Our Sony Ericsson Xperia Mini Pro review

[howard]

Here's our Sony Xperia Mini Pro written by DerekToronto


The Sony Xperia Mini Pro phone is an Android phone that has a slide out QWERTY keyboard, 5 MP camera that can capture 720p HD video, 3.0” Bravia LCD plus it runs Android 2.3.3. Is it’s a small phone that punches above its weight class? Read on and find out!


Sony Ericsson Xperia Mini Pro, HTC Sensation 4G

In today’s market manufacturers we’re seeing an arms race to see who can stick the biggest screen, fastest CPU, most number of megapixels in their phone. So when I got this phone with its small display, single core processor and 5 MP camera I wondered if it could hold my interest.

Hardware:


Blackberry Bold 9900, Sony Ericsson Xperia Mini Pro, HTC Sensation 4G

The front has a very minimalistic feel to it. Along the bottom is the home key which is flanked by touch sensitive menu and back buttons. The display appears to have a glass screen. Along the top are a status LED, earpiece, front facing camera and light sensor.



On the top there’s a power button, micro USB port and a regular 3.5 mm headphone jack. The USB port is covered by a door which is kind of difficult to open.



There’s a spot for you to pry open the back battery cover.



volume up/down, camera button.



The back has the 5MP camera with LED flash.



With the cover off you’ll see a micro-sd slot and a 1200mah battery.



The spring loaded keyboard slides out to your left. It has the right amount of tension. There are 4 rows of keys including some very useful direction keys.

You get a 3.0” 320x480 display. While not cutting edge it’s a nice display. Compared with other phones it’s not super bright but the screen works well most of the time so I don’t consider it a minus. The only problem I found is that the screen is hard to clean. It gets covered with oil very easily. So when you’re outdoors it makes it harder to see. If you can manage to keep the screen clean then it’s acceptable outside.

The screen is lacking in resolution but honestly it’s probably the best given it’s size. A 3.0” 800x480 display would be much more difficult to live with.



This phone runs the latest android version 2.3.3 and has a Sony Ericsson overlay. On each four corner you can drag as much as four shortcuts into it. It’s intelligent enough to not block the screen when there’s a widget in its way.



Despite the small size the Mini Pro packs a 1GHz Qualcomm Scorpion processor that makes most of everyday usage tasks runs fairly smooth. With 512MB of RAM you wouldn’t have to worry about running out of memory for programs.



The specs on the 5MP camera are quite decent with functions like auto focus, image/video stabilizer, smile detection, face detection and Geo-tagging. It also records in 720p video.

The pictures look decent but they’re not as sharp as some of the other 5MP camera phones in the market. Autofocus speeds are on the slow side.

One feature I really like is that can swipe on the left side of the screen to display all the camera functions. Swiping the right takes you to the gallery.

Speaking of the Gallery it looks like the stock Android gallery app but it also has Facebook integration built in.



There’s a Connected devices program which lets local DLNA devices stream music, pictures and video from the Mini Pro via WiFi.

Other included extras are Moxier Pro, McAfee VirusScan and WaveSecure, Video, OfficeSuite and their TimeScape program.

Moxier Pro allows you to connect to Exchange servers. I’m unsure of the difference between this and the Exchange support that is already built into Android. One thing I noticed is that Moxier Pro shows up in Timescape so maybe that’s why SE included it.

I didn’t try it but McAfee WaveSecure allows you to lock and wipe, track via GPS and track which SIM cards have been inserted along with backup and restore all remotely. WaveSecure takes up 4MB of storage while VirusScan takes up 2MB. Both can be removed if you don't use them.

Video is a video streaming program which uses Sony’s proprietary Qriocity video streaming service. I didn’t try it.

OfficeSuite is a MS Office file viewer. You have to upgrade to the Pro version if you want to be able to edit and create new files.



TimeScape is Sony Ericsson’s Social media program. It consists of a Widget and a program. You use to agregate your text message, emails, Facebook account, etc. TimeScape takes plugins so as new plugins are added you can add to it’s functionality

RF performance was below average. I made simultaneous calls with the Mini Pro and a Blackberry Bold 9900 and I noticed a lot of errors on the Mini Pro while the 9900 sounded just fine.
Incoming sound quality was full sounding but slightly fuzzy - there was a tiny bit of background hiss. Outgoing sound quality is slightly muddy sounding.



Conclusion:

What I like:
Snappy performance
Responsive Touchscreen
Easy to use keyboard
Good feedback from keyboard
Running Gingerbread
Screen doesn’t washout under the sun (provided it’s clean)
Battery should last a full day
Easy to use menu (especially the shortcut corners)
Easy to use camera controls
Camera mode has good picture review
Adequate Earpiece and ring volumes

What I find annoyed:

Power button is on the left
Reverse placement of the Back and Option keys.
The top row on the keyboard is a little too close to the screen part of the phone.
Camera start up is a tad on the slow side.

The Xperia is actually a low-highend device packed in the body of an entry one. While it lacks a WVGA display and HDMI out it has most of the features found on it’s bigger brothers. So in the end, the Xperia Mini Pro is a pleasant surprise. I’m pretty happy with the little guy.

[Rogido]

At the risk of sounding sexist or outdated, I suspect this phone will be more popular with the ladies. It's cute, has decent performance and features, and unless the lady is a real technophile, this phone's smaller size will be a plus.

[Gertie]

"more popular with the ladies"

Yep! I love love love my X10 (mini pro was not yet available), but this x10 just doesn't fit in most phone holders of purses like the mini would. I also really miss having a physical keyboard - I was a hiptop devotee until they killed the plan, then moved onto a Jack before the X10 and Android.

[barrist]

At the risk of sounding sexist or outdated, I suspect this phone will be more popular with the ladies. It's cute, has decent performance and features, and unless the lady is a real technophile, this phone's smaller size will be a plus.

Hey now, I'm a guy that's interested in this. I'm not one to need a huge 4.3" slab. What is it you guys are compensating for? lol i kid.

[robsaw]

Any potential buyers should be aware of the "noise" problem with this phone, massive threads at SE and elsewhere.

http://talk.sonyericsson.com/thread/...art=0&tstart=0

http://forum.xda-developers.com/show....php?t=1225448

[Rogido]

Hey now, I'm a guy that's interested in this. I'm not one to need a huge 4.3" slab. What is it you guys are compensating for? lol i kid.

lol...it would be sad indeed if 4.3" is considered compensation...

[barrist]

I'm a bit concerned about the noise as well, but it seems SE has acknowledged it and promised a fix in the next software update.

I'll take my chances hah.

[Cookiegalore]

I use the phone only for calls, camera and texting. Seems Moxier uses a lot of battery. If I uninstall Moxier, will it affect anything else on the phone?

[howard]

You can't uninstall Moxier. I don't think it uses any battery if you don't use it.