Here is a bit of good, though expected news for Sony Ericsson Android owners: the official Android 2.1 Éclair update will be arriving this month of September for all devices.
The move is expected –it was announced much earlier this year and has been the source of disappointment and frustration for many XPERIA handset owners. After all, while other mobile phones are already lining up for the Android 2.2 Froyo update, the expensive Sony Ericsson devices are still stuck with the old and archaic Android 1.6 Donut version.
Currently, this announcement affects 4 different handsets from Sony Ericsson: the high end XPERIA X10, the two mid range X10 phones (the X10 Mini and X10 Mini Pro) and lastly, the XPERIA X8 Shakira.
Announced as early as last year and the first to arrive on the market, the massively powerful XPERIA X10 was the first confirmed Android device to be sporting the Qualcomm 1GHz Snapdragon CPU. While the device itself was delayed (and finally launched around April this year), the original X10 is still one of the best devices on the market with its impressive hardware. As one would expect, the fact that it runs Android 1.6 Donut is a major drawback that held back the otherwise successful sales of the unit.
The X10 Mini and X10 Mini Pro are fortunately, doing far better than the high end original X10. This is because the Mini devices have better price tags and are conveniently smaller than the first phone. What’s more, the Mini Pro also has the advantage of having a physical slide out QWERTY keyboard.
So far, it is hard to tell if the XPERIA X8 will be a great success in the market. In terms of specs, this device is as generic an Android can be from Sony Ericsson. The device is pretty much like the X10 Mini except that it has a larger 3 inch TFT capacitive touch screen display