T-Mobile Pulse Mini: Tiny budget Android phone to get your pulse racing?

We've noticed a trend for new phones here at Mobile World Congress: take a phone, make it smaller, stick the word 'Mini' on the end, and Robert's a relative. T-Mobile is at it with the Pulse Mini, a pint-sized version of the T-Mobile Pulse.

The Pulse was the first pay as you go Android phone. Like its bigger brother, the Mini is made by Huawei for T-Mobile. It's also at the budget end of the Android scale, elbowing its way on to shelves next to the HTC Tattoo and the forthcoming Acer beTouch E110. Like the E110, the Pulse Mini lacks Wi-Fi, but does offer HSDPA for 3G Web browsing.

The Pulse Mini runs Android 2.1. We gave it a good stroking, poking and fingering, but it didn't get our heart racing. That's probably because this is a display unit, so we won't give it a hard time.

Although the 71mm (2.8-inch) touchscreen is a smidge bigger than the Sony Ericsson Experia X10 Mini's 64mm (2.5 inches), it felt more cramped than its competitor. It's probably because of the software not being up to final standards, or possibly because its screen is resistive, but we frequently tapped the wrong button by accident. Screen real estate is eaten by the large centre button and the touch-sensitive bezel's home, menu and back buttons. Fortunately for the ham-fingered among us, the Pulse Mini comes with a stylus.

The phone will arrive in April, costing an impressively low £100 on pay as you go. Click through our pictures to take the pulse of the T-Mobile Pulse Mini.