There’s been quite a few price drops on Sony Ericsson handsets lately and here’s another one that’s just come through. While this handset isn’t new, it is refurbished and sold by a trustable UK online retailer. Mobiles.co.uk state that the refurbished handsets are units that have been returned under their 7 day returns policy and have been fully tested and inspected and also come with a full 12 month warranty.

Mobiles are selling refurbished Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini’s for £49.90 on O2, Vodafone and Orange. A £10 top up is required however, taking the overall price for £59.90 with free delivery. Which ever network you choose though, the phone will be unlocked.

The Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini may be last year’s phone but, it still remains a good choice for those looking for a budget range Android phone. The Xperia X10 Mini usually retails for £119 through O2 and other retailers but, a bargain has been spotted on Argos’ outlet store on eBay.

They are currently selling Xperia X10 Mini’s for just £79.99 with £3.99 postage. In comparison, Argos are selling sim free X10 Mini’s for £234.99. There are currently more than 10 available through the Argos eBay outlet store with 29 sold. How many more than 10 are available though is unknown so if this deal appears, you’d best be quick. They previously had Xperia X8 handsets on O2 for a reasonable £69.99, compared to the usual £99.99 price point but, quickly sold out and only had 16 units in stock.

According to a blog post over at Vodafone Australia, the company will begin testing Android 2.3 on the Xperia X10 Mini Pro in around 6 weeks time.

The blog post highlights questions about Android updates that they’ve been receiving regarding when updates will be released, what stage the updates are at and indicates what version of Android the various handsets are currently running and what the next update will be.

The blog post lists various handsets and two Sony Ericsson phones, the Xperia X10 and the X10 Mini Pro. The post says that the X10 is currently on 1.6 and that 2.3 is currently being tested and is due to be completed in about 2 weeks. When it comes to the X10 Mini though, the company say that the testing hasn’t been scheduled yet but, that they anticipate testing it in 6 weeks time.

We’ve provided information on how to root the Xperia handsets here before and in the past rooting has always been for a positive reason. The main reason for rooting is that it allows you to remove preinstalled apps, either installed by Sony Ericsson such as Timescape, or network specific apps such as Vodafone’s 360 application. There are of course other positive reasons to root your handset and with Google Android being a pretty open OS, rooting hasn’t been much of a problem. That may change soon however.

Sony Ericsson have announced that they are releasing two more handsets to the Xperia range in the coming months. This time we see a successor to the X10 Mini and X10 Mini Pro. The new handsets are called Xperia Mini and Mini Pro. Hopefully the names of the new handsets won’t cause too much confusion between consumers and retailers when making a purchase.

As the name suggest, the Xperia Mini Pro like the X10 Mini Pro and Xperia Pro, will feature a QWERTY slide out keyboard to make messaging on the go even easier. Both the Xperia Mini and Mini Pro feature a larger screen by 0.45 inches, coming in at 3 inches. The extra space should also mean the keyboard is more comfortable to type with on the Mini Pro and on screen typing on both handsets should be easier. The four corner UI remains on the two new handsets but, has seen an improvement, where by the homescreen can now display up to 16 apps.

Rumors are flying around at the moment that Sony Ericsson are about to make an announcement of three new handsets, as soon as this week. Two of the handsets there’s a few details about, where as the third handset nothing is known of it.

The first handset rumoured to be announced this week is the Sony Ericsson Xperia Mango which is said to be the successor to the X10 Mini Pro, as it features a slide out keyboard while being mini in form. The screen is rumored to be larger than the Mini Pro though, coming in at around 3 inches. Likewise, the second handset the Sony Ericsson Xperia Smultron is also said to feature a 3 inch display. The Smultron will not feature a slide out keyboard, so is tipped to be the successor to the Mini Pro.