Sony Ericsson Xperia X8 Preview
Sony Ericsson Xperia X8 Preview
Sony Ericsson has rolled out quite a few interesting smartphones in their Android lineup, ranging from their flagship Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 to the budget Xperia X10 Mini. The next phone in the Xperia series which runs on Android is the Xperia X8. It is positioned between the Xperia X10 and the Xperia X10 Mini in terms of size, and will be priced lower than both.
It is one of the few budget smartphones running Android and offers almost all the basic features you would expect.
Design (3 out of 5)
The Xperia X8 is much smaller than the Xperia X10 in terms of dimensions, mainly because it sports a smaller 3 inch display compared to the 4 inch display of the Xperia X10. It has dimensions of 99 x 54 x 15 mm and weighs around 104 gms. The build quality is solid and the phone feels sturdy. Below the display, there are three keys - Menu, Home and Back. The right side sports the volume rocker and the camera key. The top of the phone has the power key, the audio jack and the microUSB port. The back of the phone sports the 3.15 MP camera, the battery compartment and a microSD slot beneath the battery.
It has a smaller display than the Xperia X10; it comes with a 3.0 inch TFT capacitive touchscreen display with a resolution of 320 x 480 pixels and supports 16 M colors. The standard resolution ensures that most Android apps will work on it, unlike in the case of the Xperia X10 Mini.
User Interface (2 out of 5)
Being a budget phone, it has the bare minimum you can expect in Android phones in terms of hardware. It runs Android 1.6 Donut with a custom Sony Ericsson UI. It will probably get an upgrade to Android 2.1 Eclair. It has a 600 MHz ARM processor, presumably 128 MB RAM, 128 MB internal memory and comes with a 2 GB microSD card with support for up to 32 GB.
Multimedia (2 out of 5)
The Sony Ericsson Xperia X8 comes with a 3.15 MP camera which can take shots at a resolution of 2048 x 1536 pixels and capture VGA video at 30 FPS. The image capture quality isn’t much to speak of, it can be used only for casual shots. It has support for geotagging. It supports audio and video playback just like other Android phones. It has the same music player app as the Xperia X10 Mini.
Connectivity (3 out of 5)
It comes equipped with all the usual suspects - GPRS, EDGE, 3G HSDPA, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g, Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP and microUSB connectivity. In the extras, it also has a stereo FM radio with RDS and a GPS transceiver with A-GPS support.
It is powered by a standard Li-ion battery at 1200 mAh.
The Verdict (3 out of 5)
All in all, it seems like a promising option for the budget Android phone buyers. It should compete with the Samsung Spica i5700 and the HTC Wildfire.
