Sony Ericsson Xperia Mini Pro review

Like many phone manufacturers, Sony Ericsson has loaded its own interface and apps on top of Android. The results are mixed. The company’s Timescape app aggregates status updates and events from Facebook, Twitter and Exchange. The latter is achieved via a third-party Exchange app rather than Android’s own Exchange support. You can also get plugins for Timescape to support other services, such as Gmail or travel updates, but they’re limited.

Sony Ericsson has also installed an odd choice of third-party apps, including game trials and anti-virus software. Thankfully, most of these are easily uninstalled to save you about 30MB of space. With 420MB of app storage space, you should have plenty of room.

Some apps are pre-installed and can’t be removed, however. BBC iPlayer, Adobe Reader and the OfficeSuite viewer are sensible choices, but we could have done without some of the others: Touchnote, a service that sends real postcards via the web; Moxier Pro, an Exchange client; Wisepilot navigation software; and the Qriocity video shop.

While Sony Ericsson’s choice of software is less about customer choice and more about cashing in on marketing deals, we loved the Mini Pro’s keyboard and its screen is just big enough to work with. Add to the mix a decent camera and good performance, and factor in the low SIM-free price, and you have a deserved Budget Buy award winner.