First of all, I have been really busy at work. Sorry for not updating sooner.
I did promise a proper review of my new phone – Sony Ericsson X10 Mini. 
I’m still enjoying the phone and have finally got used to most of the functions.
‘Tiny’ good looks
Everyone is amazed by the size of my little phone. They just can’t believe how tiny it is. When they find out that it is an touch-screen phone, they become even more impressed. I love the phone, it makes me feel unique. I haven’t seen many people have it, so it certainly makes me feel good having one. To illustrate how special this phone is, I went to a phone store looking for a cover/case. The girl who served me screamed when I pulled this phone out to show her what kinda case I was after. She was very excited because it was the first one she had seen in real life. It was pretty bizarre.
User-friendly?
The X10 Mini comes with a user guide installed. You can easily access it via the main menu. It works exactly the same as you would Google for help online. You can search and the instructions are easy to follow. Apart from this searchable user guide, it comes with video tutorials too. 
It’s pretty handy.
The interface is pretty self-explanatory. If you’re tech savvy, you will have no problem using this phone. It works just like a normal mobile phone except all the buttons are on screen (apart from volume control, camera shutter and on/off/lock buttons where they’re physical buttons).
I remember all my friends were confused trying to customise their ringtone on iPhones because it wasn’t a straight forward procedure. X10 Mini has a very easy to use settings and customisation. In the Settings menu, it has a “Basic Phone Settings” which pretty much covers the most basic settings you can think of such as “Import Contact from SIM”, “Download settings from internet”…etc. These pretty much cover all the technical setup and you can use the phone in just 2 minutes. And of course, any customisation you want to make in “Sound & display”.
Oh, do you hate it when you don’t know which part in the Settings submenus you should go in to make a change and it would take you many tries before getting it right? Well, the X10 Mini’s Settings submenus have small description/explanation under each submenu. It’s so easy to follow. For example “Security & location” is “Positioning, screen unlock, SIM card lock”… oh is that what it’s for? Easy, eh?!
Touch-screen keypad
OK, it doesn’t have a qwerty keypad (the X10 Mini Pro has a slide-out qwerty keypad though). The keypad is average sized but the area where it displays what you’re typing is small because the screen is smaller than a normal mobile phone. More than half of the screen is the keypad and there are 2 more buttons at the top of the screen (“Send” and “Writing Options”). This leaves about 1/4 of the screen shows the message you’re typing. If you’re writing a long message, you can only see up to 4 lines of text (that’s not a lot of words, remember… it’s a very small screen).
It does have the prediction when you write so I don’t have a problem using the keypad. Having said that, I do have problem repeatedly, accidentally tap the same button twice and sometimes 3 times. The screen is so sensitive, which is good but to some extent I wished it was a bit more balanced. 
When I’m trying to write faster, I end up writing the wrong word. It frustrated me a few times actually. 
On the upside, the display is superbly sharp.
Although I heard I can download a 3rd-party qwerty keypad but with the screen so small, I don’t know if it’s even practical. I guess I just have to train myself to be more patient when I type.
Lagging?
The loading times vary depending on how many programs you have running. I seriously don’t have a problem with it, just because of how I use it I guess. I haven’t come across it to be lagging, which is great. Strangely enough, it is starting to be laggy but I think it’s because my memory card is running out of space. So it takes a bit longer to open up “Messages”.
Gmail, music, album, games…etc they all work smoothly. So it is a very smoooooooth phone I guess (unless your memory card space is running low). 
Memory spacious?
Referring to what I said above, the phone came with a 2GB memory card. On many non-android phones, this is more than enough. But seriously, why would you do this to an android phone? Sony is making you buy more accessories I think. Anyway, I totally forgot that I needed a new memory card so right now my phone is a bit delicate because the memory space is running low, so everything kinda works a bit sloweerr. I have ordered a 32GB memory card from eBay, it just hasn’t arrived yet. So a little tips, first thing you do when you get this phone, buy a bigger memory card. 8GB is the minimum requirement.
On a positive note, because the phone relies on memory card 95% of the time, you won’t have an internal memory only issue (such as the iPhone). What I mean is I got a phone that I can upgrade the memory space anytime I want by just purchasing a bigger memory card. So flexible and upgradable.
Software
The applications that come with X10 Mini are pretty much basic what-you-need kinda applications, such as multimedia players, 2 games, GPS, TrackID, Google Maps…etc. If you want a particular application, like Currency Converter, you can download for free/paid at the Market, which you can connect anytime. You can also download free games. I downloaded a game similar to Supermario today. Pretty enjoyable. 
Camera & sound quality
The camera is 5.0megapixel, with auto focus and auto flash. It takes pretty good quality picture. I love the fact that it auto focuses (with Auto setting on). It makes taking photos so much more fun and easy when you just want to quickly snap a picture. Video quality is good too. A very easy to use interface as well. SE hasn’t disappointed me at all on this one. 
The sound quality isn’t bad but not great. The size of the phone has limited its speaker’s size. Obviously the bigger the speaker, the better quality you’re going to get. Many times I can’t hear my phone rings even the volume has been turned up to max. But the ear-speaker is very crisp. I guess it’s a “Pass” kinda thing for me. I don’t use the phone as my music player anyway so I really don’t mind missing a few calls at times. 
Closing note (Overall)
The X10 Mini is a small phone that’s packed with lots of goodies. There are undoubtedly some issues such as the keypads being annoying, screen is too small for web surfing/email/video and default memory card is only 2GB, the X10 Mini is truly unique for its kinds. I don’t recommend this phone to those who have big fingers (sorry guys) because even with small fingers, I find it hard to drag/type sometimes. The best thing about it is its price-tag. I bought it from eBay for only AU$379. I think the price is a fair price to pay for its looks and its goodies. Did I mention that it is very light-weight? Despite its minor flaws, I’m very happy about the X10 Mini and am proud that I have decided to get this phone.
