Sony Ericsson Xperia X8 to hit US for less than $300 unlocked, we go hands-on

Last time we heard of Sony Ericsson's Xperia X8 it was crawling around the FCC, but last night we found the little thing in a more welcoming, though equally as judgmental place -- our hands. Formerly codenamed the "Shakira," we were hoping the Android phone would be a bit more modern and slim, but sadly that's just not the reality of the rather chunky smartphone. Just like its X10 Mini and Mini Pro siblings, the 3-inch handset runs Android 1.6 with Sony's rather-deep custom skin -- a Sony rep on hand told us there would be an upgrade to 2.1 sometime in Q4. That seems a bit late, but there's no doubt that the X8 is a lower-end phone with its 3.2 megapixel cam and 600MHz CPU. The X8 we saw was wearing a white cover, though were also told there would be other interchangeable cover options available when it hits the market soon. Other than that we found the prototype (it was clearly marked that!) to be rather responsive and the UI to be quite intuitive, however the onscreen keyboard was extremely cramped for typing a URL into the browser. In comparison to the hoards of powerful Android smartphones we've seen in the last month or so, the X8 is certainly lackluster, but the little thing may just be an affordable unlocked choice when it hits the US for less than $300 soon. %Gallery-100496%