The Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini Revealed
If you were familiar with the Robyn touchscreen rumored on the net, then this Mini confirms it. We were hopeful that the new Mini would at least be using the new Android 2.0 Ó‰clair but on the top of a severely reduced feature set, it still uses the old Android which, by the time they get released in the 2nd quarter would already be antique.But there"s no doubt, the Mini can fill a market void that wants a trendy smartphone that fits snugly in the hands and pockets and affordable besides.Ò The mini can fill that void with a slim body measuring a petite 83 x 50 x 16 mm and weighing a remarkably pocketable 88 g to make it among the lightest touchscreen smartphones in the market.
It is better pitched to the younger crowd and it even comes in six body colors ò€“ black, pearl white, silver, red, lime and pink. On its own, the Mini is an upscale smartphone; just forget that it"s a disappointing minimization of a lofty X10 product.
At A Glance
*The Mini is a 3G phone on the dual band UMTS/HSDAP/HSUPA and a quad band GSM.GPRS/EDGE on 2G.Ò WiFi 802.11b/g, Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP and microUSB 2.0 take care of its local data connectivity.Ò There"s also A-GPS with Google Maps for SatNav functionality.
*You get a 2.5-inch TFT capacitive touchscreen display with QVGA resolution and 16 million colors.Ò It comes with a gravity accelerometer for auto rotate viewing and a scratch resistant glass cover.
*Its imaging feature comes with a 5 megapixel autofocus camera with LED Flash, face/smile detection and geo tagging from its a-GPS. Video recording details have not been disclosed in the press kit except to say it comes with a video light though it is doubtful it"s anywhere the WVGA 30fpc capability of the X10.
*Its internal memory is just 128MB but you still get microSD expandability of up to 16 GB. There"s a standard lithium polymer battery that allows up to 4 hours of talk time and 285 hours of standby time when fully charged.
*With a minimized set of features, the Mini now comes with less powerful Qualcomm MSM7227 processor clocked at 600 MHz.
Availability
Sony Ericsson in the recently concluded 2010 Mobile World Congress announced the availability of the Mini in the 2nd quarter of the year.Ò It might just be since the last news we got is that the Xperia X10 will become available from Vodafone UK starting April.Ò We figure Sony would dump all its Xperia line including the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini and Mini Pro at about the same time.