We recently reported that the Argos eBay outlet store was selling the Sony Ericsson Xperia X8 for £69.99 with £3.95 delivery. At the time, O2 still had the handset listed at £99.99 but, they have now reduced the price of the budget smartphone from Sony Ericsson.

You can now pick up the Sony Ericsson Xperia X8 directly from O2 for £79.99. With O2 you get free delivery and a top up isn’t required like it is through third party retailers such as Carphone Warehouse. O2 are also offering a £20 gift voucher with the handset. There are five retailers you can choose from for the gift voucher, Next, Boots, Argos, Amazon or Pizza Hut.

This deal applies to the black model and the O2 exclusive white model of the Sony Ericsson Xperia X8 handset.

Normally the Sony Ericsson Xperia X8 retails for around £100 on O2. However through the Argos outlet store on eBay you can pick up a brand new Sony Ericsson Xperia X8 for £69.99 with £3.99 delivery, making the handset only £73.98 compared to the £99.99 price tag the phone carries through O2 directly.

The Xperia X8 has always been Sony Ericsson’s budget Android phone but, despite that the X8 has come under heavy criticism from users, as have Sony Ericsson for not upgrading the Android version on the X8 past Android 2.1. However, as a starter Android phone it’s a bargain price and comes with a 3 inch display compared to the 2.55″ display found on the Xperia X10 Mini’s, Sony Ericsson’s mid range smartphones.

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The Sony Ericsson website has revealed a new handset that they company will be releasing. The handset is part of the Walkman range and is named the W8. The design of the W8 is identical to that of the Xperia X8, so it looks like Sony Ericsson have rebadged the handset, added the Walkman branding to it and named it the W8. The specs of the phone are also the same as the X8.

Like the X8 and X10 Mini, the W8 will have the four corner shortcut UI, as well as easy access to playlists. The W8 will also feature a 3 inch display, with a 3.2 megapixel camera, 168MB of RAM, a 600MHz processor and use Android as the operating system. Like the X8, the W8 appears to be running Android 2.1. Due to the nature of the handset, like the X8 the W8 may not see a higher version of Android but, as the handset is targetted at a different market this shouldn’t be too much of a problem.

The W8 will be available in three colors, including the original Walkman Orange, as well as Metallic Red and Azur. The phone is set to be released in China, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Philippines, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, India, Vietnam and Thailand before the end of Q2, which runs until June.

For those who can’t wait for the Xperia Play, aka the PlayStation phone, Sony have released the PlayStation app, which should keep you going, sort of any way.The first version of the official PlayStation App lets you check your PlayStation Network tropies, while keeping up with your friends and lets you see if your friends are online. You can also keep up with the latest news, hardware and latest games, as well as reading the latest announcements. Only updates posted on the European PlayStation blog will be displayed as the app is only available in Europe at the moment. You will also be able to share the news, or products with your friends via email, Facebook or Twitter.

Compatible countries are: UK, France, Germany, Spain, Italy and The Netherlands, with support for other countries coming in future updates. The app is available for Android handsets running Android 1.6 and above. Sony have also released the app for the iPod Touch and iPhone.

In the past, flashing your handset has been a bit fiddly, as has rooting. The FlashTool for the Xperia X10 however changes this. Not only does it work with the X10 but, also the X10 Mini, Mini Pro and X8. With the FlashTool from XDA, you can flash Android 1.6 and 2.1 on to your handset. You will need to download the firmware for your handset though to do so. This also works on the Xperia X10a, so allows those in the US to run Android 2.1 on their X10 before AT&T release the update.

As well as being able to flash Android 1.6 or 2.1, the FlashTool also easily allows you to root your handset. Once rooted, the FlashTool also lets you install BusyBox, or remove default apps such as Moxier with just a few mouse clicks. If updating one version of Android 2.1 to a future update, you do not have to wipe user data, however if upgrading from Android 1.6 to 2.1 you should back up your data before proceeding as you will need to wipe the user data for 2.1 to work properly.

Virgin Mobile have gained the exclusive rights to releasing the Xperia X8 in black and red within the UK. Despite the features of the handset not being top notch, it’s still a relatively good smart phone and is for the budget shopper. The X8 from Virgin Mobile is available for free on their £10 a month tariff, well £10.21 a month after UK VAT. For £10.21 a month, you get 50 minutes of calls, 250 texts and 500MB of web data. The contract length is 24 months, which if you don’t top your phone up frequently, may work out more expensive than buying the handset outright, however for those who do top up £10 or more a month, this is quite a good deal. A 2GB memory card is included in the box.

One of the downfalls to the Xperia X10 when it launched, apart from not having multi touch, is that the handset also came with an outdated OS upon release. When announced, Android 1.6 was fine but, by the time Sony Ericsson released the handset, Android 2.1 was out, with Android 2.2 coming soon. Or if you were in America, Android 2.2 was already out, while the X10 still shipped with Android 1.6. The OS has since been updated to Android 2.1 although many were hoping Sony Ericsson would skip 2.1 and head straight to Android 2.2, or at the very least update soon after to 2.2. Android 2.3 is out now though and there’s still no sign of Android 2.2 on the X10.

Sony Ericsson have confirmed that the Android 2.2 will not be making it’s way to their Xperia X10 range of devices, this includes the full size X10, as well as the X10 Mini and X10 Mini Pro. The Xperia X8 will also remain on Android 2.1 and not see a further upgrade. While the handsets won’t receive any further Android updates, Sony Ericsson have said they will continue to release minor firmware upgrades to the handset, such as the multi touch upgrade which is on it’s way.

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With Android 2.1 well under way on the Xperia X10, Sony Ericsson have finally released their Live View product, which allows you to see what’s going on at a glance. The small bluetooth device can be paired with your phone and worn on your jacket, wrist, or let out on the table taking up less space than your handset. The device will allow you to see what calls you’ve had on your phone, along with messages.

In the UK, the device is retailing for £49.99-£69.99 and can be ordered from various retailers, including the Sony Ericsson Store and Play.com. For a limited time, Sony Ericsson are offering customers the chance to purchase Live View for 20% off the retail price by using the code “SELV3″. Sony Ericsson however, are selling LiveView for £59.98, or £47.98 after the 20% discount, this doesn’t include the £3.50 postage though, so third party retailers, such as Play, may be the better option as they are selling it for £49.99 with free postage.

The device can only be used with devices running Android 2.0 and above, so if your carrier hasn’t approved or released the Android 2.1 update for your X10, you unfortunately, won’t be able to make use of the device just yet.