The Sony Ericsson Xperia Mini is adorably tiny,but promises to be packed with smart-phone features, thanks to its Androidoperating system. Its 3-inch touchscreen also means this compact phone looks thoroughly usable.
The Mini will arrive in shops this autumn. We don'tknow how muchit will cost yet but, based on the tiny price of its predecessor, the XperiaX10 Mini, we expect it to be cheaper than average.
Mini by name...
The Mini has a slightly larger case than last year's X10 Mini. It measures 52 by 88 by 16mm, which means there's room for a 3-inch screen. The screen is half an inch bigger than that of the X10Mini, and the same size as the one on the larger XperiaX8. The upshot is that the Mini feels like a tiny phone, but hasenoughscreen real estate to be very usable.
The 320x480-pixel display also uses Bravia video-smoothingtechnology, named after Sony's line of televisions. In our earlyhands-on tests, video looked very impressive on the Mini's screen, especially given it's such atiny phone.
That's good news when it comes to watching the 720p high-definition videosthat you can shoot on the Mini's camera. The camera also offers a 5-megapixel resolutionforstill photos. Stay tuned for our full review to see how the Mini'scamerastacks up.
Tiny robot
The Mini may be small but, inside, it's afully-fledged smartphone. Email, maps and more are all present and correct.SonyEricsson tells us the phone will launch with the latest version ofAndroid, 2.3 Gingerbread.
Sony Ericsson has customised the userinterface tosuit the small screen. We thought the changes were worthwhile ontheoriginal X10 Mini, but Sony Ericsson has toned down its tweaks for the new Mini, which is a move we agree with, since it has a larger screen. You now geta full Qwerty keyboard in portrait mode, rather than an alphanumeric one, andthere's roomfor multiple Android widgets on each home screen, instead of just one.
There are also shortcut menus that sit in the cornersof the screen. In each corner, you can add up to four shortcuts to yourfavourite apps. The corner menus pleased us on the previous Mini, butwe'llhave to take the new Mini for a full test drive before we agreethatit's still a good idea on the larger screen.
The Mini has a few custom apps, like theTimescapeapp, which shows an animated stream of your Twitter and Facebook feeds.
Thankfully,Sony Ericsson has resisted making too many changes to Android, andmost ofits tweaks can be ignored if you don't like them -- for example, the Timescape app. But you are stuck with the dark blue andblack colourscheme that Sony Ericsson has imposed on all the menus.
On such a small phone, usability is everything, so we'rehappy to see that the Mini has a large, finger-friendly home button, flanked by touch-sensitive menu and back buttons.
Shrunken Snapdragon
We haven't had a chance to push the Mini to itslimit yet,but, during our brief tests, it felt smooth and responsive. We're not toosurprised,since there's a muscular single-core 1GHz Snapdragon processor inside. That shouldprovide plenty of oomph for playing games and apps downloaded from the AndroidMarket.
The Mini also has room for a microSD card, so you can storeyourphotos and apps. You'll probably get a 2GB card in the box, and youcould bumpthat up to a maximum of 32GB.
Outlook
The Sony Ericsson Xperia Mini could be tempting ifyou'reconsidering upgrading to a smart phone, but don't want one of themassive, sun-blockingslabs that are all the rage at the moment. Its screen is surprisingly spacious, given the phone's amazingly small case, and it even shoots HD video. If it turns out to be as usable as we expect, it could be a winner.
Edited by Charles KloetÂ