Sony Ericsson introduces us to Shakira, better known as Xperia X8, Sony Ericsson’s latest Android-based smartphone and as its name suggests, it looks exactly like its predecessors. Xperia X8 is for those who found the Xperia X10 mini too small and the X10 too big.
X8 falls exactly right in the middle (even its price); hence, not too big and not too small, but still packed with the features and much more that you grew to love about the Xperia family.
Its built is primarily compact and sturdy with size that fits very well in the hand. X8’s body is made of durable plastic that looks a bit fragile but acts nothing like it.
I like the idea of its plastic being in white matte finish not attracting fingerprints and always appearing clean and spotless. Its curved back makes it comfortable to hold on to considering it appears to be a bit thicker compared to its contemporaries.
X8 carries a convenient and scratch resistant 3” TFT capacitive touchscreen that is excellent and as responsive as it should be. Having a pixel resolution of 320 x 480, you are assured of clear and sharp texts and images on your screen. Viewing under direct sunlight however, may be a bit disappointing as its screen reflects too much light.
The homescreen contains the 4 shortcuts tucked on its 4 corners namely for messages, music player, dialpad and phonebook and just like on the mini X10, you can modify these 4 depending on your liking. Having been blessed with a bigger screen, it is a bit puzzling though that the homescreen is still limited to 1 widget per screen. With ample space, Sony Ericsson could have at least accommodated a widget or two more per screen.
The way I see it, seems a waste of all that given space. Also, if only the homescreen could accommodate two or more widgets, it will surely save the user the time and effort flipping one homescreen to the other.
On a lighter note though, homescreens will never appear too crowded and you could likewise extend the number of homescreens much to your delight depending on the number of widgets you would want to prioritise.
As mentioned above, X8 is an Android based smartphone. Running on 1.6 version, expect the basic android features that you love like the notification bar on top of the screen that tells you information about signal strength, battery, available updates, missed events like calls, messages, etc.
All these revealed by simply sliding down this thin bar. The “task switcher” is likewise present. By simply pressing the home key, you can easily access the 6 most recent applications used. Of course, the Android “Market” is there for all your free shopping application needs.
With Xperia X8, you get the same features as what other smartphones have. Powered by 600 MHz processor, expect prompt responses and seamless multitasking. Connectivity wise, it is a quadband (GSM, GPRS, EDGE, 3G with HSPA) to begin with; very handy to travel with worldwide. It is likewise equipped with Bluetooth v2.1 with A2DP, USB v2 and WiFi. Speaking of being a handy travel companion, I brought it with me to Japan and it worked pretty well. Its music player and FM radio kept me company during the long hours of waiting in the airport and on our bus travels.
Its 3.15 megapixel camera equipped with geo-tagging features and VGA video recording was likewise useful during our city tour and even if I was far away from home, I was still able to post pictures and update my loved ones on my whereabouts on the social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter via X8’s Timescape application.
So, for those who haven’t had the taste of Android, I think Xperia X8 is a good place to start. Its overall features are seamless, efficient and effortless. Indeed, one would appreciate it not just because of its fair price but the experience that goes with it.
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