Riding high on the crest of its X10 popularity that just got released as its first ever Android smartphone, the 4th largest mobile phone maker will be releasing in the 2nd quarter of the year a minimized version in the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10 Mini. It has been announced in February at the Mobile World Congress held in Barcelona and if it doesn’t inherit the company’s penchant for delayed releases as it should make landfall anytime soon.

With an eye towards a market that wants to bask in the limelight of the X10 but without forking its ₤478 SIM-free price tag or taking a ₤35/month plan from any of the carriers, the Mini should be able to make its pitch especially with a slim compact body measuring a petite 83 x 50 x 16 mm and weighing a remarkably pocketable 88g which puts it in the league of the lightest touchscreen smartphones on earth.

The youthful crowd will likewise be pleased as it comes in six body colors – black, pearl white, silver, red, lime and pink. While all the superlatives of the X10 have been thrown out the window in favor of a more down-to-earth pedestrian set of features, on its own, the Mini is another capable Android smartphone, just don’t linger in the thought that it is a minimization of a lofty X10 product. It should appeal at half the price of the X10.

At A Glance

• The Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10 Mini is a 3G phone on the dual band UMTS/HSDAP/HSUPA for Asian and European markets but also has a tri band version for North American markets. It is also a quad band GSM with class 10 GPRS/EDGE data speeds on 2G. You get also get hotspot support withy WiFi 802.11b/g as well as local high speed data connectivity options for wireless data syncing via Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP and a wired option via its microUSB 2.0 features. You also the same SatNav features with an integrated GPS receiver with A-GPS aided by Google Maps.
• From a landmark-setting 4-inch display on the X10, the Mini gives you a 2.6-inch TFT capacitive touchscreen display with QVGA resolution and 16 million colors. It also comes with a gravity accelerometer for auto rotate viewing and a scratch resistant glass cover.
• Imaging is likewise minimized from a stunning 8 megapixel camera to the now average 5 megapixel shooter with the same autofocus, LED Flash and geo tagging. Just don’t expect X10’s face/smile detection and image stabilization. Video recording is also pruned down from WVGA resolution to a more conventional VGA resolution with the same 30fps.
• A 1GB onboard memory on the X10 gets pared down to a mere 128MB but you still get microSD expandability of up to 16 GB. With a minimized set of features, the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10 Mini loses the 1GHz Snapdragon in favor of a less endowed Qualcomm MSM7227 processor clocked at 600 MHz. It even comes with a Li-Po that also minimizes the generous 10-hour talk time on the X10 into a mere 4 hours on the same 2G network.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 18th, 2010 at 9:02 am and is filed under Mobile Phone Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.