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The new QWERTY accompaniment to the Xperia Mini, the Sony Ericsson Xperia Mini Pro, is a very nice, solid, well performing little smartphone.
Sony Ericsson's user interface is simple and fast, building on Google's 2.3 version of the popular Android mobile operating system to offer a slick and very user-friendly mobile phone experience.
We like
Sony Ericsson's user interface makes some excellent tweaks to Android, filling the smartphone with subtle Facebook integration, nice animated icons and a giving it a generally stylish look and feel throughout.
Internet use is good. The tiny phone's 1GHz processor and Flash Player support means it can handle virtually all web tasks quickly and without grinding to a halt, with multi-touch and text reflowing to makes pages easily readable.
The QWERTY keyboard is great for those who like sending grammatically correct text messages. Alternate character selection via the specific button is simple, and text editing is made easy thanks to the cursor keys. There's no excuse for sloppy text speak now.
The corner-based icon system helps get the most out of the phone's small 3-inch screen, meaning you can easily access a huge number of apps through the phone's home screens.
We dislike
While the Sony Ericsson Xperia Mini Pro's keyboard has some good functionality, the size is an obvious limitation. You end up typing with fingernails, it's so small.
If having a QWERTY keyboard is your number one phone-buying criteria, you'd be better off with a big one like the ones on the HTC Desire s or Motorola Milestone 2.
The camera is the same slightly disappointing unit as in the Sony Ericsson Xperia Mini. This means still shots feature over-emphasised colours, while 720p video output lacks detail and comes across rather blotchy and blurry, despite its HD claims.
Quite a lot of junk is pre-loaded. There's some serious cross-promotion going on here, with Sony offering UEFA football apps, tennis apps, Qriocity audio and video apps, a PopCap demo gaming app and much more.
McAfee is genuinely useful, but the rest take up valuable bytes.
Verdict
The Sony Ericsson Xperia Mini Pro's £240 price tag is relatively high in this age of budget-busting Android phones, but you are getting a lot in the package.
Performance is good, the phone's quick and responsive throughout, with apps installing and opening as fast as they do on today's high-end, dual core monsters.
The screen is responsive and bright, with text and photos looking sharp.
For the money, you could get a phone with a bigger screen, but there's nothing else that packs Android 2.3, a QWERTY keyboard and a totally smooth user experience into such a tiny bundle.
The camera is just about good enough for daily use, web browsing is excellent and Sony Ericsson's user interface is slick and smooth in operation. Plus there's a physical keyboard.
The Sony Ericsson Xperia Mini Pro pretty much has it all, as long as you can cope with the very compact format.
