Last time we looked at the physical aspects of the tiny Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 mini – you can catch up in A Closer Look At The Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini Part One – and this time we’ll take a look at some of the functions of the phone.

As we discovered in the previous article this phone runs Android version 1.6 so it benefits from some of the advantages of the Android operating system – most notably of which is access to the Android Market Store for adding applications.

As the screen is small, each main screen panel can hold just one Widget application, some may find it a problem, but I found it quite useful – it feels broadly similar to the excellent webOS in this particular aspect.

The hot touch areas in each corner of the phone are also useful as they can be customised by holding the icon, on the icon tray, you want for a few seconds then dragging it into the appropriate corner. It’s worth mentioning the touch screen here as it’s a capacitive touch screen so you really feel the responsiveness when sliding things around with your finger.

In the image you can see the X10 mini in the middle, with a Nokia N95 8GB on the left and the Motorola Milestone on the right – this should give you some idea of the size of the phone.

Standard applications included on the phone are Browser (but bear in mind the size of the screen if web surfing is important to you!), Camera, Album, E-mail, Settings, Market, Alarm, Calendar, User Guide, Notes, FM Radio, Timescape, Facebook, PlayNow, Video, YouTube. Maps, Gmail, Google Talk, Calculator, Timer, Stopwatch, Sync, Geotags, TrackID, NeoReader, User Support, RoadSync, Voice Search, and Wisepilot. With the addition of the Android Marketplace you can extend the applications with all sorts of productivity tools, games, utilities, and social networking tools.

Timescape is an application Sony Ericsson have put a lot of work into, it brings together the various communication methods and services such as text messages, call information, email, tweets, and Facebook messages into one place so you can more easily keep track of what’s going on and when.

Music playing is easy and the sound through the speakers is reasonable given the size of the phone (though you’ll probably be wearing the headphones most of the time – especially if you want to take advantage of the FM Radio).

Taking photos is a doddle, just select your flash options, and and image options and off you go. Likewise, video is just as simple – check out the video clip below. Once you have completed your video clip (.3GP) you can email it to someone, or uploaded it straight onto YouTube – if you have a suitable connection.