Sony Ericsson Xperia X8 - Review

“The X8 is a user- and palm-friendly smartphone. Although most of its features are mirrored by the older X10 Mini Pro, the X8’s cruddy camera means it scores one less star”

Ideal for multi-taskers

Xperia X8: Android in one hand

When I first held the Sony Ericsson Xperia X8 I was immediately struck by how similar it looks to the older Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini.

Both have roughly the same number of physical buttons, all in about the same place and are roughly similar size smartphones.

In fact their only obvious difference is that the X10 Mini Pro has a slide-out Qwerty keypad and the X8 doesn’t.

To discover the X8’s unique selling points I had to look a little closer.

And when I did I found that the phone has an ever-so-slightly larger touchscreen than the X10 Mini Pro and, although I’m only talking about an extra 0.5in, the increase made surfing webpages and reading emails more enjoyable because of the extra space.

The X8’s larger screen also has a slightly higher resolution, which made for a better viewing experience when looking at videos and pictures.

Its larger screen means, of course, that the X8 is slightly bigger than the X10 Mini Pro.

However, the smartphone can still be operated with a single hand because one of your favourite apps can be pinned to each of the touchscreen’s four corners.

Even though this could be done on the X10 Mini Pro, the feature’s still impressive because it makes the X8 an ideal phone for anyone who regularly finds themselves simultaneously juggling coffee cups, notebooks and keys.

Android in the corners

A simmilar set-up to the X10 Mini Pro

Sony Ericsson has boosted battery life between the two models, giving the X8 a much more respectable circa five hours of talktime. The phone’s music listening time is also just shy of an entire day - pretty impressive.

Speaking of call and music quality, the X8’s handling of both was impressive. I was able to hear my caller’s voice clearly as I walked along London’s bustling Abbey Road.

And, after dragging and dropping music files onto the phone from a PC, my favourite songs sounded rich and colourful through the supplied 3.5mm headphones.

Unfortunately the same can’t be said for the X8’s camera.

While the X10 Mini Pro includes a capable 5Mp camera and flash, Sony Ericsson chose to downgrade the newer X8 by only sticking in a 3.2Mp camera. They also left off the flash.

The result is below average quality cameraphones pictures that fail to capture the vibrancy and colours of their surroundings. My test image (below) is one of the camera’s better shots, but the majority were a poor crop at best.

Light and portable

Picture quality was below average

As an entertainment device, the X8 isn’t very different from the X10 Mini Pro.

Both can pick-up live FM radio broadcasts and stream YouTube videos via their pre-installed apps, though only the X8 can handle mini online videogames - owning to its Java platform support.

Generally the X8 picked up satellite signals quickly when I booted up its Wisepilot turn-by-turn navigation app, which proved just as good as Google Maps at getting me from A to B.

Though the X8’s relatively small screen still made seeing where I was going more difficult than on, say, the Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc.

Thanks to Virgin Media (www.virginmedia.co.uk) for lending us the phone for review.

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