Nowadays a lower priced phone does not mean you have to compromise too much in terms of the hardware you are getting for your money. Internally these two handset are both impressive. The Xperia Mini features a powerful 1Ghz processor together with 512MB of RAM. Add to this an Adreno 205 graphics processing unit and you have a chipset that ensures that this little phone operates at quite a speed. The HTC Wildfire S cannot quite live up to the high early standards laid down by Sony. The phone sports a 600Mhz processor and matches the Xperia Mini for RAM making it no slouch but also not in the same league as the Xperia for speed. A feature that more and more consumers are utilising on their mobile handset is the camera. This increase in popularity is partly do to the improved quality on modern camera resulting in crystal clear images rather than the dull and blurred shots we expected a few years ago. Add to this the ability to capture video and the modern phone really is a truly multimedia device. Sony Ericsson also come out on top in this department thanks to a combination of a great 5 mega pixel camera as well as HD video capture. The Wildfire S matches this in the terms of photographs but unfortunately its VGA video capture is no rival for HD.
Things are a little bit more evenly matched when we take a look at the screens on the two phones. The Sony Ericsson Xpera Mini and the HTC Wildfire S both offer the same resolution displays at 320 x 480 but the Sony screen is slightly smaller at just 3 inches resulting in a slightly sharper image. Another contributing factor to this extra clarity is the incorporation of Sonys "Bravia Mobile" engine which boosts the picture quality. At 3.2 inches the HTC screen is only slightly larger and in fairness does offer a great image for a budget phone but the extra technology on the Xperia Mini means that once again it comes out on top. Where HTC may claw back some ground is when it comes to the physical design of the phone. Size will not be a problem with either model as they both weigh in at roughly 100 grammes and are incredibly compact. The Wildfire S is just like a mini version of the brands more premium offerings in that it feels well made and is very pleasing on the eye. This is in contrast to the Xperia Mini which although is not a bad looking model does suffer slightly from the over use of plastic which does make the handset feel a little on the cheap side.
The Sony Ericsson Xperia Mini and the Wildfire S from HTC go a long way to prove you do not need to spend a fortune to get a high quality smartphone. Both of these models impress but overall the Xperia edges it thanks to a great screen and brilliant multimedia features.
