Pro Version

Feb/07

Pro Version

Shrinking The X10 With The Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini Pro

The recently concluded 2010 Mobile Congress World held in Barcelona, Spain showcased an exciting array of mobile phones we should be seeing soon starting this quarter. The struggling Sony Ericsson has yet to released the Xperia X10 announced in early November 2009 but we are now seeing two new derivatives of that with its Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini Pro and the Mini, both running the same old Android 1.6 Cupcake when every other Android phone at the Congress were already suing the newer 2.0 Éclair.

But no matter, we were promised that the Rachel or UX (short for User eXperience) interface on the older Android is just as cool and functionally rich as the new Android. So we continue to wait with baited breath for the promised X10 before the quarter ends and its equally competent though slightly inferior Mini derivatives planned to be released on the 2nd quarter.

No pricing information was forthcoming from Sony but as an upscale Android handset with the features it has, however toned-down from the X10, it should hover well below the €600 price point rumored for the X10. And unlike its simpler X10 Mini touchscreen which will come in a number of body colors, the Pro will only come in red or black.

Downscaled X10 Features

First off, to those already familiar with the Xperia X10 features, the Mini Pro lives up to being just a "mini" of the Xperia 10 and will come with the following downgraded features. Apart from these water-down features, the Mini Pro and the Mini has the same features as the X10.

The main CPU is a Qualcomm MSM7227 clocked at 600 MHz down from the Qualcomm QSD8250 Snapdragon clocked at 1 GHz.
Imaging goes from 8 megapixels to a 5 megapixel resolution. No image stabilization and touchfocus capability present in the X10. The spec sheet is silent on the Video Recording but it could be Less Than the WVGA video recording at 30fps in the X10. But both share the same autofocusing, LED flash, geo tagging and video light.
The 4-inch display on the C10 goes down to 2.55-inch display in the Mini and Mini Pro versions which is quite dramatic. At least it now sports 16 million colors compared to the 64k colors on the X10. You still get the same accelerometer and scratch resistant surface.
Internal memory is reduced from 1GB to just 128 MB but you still get microSD expandability up to 16 GB. The retail kits includes a 2 GB microSD card free.

Conclusion

We are not sure if this was deliberate or just an oversight but for sure, the Mini Pro is everything its Mini is. Right down to the virtual QWERTY keyboard and keypad which could easily render the tactile QWERTY keyboard on the Pro useless if You Are already using a touchscreen and a stylus. It's as if the "pro" was entirely an afterthought of "hey, why don't we just slap a QWERTY keyboard form on the casing" without doing anything else just to appeal to a market who likes a slider phone.

If you have tiny fingers used to working on keyboards of this size, the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini Pro should be right for you, especially if you like them small and pocket friendly. In fact, it could be the smallest QWERTY slider phone in the market when it arrives hopefully in April.

About the Author

Pay a visit to Best Mobile Contracts to look at all the latest phone deals. You can see what deals are available for Xperia X10 Mini Pro and other phones. They also compare mobile broadband so you are always connected.

If you download a pro version of Game Maker, can you still open games/files created with the lite version?

If so, will it let you add pro features to a lite-created game?

Yes, everything is pro feature if the Game Maker is Pro version.

Beck - E-Pro