[XPERIA X8 General] WhatWhatInTheButt:
PERSONAL REVIEW of the Sony (Ericsson) Xperia X8 (E15i)

Phone in use since: January 2011

Price paid: Free with 12 month contract at Orange Poland

Previous phone: HTC Touch HD personal score: 9/10

X8 ORIGINAL Parameters LINK

STOCK X8 PRO's and CON's:

DURABILITY 10/10: Excellent quality screen! No scratches after 13 months of use without ANY polyurethane protector!

The phone sustained a full blown collision with bedroom wall after being thrown at it REALLY HARD, after wives intervention, due to prolonged phone use :D . The phone DID NOT sustain ANY damage! The only thing that broke was part of the (brick) wall and the battery, which I had to replace, as it got mangled up beyond any point of feasible repair.

USER INTERFACE 9/10: One of the most practical and ergonomic UI's on the market! Much better then most generic UI's provided by other manufacturers. Sony did a great job! Only drawback, ONE WIDGET PER SCREEN.

Also, the screens touch interface can be a little sensitive at times, especially on the widgets screen, engaging option to add/remove widgets.

SOFTWARE 7/10: The X8 comes with Android 1.6, which is easily updated, via Sony's PC Companion, to Android 2.1.

Most of X8's pre-installed applications are a general standard among Android phones, and are aimed at the casual user. Nothing special, though, nothing missing, either.

PERFORMANCE 7/10: The 600MHz single-core ARM6 processor, and 7-80MB's of available RAM, is like an old 1980's Toyota Supra Turbo speeding on the Android autobahn. Sure, it looks like it can, it sounds like it can, but, it sure as hell makes you wish you were driving a Samsung SII.

Multitasking; Last year alone, I spent about 1000 hours reading ebooks on my X8, while listening to my favorite stations on Xiaa Radio, and looking up some things, related to my reading materials, in the standard internet browser. To my overall surprise, the radio cache didn't lag, the browser worked just fine, and when I went back to Aldiko, it didn't glitch or stutter at all. But, between switching from one app to the other, I often found just the wallpaper, with no app icons or widgets. Sometimes had to wait a second or two, and eventually they'd load back up. Other then that, no problems.

Gaming; I'm 35 years old, therefore, I don't game on the X8 that much. I tried the ever-so-popular Angry Birds, and found the X8 could not handle well some of the levels. On some of the chess app's I use, top level cpu's strategy development, takes a loooong time. But who cares! I use my PC for gaming! No Android will substitute the beauty of Mass Effect 2 on 8GB's of cross-fired DDR5 6-core i7 power, for a long time yet!

STOCK X8 personal score: 8/10

Pimp My X8: A junkies custom-tailored-ROM experience

Custom ROM’s are like custom cars. You’re not gonna get Nissan GTR Spec-V’s performance out of a 92 Honda CRX. But, don’t be dismayed! The gains are not just on paper; they are real!

Since the beginning of this year, I tried almost every custom ROM available for the X8, from the ‘experimental’ MIUI, to the promising CM9,the very fit and slim GingerDX, and everything in between.

Picking a favourite wasn’t hard...

miniCM7 by ‘nobodyAtall'

After quite a few love affairs with various ROM’s, like the unfaithful husband, I always find myself going back to the miniCM7. As most other ROM’s are built on top of the miniCM7, it’s no wonder why.

PERFORMANCE 9/10: Very stable ROM. I don’t remember getting even one FC. Simply added ADW EX, and off I go to the Wah-Wah-Land of eternal themeing and tweaking...

CPU 9/10; I set my processor at 320MHz minimum speed, with the max set at a very stable 748MHz. The gains over a stock X8 are definitely felt!

MULTITASKING 10/10; Reading ebooks, browsing, and listening to internet radio, is much smoother then on the stock X8. After boot, I get from 90-105MB’s of free RAM. It’s like going from a 120HP Civic, to the classic 160HP Si... Definitely puts a smile on your face! But don’t think you can race a Samsung SII!

GAMING: Honestly, come to think of it...I haven’t played ANY games on the cooked ROM's yet! I was too busy flashing every

ROM I could get my hands on for the X8. Then again, as I said before, game I shall, but, on my PC.

MULTITOUCH: Turn it off! It’s glitchy, especially while using the internet browser. You flick your finger to scroll down the page, and the damn thing zoom’s in on you. You double tap to zoom in, and the damn thing just sits there like a stupid dog, glaring at you.

APPs to SD: Finally! That’s the best part I think. On the stock X8 after installing all my favourite apps, I was left with around 60-70MB’s of free space. On miniCM7, with the same apps installed, I got 145MB’s of free space. That’s nice. Very nice. But remember, this is only a Civic Si. It’s no Nissan GTR:cool:

miniCM7.2 X8 personal score: 9.8/10

So, is the X8's popularity due to the performance gains from flashing a cooked ROM? No! It's popular because mobile providers were able to flood the market with free X8's, provided you signed up with almost any one of their calling plans. Well, at least here in Europe. And because of this X8 deluge, we can tap into an amazing array of custom ROM's and kernels, designed by XDA's own community, including, but not limited to, the great minds of:

- nobodyAtall

- paul-xxx

- Achotjan

- alfsamsung

and the creator of the most popular X8 ROM:

- doixhan

Thank you SONY! Thank you Developers!

Don't believe the hype!