The Sony Ericsson X10 Mini Pro is a step up from it’s twin brother, the X10 Mini. The only main differences between the Mini Pro and the Mini is that the Mini Pro packs a full physical QWERTY keyboard and is slightly bigger & heavier. In this review I’ll only talk about stuff that’s different to the Mini, so if you want to read up about the X10 Mini series check out the Sony Ericsson X10 Mini Review and the X10 Mini Pro Initial Thoughts post then read this one :).
The X10 Mini Pro is almost identical in every way to the X10 Mini, so I’ll just keep to things that are different and interesting about the X10 Mini Pro!
Physical Keyboard
Evidently this is the main selling point of the device, and Sony Ericsson have done a pretty good job making it usable in such a small space. Straight out I’m going to say it’s not for people with larger fingers, for obvious reasons. You’re very likely to hit more than one button at once, or just hit the completely wrong button all together. As for people with smaller fingers, you shouldn’t have too much of a problem once you’re used to the layout of the keys.
The only other issue I had with it was that the spacebar didn’t feel all that tactile, so at times I didn’t quite know if I’d hit it or not. Other than that I am quite impressed.
User Interface
Laggy. The thing that I found surprisingly good about the X10 Mini was how fluid the UI was, but it seems the X10 Mini Pro isn’t quite up to those standards just yet. Applications did take longer to open and few swipes on the screen weren’t registered or were registered quite late. This lag isn’t bad enough to kill the user experience, but it may start to annoy anyone coming from a device that is pretty snappy.
Overall
I didn’t want to make this review too long, as there is nothing more I need to write about as I’ve covered most things in the X10 Mini Review & X10 Mini Pro Initial Thoughts, but I can’t say it enough: I love these devices! They’re compact, sexy and they just work! Speaker sound quality is amazing, better than any other Android device. Call quality is fine, screen quality is fine, usability is perfect.
Where to buy
The X10 Mini Pro is available from the following carriers & retailers:
- MobiCity
- Three
- Telechoice
- Telstra
- Coming Soon..
- Virgin Mobile
- Vodafone
So if you’re after a small little smartphone, you honestly go past the X10 Mini range, be sure to check them out! If you have any questions you want me to answer or something you’d like me to tell you about, just let me know in the comments below.
Is there any more information on the Android 2.1 update for this phone?
Is there a way to delete the trial apps such as Roadsync and Wisepilot?
Virgin should be $29 smartcap for $0, not $39
The Telstra pricing is also incorrect, as shown here:
http://www.telstra.com.au/shop/personal/NGTSOMobilePhonesView?catalogId=10101&storeId=10001&productId=94228&langId=-1&categoryId=16103&parent_category_rn=16103&top_category=