Sony Xperia Miro

Sony's spawned another mid-range Android mobile, this one called the Xperia Miro. It comes with an almost cutting-edge version of Google's operating system and a nifty design.

I've been hands-on with the Miro ahead of its launch in early September and my first impressions are spelled out below. The Miro is set to cost somewhere between £130 and £150 if you buy it on pay as you go.

Design

There's quite a lot to like about the Miro's style. While Sony has been up and down recently on the design front, this small smart phone impresses with a sleek finish and a curved chin at the bottom. That stubby section might not serve any practical purpose but at least it looks unique.

The Miro's curvy bottom is pleasant to grope.

Above the Xperia logo is a glowing light that's another interesting design touch. Once more, its practical impact is limited but it's good to see a mid-range mobile that's at least a little style conscious.

At 9.9mm thick, I've seen slimmer mobiles but I wouldn't go so far as to call the Miro chunky. It only weighs 110g so it's light enough to effortlessly lug around.

The display measures 3.5 inches on the diagonal but like the Xperia Go and Xperia Tipo, the resolution isn't very impressive. This panel packs just 320x480 pixels, which means the Miro won't excel at things like web browsing and high-res video. You may find icons and text look just a little blurry.

At just 320x480 pixels, you'll struggle to view web pages comfortably.

Hardware

The chip inside the handset is clocked at only 800MHz, which isn't very fast. I thought moving through the phone's interface felt slick enough but don't expect the Miro to handle graphically punishing games, for example. We'll be putting its performance to the test in the full review, so keep your eyes peeled for that.

Around the back of the Miro is a 5-megapixel camera. That's not a very high resolution but fingers crossed this snapper proves capable of capturing half-decent images and video.

There's just 2.9GB of storage on the Miro, although you can extend that by up to 32GB using a microSD card.

We'll put the 5-megapixel camera through its paces in our full review.

Software

The Miro is powered by Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, which isn't the very latest edition of Google's OS, but it's still close to the cutting edge. Indeed, it makes me wonder why the broadly similar Xperia Go is running on the older Android 2.3 Gingerbread.

Android gets you access to the Google Play store, through which you can download tonnes of apps to extend your phone's usefulness. Sony has put its own futuristic skin on top of Android and expect a few Sony-specific apps to come pre-installed.

Outlook

If you're in the market for mind-blowing performance then I suspect you'll need to keep looking, but the Miro makes a good first impression with an interesting design. Here's hoping the low-resolution screen doesn't let this smart phone down. We'll have a full review as soon as possible, so stay tuned.