One device that definitely falls into this category is the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X8. Here is a quick look at this brilliant device.

Well Crafted Mobile

Sony Ericsson only wants to provide the best for their consumers. Certainly, there were problems that they needed to overcome especially when it came to comfort. For example, some users find the X10 a bit too big while the mini series was too small for most.

The Sony Ericsson XPERIA X8 seems to be the answer to that dilemma. It measures 99 x 54 x 15 mm and weighs only 104 g. No wonder it’s a perfect fit for all! The Sony Ericsson XPERIA X8 smartphone offers a nice wide touch screen that measures 3 inches with a resolution of 320 x 480 pixels. What makes the display even better is its compatibility with 16 million vibrant colours.

Connectivity

One of the important factors a consumer looks into before purchasing a mobile is the connectivity it offers. Thanks to the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X8, there is no reason to be outdated at all. It offers class 10 GPRS and EDGE connectivity. That simply means that this mobile is very much appropriate for web browsing and for social networking purposes.

It is also compatible with WIFI, therefore you will be able to access the internet while in a hotspot area. File sharing is made easier as well with the help of Bluetooth and USB functionality.

Of course, one might be asking, what is so special about the Sony Ericsson X10 Mini smart phone?

This device is the second Android handset that was created by Sony Ericsson. The phone follows most of the aesthetic signatures of the original XPERIA X10, but with much lower tech specs. The result is a mini-sized smart phone with all the necessary features that one would expect plus a few extras.

But do not let the Mini in the name fool you, this device is pretty much closer to a midsized handset than a competitor for Palm’s Pixi. The X10 Mini comes with a 2.6 inch 240 x 320 resolution TFT capacitive touch screen display, a 5 mega pixel camera and a Qualcomm MSM7227 600 MHz CPU. In short, this handset is pretty packed when it comes to the hardware specs and capabilities.

The style is undoubtedly Sony too. The Japanese company is well known for their extremely well made electronic devices and the products for Sony Ericsson are no exception. The XPERIA series closely follows Sony’s design aesthetics (over Ericsson’s which is a great thing), from the classic shiny black finish, the metallic buttons under the screen to the solid feel of the entire device, everything about the X10 Mini feels classy and sophisticated. This handset is only running the older Android 1.6 Donut, but it also uses a mini version of the Timescape user interface that makes the XPERIA X10 successful.

According to the latest reports, the company has managed to make a considerable profit this second quarter of 2010. When compared to the performance of SE last year, a 31 million Euro profit margin is significantly better than being in the red with over 200 million reasons to give up.

The big secret, as many believe, is with the new handsets that have been designed for the next generation of smart phone users. No longer is the smart phone market crowd composed of niche groups. The smart phone industry has come to include many in the general user base, this means that Sony’s multimedia based approach and focus on social networking is really paying off.

Take the XPERIA X10; the new Os comes with the Timescape and Mediascape user interfaces, providing users with plenty of ways to keep in touch with friends and family. It does not even matter much that the next Android update for SE’s devices are taking longer than expected. While other phones will be getting the newer 2.2 Android OS, the XPERIA series will have to settle for version 2.1 this coming September.

Hopefully, all the Android devices under Sony Ericsson are made compatible with the upcoming 3.0 Gingerbread launch that was supposed to come out by the end of the year.

Aside from this lineup of Android handsets (the X10, X10 Mini, X10 Mini Pro and X8), Sony Ericsson still has a couple of interesting devices that users might be interested in. The Vivaz and Vivaz Pro are Symbian smart phones that focus heavily on HD video recording. As with the Sony Ericsson X10 Mini Pro, the Vivaz Pro also comes with a slide out QWERTY keyboard.

The initial rumors about the OS were caused by the fact that the device looked a lot like the X10 Mini and X10 Mini Pro Android handsets from the same mobile phone maker. Recent updates from Sony Ericsson reveals further details about this mobile phone and its official name, the Sony Ericsson Yendo.

While we are not the only people who prefer the TeaCake name over Yendo, there are still plenty of things to be praised about with regards to this handset. The device sports a simple 2.6 inch TFT touch screen display with a resolution of 240 x 320 pixels. Being the first full touch Walkman mobile phone to be released, this is a pretty nice sized screen that balances overall resolution with size. As stated before, the handset looks a lot like the X10 Mini and that includes having a very compact size.

The entire handset is reported to weigh in at a very light 81 grams –that is almost half of a full sized smart phone with a physical slide out QWERTY keyboard, and this makes the Yendo the perfect device to carry around when you are doing activities like exercising where having a lightweight music player is much needed. The 2 mega pixel camera takes images at 1600 x 1200 pixels –perfect for those quick uploads to social networking sites.

Sony Ericson has also confirmed that the device would be 2G only, with support EDGE and GPRS networks.

Sadly, this still leaves the Sony Ericsson smart phones at the very end of the Android update list. If the Google I/O conference is to be used as a reference, the end of the third quarter would be the same time that Google would be finalizing the Android 3.0 Gingerbread operating system. SE has to cooperate better with Google in order to bring a more updated version of the open source mobile platform to their mobile phones.

It has often been stated by buyers that SE’s devices are more expensive than other mobile phones with similar specifications, and with the XPERIA X10’s operating system well behind that of the HTC Desire and the Samsung Galaxy S, buyers would be inclined to get the device with a more updated Android OS.

In fact, most Android devices are now awaiting the 2.2 Froyo update, and so far there is still no confirmation that this version of the operating system would be coming any time soon for SE Android smart phones.

In any case, the models affected by this announcement includes the XPERIA X10, the X10 Mini and the X10 Mini Pro smart phones. The recently confirmed XPERIA X8 (previously the XPERIA Shakira), is set to be released at the same time that the patch for the Android 2.1 becomes available for other systems as the X8 will be pre-installed with the newer Android OS.

Sony Ericsson has also confirmed that they will soon be releasing the Cedar 2G handset (the newest Greenheart device) and the Yendo which uses the ever impressive Walkman technology. This new Walkman handset is the first full touch device of its kind to be made by the manufacturer.

Just a while back, a few images of the TeaCake’s user interface have been revealed and from the looks of it, the handset might not be running the Android OS at all. The screens show a custom user interface from Sony Ericsson which uses the four screen corners –not unlike the X10 Mini, but with no traces of the Android OS. While it is hard to make any confirmations based on the existing screens –the possibility of the Android on this handset has been reset from certain to probable.

It is a shame if this handset turns out to be a regular mobile phone instead of an Android device. The Walkman technology has not been employed in Sony’s smart phones and bringing it to the Android OS would have been a very exciting move for the mobile phone manufacturer. Of course, Google’s many impressive tools and features for their mobile platform would also make the handset a very versatile device to have.

In any case, it seems that for now, the only Android devices in the upcoming list from Sony Ericsson is the X10 Mini, the XPERIA Shakira and as rumored, the 5.5 inch touch screen handset device. For those who have not seen the leaks, the Shakira is a medium sized Android handset (since the X10 is large and the X10 Mini is small) while the 5.5 inch device is a tablet hybrid with a slide out QWERTY keyboard.

But while the prestige may have been lost, Sony is still on top of music playback technology and this is why it is exciting to know that the upcoming Sony Ericsson W150 TeaCake smart phone will be bringing together the Walkman name and the Google Android operating system.

Google’s open source Android mobile platform needs little in the way of introductions. The OS is considered to be one of the best available in the market –competing directly with Apple’s iPhone OS. Thanks to the Linux based open source nature of the platform, there are plenty of great apps for the device –on top of the many Google based features that are already present.

For now, the W150 is still an unconfirmed device, but with the images that have been leaked, one cannot help but hope that the handset becomes a final product. So far, the initial screens have been impressive, the device uses the frame of the X10 Mini (with a few alterations) and of course, brings in a little of that Sony branded stylishness.

With a 2.6 inch TFT capacitive touch screen display and a 5 megapixel camera, this device is slated to make for a very good mid range handset. No details yet on internal memory and what kind of processor it will be using, but if the X10 Mini is to be based upon, then it should at least have a 600MHz CPU.

The handset that we are most excited about is the one that has no name: a massive 5 inch Android touch screen tablet-smartphone hybrid. While that may sound similar to the Dell Streak, Sony Ericsson has squeezed in a third hybrid form: a mini netbook. This is done by using the device’s slide out QWERTY keyboard and a tilting screen technology in order to allow users to turn the smart phone into an instant laptop. Of course, we can pretty much expect this device to be even more expensive than that XPERIA X10.

The other two devices from Sony Ericsson have already been given names, and while we are almost certain that the XEPRIA Shakira will be getting a name change prior to release, we are inclined to believe that the W150i TeaCake’s name will not be changed at all.

Both devices look very similar to XPERIA in terms of their phone form –especially that Shakira which is basically midsized version of the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10 (the X10 Mini is a super small phone with its 2.5 inch touch screen). The SE TeaCake on the other hand is an X10 Mini that comes packed with Sony’s Walkman technology –which makes this the Walkman handset that has been rumored about recently.

This announcement is not really surprising as Sony Ericsson skipped the size from the large 4 inch touch screen of the X10 to the tiny 2.3 inch screens on the X10 Minis. According to the rumors, the new handset will have a medium sized screen, approximately 3.3 inches. This medium sized XPERIA has been dubbed Shakira and from the looks of it, we will be getting another variation of the X10 Mini.

Looking back, the XPERIA series of smart phones did not always seem so promising. Sony Ericsson started with a couple of Windows Mobile handsets that basically placed the XPERIA series on the bottom end of people’s wish lists. The switch to the Android operating system with the XPERIA X10 came as a big twist –one that had many Google fans excited as it was the very first 1GHz Snapdragon handset that would be using the famous open source mobile platform.

Adding more to their Android smart phone line up, Sony Ericsson announced a couple more devices (which are also out now), the X10 Mini and X10 Mini Pro smart phones have proven to be very impressive handsets despite being on the mid range of hardware specs. The X10 Mini Pro is getting plenty of fans thanks to its slide out QWERTY keyboard.

For now, the Shakira is still in the rumor bin and until Sony Ericsson makes a formal announcement of the device, it can still be a fake handset that people are passing around images of.

EU legislators are currently focusing on a new effort that has been spearheaded by Sony Ericsson. They, along with HP, Dell, Acer, ChemSec, the European Environmental Bureau and the Clean Production Association have been pushing for the ban on certain chemical substances. The groups has requested that brominated flame retardants (BFR) and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) substances be completely banned from being used by 2015.

An environmental expert at Sony Ericsson, Daniel Paska, stated that: “Sony Ericsson is committed to a complete phase-out of halogenated organic substances from its products, and at the current time has phased out almost all brominated flame retardants (BFR). We believe the electronics industry has a responsibility to move proactively to find substitutes to replace BFR and PVC and are therefore calling on EU legislators to show leadership on this issue by voting to tighten the RoHS directive.”

This move is hardly surprising of Sony Ericsson; the major phone manufacturer has already been tagged as Greenpeace’s second greenest electronics company in the whole world (with the number one spot going to Finnish super giant, Nokia).

While SE’s Greenheart line of mobile phones represents the front end of their commitment to reducing the carbon footprint of technology, it is actually their internal policies that are changing the industry standards when it comes to choosing raw materials and processing chemicals. Sony Ericsson has gone a long way in proving that it is possible to make a great electronic device without having to use hazardous substances. In that light, Apple should change their standards; the manufacturer they have chosen for their iPads has been known to use poisonous chemicals in the production process.