Editor: This is a guest piece from beatonl, as I don’t have my hands on an X10 Mini Pro yet, I thought you’d like to hear first hand from a person that has one. Enjoy.

I got my X10 mini pro yesterday from the good people at Mobicity. Not being one to delay my gratification – I immediately started ripping off the shrink wrap

Hit “Read More” to get into it!


My first thoughts – it’s going to take me a little while to get used to not having the rollerball of the HTC I was using – but if you’re coming from the iPhone that shouldn’t be a drama. It was surprisingly quick and easy to get set-up – and I actually really like TimeScape – it has a bit of that “wow – cool” factor – although it’s not really the most useful app in the world.

Not being able to add a million apps to the home screen may bother some – but I never had that many anyway.

The keyboard – although small – has a nice click response, and is easy enough to use if you have little girly fingers – which I do. My husband (who has man-fingers) also had a play with it and says it’s no worse than the average Blackberry. The keys had a nice firm feel and the rounding and spacing means it’s not likely that you’ll end up mashing multiple keys together.

It is seriously tiny:

I used as I would normally today at work – some listening to music, some random email checking – nothing particularly heavy, and the battery life has held up pretty well. I wouldn’t want to be too far away from a charging device for a couple of days, but for my sort of use it’s fine.

The included music player is good (as you’d expect from a Sony) and the included earphones are the in-ear kind making the x10 mini pro actually a pretty terrific little music player.

The 5MP camera takes a pretty decent picture. The one below was taken indoors, with no flash, and hasn’t been re-touched at all.

You wouldn’t want to use it to take professional photos – but as a happy snapper it’s really very good.

Finally – and possibly most importantly – how does it work as a phone? Call quality was crisp and clear, and I didn’t get any drop-outs on my travels today. However, I was in the middle of the CBD where reception is generally pretty good – I’ll have to wait and see how it deals with poorer reception areas.

So my first impression is that this is a tiny, tiny phone that packs a lot of punch. If you’re a fan of the hardware keyboard, you need a smart phone and don’t want one that’s going to ruin the line of your designer suit (or just fits in your jeans) you can’t go past this little gem.

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Matt

Just bought mine for $3 / mo on $39 cap with Virgin. I’m happy to have a verrry cheap Android phone as an alternative to my Nexus One. Woo! I realise I’m paying for the phone anyway but with a plan like the Smart Cap on Virgin that’s debatable when you get so much data! Takes some getting used to the small screen. The Sony interface is quite whack with basically unlimited home screens.. two rows, unlimited columns. Bottom row is apps and top row is widgets. It’s got Optus branding. Until you hold one in your hand you just… Read more ยป

beatonl

Glad you liked it. And you’ll enjoy the phone ๐Ÿ™‚

Mon

Great review, my phone is on its way. Thanks!