Richard has been spending time with a Sony Ericsson X10 Mini and sent in the following which offer a short, but comprehensive review of what the phone is really like.
It’s small, very small (but then I knew that because I’d tested one in an O2 shop). And light. Which is great for me as I like to have as little in my pocket as possible. Admission: having said that, I was seriously considering a Dell Streak at the same time. Ahem.
It’s also very attractive. I knew that, too, but further exposure has heightened my appreciation of the job Sony have done on it. I also love the look of the larger X10 – they’ve put together a great-looking series of phones.
This is my first Android device so I’m a novice and not so sure what I expected to get from it. But I like the way Sony have used the 4 corners of the screen for app shortcuts
The absence of a qwerty keypad is, for the most part, not an issue. I’ve got the keypad set to predictive most of the time and only need to change it to multitap for entering stuff like usernames and passwords when installing some apps. Not a big deal really, once the phone is setup. It’s fine for texts and brief emails, especially if you’re coming from a T9 phone like I am (Nokia N79).
The screen is more readable than you might imagine. I could read an ebook on it quite easily. Disclosure: this is part 1 of a 2-part purchase: a Kindle to follow, which means ebook reading on the x10 mini will be limited. But certainly not a no-no. Don’t expect to watch any lengthy movies on it though – fine for YouTube, mind.
Music sounds….ok. Not over-loud though. The headphones are not too bad but when I used a better pair the music gave the occasional stutter. Might be unrelated to the headphones; I expect so.
It’s not too feminine. I did actually worry about that, but it feels ok to be seen with it as a bloke. Or so Tarquin told me. Having said that, my wife has been expressing an inordinate amount of attention in it. I’ve had to hide the spare (pink) backplate it came with. I think she’d like me to swap it for her HTC Wildfire.
Prolonged use will likely lead to cramp in the hand. but I don’t intend to use it for lengthy emailing – I’m not usually absent from a PC long enough to need to resort to that.
It needs a decent RSS reader that syncs with Google Reader. Any suggestions?
The camera looks sharp enough. I’m not expecting great results from it so will likely not be disappointed.
Battery life not yet determined. It came partially-charged and after a couple of hours fairly intensive use, with lots of downloading via wi-fi, it needed a recharge. We’ll see. If it needs charging after a day’s fairly heavy use, that’s fine.
Overall impression: a very attractive phone which is about as small as a smartphone can get without losing its essential usefulness.
Ah, the UPDATE: Well, it’s going to be re-sold. It just won’t work for me. Fine for texting – even pleasurable. But emails are a no-no – and I don’t mean writing them. The text on emails is so very small and you can neither increase font size nor change the orientation. Bad move, Sony. And, for me, holding it for any length of time does, in fact, lead to a cramped hand, which I’d prefer to be without (the cramp, not the hand).
