While Samsung and HTC have been grabbing a lot of headlines this year Sony Ericsson has been flying a bit below the radar. Still they’ve released some decent handsets this year from the Xperia Arc to the more recent Xperia Mini Pro which I thought was a real hit. Now we have the Sony Ericsson Xperia Pro. It’s a midrange Android phone with a slide out landscape QWERTY keyboard. It’s one of my favorite Android devices in recent memory. It’s got well thought out software which is useful without being intrusive. A decent camera, a good keyboard and a fantastic form factor.
In front are a front facing camera, light sensor, earpiece and 3 physical menu buttons.
On top is a micro USB for charging and connecting to your computer.
Behind the door is a micro HDMI port. volume buttons and a camera button.
3.5mm headphone jack, power button.
There’s a lanyard connector on the bottom.
On the back is the camera and LED flash.
The keyboard is excellent. It has a spring which will catch the keyboard if you open it half way. The keys actually stick out which is very rare for this type of form factor There are 4 rows of keys. While I kind of wish there was a 5 row for numbers I like how there’s enough room between the top row of keys and the screen. Some phones don’t have enough room between the top row making them difficult to press.
The keys have a nice feel to them. They’re not as nice as the keys on a Blackberry Bold 9900 but they are better than the Motorola XT860’s. They look fantastic when they light up.
After using the Pro for a few weeks I have noticed that have battery cover is a little creaky now. It’s not a deal breaker for me but it’s worth mentioning.
The keys on the front of the Pro don’t light up. There’s a backlight but it doesn’t do anything other than indicate where the keys are. The lettering doesn’t light up. The Xperia x10, Mini, Mini Pro, Arc, Play all have the same idiotic setup. For some reason SE flipped the back and menu buttons around on the Pro so if you’re switching from a non SE Android phone you may have difficulty using the Pro in the dark. I know I did.
The screen measures 3.7” with a resolution of 854x480. It comes with a screen protector preinstalled. I think it’s a glass screen underneath. While it’s not the brightest display nor one with the deepest black levels or whitest whites it still looks great. Since it’s only 3.7” it actually has a fairly high pixel pitch so it’s pretty sharp. It’s very clear with good viewing angles and minimal colour shift. I really like how it’s a 3.7” display - it allows for a very usable form factor. It’s not too wide like many devices with bigger displays. The fact Pro also has a keyboard makes it a little thicker so it fits nicely in your hands.
Last year was a rough year for Sony Ericsson. While slightly ahead of its time the Sony Ericsson x10 ended up being a bit of a disappointment. It shipped with an outdated version of Android - 1.6 AKA Donut, the camera was awful, there was no multi-touch support and the device itself never felt as fast as it should. Still, I give SE props for fixing most of these problems; now the x10 has multi-touch support plus it’s rocking Android 2.3 (Gingerbread).
The Pro is running Gingerbead with Sony Ericsson’s customizations on top. For the most part the customizations are tasteful and integrate well with the phone.
One neat trick is that you can pinch zoom out on the home screens to view all widgets on one screen.
The email client has a split view so you can view your message list and the actual email on the same screen. it’s good idea but it would help if the Pro had a bigger screen.
Picture and video quality are both above average. Indoors the camera focus times are a little slow for my taste and I would like to see faster shutter speeds. Outdoors the camera is quite good and if you have a cooperative subject it’s fine indoors too. I really like how there’s a dedicated camera shutter button though it’s a little small for my taste.
When using the camera I really like how you can can swipe on the left side of the screen to display all the camera functions while swiping right takes you to the gallery.
The Gallery looks like the stock Android gallery app but it also has Facebook integration to go with the Picasa integration which is already 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 aggregate your text message, emails, Facebook account, etc. TimeScape takes plugins so as new plugins are added you can add to it’s functionality.
You get a second generation 1Ghz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor which has better graphics performance compared to the first generation one. I compared the speed next to a LG Optimus 2x and found that the 2x was slightly faster when I performed 2 identical tasks side-by-side. That said I thought that the Pro had snappy performance.
Incoming sound quality is decent. It’s a little too warm for my taste but otherwise it’s fine. Outgoing sound quality is very good.
RF performance is average.
The Pro ships with a 1500mAh battery. Like virtually all Android phones the Pro doesn’t have very good battery life. You’ll make it through the day with light to moderate usage but heavy users should invest in an extra charger.
Anyways The Xperia Pro was a huge surprise to me. The screen is great, camera is decent, performance is snappy, you get Gingerbread and a great form factor. Sony Ericsson’s customizations are tasteful.
The thing is there’s more to a phone than its spec sheet. You have hardware, you have software and they all have to work together. So in that sense The Pro is my favorite Android phone of the year after the Samsung Galaxy S II.
I love the Xperia Pro. Instead of trying to one up the competition with a bigger display it and more processing power it’s a great overall package. As far as I’m concerned it’s the mid range Android handset to buy and at $350 dollars no contract on Fido it’s really a no brainer.
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