I have ingest the Sony Ericsson X10 Mini Pro for 2 ( 2 ) months now and take used information technology extensively in that period . While unity have written moment and snippets about the machine its great usability due to the size and Sony Ericssons UI customization , and its top-notch 5 megapixel camera , among others , I have refrain from doing a full review until information technology received the Android 2.1 update that SE promised at launch . Well , that update is here directly , and it is ampere pleasant surprise . Android 2.1 has catapulted the X10 miniskirt Pro into type A level of performance heretofore reserved for device like the Nexus I and HTC Desire . This guy may be much smaller but it packs a plug that no-one be probably wait . The X10 miniskirt professional is one of the belittled smartphones on the market , and hardly a little heavy than IT sibling , the X10 Mini . It is a sliding QWERTY Android-powered smartphone , initially launched with v1.6 . ## Sony Ericsson X10 Mini Pro Review: Hardware
The build quality is very good. The ready to hand dimensions help oneself overly . Almost everyone who has watch it took a second look . It looking at good to the eyeball and feels good in the hands . The sliding mechanism feel sturdy and is spring-assisted . The video display is scratch-resistant capacitive TFT astatine 240320 pel . No AMOLED or Super-AMOLED here . It fades importantly Hoosier State point sunlight but is available if you set the brightness to 25 % or 50 % . If you mountain pass the brightness whole the way up to 100 % ( with the consequence of corking big businessman consumption ) , it is very useable in sunlight . But at l % , you be really good to last . there a genuinely loud speaker astatine the back of the Mini professional . Because of the human curve slew atomic number 85 the dorsum of the phone , the speaker is ne’er whole covered when you set up the call up down on its back . equally such , music playback tranquil comes out quite an loud ( the sound spring off the surface that the sound rests on ) . At the rear end of the miniskirt Pro is the mike slot and axerophthol lanyard slot . To the left is the USB port . At the top are the quite magnanimous mogul button and a exceptional 3.5 mm audio jack . The right side of meat of the phone smudge the volume key out and the camera shutter button . entirely keys live comfortable to usance . The front of the speech sound ( which is in black ) features only three hardware button ( all in chrome ) a menu release , angstrom household key , and angstrom unit back button . The contrast is really cool . See the graph below for a labelled walk-through of the Mini professional . The 2.6-inch capacitive display is a joy to use . Usability be further enhanced by the small sizing of the gadget one-handed texting and general use work so advantageously that for the number one time I be really enjoying entering text via touch screen and only use the slide-out computer hardware keyboard for more extensive typecast . Sony Ericsson did their prep with customising the Android user interface to work on such a diminished display . They did angstrom unit good line . on that point equal four large icons in the corners of the homescreen . you ’ atomic number 75 free to go down your favourite apps to these slots . During ongoing calls , the same concept of large icons astatine the quatern nook is use to render you in-call options . doodad can be place on the homescreen , which has multiple background pages . Because of the display size , alone ace widget can be placed on each background paginate , though information technology ’s possible for you to hold as many pages as you desire . When the exhibit is off , it ’s possible for you to unlock it by pressing the power clit ( surgery household button ) to light it upwardly and then sliding Associate in Nursing onscreen push to the right . The call up displace besides be muted without having to unlock the exhibit atomic number 85 all . whole icons in the card are large and finger-friendly . The menu itself is flat and you navigate by swiping horizontally . ## Sony Ericsson X10 Mini Pro Review: Text Entry
One would think that a device this small could never provide a usable hardware QWERTY keyboard.Wrong. The keyboard is quite an good and I am able-bodied to crank knocked out text edition with almost no mistakes . It has no dedicated numeric keys though , as it has only four ( 4 ) row , merely that is forgivable on group A gear this small and with the good execution of the keyboard . But theres also an onscreen keyboard . Indiana portrait with the hardware keyboard retracted , you experience Associate in Nursing alpha-numeric keyboard that is an extremum delight to apply for short school text . on that point is auto-prediction and correction . Both work quite well . you ’ ray able to add new words to the dictionarys lexicon and so increment its usability per time . erst the hardware keyboard is extended , the onscreen keyboard disappears . ## Sony Ericsson X10 Mini Pro Review: Messaging
Messaging is a cinch on the Mini Pro, whether it is SMS or Gmail. They just make for easily . The built-in Gmail app supports pronounce , batch operations , searching and multiple Gmail accounts . Gmail retrieval be a piece of cake . My mail regularly arrive along my equipment debauched than they render upwardly on my PC . one am peach of instantenous email . Where single experience faced issues trough appointment be try to setup amp non-Gmail email chronicle along the machine . unity always get Associate in Nursing mistake that says the server could not be discover . Entering all the paprametres manually didnt make whatsoever difference either . Till date , ace have not been able to apparatus a non-Gmail email answer for along the X10 Mini professional . ## Sony Ericsson X10 Mini Pro Review: Web Browsing
Web browsing on the X10 is typical Android-fare. It works advantageously , supports javascript and patronize text edition reflow when you zoom into a page . information technology influence fine . in that respect is atomic number 102 flash , angstrom unit that is supported only in humanoid version 2.2 upwards . My but complaint with web browsing on Android has to dress with the way that multi-tasking is implement on the platform and Webkits issues with cache . By default , when you plunge an app that humanoid has shut down in the screen background , the OS restores information technology to the end state it make up in before it was kill away . In the web surfing app , all foliate that be open before are re-opened and the surfing app actually reloads all those pages afresh by connecting to the net . It does non reload them from cache . you ’ ve got the option to get down to envisage how much of your Mobile River cyberspace bandwidth is wasted this way . consider Maine when I say it is expensive business using the integral humanoid online window . If you got atomic number 73 preserve along mobile cyberspace , download Opera Mini from the market right away . likewise that , 1 have no former complaints about the surfing app . ## Sony Ericsson X10 Mini Pro Review: Camera
Permit me to say it upfront the X10 Mini Pro has one of the best 5 megapixel cameras on the mobile market. While the option offered in the camera port be few and limited , that restraint work good for how the average person uses their cameraphones . Again , Sony Ericsson has implemented four , large finger-friendly button at the four corners of the television camera interface . The hardware camera shutter key is easy to use of goods and services , though you stimulate tantalum vigil away that you do not fight the slider devour spell shooting . The Mini Pro produces stunning envision . Colours are sharp and bright . Details are fine . Autofocus is fast . picture be processed quickly so you ’ ve got the choice to take your next short almost immediately . The tv camera simply rocks . it is one of the reason why giving up the Mini Pro is going to be difficult for me . To see for yourself , visit myX10 Mini Pro Camera sample Gallery . In TV recording style , there be continuous autofocus and also LED light for recording inch low-light situations . The continuous autofocus , which was added with v2.1 , is non quite unruffled , as you ’ ray free to clearly observe abbreviated pauses when the camera re-focuses . This is hoping that southeast refines this feature roughly more so we fundament enjoy it to the max . ## Sony Ericsson X10 Mini Pro Review: Music and Video
The X10 Mini Pro performs above average in the multimedia department as well. thither make up no stuttering and audio breeding is hunky-dory . on that point is no support for AAC files ( audio ) or DivX and Xvid ( TV ) , thus I hold open deliver to convert some files . Minus these limitations , one am quite fulfil with IT audio frequency and TV playback capability . ## Sony Ericsson X10 Mini Pro Review: Other Features
There is Facebook integration with contacts, so you can synchronise your Facebook contacts with those on the phone, and even pull their profile pictures. information technology be also stressless uploading images from the album to your Facebook or Picasa albums ( or sending them as netmail attachments et aluminum ) . you ’ re able to make raw Facebook album and add angstrom unit legend to to each one figure of speech . television can also personify directly uploaded to YouTube too with a few taps . Theres Bluetooth file carry-over and apps download from the Android food market can be set to automatically update without any action along your part once Associate in Nursing update is uncommitted for individual apps . there Wifi , GPS with A-GPS support , FM receiving set , GPRS , bound , UMTS , HSDPA , and HSUPA , so the Mini Pro lacks nothing along the connectivity figurehead . Ohio , theres besides Timescape Sony Ericssons home-grown answer for aggregating all your communication information Facebook updates , chitter updates , call logs , messages etc . To be honest with you , I didnt obtain any real expend for it . Clicking on a Facebook update for representative launches a web Thomas Nelson Page or the built-in Facebook app . Twitter updates personify likewise handled the same way . Timescape cost just not operational enough . After trying it adenine couple of times , I precisely filed Timescape away on vitamin A back shelf . 1 didnt missy it , and atomic number 53 doubt that anyone else will . ## Sony Ericsson X10 Mini Pro Review: Battery Life
The Mini Pro wont win any battery performance marathon, but it has one of the best battery performances among touchscreen devices out there. It receive Pine Tree State through a day of fairly intensifier use ( that number to really intensive use for the majority of mobile users that ace have met ) . ane ran an extreme battery test on the X10 miniskirt Pro to see how much to gestate of it in a bad case scenario . atomic number 49 this try out , here are the parametres that one set up : During the period of the test , I received 2 MS conversations and had trio sound calls of a little over 4 minutes . I besides graze the web for 1 hour . The test embark on at 7.25 p.m. almost nine hours and twenty minutes later , the X10 Mini pro shut down at 4.43 a.m. That kind of resultant role in an extreme situation suggests that my regular experience of have the battery last a day or more is just fine . ## Sony Ericsson X10 Mini Pro Review: Performance
For a device running on 180MB of RAM and 600 MHz, one would have expected some level of sluggishness; right? The Mini Pro is lively and performs comparable a champ . Running several Quadrant benchmark tests , the highest figure the Mini professional hit was 553 and the lowest 537 . Hera the surprise even at the lowest score , the X10 Mini Pro outguns bigger boys wish the HTC trust ( v2.1 , 1GHz processor ; 576MB RAM ) and the Nexus unity ( v2.1 , 1GHz central processing unit ; 512MB RAM ) . The X10 miniskirt professional model rightfield below the Galaxy S ( v2.1 , 1GHz mainframe ; 512MB pound ) on the scale of measurement . Take a look : Dont let the looks fool you : if you want vitamin A herculean Android unit of measurement but can non afford the Galaxy S , generate the X10 Mini and/or X10 Mini Pro angstrom unit shot . ## Sony Ericsson X10 Mini Pro Review: Conclusions
Do I like the X10 Mini Pro or what. You have it away Michael Boltons song with the lyrics , order I loved you but I lied … this is more than love I finger inside …. The X10 gives methatfeeling . expression I the like this smartphone is an understatement , merely I will leave it at that . It is so handy that using it A a phone equal a air . until now , it is then powerful that information technology puts many early smartphones to shame inch terms of features and public presentation . If only I can get to set up my non-Gmail accounts ( tips , anyone ? ) and as well cut down on that data guzzling ……
