Sony Ericsson Xperia mini pro review: No small affair

Introduction

Sony Ericsson have always done a good job of putting big ideas in a small package. The original Xperia mini lineup wasn't ridiculously powerful but had plenty of personality. The pint-sized smartphones did well on the market and you can bet the successors are keen to build on their good start. The Xperia mini pro is under the lights today and ready to raise the bid.

Sony Ericsson Xperia mini pro official photos

We can imagine the Arc and the Xperia Pro calling this one junior. Not even a hint of condescension in that though. The Xperia mini pro has the same hardware as its bigger Xperia siblings, a fact that makes the level of miniaturization all the more impressive. There's room for a proper QWERTY keyboard at that. And there is a Reality display too, a solid battery and HD video recording. Android 2.3 Gingerbread is in charge.

A respectable list of features and we're only starting. There is so much more to explore. Before we go on though, let’s take a closer look at all the key facts and figures, and the potential deal breakers.

Key features

• Quad-band GSM /GPRS/EDGE support
• 3G with 7.2 Mbps HSDPA and 5.76 Mbps HSUPA
• 3" 16M-color capacitive LED-backlit LCD touchscreen, HVGA res (320 x 480), Sony Mobile BRAVIA engine
• Full four-row, slide-out QWERTY keyboard
• Android OS v2.3 Gingerbread
• 1 GHz Scorpion CPU, Adreno 205 GPU, Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8255 chipset
• 512 MB RAM
• 5 MP autofocus camera, LED flash, geotagging
• 720p video @ 30fps, continuous autofocus
• Front facing VGA camera
• Wi-Fi b/g/n and DLNA
• GPS with A-GPS
• microSD slot (32GB supported, 2GB card included)
• Accelerometer and proximity sensor
• Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
• Stereo FM radio with RDS
• microUSB port (charging) and stereo Bluetooth v2.1
• Voice dialing
• Adobe Flash 10.3 support

Main disadvantages

• No smart dialing
• No DivX/XviD video support out of the box
• Doubtful video recording quality

For such a small handset, the Xperia mini pro leaves no major feature out. Not a phone to put up with being looked down on. Not after meticulously upgrading everything there was to upgrade about the original Xperia X10 Mini pro.

Surely it can’t be the perfect smartphone - not even trying to impress with raw power. The Xperia mini pro is more likely to surprise you and slowly work its way into you.

Sony Ericsson Xperia mini pro live pictures

We hope you're ready to explore this compact smart messenger because our hardware tour is about to begin. The Xperia mini pro has a lot to offer there.