While Sony Ericsson’s budget Xperia smartphone may not be to everyone’s liking, for those new to the world of Android and/or those on a budget, the Xperia X8 steps up to the mark.

Previously the Sony Ericsson Xperia X8 was on sale for around £100 but, now O2 have dropped the price of the handset down to £79.99 for either the black model or white model. A minimum top up is not required and delivery is free. O2 are also offering customers a £20 gift voucher with the Xperia X8, as they are with the Sony Ericsson Xperia Mini Pro.

An update to the custom ROM CyanogenMod has been released, after a short delay on the expected release date. Version 7.1 of CyanogenMod is now available to those adventurous Xperia owners as it is now working on all of the 2011 Xperia handsets including the Xperia Play, Xperia Arc, Xperia Mini and Mini Pro, Xperia Ray and the Xperia Neo handsets. Even the Xperia X8 is catered for with version 7.1.

When Sony Ericsson announced that they had changed their plans for the Xperia X10 and that it would not be stuck on Android 2.1 but, would instead be upgraded to Android 2.3 during the end of Q2/start of Q3, this pleased many customers. However it still left some of Sony Ericsson’s customers rather angry, as while this was great news for owners of the Xperia X10, it was also announced that the X10 Mini, X10 Mini Pro and Xperia X8 were not part of these plans and would remain on Android 2.1 as previously stated.

A lot has been happening in the Xperia line in the past week due to the CES 2011. With new models being unveiled and planned to be released in the coming days it is easy to overlook the older models. Here’s something that should interest you if you are looking for an Xperia X8.  Three UK is now offering the Xperia X8 for only £99. The black version of this Android phone is the one being offered and the deal already comes with a PAYG top up of £10.

We all know that Sony Ericsson aren’t great at keeping their upcoming handsets a secret. We saw photos of the Xperia X10 before an official announcement came from Sony Ericsson and even the more recently announced Xperia Arc, we’d seen a while before Sony Ericsson officially announced the handset, in the form of the Anzu. More photos have been leaked of an Xperia handset, this time round it’s the “Xperia Duo”. The Duo appears to be a successor to the Xperia X10 Mini or Mini Pro, which we’ve already seen a photo of before and it’s benchmark. Here are some more photos to whet your appetite.