The Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini Pro has a keyboard, and the X10 Mini does not – that’s the difference right? Well, yes, but there are plenty more subtle tweaks you might not notice: we’ve got them all rounded up here in our comparison against the original small Sony Ericsson smartphone. Read on to play spot the difference in this section of our Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini Pro review.
Read the rest of our Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini Pro review:
Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini Pro review
Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini Pro review: Keyboard and build
Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini Pro review: Android 1.6
We’ll cut to chase: the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini Pro makes the X10 Mini redundant. Don’t be fooled by Sony Ericsson’s marketing: it’s styling the keyboardless X10 Mini as the one for fashionistas, but ignore the hype. It’s just as ugly, and barely any smaller, so you gain nothing by not having the option of a keyboard – if you read our Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini Pro review: Android 1.6 section, you’ll know that it’s not like you have to use it.
Keyboard
The Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini Pro can type just like an X10 Mini: you can prod out text messages on the onscreen 0-9 keyboard should you choose. But why travel economy when you can go supersonic? The Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini Pro’s pop out keyboard is an utter delight, and will have you blitzing through emails rather than simply hacking out “C U soon”.
Weight
We put the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini Pro and X10 Mini on the scales and were surprised with our findings. The Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini Pro is substantially heavy, at 120g, as opposed to 88g. We were genuinely confuddled, as it doesn’t feel nearly fifty percent heftier, rather than equal. We wouldn’t let this worry you though, as neither is a struggle in the slightest to lift – if you find otherwise, we suggest you seek medical help
Size
You’d never notice unless you had the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini Pro side by side with the X10 Mini, but there’s the slightest bit of extra size to go with that weight increase: 90x52x17mm compared to 83x50x16mm. You’ll only notice the difference in length, and it’s minuscule considering the same specs and a QWERTY keyboard have been squeezed inside.
Back cover
Both the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini Pro and X10 Mini share one unfortunate thing in common: the curved, smooth back cover. Both dip down at the bottom like some sort of reverse chine, but dimensions aside, there are a few changes too. The camera is closer to the top left corner on the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini Pro, and the Xperia badge has been shifted to the right on the side.
Battery
Lift off the lids of both and you’ll see things look very different under the hood. While both have a hot swappable micro SD slot, the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini Pro is the only one of the two with a replaceable battery. It’s not much of an issue considering both can last more than that magic daymark, giving you opportunity to top up come bedtime, but could mean you could use the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini Pro for the duration of a holiday or festival if you took a spare.
Ports and buttons
Probably the most significant changes the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini Pro sports, keyboard aside, are the placements of the various ports, buttons and doohickies. The lock and power button is still on the top, but on the right hand side, the volume rocker has been moved up, and the camera button is thicker. The micro USB charging slot is now on the left, just below the keyboard, but most usefully, the 3.5mm audio port for your headphones is now on the top of the handset, rather than the bottom. In practice, we found this meant they headphones out by accident much less frequently when you pull the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini Pro out of your pocket – and that’s only a good thing.
While we’ve yet to see contract prices for the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini Pro, it’s coming in at around £20 more than the X10 Mini online. We’d expect this difference to be negligible over an 18 or 24 month deal, and we honestly can’t think of an audience who would find the X10 Mini preferable to it.
Read the rest of our Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini Pro review:
Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini Pro review
Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini Pro review: Keyboard and build
Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini Pro review: Android 1.6
