• Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10 Mini

    Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10 Mini

    Rohan Naravane, Aug 04, 2010 1719 hrs IST

    A cute phone that sacrifices a little functionality for that petite form factor

    Cute petite size, responsive touchscreen and swift interface, good audio via bundled in-earphones, good camera, customizable covers (4 in package), good feature set (Wi-fi, GPS, 3.5G)

    Screen is not crisp and vibrant, small screen and low resolution, inconvenient for long text input, old Android 1.6 OS

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The Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10 came and left our labs a few months ago failing to win our hearts. It was a decent phone, but a couple of flaws couldn't be overlooked. Plus, now with quality competition the game has become even tougher. For those who feel the X10 felt like a slab in the pocket, Sony Ericsson offers you variety with the X10 Mini.

When I first set eye on this phone, I exclaimed "Oh my god, they really meant it by calling it the Mini!". This cute little phone has the internals of an HTC Legend with certain compromises that allowed SE to cram it into a shell this small. So is this a classic case of form over function? Or has Sony Ericsson managed to maintain a fine balance. Read on to uncover the truth.

Design and Build

The big brother X10 was quite a handful with that humongous 4-inch screen. The X10 Mini on the other hand is really tiny in comparison. It reminded me of that tiny Bipasha Basu branded Panasonic A100 from ancient times. The phone easily fits in the palm, and the pointy edges of the X10 have been curved off in the X10 Mini, providing a better feel. At under 90 grams, the phone packs in so much inside as is still quite light. The build quality is pretty good. With limited space to play with, SE withdrew the privilege of a removable battery in the X10 Mini; just like the iPhone. As a consolation, you can change the back cover and you get a variety of colors to choose from. They've even thrown in a few in the package itself, so you can start matching the phone to your daily apparel from day one.





The screen is much smaller at 2.55 inches, which is even smaller than your typical 2.8-inch Samsung Corby. Fortunately, being of capacitive nature, the finger response is pretty good. The swift UI also deserves appreciation, but more on that later. My initial skepticism about usability of a touchscreen this small was completely washed away. But it sports a QVGA (320 x 240 pixel) resolution which in comparison to today's HVGA (320 x 480) phones feels pale. It also could be because of the 65K color limitation of Android 1.6 that's making it look that way. The brightness also isn't too satisfying; we preferred keeping it at max. For a touchscreen, the real estate felt a little too small to browse full-fledged websites. But it is fine to act as a viewfinder to the camera at the back. All in all, it's a responsive screen but not as crisp and readable as bigger Android phones.


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Discussion Board
(11) Comments
Rajesh
,Temple city, on Nov 24, 2010 11:52 PM
Mini pro has arrived,so SE should ban this mini.
Alamgir
,Bangalore, on Aug 18, 2010 12:17 PM
Guys, Sony Ericsson Xperia X10mini just got a European Award called EISA award which honors the best phones in Europe(source : GSMarena). There is a trend for the users of Finnish and S. Korean phones come and promote their products @ SE pages maybe they dont get as many hits thats why they come here and . . .
nagaraj
,belgaum, on Aug 09, 2010 09:52 AM
its nice
Sandeep Shete
,Pune, on Aug 04, 2010 09:06 PM
which is even smaller than "--your typical----" 2.8-inch Samsung Corby.. . . First of all I dont use corby ,and the way that phrase is used it sounds like techtree feels that Corby is lower benchmark of phone and we use it. .. You might be glad to know there are other people who also love technology
whocares
,whybother, on Aug 06, 2010 08:08 PM
Learn the language before making learned observations like these.
Tejas Patkar
,Mumbai, on Aug 06, 2010 12:42 PM
Nice foolproof Information.
Anonymous
,Delhi, on Aug 06, 2010 10:22 AM
You really need to go to an optometrist boy. You really have a serious problem with your eyes if you can't read text on this phone :)
rahat
,mum, on Aug 06, 2010 01:03 AM
pain man
Anil
,Salalah, on Aug 05, 2010 10:34 AM
Dear Sir, I am brought a new Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10 Mini to gift my fiancée so I would be grateful to you if you can provide me the user guide in Malayalam language or a complete catalogue with pitchers. Thanks, Anil
dude
,kochi, on Aug 05, 2010 12:36 AM
X10 Mini Pro also has a removable battery. btw, when's the Yendo coming out? I'm interested to see the 'proprietary' OS they've used in it....
Danesh
,Chennai, on Aug 04, 2010 11:50 PM
Please mute the background noises in the video or play some music. We can hear all the talk going on your office. It does not look professional.

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