Introduction

Welcome to Xperia X10 Mini Pro (Custom Rom) blog, a blog about Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini Pro Android Phones.Your Sony Ericsson Eclair (2.1) must have gone stale by now; it’s time to taste some fresh Froyo(2.2), Gingerbread(2.3) and IceCreamSandwich(4.0). After a long research over the internet and testing various roms on my handset, I'll be more than happy to provide the roms which are quite better than your Stock roms..!!

Fact :(

Sony Ericsson has confirmed to Android Community 06 January 2011 morning that the XPERIA X10, X10 mini and X10 mini pro will see no further Android OS updates beyond Android 2.1 Eclair. The news is likely to come as a significant disappointment to early-adopters of Sony Ericsson’s Android range.

However, Sony Ericsson insists that there will be future enhancements to the X10, X10 mini and X10 mini pro, for instance a multitouch update for the X10 in Q1 2011, as the company refines the experience of the handsets moving forward. Still, if you want Froyo, Gingerbread or anything else, it looks like unofficial ROMs are the only way to get them.

A Reply From Sony Ericsson 

“We believe that the current Xperia range on Android 2.1 coupled with Sony Ericsson’s proprietary upgrades and unique hardware delivers a user experience that is on par with, and in many cases better than, a vanilla installation of Android 2.2. We’re planning another upgrade to bring new features (such as for example multi-touch for Xperia X10) to the current family of Xperia™ smartphones in Q1 2011. Our priority right now is to keep enhancing the user experience of the existing products through coming updates and to deliver a fantastic range of smartphones in 2011 that are all on the latest possible version of Android – that is a target we are determined to hit.”
But Sadly no further updates on android version... :(

Commercial Viability

So SE found themselves in a bit of a pickle, it took them months and months to update the handsets to version 2.1 of Android (also know as Eclair) by which time version 2.3 was already out (Gingerbread).  Initially they announced that the X10 and X8 handsets would not be updated any further although they did release a minor update to enable ANT+ for the minis and X8.  Due to the larger user base they finally gave in to pressure and updated the X10 to Gingerbread but not the rest of the range; it simply isn’t commercially viable.

Custom Firmware

For many users the stock 2.1 firmware may be enough, and quite possibly don’t even realise that they’ve been short changed by Sony Ericsson, but with a growing number of apps that are not available and the slower performance of 2.1 in comparison to 2.2 and 2.3 there are a great many X10 mini, mini pro and X8 owners who expected more from Sony Ericsson and their handset.

Thank to Google

One of the greatest things, if not the greatest, about Android is that it is Open Source.  Without going into detail what this means for us is that Google are very open with the operating system, unlike Apple’s iOS or Windows Phone Android is not proprietary it is developed by the Open Handset Alliance which is led by Google.
Fortunately as a result, combined with a technique called ‘rooting’, there is a very active development scene for unofficial or modified firmware for many android handsets including those of interest to this blog.  Custom firmware, aftermarket firmware and custom ROMs are all different names for alternative operating system software to the official Sony Ericsson software, personally I feel that ROM is a little bit of a misnomer but is probably the most commonly used term.