Sony Ericsson Xperia mini

Editor's Review of the Xperia mini

Just like its Xperia X10 Mini predecessor, Sony Ericsson's new-and-improved Xperia Mini is tiny. This time round, however, it's promised to be packed full of high-end features, including an HD camera and a Reality Display. Can Sony Ericsson prove that bigger doesn't always mean better?

Design & Build

Sony Ericsson's latest Xperia is both mini by name and mini by nature. It's a fraction larger than last year's effort, measuring in at a tiny 88 x 52 x 16 mm, and weighing in at a dainty 99g. It's a looker, too, and sports a smooth, rubberised back that feels comfortable to hold.

With the exception of its three Android shortcut keys, the front of the Xperia Mini is dominated by its 3-inch (320 x 480) display. The capacitive screen, like its higher-spec siblings, uses Sony's Bravia technology, which means the screen is extremely bright and crisp despite its small size.

Under the hood of the Xperia Mini, you'll find a 1GHz Snapdragon processor - a huge improvement on the X10 Mini's 600MHz effort. No doubt aided by the handset's small size, we noticed little lag while using the handset and it had plenty of oomph for playing games.

OS & Interface

The Sony Ericsson Xperia Mini arrives running the latest version of Google's smartphone OS: Android 2.3.3. This equips it with the same features that we saw on the Xperia Arc and Xperia Neo, but Sony Ericsson has cleverly customized the interface to suit the small screen.

As well as a full QWERTY keypad in portrait mode, you get Sony Ericsson's Four Corner UI - enabling you to add four shortcuts to the corners of the screen for one-touch access to your favourite apps. In addition, you can create folders comprising up to 16 apps by dragging them on top of each other, which appear in a scrollable carousel on the corners of the smartphone

The handset also comes complete with Facebook Inside Xperia integration, Sony Ericsson's all-new social overlay. This offers-up a bunch of neat features, including the ability to like songs from your phone and YouTube. Like on HTC Sense, it also aggregated photos from Facebook into the Gallery app. Probably not the best phone for Facebook-haters, though.

Multimedia & Storage

Sony Ericsson is keen to point out that despite its compact frame, the Xperia Mini packs a 5 megapixel HD camera, complete with an accompanying LED flash. So it should, too, as this is undoubtedly one of the handset's main selling points, producing crisp, sharp and detailed photos even in the most poorly-lit conditions.

As it's HD branding suggests, its also capable of shooting 720p video. Just like photos, video was extremely detailed - but we struggled to enjoy footage on the compact 3-inch screen. Thankfully, the phone comes with DLNA technology onboard - for instantly streaming footage to your HD television.

Besides its shooter, the Sony Ericsson Xperia Mini also arrives touting an easy-to-use MP3 player. It may be simply, but there's a lot of cool hidden features, including; Sony's xLoud features for boosting the volume, Shazam-esque track recognition software, and the ability to bring-up Google Lyrics and Wikipedia pages for the song you are playing.

Everything Else

On the connectivity front, the Xperia Mini comes with HSDPA and WiFi connectivity, coupled with the usual stock Android browser. Although speedy, some people - especially those with large digits - may struggle to navigate around the compact screen.

As well as high-speed internet, the Xperia Mini packs a decent 1200mAh battery. Although it doesn't sound that great on paper, the juice-box offers up 25 hours of constant music playback, and managed to last 2 days of moderate usage.

Conclusion

Unlike its predecessor, the Sony Ericsson Xperia Mini is tiny handset that doesn't compromise on features. Although it's unlikely to appeal to everyone, those after a compact smartphone with high-end features need look no further.