I was able to play with this new Sony Ericsson phone late last month when a friend of mine was taking photos during the Philippine Embassy’s Independence Day party. My first impression was cute, sleek and designed nicely.
The “œLook”
It fits the palm of my hand perfectly with a nice curve. The black color is suitable for men with a nice shiny gloss in front and a matte rubbery finish at the back. My friend recommends the white color as it can be used for both professional and casual setting.
It has a qwerty keyboard which slides to the side similar to a Nokia N97 mini. The keys might be a problem for people with big fingers but pressing them gives a nice tactile feedback.
It’s light (120 g) and can easily fit into your pants pocket. It’s like a wallet filled with bills.
The “œTouch Experience”
I have had my experiences with touch-screens from my Palm Zire to the iPod Touch and Nokia N97 mini. The one thing I love about the Zire is the use of the stylus. For the iPod Touch, I like the touch-screen interface with the only downside being the poorly designed keyboard. With the Nokia N97 mini, the keyboard and touch-screen interface would have been perfect but the response is a bit slow.
For the X10 mini pro, the touch-screen response is similar to the iPod touch. Fast and furious! It’s fun to play with actually.
The “œFunctions”
Receiving SMS is quite cool for first-time smartphone (runs on Android 1.6 by the way) users. You have the option to have them pop up in boxes in normal view or displayed in threaded view like that of the iPhone.
Taking photos is a blast with the 5-megapixel and the LED flash helps in low-light settings. They create beautiful photos which Sony is famous for. The video recorder is okay for day shots but not recommended for night shots or indoor shots like in a bar because the flash won’t work while recording video.
The menu is spread out in the screen’s four corners so the middle part is allotted for the sub-menus, incoming messages or phone calls. Picking up WiFi signals is easy but remember not to toggle the GPRS to auto mode if you don’t want to rack up a huge phone bill.
Of course, radio and mp3 player features are still part of the bundle which Sony Ericsson’s famous for. You can also watch movie clips as long as it’s in mp4 format.
Conclusion
The Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini Pro is made for young adults or college students who wants to try out a fun-to-use smartphone. If you want a cute, handy smartphone that has a decent built-in camera and mp3 player, I would suggest you get hold of one of these phones. It’s stylish and lightweight with a good battery life and lots of free apps to download. However due to its screen size, some apps won’t run.
Specs:
- 2.55″³ touch screen @ 240×320 pixels
- Qualcomm MSM7227 600MHz
- 128MB internal memory
- up to 16GB via microSD card
- 3G/HSDPA
- WiFi 802.11 b/g
- Bluetooth 2.1
- 5MP autofocus camera w/ LED flash
- GPS w/ aGPS support
- Android OS 1.6 w/ TimeScape UI
- SRP: Php17,990
Editor’s note: This is a guest post from Claudine Lo with some slight modifications by the editor. Claudine is an OFW in Beijing who loves shiny and beautiful gadgets but doesn’t care much about the tech stuff in them.