Sony Ericsson announced two additions to the XPERIA line-up at this year’s Mobile World Congress, both being compact versions of the brilliant X10. Quite appropriately, they’ve been named X10 Mini and one of them got an additional ‘Pro’ in the end of its name due to the added slide-out QWERTY keyboard. Both of them are very exciting products and I can’t wait to get my hands on them. The crowd actually cheered when they were announced – almost as though it was an Apple keynote.
So what makes these products special? Well, first and foremost their size. And the fact that Sony Ericsson have managed to add so many of the X10′s features into such a compact phone. Both phones are based on the Android operating system, although only version 1.6. I’m confident that there will be an upgrade available some time after launch.
Another unique thing about the Mini’s is that you can use them with just one hand. Sony Ericsson have done what appears to be an amazing job of scaling and customizing the Android user interface, and have really been optimizing it for one-hand usage. With a total of four easily accessible icons, each located in one corner of the display, you will have quick access to your most used applications or features. These are naturally customizable. If that’s not always enough, you’ve naturally got the standard Android application menu, although tweaked for the Mini’s. This means that you’ll browse through pages of applications and can easily swipe between the pages with your finger. Similar to what the folks in California have done on the iPhone.
Naturally, you won’t be able to have the marvellous display from the X10 on the Mini’s. Instead we’ve got a reasonably sized 2.55-inch capacitive touchscreen display in QVGA resolution, that’s 240 x 320 pixels, capable of displaying up to millions of colours. It should be OK for browsing websites, which can be done using HSPA networks or via WiFi. The phones have also got a-GPS and Bluetooth built-in. And did I mention there’s a 3.5 mm audio jack?
Being they’re both Android phones, you’ll have a bunch of Google services available, including Android Market, Gmail, Google Maps with Street View, Google Talk, Google Voice Search and YouTube. If you’re not too much of a sucker for Android Market (although I can’t see why you wouldn’t be), there’s also Sony Ericsson’s own PlayNow Arena for mobile content.
The autofocus-enabled camera is capable of taking photos in sizes up to 5 megapixels, and you’ve naturally got the option to record videos in VGA resolution as well. There’s an LED flash which can be used for both stills and video.
The X10 Mini measures only 83 x 50 x 16 millimetres and weighs 88 grams, while the X10 Mini Pro is slightly larger at 90 x 52 x 17 millimetres and also a bit heavier at 120 grams. You can blame that on the addition of the full keyboard and the removable battery – yeah, there isn’t a removable battery on the X10 Mini, which kinda sucks. However, it’s a small price to pay for the compact size of the handset.
You can expect the handsets to be available in the second quarter of the year. The X10 Mini will be available in four colour variants, and the X10 Mini Pro will come in two colour variants.
Internally, the X10, X10 Mini, X10 Mini Pro, Vivaz and Vivaz Pro are known as the ‘Fabulous 5′. No wonder! 
You can find more specifications about the phones in our phones database by following these links:
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