As we await the launch of the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 the manufacturer has now added two new 'mini' phones to their Xperia series, the X10 Mini and Sony Ericsson X10 Mini Pro are now scheduled for launch in early Q2 2010.
Taking a closer look at the X10 Mini Pro, this new Xperia phone manages to pack in an extra slide out Qwerty keyboard into a housing hardly bigger than the X10 Mini edition which opts for simple touch screen entry.
Comparing the two models, the Mini Pro adds just 1mm to the depth of the handset to incorporate this new Qwerty keyboard whilst the width is widened just 2mm and the overall height by 7mm. The addition of the keyboard will please manu users who enjoy tapping at keys as opposed to having to use the on-screen Qwerty keyboard.
The weight of the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini Pro is also slightly more compared with the X10 Mini jumping from 88g up to 120g, that said this is still a very compact handset and best of all the features are exactly the same in both models.
These include a 5.0 mega pixel camera with autofocus amongst many other camera features, WiFi, 3.5G support, GPS, an expandable memory, FM Radio and a 3.5mm audio jack for listening to music using any standard headphone set.
One of the most important unique selling points of both of these two new X10 handsets is the fact that they are by far the smallest Android Powered mobile phones to ever be launched, this also means that both have access to the Android Market where thousands of new applications, content and tools can be downloaded at super fast speeds.
Sony Ericsson are not the first manufacturer to coin either the 'Pro' or 'Mini' name for their models, HTC were the first to use Pro to describe their Touch Pro model which was then upgraded to the HTC Touch Pro 2 and Nokia were the first to use the 'Mini' tag for their Nokia N97 Mini which is a miniturised version of their original N-Series N97 handset.
Joining the these two new additions to the X10 range is another handset using the 'Pro' name tag, the
Sony Ericsson Vivaz Pro which again offers the slide out Qwerty keyboard associated with this new name.
Competition against these new handsets is not directly in terms of size but certainly the features can be met by the new
Motorola Milestone, Nokia N97, Samsung Omnia Pro and LG GW620 handsets.
One of the main concerns about the Sony X10 Mini and Mini Pro has to be the size of the screens, as smart phones seem to be getting bigger and bigger display sizes Sony Ericsson have opted to go in the other direction with the smaller 2.55mm touch screens of these new phones.
When you think about the new HTC HD2 with it's massive 4.3 inch display and even the Sony Ericsson X10 which offers a large 4 inch screen you have to wonder how user friendly these new Android devices really are. It seems that Sony Ericsson have addressed this to some degree with a new user interface which places short cuts in each corner of the main home screen but when it comes to watching videos and surfing the internet things may get a little trickier?
Both the
Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini Pro and Mini edition handsets are due for release very soon, none of the networks have yet confirmed they will be selling the phones but a SIM Free launch is expected in April.
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