I am back to provide GAB readers a preview of the upcoming Sony XPERIA X10 Mini that is coming out shortly in Canada & Europe as it should be reaching US shores later this Summer.
The first test I did out of the box is put the X10 mini in the most complete iPhone left handed death grip I could as it continued to show full bars with 3G on AT&T, so this tiny phone is already ahead of the iPhone 4 in that regard.
Now what was in the box was surprising as it included not one but 5 different color back panels to snap on as well earbuds & a USB cord that connects to an outlet charger.
Its specs are:
Size: 3.5 x 2.0 x 0.7 inches
Weight: 4.2 ounces
Screen: 2.6 inches 240×320 TFT Scratch Resistant
Processor: 600 MHz Qualcomm MSM7227
RAM: 128MB
SD Card: 2GB
Android: 1.6
Camera: 5MP with Flash
FM Radio
The main draw of this phone is its size as I compared it to its larger high end X10 version which was reviewed here on GAB exactly 3 months ago.
The demo target of the X10 Mini are teenagers looking for a compact phone thats stylish and can perform for their social needs.
A teenager used to dialpad texting would excel with the X10 Mini as uses the touchscreen version of that since its screen is too small for a full visual keyboard, although the Pro version does come with a slide out physical keyboard.
This isn’t a high end smartphone as can be seen by a processor thats only slightly better than the G1 & a low resolution thats noticeable even on a small screen.
Surprisingly it nearly triples the Frames Per Second of the high end X10 with a 1GHz SnapDragon processor albeit much larger 4 inch screen as the Mini X10 is on the bottom of the image.
The best benchmarking Android app in my opinion is Quandrant but that doesn’t work on the Mini X10 so I did a Pi test to illustrate the processing difference of it being about half that on the high end X10.
I also tested the battery with light use as it lasted over 2 days so normal use should get through the day as it does with most smartphones currently.
The X10 Mini does punch well above its weight in picture & video taking quality as well its ease of use.
An odd annoyance with the main X10 is to turn the camera flash on you have to go to Advanced Settings, then Photo Light, then select ON while the Mini has a simple top corner flash selection icon.
At Google I/O the Sony Ericsson rep told me some of those UI refinements will carry over to the main X10 as it looks to be happening soon with an OTA software update before that for the Android 2.X upgrade in the Fall.
So as I wait for this update to the XPERIA X10 back over at Mobile Martin my review of the Mini version is that it should do well with teenagers and those making the initial smartphone jump, while those expecting an iPhone alternative would be disappointed.
The Sony XPERIA X10 Mini & Mini Pro are reported to arrive late this Summer on either or both AT&T & T-Mobile which should do well with the “back to school” crowd, my feeling is the Mini Pro will be the one doing especially well.
Hopefully Joe has recovered from the comment beating he took on the no Gingerbread for the Nexus One post as he returns back here to GAB.
