Out of the box, the Xperia X8 is one of the smallest android handsets particularly alongside the complement of larger touch screen phones. The X8 feels light in the hand and weighs in at 104.0g. The diminutive size of the X8 initially makes you think that it must house a hidden keyboard, but this is not the case. At times, the phone can feel too small with its dimensions of 99.0 x 54.0 x 15.0 mm / 3.9 x 2.1 x 0.6 inches and a screen 320 x 480 pixels (HVGA). However, the phone functions admirably well with its 3″ capacitive touch screen. The screen clarity is easy on the eye and there are no problems with reading or viewing the icons or labels. I note that with the new update the screen clarity is improved.
Box Contents
The X8 boxed contents include a screen protector, mains charger, usb connector, additional battery cover (in an alternate colour) and getting started instructions. The X8 arrived pre-packed with a 2g micro sdhc. The phone supports micro sdhc up to 16gb.
User Interface (UI) and Personalisation
The X8 is a 3”capacitive touch screen handset and runs the Android operating system. Android version 2.1 is steadily being rolled out for the X8. Unfortunately at this moment, the update is only available for window users and not users of the Mac operating system.
The standby screen has four icons, one on each corner of the phone, top-left, top-right, bottom-left and bottom-right. These give you instant access to; messages, music, phone-dialer and contacts. You can choose your choice of widgets to suit your profile, which are accessed by swiping to the right. Swiping up gives you access to the menu, which additionally allows you to scroll to view additional menu applications and apps that you have added. Swiping to the left from the home screen gives you information on software updates and videos for your phone. A nice added touch is that a short press of the on/off button locks the phone this is a nice intuitive measure.
Key Features & Applications
The X8 comes prepared for the social life with Facebook, Google Talk, YouTube and Google Mail pre-installed.
Messaging & Email
The set up of email was incredibly easy. The X8 only asked for the email address and password. No other settings were required or asked for. The help instructions and hints are clear and easy to follow. Email headers consist of the senders name, subject and the first line of the email. At the bottom of the email are short cut icons to reply, forward and delete. Clicking on a link in an email instantly opens the browser. I state instantly because it was incredibly fast.
You will be happy to know that ‘delivery report’ exists in messaging. This has been notably missing from other phones much to users annoyance.
Camera, Gallery & Video
The X8 comes with a decent 3.2 megapixel camera. Image upload is available via an almost endless options list including; bluetooth, dropbox, email, evernote, facebook, google mail, picasa, pixelpipe, roadsync, twitter, whatsapp and sky news report. You can also use an image for a contact or wallpaper.
Music & Radio
FM Radio is available alongside RDS. The music quality is superb. It is loud and the clarity is clear. Image art is available as is access to find out more about a particular artist. You can search music alphabetically and create new playlists to suit your needs. In addition, you can shuffle your music tracks.
Connectivity & Browser
I was able to connect with my wifi router for broadband service and my normal gprs Internet service and pages loaded quickly and efficiently in the browser. Synchronizing email transferred calendar, contacts, and email smoothly with no faults or errors.
Android ‘Market’
An icon exists for the android ‘market’ which takes you directly to the store. The only way to describe this is in two words ‘love’ and ‘passion’. I love the ‘market place’, and I have a ‘passion’ for apps, both of which were fulfilled. I can honestly say, that I managed to find nearly all the apps that I use on my present phone. I will quickly list those I managed to download, all of which were free of charge. So my quick favourites are: Facebook, Tower Bloxx, uefa.com, Twitter, dictionary.com, shazam, yell.com, reader, sky news, skype, opera mini, kindle, imdb, bbc news, yellow pages, whatsapp, paypal, opera mobile, speed test, last.fm, foursquare, msn talk, pixelpipe, adobe reader, dropbox, documents to go, evernote, classic fm, eurosport, metoffice weather, bbc news, London tfl map, qik. Unfortunately, in my eagerness, I failed to realize that apps are stored on the phone and not the memory card. So, when I received the message that my phone memory was full, I was incredibly disappointed. But, my hopes are that the next firmware will allow you to install apps directly on the memory card.
Last Thoughts
Last thoughts. The X8 is my first experience with an Android handset and I am suitably impressed. I would recommend it to anyone that wants to investigate an Android phone further or is looking to change to a new operating system and is intimidated by or not interested in the large screen Android family already in existence.
It would have been great to have an unlimited amount of time to explore the X8 and the android operating system, but sadly as with all great things in life there is never enough time!
Finally, do enjoy the images and keep an eye out for the Sony Ericsson LiveView review coming very soon.