The Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini Pro, an Overview

Sony Ericsson have attempted to address some age old problems with the announcement of the release of the Xperia X10 Mini Pro. For a while now Android and Smartphones have been bulky units, so this miniature little cracker is a welcome addition, especially as it also incorporates a full Qwerty keypad to boot.

The first thing that strikes you about this phone, asides from its looks, is at diminutive frame. Measuring 90 x 52 x 17mm and weighing just 120 grammes, this truly is a smartphone you can label as lightweight, not only being smaller than nearly every other comparable phone we have looked at, but also weighing a little less too. When the phone is closed, the 2.55" screen dominates the front of the handset. This screen shows a QVGA resolution of 240 x 320 and boasts a range of an impressive 16 million colours. The screen is a capacitive touchscreen and is almost effortless to use. When you turn the phone on its side, you can slide the screen up to reveal the neatly tucked away keypad, the screen auto rotates as well to make reading what you are typing easier. This full Qwerty keypad, although a touch on the small side, does make composing e mail and messages an easier affair. And this keypad does measure up bigger than the Blackberry or the Palm Pre so perhaps it is a touch unfair to label it as small.

The Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini Pro offers a host of connectivity options to the user. WIFI is catered for for easy internet access as is EDGE technology, meaning using the internet is a speedy process. Behind the scenes the Mini Pro boast an 800 Mhz processor, 200 Mhz smaller than on the original Xperia X10 but still a considerable size for a phone. Running on the well received Google Android operating system, the handset looks a joy to use, especially as the user interface is the Timescape UI. This is currently one of the most innovative interfaces available, neatly grouping together texts and messages under your contacts name, along with a host of other information including Social Networking updates. This is a neat feature which not only keeps your menus simple, but also saves on the phone having to open up a variety of apps to view different information.

Although exact specification is not known yet, the handset will feature a 5 million pixel camera with video recording capability. This can be stored to the 128mb of internal memory, however you have the option to expand this up to 16GB thanks to a MicroSD card slot.

The Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini Pro looks set to be a hugely popular phone on its release. The looks are sleek and stylish and its small frame will win it many fans. But perhaps the key factor is the Google Android OS coupled with the Timescape UI which will undoubtedly attract the hardcore smartphone fan.

The Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini Pro and the Palm Pixi are coming soon.