back to article Sony Ericsson Xperia Mini Pro Qwerty Android smartphone

Sony Ericsson may not be churning out Android handsets in the bulk of HTC or Samsung, but its has produced some consistently good phones recently in its Xperia range. Building on last year’s X10 Mini Pro, this new version adds a slightly bigger screen, faster processor and Gingerbread, the latest version of Android for mobiles …

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  1. Turtle_Fan

    So, while the official spec says 340 hours on stand-by this quickly becomes "less than a day" under normal use?

    And regarding the camera, while many handsets sport a front camera, many do not have an app utilising them. Skype vid only works on some special design CPU's while gtalk also does not support many front camera-equipped phones and vtok is a royal pain in the backside.

    So having a front facing camera!=video call capability as far as I can tell. Some clarification on this would be great.

    1. Insane Reindeer
      Stop

      D'Oh!

      Umm, just select the person you want to conduct a video call with and call them using the video call function! Why would you want an application for this?

      1. BristolBachelor Gold badge
        Trollface

        "Why would you want an application for this?"

        Maybe because:

        1. "video calling" is network specific, and maybe that commentard is on one of the networks that doesn't support "video calling".

        2. "Video calling" tends to have special pricing, and maybe this commentard can't afford to take out a new mortgage to use "Video calling".

        However, I'm with you on why would you want an application for this :)

        1. Insane Reindeer

          1. Network Specific. Eh? Is it really? So you can't video call someone on Orange from Vodafone then? Really? Why would that be? That is not the case in Finland! In fact I've video called, and received video calls, from friends roaming all over Europe!

          2. Special pricing. OK. I'll give you that one. But is it really all that much more than say a MMS?

          I've been video calling since 2007 and I really can't understand why it is so hard!

          1. Turtle_Fan

            As the commentard in question let me explain if I may:

            - On a cellular network: I'm using swisscom in Switzerland and having toyed with HTC's Chacha and Huawei's Boulder (aka orange barca), neither device offers the option to initiate a video call, despite both being on a 3G network at the same time. I don't know why this option is not available but I'll leave it at that.

            - Given that I live in an area challenged for signal, I tend to revert to WiFi for most things, hence I was looking for a way to utilise my (much faster and reliable) WiFi connection to perform those calls. This is not natively available on either device so an app would be in order which brings me full circle to my initial post.

            I may sound completely ignorant to you, but that's the situation I've experienced in the area and country I live in.

            1. Insane Reindeer

              Might I suggest you buy a Nokia then! Their video call function, and I can vouch for this personally, will work with barely a sniff of a 3G signal! And has been part of at least 90% of Nokia's since 2007 via a front facing camera and for a couple of years before that using just the rear camera!

              I can't help with the application support as I don't use Skype and my incredibly sparsely populated part of the Arctic circle has more than enough mobile signal going around for video calls to be, well, something that just works. :-)

              But thanks for taking the time to clarify your point!

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      why are there no phones that allow the one camera to be rotated over the edge to be front or back facing ... like on some laptops?

  2. James 51

    This the Xperia mini is the first android phone that made me stop and think I want that. Even more than the HTC Desire Z.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Couple of points worth clarifying

    this handset actually has 1GB of flash storage (ROM) of which about 330MB is available for storing apps after the system and pre-loaded apps are taken into account. Also you can change which apps you assign to the four home screen "corner" short cuts.

  4. Nev
    Thumb Up

    Major step up from the X10 mini pro

    On paper this doesn't seem like much improvement to the X10 mini pro and it is physically a slightly bigger phone.

    But in terms of stability and usability it is actually a good step forward.

    As mentioned above the front facing camera isn't actually able to be used for UMTS vid calls or Skype at present, which is a sham.

    Moxier Pro is bundled too, which is better than the standard mail tool, especially for MS Exchange Active Sync support.

  5. spencer

    Battery life

    Other reviews have mentioned that due to the smaller screen the battery life is better than it's larger-screened rivals.

  6. Thomas 4

    Hmmm

    What's the keyboard quality like? If the buttons are solid and responsive, I might look at ditching my Nexus One and getting one of these instead.

  7. Matthew
    Thumb Down

    Upgrades

    Having been let down by SE refusing to upgrade the version of Android* running on the X10 Mini Pro, you need your head read, if you expect SE to support newer versions of the OS.

    2.3 is the minimum required to support EAS policies for corporate mail servers.

    1. Lockwood

      I've got 2.3.5 on my X10 mini pro.

      W00t.

      So, the new phone runs an older version than this older phone which is running a newer version.

      Yay.

  8. Zmodem

    wait for the android walkman phone that comes bundled with winamp

  9. mrdalliard
    WTF?

    Battery Schmattery

    I remember battery life being a problem with the predecessor, so what's the point in upping the spec of the device to make it even worse. This surely exacerbates the problem?

    A device that doesn't even manage *one* day, is as good as useless, no matter how nice it is.

    1. Afflicted.John
      Thumb Up

      Battery upped too

      This one has a more powerful 1200mAh battery. I have been using one for a couple of days and can confirm that if you are on a 3G connection and cane it, it runs flat within a working day. That said, use it like a phone, stick to 2G and browse the web moderately and the thing lasts well over a day. The small screen obfuscates excessive use of it as a media device (outside of audio) anyway.

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Oooh, it's got a fcukbook lemming button.

    1. Shades

      Where...

      ...exactly?

  11. Steve Foster
    FAIL

    Dang

    I thought this phone might be in contention to replace the aged HTC Raphael (Touch Pro) I have, but then SE have managed to blow it on two fronts:

    * having gone to the trouble of putting a keyboard in, why isn't there a numbers row? (FN-* just doesn't cut it)

    * what's with the crappy resolution? Half VGA, FFS - even my Raphael manages VGA!

    Sony Ericsson - 2005 called, they want their phone back...

  12. measmyself
    Facepalm

    In response to the above.

    1. Battery is poor in my experience of old school phones (I had a w995, which had Wifi, Facebook, GPS, used it a lot for FM listening and some web browsing) Lasted 2 days. This one lasted less than a day and would be at 50% by 12pm from full charge at 7am, by 6pm as I got home it was turning off. However I ended up doing a full software re-install and started again, I now get a comfortable full day of good use, and get used to charging before bed, restart the phone in the morning for good measure. If I only used calls and stuff I would get 2 days now.

    2. Keypad is very firm, well spaced, pretty good overall.

    3. Rubber seal for battery will annoy the hell out of you if you have no nails.

    4.SKYPE does support front vid calls, I have used it.

    5. Nothing wrong with the camera not sure what this guy was talking about, I mean im not projecting to a 20 foot screen or anything but its very good quality.

    6. really good solid phone, looks nice too.

  13. Lottie

    pfft

    I like the small form factor and the UI overlay that SE do, but I refuse to buy another SE phone after they basically decided that they would follow an almost Motorolla type line on updating the OS for their customers.

  14. Matthew Collier
    Thumb Up

    X10 Mini Owner here...

    ...and my experience of the old phone is, 4 days battery life, sometimes nearly 5 (power sapping features off when I don't need them). Yes, I don't use it much for the web, and mainly as a phone (which it excels at!), but I don't know any iPhone owners who can make a whole day on one charge! I even know people who after charging their iPhone overnight, need to put it on charge, when they get to work!!!

    I bought my X10 Mini for it's size, and competance as a phone, and it's the best phone I've had. The new phone, looks to me, to be a moderate upgrade but basically similar, and I'll be happy to buy one, if/when my current one dies. I've also "sold" 4 or 5 more when friends have seen it in operation (and we all love it's size (you can actually just fit in in a jeans money pocket!!).

  15. vlc

    Bring on the full sized Pro.... now!

    There are hardly any Android phones with a real keyboard and this one is too small. Why on earth is it taking so long for SE to make the full-sized Xperia Pro available in the UK?

    1. Volvic

      It's actually...

      ...just been released! £255 from Clove : http://www.clove.co.uk/sony-ericsson-xperia-pro

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