The Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 mini. Phew! The large name is clearly the largest thing about the compact and cute Android smartphone. When everyone is touting large pocket-filling 3.5-in screens, heck the mini’s own sibling the X10 has a 4-in screen, the X10 mini is a fresh take on the size doesn’t matter argument — it’s got a 2.55-in screen!

That’s a smaller footprint than a credit card, and while it won’t really slip into your wallet with the same ease due to its 16mm thickness, it’s just the right thickness to fit into our cupped hands. The plastic finish doesn’t catch fingerprints that easily, and you get a choice of interchangeable back panels (Black and Silver, or Red and White) to suit your mood.

But don’t let the size fool you for a minute. The 2.55-in display is of the capacitive type, which means screen sensitivity is excellent and the touchscreen experience is just great. The pity is that Android doesn’t look as nice on the 320 x 240 pixels display as it does on the much larger phones but Sony Ericsson have done a bang-up job of customising the interface to make it rather usable.

So you get large thumb-able shortcuts at the four corners of the homescreen to open up messages, music player, phonebook and dial pad/call log by default. Android’s excellent notification bar on the top of the screen is retained, and sliding it down reveals all your recent notifications like missed calls, new mail etc. Of course, this is not a phone I’d recommend to a heavy texter — you are limited to a standard multi-tap keypad like any candy bar phone, though it does have T9 auto-completion.

Performance wise, the X10 mini is a snappy little phone and lots of fun, which is half the point of using such a device. The camera is average, and you get built-in GPS. You get to use most of the Android apps available in the MarketPlace, and Sony Ericsson bundles the nifty Timescape application that brings all your communications with any contact across SMS, email, calls, Facebook and Twitter all into one screen.

It runs Android 1.6, which is due to be upgraded to version 2.1 later this year. And it’s easy on the pocket too (not just in size!), which just shows you that sensible component choices — a mid-range processor, a capable but not over-the-top screen resolution — can deliver a capable phone on a budget. I’m so very impressed how most of the smartphone capabilities we use in much bigger devices — all the radios, storage etc. — have been crammed into this baby. So sure, there are compromises in the X10 mini that won’t make it the perfect smartphone, but then again, it’s cute enough to get away with it.

• Rating: 8/10
• Price: Rs 16, 745 (MRP)
• URL: http://www.sonyericsson.com/cws/products/
mobilephones/overview/xperiax10mini?cc=in&lc=en

A clear picture

Think your photo collection is big? Try mine out for size — at last count, I was pushing 90GB! Now, if you’re on a Mac, you could use the iPhoto (part of the free iLife suite) to make sense of this digital chaos, or you could invest in pro-grade photo management/processing software like Aperture 3.

Apart from strong image-adjustment and library management tools, Aperture 3 adds some nice features. For example, the Faces and Places features parse your images and recognise who is in them and where

they were taken. I quite liked the new Brushes feature, which allows you to make detailed digital adjustments without having to attend Photoshop School and earn your degree first! Most image parameters can be adjusted in single clicks, and it comes with several adjustment presets out-of-the-box to change the way your photos look.

Once you’ve completed the task of organising photos, Aperture 3 uploads directly to Facebook and Flickr, and you can also make dramatic slideshows that pull your photos, HD video and music into professionally designed themes. If the price seems a bit much, you can give Aperture 3 a whirl with a free 30-day trial version and decide. Just keep in mind you will need the Snow Leopard OS and a Mac with a Core 2 Duo processor to make the best of Aperture.

• Rating: 8/10
• Price: Rs 11,000, upgrade pricing of Rs 5,700
• URL: http://www.apple.com/in/aperture/ http://www.apple.com/in/aperture/

Smart thinking

ThinkPad is like a Blackberry. It may not be the best looking or specced device, but few go back to any other brand once they’re hooked. So while Lenovo has had netbook success by way of the IdeaPad S10 series, the ThinkPad X100e really is the ultraportable netbook that does justice to the ThinkPad brand.

The no-nonsense made-for-business design decisions are clear — you get an excellent spill-proof keyboard, solid build quality and a fingerprint-friendly matte finish. The 11.6-in screen is non-glossy, which means that while it isn’t the best for multimedia playback, it rocks when you’re using it for viewing text over extended durations. Despite the size, they’ve managed to fit in a ThinkPad-style TrackPoint and a multi-touch touchpad. The processor — a low-power AMD Athlon Neo 1.6GHz – is better than the standard Atom processors found in most netbooks, but only just. It’s still not meant for video processing and the like.

Possibly the only chink in its armour is its battery life, which lasted anywhere between 4-4.5 hours, and I’d recommend carrying a spare if you plan to travel a lot with this. That said, the matte screen, excellent keyboard and not-built-to-a-cost design earns it a solid recommendation for a capable business ultraportable, and the additional premium it commands over other netbooks is justified.

• Rating: 9/10
• Price: starts at Rs 30,475 (with 2GB 667MHz RAM, 320GB hard disk)
• URL: http://www.lenovo.com/in/en/