I’m a BlackBerry fanboy, and likely will remain that way until the day I die. Ever since I picked up my first one, (an 8703e) I haven’t owned much of anything else, and my experience with Android is next to nil. Giving the Xperia Pro a go was an interesting experience for me, and I have run through a gamut of opinions over the two weeks I have spent with the device.

Initial Impressions

The device looked very sleek out of the box, and was surprisingly light for its thickness. I took an immediate dislike to the design; it felt completely wrong in my hands, with the contoured “saddle” back and slickness of the casing feeling wrong in my hands. However, over a few days I found that to be more a matter of “BlackBerry hands” than anything else, and given some time to adjust I found myself enjoying the form factor more and becoming comfortable with it. The device feels “tight” and well designed overall, with no flimsy feeling parts. The battery door is actually flush with the rest of the device, providing a seamless look and feel that I can appreciate. (I am a humble man, and will freely admit that the battery door had me stumped for a bit, actually resorting to the manual to figure out how the hell to open it.)

Usage and Hardware

The screen on the Xperia Pro may not be the highest resolution on the market, but it certainly does its job well, rendering media and text crisply and cleanly. The front of the device, dominated by the aforementioned screen, also features three hard keys, for “Back”, “Home” and “Menu” respectively, from left to right. The buttons themselves are positioned well out of the way of the touchscreen, yet easily accessible for one-handed use, and are solid with no wobble or play. The casing is made of black plastic, and everything fits together well, with no overhanging lips or flanges, giving the impression of one solid piece.

The physical keyboard slides out in a landscape orientation, comprising the bottom half of the device. The sliding action feels a little stiff, and can be a little annoying given the slick finish on the rest of the device, which tended to cause me to grip it just a bit harder for purchase. I loathe the physical keyboard, and have from the word go with this device. Unfortunately, this opinion did not change with time. The buttons have an almost cloth-like feel and the tactile sensation of actually typing on the keys just didn’t feel right to me. I also consistently ran into an issue when I typed a key on the top row, due to the “overlap” style of the slide out keyboard I found my fingers would run up against the edge.

The speakers on the Xperia Pro blew me away, providing excellent sound quality at an extremely high volume (for a mobile device). I was pleasantly surprised by just how loud they went, allowing me to use Slacker radio while driving and not missing a beat.

I will freely admit that one of the drawbacks to being a BlackBerry owner has traditionally been the camera. The camera on the Xperia Pro did not disappoint, providing excellent, crisp photos in a variety of conditions. One note however, is that I found the placement of the “camera” button on the side of the device to be inelegant. Frequently when holding the device in landscape and pushing that button, my thumbs would push up the slider causing me to lose grip.

I used the Xperia Pro extensively during the review as an actual phone, abnormal as that may be for my habits. Call quality was excellent, and I had no issues hearing or being heard while on a call. Quite frankly, it blew away the cheap BlackBerry 8530 I use for work, and I wouldn’t hesitate to substitute it if given an opportunity.

Software

This was my first real experience with the Android operating system, and while I still feel that I prefer BlackBerry for many things, I do have to give a lot of credit. The OS was quick and responsive, with no lag encountered. The sheer amount of integrated services provided by Google really do make for an exceptionally pleasant user experience, and the applications can be noticeably different from their BlackBerry counterparts. The Kindle app, for example, while buggy, slow, and frustrating on BlackBerry, is flawless on Android. Multitasking wasn’t the same for me, as I am used to being able to flip between my running applications quickly and easily, so I’m not yet convinced that I could run Android as a primary, but certainly it remains a solid backup for me.I am aware of the “open” argument frequently put forth by Android supporters, and very much want to delve further into that experience, but hey, it’s a review unit. I can’t exactly just decide to root the device and load whatever custom ROM I feel like, and it’s hardly fair to review a device from a manufacturer when you modify it to something they didn’t originally intend.

Overall

My bias toward BlackBerry may have kept me from loving this device, but I certainly will walk away with a healthy respect for it. It did everything I asked of it well, and was a solidly built piece of technology. I could happily do away with the physical keyboard, and in fact spent the majority of my time with the device using nothing but the touchscreen and physical keys on the face of the device. It convinced me that Android devices might be worth a better look, no small achievement in itself. I would recommend it based on its ease of use with one hand, solid build quality, and its media capabilities. It lost major points with me on the physical keyboard and the camera button placement, as minor as that may seem to some, so I’d be forced to hedge if someone asked me for a buy recommendation. A “middle of the pack” device, it could do better, but it does many things very well.