Initial Thoughts: Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini

Has anyone made a name-is-longer-than-the-phone joke about the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini? Well, joke about the name all you want but this phone is no joke. The X10 Mini is a fantastic little Android phone.

The X10 Mini is a follow on to the Xperia X10 (previous posts here and here) in a very different format. While the X10 is a high-end device with a large 4 inch screen the X10 Mini is…well, mini. The display is 2.6 inches making it easily the smallest Android phone. The size overall is just 83 x 50 x 16 mm (3.3 x 2 x 0.6 inches), and it weighs just 88 grams (3.1 oz).

The X10 Mini is available from Rogers for just $29.99 on contract, or $324.99 outright. Good price!

Shrinking Android down to work on this device took a fair bit of work by Sony Ericsson, which is the reason this is only running on Android 1.6. But Sony has done a very good job of making Android work on such a small device.

[follow link for more impressions and pictures]

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Rogers Adds the X10 Mini to Their Device Line Up

Rogers has launched their latest addition to the Android family of phones – X10 Mini, and the smaller brother to the flagship X10 smartphone form Sony Ericsson. The claim is that the Mini is the smallest phone on the market today. I haven’t played with one personally, so I can’t say if that’s true or not. The pictures make the phone look thick – so it might smallest in terms of height and width, but I don’t think it’s the case in terms of depth.

The Mini features a quad-band GSM radio – 850/900/1800/1900, and a tri-band HSPA radio – 850/1900/2100. Which means you’ll have strong cellular reception and fast data on this small device. Everything else on the Mini has been reduced to follow with the theme of the phone – a 5.0 megapixel camera instead of the 8.1 found on the original X10. Same for the memory, the Mini sports a whopping 128MB compared to the 1GB found on it’s big brother. Keep in mind that the price follows the same trend – the X10 is $549.99 off contract, and the Mini is $374.99. When you add in a 3 year contract, the phone is just $29.99, which is a pretty reasonable price.

Sadly, much like the original X10, this device is also running the older Android 1.6 operating system. Google has released 2.0, 2.1 and 2.2 is starting to make it’s way to devices. Sony Ericsson needs to get an update for these devices out the door quickly and get them on a newer version of Android.

Aside from the thickness of the device, it looks like a great little device. I’m interested in seeing how well Sony Ericson was able to take their customizations from the X10 and scale them down to the Mini. We have received a Mini for review and Darren will be sharing his thoughts on the device.

The full press release is available after the break.

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Checking out the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10

Last week, Rogers Wireless was the first carrier in North America to launch the new Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Android based smartphone. The wordwide launch was a couple days earlier with Japan’s NTT DoCoMo. The Xperia X10 has been getting a lot of attention around the net for its large display and ultra thin design. I had a chance to play with one at the launch event here in Canada, and then again when a friend picked one up the day it became available from Rogers. The X10 can be purchased for $550 directly from Rogers without a contract, or $150 with a 3 year contract.

I’ll start by going over some of the goodness that this phone brings to the table. First and foremost is the large 4 inch screen. HTC managed to make the HD2’s 4.3 inch screen reach extremely close to the edge of the phone. Sony Ericsson tried as well, but didn’t end up getting as edge to edge as HTC was able to. Regardless, the phone really feels like it’s all screen when you’re holding it.

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