Sony Ericsson Xperia

A lot of talk is going around cyberspace about the XPERIA X10 mini & XPERIA X10 mini pro being exact copies. Unless the tech guys at Sony Ericsson have gone over the deep end, there must be some difference or some sort of variation that set these versions apart, no matter how slight they are. Comparing Xperia X10 Mini contracts with X10 Mini Pro contracts online can be a sure fire way to save money on your next mobile phone.

Like features

Nearly everything down the line is essentially the same for the XPERIA X10 mini & XPERIA X10 mini pro. The phones come with a 2.55-inch TFT capacitive touchscreen. There’s still the recognisable “4-corner” icon hallmark at the Mini and Mini Pro’s screens.

Both mobile handsets run an older Android v1.6 OS (Donut) and are powered by the same 600 MHz Qualcomm MSM7227 mobile CPU. Sony Ericsson assures buyers that the users interface are just as performance-packed as the more recent Android OS’s.

The Mini and Mini Pro comes installed with Sony Ericsson’s own Timescape UI as well as a variety of other essential apps. Both phones are integrated with popular social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and Bebo.

Both XPERIA X10 mini & XPERIA X10 mini pro support 3G HSDPA , HSUPA and WiFi networks, as well as Bluetooth and microUSB connectivity for wireless and cabled data transfer.

Major differences

The X10 Mini is strictly a touchscreen phone with a T9 layout for text entry. In contrast, the Mini Pro comes with a slide-out full QWERTY keyboard located behind the main screen. This sliding keyboard feature adds more weight and dimension to the Mini Pro, and makes it rather heavier and bigger than the Mini.

What’s more, both XPERIA X10 mini & XPERIA X10 mini pro came in different launch colours.

The Mini came in more colours like Gold, Pearl White, Black, Pink, Lime, Red, and Silver whilst the Mini-Pro came only in Black, Red, and Pink.

If the black X10 Mini Pro is a bit too boring for you, then there’s great news for you, especially if you’re a Three customer. Sony Ericsson and Three have teamed up to offer the Mini Pro in white, exclusively on the Three network. The handset features the same specs as the black model, which is a slimmed down X10 but, a beefed up X10 Mini.

The Xperia X10 Mini features Google Android 1.6, which will hopefully be updated soon to Android 2.1. The screen size is the same as the X10 Mini at 2.55 inches but, features a slide out QWERTY keyboard. To make room for this, the X10 Mini Pro is slightly larger than the X10 Mini, which is already available in white, as well as a variety of other colors. However like the X10 Mini, it’s only the back which features a color change, while the front of the phone remains black and the keyboard silver.

Originally, the Xperia X10, X10 Mini and X10 Mini Pro were, to many people’s disappointment, due to get the Android 2.1 update in Q4 of this year. With 2.2 announced many people were hoping that Sony Ericsson would skip 2.1 and go straight to Android 2.2 but, they have confirmed this won’t be the case. However they have pushed the release of Android 2.1 forward from Q4 to late Q3. To some this won’t make much difference but, we’re now looking at a September release for 2.1 instead of possible as late as December.

Sony Ericsson have also confirmed they are working on Android 2.2. They have also committed to a Q4 release for Froyo, so we should see the Xperia X10 updated to the latest Android operating system by the end of the year.

It’s been confirmed that, unfortunate as it may be, the Android powered  handset from Sony Ericsson, the Xperia X10 will not support multi touch.  The same is also true for the X10 Mini and X10 Mini Pro.

The X10 however, doesn’t support multi touch due to the hardware, while the X10 Mini has the supporting hardware. Unfortunately, Sony  Ericsson have confirmed that a software update to enable it will not  be coming. It wasn’t known what the situation was with the X10 Mini  Pro whether hardware could of allowed multi touch. We do know however that Sony Ericsson used a different supplier (Synaptics) for the screen of the x10 mini.

Expansys have listed both the X10 Mini and the X10 Mini Pro for pre-order. Initially the release date for both handsets was listed as the 16th of March but, this quickly changed and is now listed as the 24th of May. The X10 Mini will retail for £299.99 and the X10 Mini Pro will retail for £339.99. The X10 Mini Pro features a slide out QWERTY keyboard.