Sony Ericsson Xperia Mini Pro Full Review and Analysis

The Sony Ericsson Xperia Mini Pro is a smartphone that packs a punch despite its small size. It has a 3-inch touchscreen display with a resolution of 320x480 pixels.

This phone is designed for productivity, with a slide-out QWERTY keyboard that makes typing a breeze. The keyboard is backlit, making it easy to use in low-light environments.

The Xperia Mini Pro runs on Android 2.3 Gingerbread, which is a solid operating system for a phone of its caliber. It has a 1 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, 320 MB of RAM, and 320 MB of internal storage.

One of the standout features of this phone is its battery life, which can last up to 6 hours of talk time and 380 hours of standby time.

The Sony Ericsson Xperia Mini Pro is a compact phone that's easy to hold and use. It stands just 92mm tall and 52mm wide, making it look tiny next to other devices.

The phone's design is quite chunky, measuring 18mm in thickness, but it feels comfortable to hold. The slightly rubberised finish on the battery cover makes it grippy too.

The phone is available in four colours: white, black, pink, and turquoise. I personally like the black version, but it's not a head turner due to its thickness.

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The Mini Pro is a tiny phone, standing at just 92mm tall and 52mm wide, making it look absolutely small next to other phones like the HTC Incredible S.

It's not just its height and width that are compact - it's also a pretty light device, which makes it comfortable to hold.

The phone is available in four colours: white, black, pink, and turquoise. I personally think the black version looks pretty sleek.

The slightly rubberised finish on the battery cover makes the phone quite grippy, which is a nice touch.

The front of the phone is finished in a glossy piano black, with a chrome band running around the outer edge of the phone. It's a nice design touch, but it's not particularly eye-catching.

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There are some chrome accents used on the home button beneath the screen and the camera and volume rocker buttons on the right-hand side of the handset.

The home button at the bottom is flanked by the back and menu buttons, but there's no search button like you might find on other Android phones.

At the top of the handset, you'll find a standard 3.5mm headphone jack, along with the power button/lock switch and a micro-USB port.

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The screen size on the Mini Pro has been increased to 3 inches, up from the 2.55-inch screen on the X10 Mini Pro, which makes a big difference in usability.

The resolution of the screen remains the same at 320x480 pixels, but it's relatively high for the screen size, which is a plus.

The display is a capacitive screen, supporting multi-touch gestures like pinch to zoom in the browser, which is super handy.

You'll probably need to use the zooming feature a lot, especially when browsing in portrait mode, as the text on websites can be tiny.

In landscape mode, things are slightly better, but you still can't read columns of text without using at least one level of zoom.

The onscreen portrait keyboard is set to a keypad-type layout by default, which can be annoying, but you can change it to a standard Qwerty layout if you prefer.

However, the keyboard layout can be fiddly to use, especially if you're not used to it.

The screen is actually quite good in other ways, with impressive contrast performance that brings out subtle details in darker areas of pictures or videos.

The colours on the screen are rich and strong, and the brightness levels are good too, making it very useable outdoors under stronger sunlight.

The Sony Ericsson Xperia Mini Pro is a powerhouse when it comes to performance. It's equipped with a 1 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, which delivers a smooth and responsive user experience.

This phone can handle demanding tasks with ease, thanks to its 512 MB of RAM. You can switch between multiple apps without any lag or slowdown.

The Xperia Mini Pro also features a 320 MB internal storage, which can be expanded up to 32 GB via a microSD card. This means you can store a decent amount of music, photos, and other files without running out of space.

The phone's performance is further boosted by its Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) operating system. This version of Android is known for its speed and efficiency, making it a great choice for this device.

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The Sony Ericsson Xperia Mini Pro has some issues that are worth mentioning. Wi-Fi reception is weaker than on most other smartphones, making it difficult to stay connected in certain areas of the house.

In one test, the phone struggled to maintain a signal in an upstairs bedroom when connected to a router downstairs in a London terraced house. This is a significant problem for anyone who plans to use their phone in multiple rooms.

The phone also crashed and rebooted itself on three separate occasions during our testing. This is not a good sign, as it suggests that the phone's firmware needs some work to fix these bugs.

The battery life on the Sony Ericsson Xperia Mini Pro is a bit of a letdown. Unfortunately, the 1,200mAh battery just can't keep up with the demands of the fast processor.

You'll be lucky to make it through an entire day without needing to recharge. If you make a lot of calls, you might find yourself running out of juice before the day is over.

Call quality is actually quite good, but you do need to be careful about where you hold the phone to your ear. The sweet spot for the earpiece is relatively narrow.

The Sony Ericsson Xperia Mini Pro is a great option for those who want a pocketable Qwerty Android phone.

Its slide-out keyboard is a game-changer for heavy messaging users, allowing you to tap out messages and emails faster than most onscreen keyboards.

However, the phone's small screen size means you'll have to zoom in a lot while Web browsing, which can be frustrating.

The camera is also quite poor, especially for recording videos in 720p HD mode, which doesn't produce sharp videos.

Ultimately, you'll have to weigh the pros and cons against the phone's price to decide if it's right for you.