The newest offering from Sony Ericsson – the XPERIA X8 – looks set to sit comfortably in-between the Xperia X10 and the Xperia X10 Mini Smartphone’s when it is released later on this year however will it really provide something different from the other Sony Ericsson Smartphone’s available on the market at the minute or is it just a midway point between Sony Ericssons other two recent Smartphone’s?
Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X8 is the ‘corner icons’ that a present on the 3 inch HVGA capacitive LCD touch screen which is also scratch resistant. These are the same corner icons that were present on the X10 Mini; not only are they an extremely conveniently way in which to access your most popular apps but they curved icons really look smart on the phones screen. However unlike the X10 Mini, the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X8 only features a 3.2 mega pixel camera – the X10 Mini sports a 5 mega pixel one and the X10 a whopping 8 mega pixels – and it also, sadly, doesn’t have a flash feature. In saying this, the camera’s that are featured on Sony Ericsson mobiles have traditionally been very good so the 3.2 mega pixel offering here should be more than sufficient to snap away if you are not looking for a digital camera replacement or will be expecting to take high quality HD-esque images. Furthermore with the Android operating system you will have the option to have a direct upload to your Facebook account.
In another similarity to the X10 Mini, the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X8 will have a 600 MHz processor. It was this processor that meant the X10 Mini zipped along so quickly so it is a welcome sight to see it here on the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X8 and should mean that everything runs smoothly through the Android 1.6 operating system. It is, however, somewhat of a disappointment in that the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X8 is still running on an old version of Android when many of its rivals are releasing mobiles with the 2.1 version of the popular OS, In saying that, Sony Ericsson have confirmed that the X10, X10 Mini and XPERIA X8 will receive an upgrade to the new 2.1 Android system around the third quarter of this year. Even so, it is a bit frustrating that we will have to wait for the 2.1 update when most Android Smartphone’s are now equipped with the 2.1 version.
Thankfully the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X8 will have 3G compatibility – as well as the customary Wi-Fi, obviously. This should certainly give the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X8 is the edge over the likes of the Samsung Wave 2 and Samsung Wave 2 Pro which both disappointingly did not feature 3G so any Wi-Fi black spots would results in sluggy and slow internet access. With 3G a feature of the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X8, then internet browsing regardless of whether a Wi-Fi is available or not should be smooth and fluid and even the most content heavy of websites shouldn’t prove to be much of a problem. As with any Android based mobile the usual array of Google service are available – maps, bookmarks, Gmail, Google Talk etc… and the browser itself can store bookmarks and offer the user the option of zooming and resizing web pages.
Users of the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X8 may also have the chance to double their phone up as an mp3 player. The phone comes with 2GB of external memory however this can be expanded to 16 GB with a microSD card and as the new Sony Ericsson is following on the trend of most mobiles these days and features a 3.5 mm audio jack then there is no reason why you can’t use the XPERIA X8 as a portable music player.
So what should we make of the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X8? Well it is designed to be a midway point between the inexpensive and light X10 Mini and the powerful high end X10. The one major disappointment with this new model is that it will still run on the old Android 1.6 operating system; even though it is a great OS, the fact that Android 2.1 is now the newest Android based system it is a little surprising that the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X8 will not feature the 2.1 straight from the box. Although Sony Ericsson should offer and update to 2.1 sometime later this year. In overall terms the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X8 is, on paper, a great little phone. The camera, even though it doesn’t have a flash option, is more than capable of snapping some quality shots and has the option to link and directly upload your photographs to Facebook. The screen is also one of the high points of the new Sony Ericsson mobile and with the corner icons it certainly has a user interface and display to rival the best of them. Timescape is another major plus for the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X8 and comes preinstalled. Timescape puts all your social networking statues, updates, emails etc… in tiles which can then be accessed and browsed with ease so that you are always in touch with your email, Facebook and Twitter accounts. Whether or not it will be able to replace the individual social networking apps that most users tend to use remains to be seen but is an interesting, creative and accessible way in which to keep in touch through social networking and the display and user interface of Timescape is enough on its own to convince you to start using it as your primary social networking access route.
The Sony Ericsson XPERIA X8 will be available in the UK later on this year with some great XPERIA X8 deals, and should prove to be a popular mobile to consumers who want something more than the X10 Mini but don’t want to shell out for the X10. You can leave your own thoughts and opinions on the new XPERIA phone on the XPERIA X8 reviews page.
Tags: Google-Android, Sony-Ericsson, Sony-Ericsson-XPERIA-X10, Sony-Ericsson-XPERIA-X8