only a few keystrokes away you
have easy access to a lot of inaudible free games.
This phone, however, has some games like Air control. Play with simple
controls, like Traffic Jam, however, works better on a screen like this.
Camera
The camera, like the music player has small adjustment possibilities.
Like the music player, it’s the most important namely the quality of the
delivered good.
We took photos under most imaginable circumstances, and X10 Mini Pro has
mostly quite correct exposure and color reproduction. It is reassuring
to know that the camera, although it obviously has its limitations,
based on assumptions takes good pictures in general. Thus, you do not
risk that half of holiday memories will be destroyed by a camera that
can handle various situations and motifs.
Video recording is not minimized away, and you can record video in VGA
resolution.
Specification
- Screen
- 240 x 320 pixels (QVGA)
- 16,777,216 color TFT
- Memory
- MicroSD support (up to 16 GB)
- Phone memory 128MB
- Networks
- GSM/GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900
- UMTS/HSPA 900/2100
- UMTS/HSPA 850/1900/2100
- UMTS/HSUPA 850/1900/2100
- Available colours
- Black
- Red
- Pearl White
- Sizes
- 90.0 x 52.0 x 17.0 mm
- 3.5 x 2.0 x 0.7 inches
- Weight
- 120.0 gr
- 4.2 oz
- Features: Alarm clock, notes, countdown, stopwatch, calculator,
Neoreader, Google Talk, Search, Roadsync, A-GPS - Synchronization: SyncML, Exchange
- E-mail: POP3, IMAP4, Exchange, Gmail
Conclusion
Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini Pro is something so rare that an Android
market have with full keyboard.
It is slightly larger in all directions and we were able to continue
taking this to be an X10 Mini. But the keyboard is the fact very little
that separates these two phones. This is undoubtedly positive. X10 Mini
Pro is, like its smaller twin brother, a compact and easy Android phones
transparent and user-friendly menus.
Sony Ericsson has custom menus and so they work well with the small
screen. However, the screen is the biggest drawback of X10 Mini Pro. It
is difficult to obtain in both worlds and the size of the X10 Mini Pro
makes it fit a larger screen than the 2.55 inch screen you will find
here.
With the ‘Pro’ in the name, we expect X10 Mini Pro will satisfy the
demanding professional users. Unfortunately, the limited available
information on the screen for example, when writing messages or using
the calendar of the minimum screen size. The same applies to the home
screen, which is the easiest team if you are looking for a professional
phone.
It is a pity that the screen limits the usefulness of the X10 Mini Pro.
Full keyboard works namely very good, and although it is small, it is
easy to operate.
X10 Mini Pro is running 1.6 version of the popular Android operating
system. This is far from breaking news, but fortunately, Sony Ericsson
announced an update to the more modern 2.1 version in the autumn.
The menus are very easy and many menu items, that you might otherwise
have come to find, is taken away which is yet another minus point for
such users, but most will probably appreciate the increased ease of use
of this gear.
Although X10 Mini Pro is fairly small, there are plenty of technologies.
While browsing the usual sites is a mixed experience at the small
screen, there is at least instantly since the X10 Mini-Pro has both
super-3G and Wi-Fi. FM radio and GPS receiver is the one that Sony
Ericsson has also found room for.
Simplicity is again in the music player and camera. Here are a few
options, but as with its X10 brethren, the sound quality was very good
and the camera takes good pictures.
We used the X10 Pro Mini for two to three days prior to the charger,
which has been approved. Sound quality was nothing to say on.
In all, although the professional user will appreciate the excellent
keyboard, the small screen and limited functionality of the X10 Mini
Pro; it is a full-fledged pro telephone. If you are eager to take small
stronger phone that can live with it sometimes getting a little
cluttered on the small screen, the X10 Pro Mini is an excellent
alternative.
Pros
- Still compact
- Good full keyboard
- Good sound quality
- Good menus in spite of Android in the "old" version
Cons
- The screen is too small for
professional users - Not as small and charming as the X10 Mini
- Not all games suitable for this screen
- Falls a little between two stools
