The symbol error performance of spatially correlated multi-antenna systems is analyzed herein. When the transmitter only has statistical channel information, the use of space-time block codes still permits spatial multiplexing and mitigation of fading. The statistical information can be used for precoding to optimize some quality measure. Herein, we analyze the performance in terms of the symbol error rate (SER). It is shown analytically that spatial correlation at the receiver decreases the performance both without precoding and with an SER minimizing precoder. Without precoding, correlation should also be avoided at the transmitter side, but with an SER minimizing precoder the performance is actually improved by increasing spatial correlation at the transmitter. The structure of the optimized precoder is analyzed and the asymptotic properties at high and low SNRs are characterized and illustrated numerically.