Sony Ericsson Xperia mini pro review

Sony Ericsson’s old X10 Xperia mini pro was a likeable little Android handset with a decent slide-out keyboard. For this new version, the X10 brand is gone, and the internals have received a major update.

Where the old X10 made do with a 600MHz processor, the new model uses a 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon CPU – as found in Sony Ericsson’s larger, more expensive Xperia arc and Play handsets. And as with those phones, it’s partnered with 512MB of RAM.

This delivers great performance. The mini pro took 5,154ms to complete the SunSpider JavaScript benchmark – a vast improvement over the original mini pro’s 46 seconds, and three times as fast as HTC’s compact Wildfire S. In fact, it’s only two seconds behind the A-Listed Samsung Galaxy S II.

We saw similarly impressive scores in the Quadrant benchmark, with the mini pro’s result of 1,501 far ahead of the Wildfire S, which scored 654. The mini pro made quick work of loading the BBC homepage, too, taking seven seconds to render the whole page – much faster than any of its budget rivals.

It all makes for an extremely slick Android 2.3 experience. Home screens scroll by with no hint of stutter, the app drawer is similarly smooth, and apps and games aren't unduly taxed: even Angry Bots, a 3D game created using the advanced Unity engine, ran without hitches.

Despite these upgrades, the mini pro measures only 17mm across at its thickest point, and weighs in at 138g. That makes it one millimetre thinner than its predecessor, and although it’s 18g heavier, that accommodates a battery that’s been increased from 930mAh to 1,200mAh. After our 24hr battery test the mini pro had 60% of its juice remaining – twice as much as its predecessor and on a par with the Wildfire S.

It’s sturdily built, too. The keyboard slides out solidly, and the keys have a good positive action. We were able to achieve a good typing speed in no time at all. There’s not an awful lot of space between the buttons, but this is thanks to the inclusion of four cursor keys, a link to keyboard settings and a direct link to a menu full of punctuation and symbols – all helpful touches.