Today is the day, the Qwerty version of the Xperia X10 Mini has been announced as “ready to launch”! The launch is expected to cover Europe and will probably not be hitting US shelves. The X10 Mini Pro is claimed to be the smallest Android phone with a full qwerty keyboard, but don’t take it from me, check out the video below and let us know your opinions in the comments!
[via Sony]
A couple days ago, you may have seen the Sony Ericsson “Shakira” get a new name (X8) with a little less hip jiggle, which came a week after the announcement of the smaller X10 mini. Well, folks, looks like Sony Ericsson has given us a goal for release of the newly dubbed X8, and that goal is Q3 of this year. Its form factor takes the stage as the mama bear, right between papa (X10) and baby (X10 mini), and Sony Ericsson hopes that many will accept its size as just right.
The X8 is set to be dressed down with Android 1.6 with a highly customized UI, which includes Timescape and Mediascape. Don’t like it? Too bad, Jack. As with it’s smaller cousin, the X10 mini, that’s just the way the cookie crumbles. But don’t feel too down, because right around the corner from its 3″ screen, this phone is showing off a 3.2 MP camera, wifi, 600MHz of processing power and a 1200mAh battery. You can also change out the back covers.
The price on the X8 will be around €259 ($318).
[via engadget]
For those of you who might find the larger Sony Ericsson X10 too large (really?), the X10 Mini may well have been on your radar, ready to fill a gap in your handbag (or ‘man bag’, for those metrosexual chaps out there – or even ‘satchel’ if you’re a one-man-wolfpack).
The good news, is that The Carphone Warehouse in the UK, are now selling the X10 Mini. The handset is free on contracts from £15 a month on Vodaphone, and available free on Orange, T-Mobile, 3 and O2 as well. Pay as you go customers will apparently find the X10 Mini available from £200, but it doesn’t appear to be available from The Carphone Warehouse in this guise at the time of writing.
At a mere 88 g/3.1 oz, you’d be hard pushed to notice if it was in your pocket, so it’s a good job the X10 Mini is available in fetching colours, including an interesting shade of ‘Lime’. However, it is worth noting that the face of the unit still remains black.
Unlike its bigger brother, the X10 Mini ‘only’ sports a QVGA 240 x 320 pixel screen, but the X10 Mini is no slouch, what with a 600MHz Qualcomm MSM7227 processor powering Google™ Android 1.6. The 2.55″ screen seems a bit small, but for an Android phone the size of a credit card, some compromise has to be made.
If the X10 is too large for you, and X10 Mini is too small, like Goldilocks, you might want to hold out for something just the right size. If that’s the case, then the Sony Ericsson ‘Shakira’ might well be something worth keeping an eye on.
[via: Tech Watch; The Carphone Warehouse]