Sony Ericsson XPERIA X8

Editor's Review of the XPERIA X8

The Sony Ericsson XPERIA X8 is a handset aimed at the masses, hoping to please with its compact size and social networking focus. For a mid-range smartphone, it doesn't disappoint, and it proves itself worthy of a place next to its X10 siblings.

Design

We were shocked to discover how much the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X8 looked like its sibling, the X10 Mini. It's a tiny handset compared to most mid-range Android smartphones, weighing in at just 104g. Unlike the X10 Mini however, you are treated to a larger 3 inch LCD touchscreen display, although viewing the screen can prove quite difficult in direct sunlight or at particular angles.

The plastic casing of the XPERIA X8 admittedly does looks quite cheap, but we couldn't have asked for more from a mid-range handset. It still manages to look elegant, and sits perfectly in the palm of your hand. The three Xperia keys come in handy too, providing you with one touch access for home, menu and back. Volume keys and a dedicated camera button are also provided.

OS and Interface

Like their similar design, the XPERIA X8 also comes equipped with the same customized Android UI as the X10 Mini, which looks much better on its larger display. However, with multiple homescreens provided, we disliked the fact that you can only add one widget to each page, which seems almost pointless. The interface also comes with 4 customizable corners, which you can change to your favourite apps for instant access. The screen however, lacks multitouch support, which can prove quite frustrating.

Sony Ericsson's TimeScape comes pre-installed on the XPERIA X8, another feature we struggled to get our heads around. TimeScape provides you with live feeds from Facebook and Twitter, but on receiving a notification, you are redirected to the website in your browser. It's easier to download Facebook and Twitter apps from the Android market, and give TimeScape a miss.

With Android 1.6 on-board, you also have instant access to Google apps such as Maps, Search and Gmail.

Multimedia and Storage

Despite being marketed as an entertainment phone, we were pretty disapointed with the lackluster camera of the X8, which lacks flash or autofocus. It snaps photos and video worthy of Facebook, but I won't be popping them in the family album.

A basic music and video player are also provided which get the job done, but we had much more fun downloading apps from the Android store which managed to keep us entertained for hours, with the screens responsivity providing very impressive.

The handset also comes equipped with 128MB of internal memory, which can be expanded up to a plentiful 16GB. You get a 2GB microSD card in the box too, which is always a bonus.

Everything Else

With HSDPA and WiFi connections on-board, web-browsing is in no way a chore on this handset. However, we would recomment downloading Skyfire or Opera Mini 5, as the built-in web browser is hard to navigate, and often slow to load.

Conclusion

Although we like a moan, we did quite like the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X8. It may lack multitouch support and a decent camera, but its other features excede what we would expect from a mid-range smartphone.