Sony Ericsson Xperia mini pro Review
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Sony Ericsson is one of the manufacturers that seem firmly committed to customizing their Android experiences, and its Xperia mini pro is just another proof of this. We first saw that specific UI customization in the original Xperia X10 mini, but since then, the company has decided to update and enhance the software, in order to make it suitable for handsets with larger screens as well. What we see now, about a year later, is a much more playful and polished UI, which may lack the depth and immense personalization potential of HTC Sense, but is really well-drawn and manages to bring a really unique feel to Android. From the kinky widget overview mode, to the cool lock animation – it is such little details that make the phone very fun to use.
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The interface of the Sony Ericsson Xperia mini pro | |||
Back in its early Android days, Sony Ericsson was notorious for its ultra-slow software updates. Now, the company claims to have learned from its own mistakes, saying that it realizes the importance of keeping a smartphone as up-to-date as possible. This promise is kept for now, with the Sony Ericsson Xperia mini pro running Gingerbread right from the start. This, combined with the single-core 1GHz Snapdragon processor guarantees a very fluid and responsive experience. Thankfully, we didn't encounter any serious lagging. The handset kept its cool even in more resource-hungry apps.
All of this doesn't mean that the manufacturer has cut the number of proprietary services. Timescape, for example, is still here, and more functional than ever, as you can now install plug-ins from Android Market, that add additional services that you can follow through the program, like Gmail or Foursquare.
In addition to typing with the physical keyboard (which is naturally the best option), you can also stick to the onscreen ones if you just want to enter something quickly. Of course, the portrait option is quite small, but the landscape one gets the job done.
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Timescape | On-screen keyboard |
Internet and Connectivity:
The internet experience on the Sony Ericsson Xperia mini pro is satisfying. It isn't very comfortable, due to the small screen, but gets the job done if you just want to check a couple of websites, or make a quick search. Longer usage will surely tire your eyes relatively fast.
Leaving that aside for a while, the Android browser runs very well on the mini pro, with no significant delays in scrolling, zooming, etc. In addition, due to its 1GHz processor, the handset supports Flash Player, so you won't miss a thing when browsing. The handset stays responsive even when viewing a Flash-intensive website. We especially like the fact that you can pan the page, while zooming using multitouch, as it makes navigation a lot easier.
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Due to its 1GHz processor, the Sony Ericsson Xperia mini pro supports Flash Player | |||
We were able to get localized in about 4 minutes, by using GPS satellites alone. However, at times we had to wait much longer for our location to be pinpointed. When using aGPS, we were found instantly.
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44 Comments
1. raka (unregistered) posted on 19 Aug 2011, 10:08 1
have had it for a couple of days...its a very very good device for its class..keyboard can be better, but like i said, it isnt a high-end smartphone. one complaint though keyboard visibility isnt consistent. in a good-enough lighted room you cant really see the letters, but in another room also with good lighting, keyboard is visible...all in all keyboard backlit is actually the problem, unfortunately you cant switch off the backlit...
3. bobble (unregistered) posted on 19 Aug 2011, 15:52 0
I love this Phone. Already got an N8 but i think it's looking so sexy.. Even the specs are good!
1 year to go for my next contract but if Sony keeps on bringing good phones this was my last Nokia,,
4. David V (unregistered) posted on 20 Aug 2011, 02:51 0
Can this work in the US with T-Mobile (3G or 4G)?
Would love to have this on t-mobile!
5. selva (unregistered) posted on 20 Aug 2011, 07:40 0
Surely, it needs Android 2.3.4 for video call……
7. m.cyrilljohn posted on 21 Aug 2011, 10:47 1
This is an excellent performer in it's class of mobiles. Really it is in a good gadget in its class of mobiles. Camera 5 MP is equal to 12 MP of other so called symbian platform mobiles. It is the only mobile which is having 2 cameras which will help to go for skype connectivity instantly. First HD camera for video coverage in small size. Music is good. Display is awesome. super sensitive.. Key board is designed in its class of look. Handy, versatile, elegant, stylish to have a corporate look which will upgrade one's personality too... Great ya.... Cost is around Rs.15,500/- in Chennai. One should not miss it to have Android Gingerbread 2.3 platform to have numerous applications............ I am enjoying much. I wish you to have one for you.
9. chatfornow (unregistered) posted on 22 Aug 2011, 12:09 0
can any 1 tell me about batterylife of this phone? surely I like this ph very much.
10. chatfornow (unregistered) posted on 22 Aug 2011, 12:10 0
can any 1 tell me about batterylife of this phone? surely I like this ph very much.
11. Marluce (unregistered) posted on 22 Aug 2011, 19:11 0
Hi !
I have my Xperia mini pro more than 8 months and I love it.
The battery is so good that it last more than 5 days using as phone and 1 day and a half using internet, twitter, mp3 and more
Only when I use GPS for a long time it needs recharge at the same day
18. netscavenger (unregistered) posted on 25 Aug 2011, 05:45 1
Funny you have this phone for last 8 months.
Sony Ericsson Xperia mini pro
Announced: 6 May 2011
Market Status: Released
Release date: 09 Aug 2011
13. steveemmax (unregistered) posted on 23 Aug 2011, 14:34 0
Had this a few weeks now, moved from Nokia and its ill fated N900...
Feels well made, screen clear and well laid out.
Nice and compact, battery life is typical smartphone - recharge most nights unless youve not used anything and it will probably last till the morning!
Figured out the Skype app and as I bought one for the wife as well, we have had video calls FOC thanks to free wi-fi where available.
Plenty of worthwhile free apps, Go SMS is neat and adds colour to texting. As Im new to Andriod Market it seems well laid out and easier than Ovi.
Poor that you cant make it work properly with Mac's - though you can transfer files when in mass media mode, so all is not lost.
Neat that it can stream iPlayer, and the other tv channels (wifi - unsure about 3g) though small screen gets tiresome and loudspeaker sounds tinny.
Negatives - removing the back panel feels like you will break it. Havent done so yet though. If you hold it in the left hand whilst typing, your index finger sits directly on the camera lens.. Come on SE this is a silly mistake, no wonder pictures look cloudy...
2gb micro sd card is not big enough - should came with a bigger card.
Would be nice if you could use the volume rocker to zoom in/out rather than pinch. Its such a small screen its tricky.
Web browser is pants, tricky and not intuitive. I tried Opera but no flash support so took that off. Not the main reason for the purchase so not too big an issue.
Oh, this is NOT an X-10mini as some think - its the SK17i.
14. mr.cuccuou (unregistered) posted on 24 Aug 2011, 09:11 0
is it me or the reviews of phone arena is getting better. one suggestion though, i tink its way better to present the pros and cons instead of a + and - bulletin mark, go for like ++for really pro and --for really negative, cause for me a - Some physical buttons could be better, as the review stated, is more than a annoyance than actually cons... other than that it stills feels the review is a little 'biased' i mean it feels as though all reviewer has dis mentally of comparing phones WAAY over their league, at least they didnt include for cons - small screen can be tricky for big fingers s**t, u know... theyre learning but its phone arena, its their flavor, if u will. And lastly... come on phone arena, either u have a ridiculous piss poor reception or have a ridiculous strict standard in call quality, u know, its just insane... just sayin... so yeah, overall gud review guys...
btw, ur vid reviews is just stellar as always... y cant ur review be like dat, just sayin, peace
15. mr.cuccuou (unregistered) posted on 24 Aug 2011, 09:23 0
is it me or the reviews of phone arena is getting better. one suggestion though, i tink its way better to present the pros and cons instead of a + and - bulletin mark, go for like ++for really pro and --for really negative, cause for me a - Some physical buttons could be better, as the review stated, is more than a annoyance than actually cons... other than that it stills feels the review is a little 'biased' i mean it feels as though all reviewer has dis mentally of comparing phones WAAY over their league, at least they didnt include for cons - small screen can be tricky for big fingers s**t, u know... theyre learning but its phone arena, its their flavor, if u will. And lastly... come on phone arena, either u have a ridiculous piss poor reception or have a ridiculous strict standard in call quality, u know, its just insane... just sayin... so yeah, overall gud review guys...
btw, ur vid reviews is just stellar as always... y cant ur review be like dat, just sayin, peace
16. ashiz29 (unregistered) posted on 24 Aug 2011, 10:01 0
great phone..got it for 14700 INR...value for money good battery back up...
30. rohitkiller (unregistered) posted on 14 Sep 2011, 08:39 0
from where did u get the phone?? wats its current market price??
19. Xunsu posted on 26 Aug 2011, 12:16 0
Its a lovely little phone, and certinly may be replacing my X8 when O2 let me upgrade my paygo sim.
I like phones like this small BUT usable, before I had my X8 I was looking into X10 minis and I m glad I didn't I dunno who people can put up with a 2.5 inch screen, with or without a hardware keyboard.. I have seen people slating SE for brining the mini phones out, but again they failed to see this, these phones ARE far betterr to the X10 minis bigger better screen, better cam......more inportantly better guts. how can they be the same O_o just before anyone does here :p
20. ayush yadav (unregistered) posted on 30 Aug 2011, 06:52 0
acchha hai par mobilo ka bacchha hai magar sacchha hai
21. Salmanexon (unregistered) posted on 05 Sep 2011, 07:09 0
yoo i'll goin it to buy a.s.a.p. (within a month)
its one of the cutest mobile i have ever seen.........
22. ssssssss (unregistered) posted on 06 Sep 2011, 13:04 0
thiss phone sucks if you want to play games or anything that uses the screen but everything else is great
23. sonyuser (unregistered) posted on 06 Sep 2011, 13:05 0
the phone is awesome what are you talking about man stupid itiod
24. zed (unregistered) posted on 06 Sep 2011, 14:05 0
This is not a good phone.... the android suckss its quality .... i have bought it and found that nokia 701 is far better with nokia's symbian belle.... nokia rocks..
25. ltamasek posted on 09 Sep 2011, 08:47 0
What do you think - HTC desire z or xpieria mini pro? I need compact phone for net browsering mainly
26. Kin (unregistered) posted on 10 Sep 2011, 10:53 0
Does anyone know what is the difference between Sony ericsson Mini Xperia Pro and Sony Ericsson Mini Xperia Pro SK17 ?
How many variant of this product ?
Thanx
27. rajjj (unregistered) posted on 11 Sep 2011, 23:59 0
when this mobile is releasing in chennai.............
31. rohitkiller (unregistered) posted on 14 Sep 2011, 08:40 0
can anyone tell me the current market price of this device??
32. Klon1 (unregistered) posted on 16 Sep 2011, 21:17 0
What's the difference between this phone (Xperia MINI PRO) and the Xperia Mini?
34. Glenn jacob jackson (unregistered) posted on 17 Sep 2011, 11:44 0
Hi , i m going to buy this phn by replacing my x8 , recently hear some news
About the bugs in sound quality , is this true ????
I knw dat new sony ericsson xperia mini pro is very good at the price of 15000k(indian rupees) so bugs will fixed or not by future updates ???
35. XPERIAX10MINIPRO_USER (unregistered) posted on 20 Sep 2011, 06:14 0
WORST PHONE EVER..POOR BATTERY LIFE, NO FLASH PLAYER, TOO SMALL SCREEN SIZE, INTERNET SPEED TOO SLOW EVEN ON 3G, UNABLE TO PLAY HD VIDEOS AND THE LIST GOES ON
36. mbu (unregistered) posted on 23 Sep 2011, 13:34 0
GUYS PLS COMMENT ON THE BATTERY LIFE...HOW LONG DOES IT STAY WITH SINGLE CHARGE....
40. Ned (unregistered) posted on 13 Oct 2011, 16:04 0
not long at all. can go up to about 10 hours if you have all internet connections turned off, brightness to lowest setting, and dont use it at ALL. ususally I use it as a normal phone and mione last about 6 hours. dont invest in it!
37. khalid (unregistered) posted on 07 Oct 2011, 13:19 0
I am writing this post from my Xperia mini pro.its the best u can get.if it were 100 bucks more expensive I would still be buying it
38. AARJAY (unregistered) posted on 10 Oct 2011, 06:30 0
Guys!!! the phone has awesome features.............. but the it has a really poor battery life....... so its of no use if you have a phone with cool features with Poor battery life....... the batterys doesnt last even a day with normal use.......... sony ericsson should improve their battery life......... overall good phone except the battery issue..
39. Ned (unregistered) posted on 13 Oct 2011, 16:00 0
DONT SPEND MORE THAN 20 pence ON THIS JUNK. crashes ALL the time, battery life of 6 hours if your lucky, touch screen too small. VERY slow. worst phone I have ever had.
41. mile (unregistered) posted on 15 Oct 2011, 20:09 0
Just tell us about the static noise, don't hear it in the sample video, somewhat in the left channel?! The whole phone is making static noise, tell us about that, the issue is all over the web, we yet have to find mini pro without this fault.
42. Sooraj.U.S posted on 09 Dec 2011, 02:04 0
I owned it for 3 month......its amazing fast android smartphone.......which can play HD video and pictures with great clarity with the help of SONY BRAVIA mobile engine.....battery stands up to 3 days....
43. yuese posted on 28 Jan 2012, 20:07 0
Very nice phone, i must say. Except for some weak points:
Buttons
* I don't like its 'Cancel' and 'Menu' button being a touch sensitive because i always accidentally press it when playing games.
* Yes, qwerty key pad isn't well lit, but when you get used to it, you don't even need to look at it
Camera
*With Sufficient Lighting, this phone camera can capture fast moving objects, but careful with your fingers covering the lens.
Memory
*I think Android OS is consuming nearly half of its 400mb internal memory?
Battery
* Full usage - with WiFi, Continuous Data Traffic(i'm downloading a movie), and GPS all turned On while playing game, my battery lasted nearly 4.5 hours.
44. co4070 posted on 13 Apr 2012, 16:03 0
I had this phone since Oct last year, best compact phone I ever used, better then HTC chacha, wildfire, and Blackberry.
never had any problem with this phone, and I have used many slide keyboard phone before, this is one of the best.
if you change the setting with your cam, you can take very good and fast picture, but night time flash can be better
only downside is the battery, I had to carry an portable charger with me everywhere I go unless I turn 3G off.
but still happy with it
45. charwhee posted on 22 Jul 2012, 02:08 0
I own this phone and have been trying it out. It works on AT&T in the states.
As an aside: While T-Mobile is a GSM network their data currently runs on an odd frequency and you should use T-Mobile phones otherwise you're stuck with Edge data, very slow. It works, but it sucks.Good news is they are upgrading by end of year.
So the data xfer on this is quite good because it uses the fast 3G which damn fast and of course it has wifi.
I wanted a phone I could put in my pocket, so I was willing to sacrifice screen size, and the slide-out keyboard makes up for a lot of on-screen typing. That being said, you still do a lot of gesturing on the screen and it is highly sensitive and works well.
Battery life is the downfall of this phone. It's just really bad. Given the size of the battery, I think they should be able to get more mAh in there, but I can get a full day on standby if I barely use the phone or keep it turned off. But who does that? So I am seriously considering one the Mugen batteries mentioned above. It may be that I am running too much stuff. I haven't really optimized my phone for battery life and if anyone has suggestions, love to hear what you have to say.
It's true, this phone is not for gaming or watching videos. The screen is just too small. But it is a damn good screen with Sony's Bravia engine, etc. no complaints. I did try to watch a movie, and my eyes just couldn't handle it.
But I have a phone I can throw in my pocket and carry around. That is really nice, and what I wanted. GPS works great, and I've used Google to get turn-by-turn directions which is fantastic.
Tip on carriers: If you have this phone and you're traveling to the US from another country, Straight Talk works great with this phone and you can get unlimited talk/text/data for $50/month no contract. Coverage seems decent, and data works great. I think they ride on AT&T's network.
46. atulhere posted on 08 Aug 2012, 21:51 0
anybody tell me how to use multitaking in this mobile xperia mini pro , (by pressing home button it just show recent apps used)
47. vssiva100 posted on 19 Mar 2013, 22:03 0
hii ! iam using xperia mini pro last 4 months . WHILE IAM BROWING FOR 5MINUTES IT IS SHOWING TO CLEAR MEMORY AND ALSO IT WAS VERY SLOW WHILE ZOOMING THE PAGE....WHAT CAN I DO??? ANYBODY HELP ME ?
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