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As much as we love getting the hottest news about high end smart phones and the latest OS updates, there are still plenty of 2G handsets that manage to grab our attention like no other. Take the Sony Ericsson Yendo mobile phone. This latest Walkman handset is a simple enough device to take in, but when it comes to practicality and usability, it certainly makes one wonder why we bother with smart phones at all (barring net access and other frivolous functions aside that is).

The SE Yendo smart phone first appeared in leaks and rumors as the W150 TeaCake before it was later given its final name. While we certainly find the older TeaCake name a lot more interesting (given that you can mistake it for an Android name), but at least Sony has not changed any of the phone’s specifications at all.

It comes with a 2.6 inch TFT touch screen display. For a basic 2G handset, that is already pretty big, so expect to be able to watch videos without any scaling problems on the Yendo (the resolution is 240 x 320 pixels). The response time is decent, but finger tracking is not as accurate as the X10 Mini –mostly due to the resistive touch screen display, which also means that the phone will not be able to handle multi touch features.

As one might expect, the big feature here is the music playback feature. The Walkman software is pretty impressive in its features, such as playlist editing and TrackID. But of course, the best part is the music quality during playback.

With its 2 mega pixel camera, users can expect to be able to shoot decent quality images that are perfect for uploading online. It can also shoot videos at a low quality rate. For storing videos, images as well as music, users will want to rely on a microSD card (up to 16GB) as the handset only comes with 5 MB of free space.

It is a double sided bit of news, the Sony Ericsson X10 Mini Pro is finally coming out, but it seems like the Android smart phone will still be using the old 1.6 operating system.

We already knew that the X10 Mini Pro would be launching soon and it is about time that Sony finally confirmed that the handset is indeed heading to UK stores. If the initial estimates are correct, fans of the Android OS should expect to see the handset come out in the next few days –which means that network operators will also be adding the device to their tariff plans as well.

The big bonus of the X10 Mini Pro over the original X10 Mini is the addition of the slide out QWERTY keyboard. While the additional feature may not mean much for some smart phone users, it actually makes the handset much more suited to texting, writing long emails and other text heavy applications.

Users with big stubby fingers will appreciate the layout of Sony Ericsson’s physical keys; the buttons are evenly and widely spaced –which means that accidentally clicking the wrong buttons will not be so common. The responsive buttons also make the handset much more suitable for high speed typing.

As impressive as the keyboard may be, the OS is still quite lacking. While the Android 1.6 Donut is considered to be one of the best Android versions available, the newer 2.1 Éclair is already out, not to mention the fact that the Froyo is finally downloadable for many users with some devices awaiting special versions of the update to be available.

With the Éclair already set as a new standard and the Froyo version being released for many handsets, the X10 Mini Pro (as well as the XPERIA X10 and the X10 Mini) will be left behind in terms of OS performance.

Sony Ericsson’s fans are keeping a very close ear on the ground as rumors and new updates about the recently leaked SE devices are starting to trickle down the news vine. According to the most recent announcement from Sony Ericsson, the previously leaked XPERIA Shakira handset is now going to be named as the XPERIA X8.

The move is considered by many as a natural direction for Sony Ericsson to take as the XPERIA X10 is a very high end Android smart phone. The device sports a high speed 1GHz CPU, a large 4 inch touch screen, an 8 mega pixel camera and of course, a very expensive price tag. The addition of the X8 to the XPERIA series gives users a slightly cheaper alternative to the X10 but without having to compromise so many features as they would with the X10 Mini handset.

It is believed that the X8 would have a capacitive touch screen that is about 3.3 inches diagonally, a 700-800MHz CPU and a 5 to 8 mega pixel camera. These specs would place the X8 right between the X10 and the X10 Mini, which fits the general assumption regarding the phone’s position as the missing link between the two X10 devices. In the meanwhile, fans are still waiting for an XPERIA X10 Pro which will add a QWERTY keyboard to the Android device (much like the X10 Mini Pro).

Speaking of physical QWERTY keyboards, it is reported that Sony Ericsson has two keyboard toting handsets coming out later this year. The first is an unmanned Android device that is reportedly going to have a 5.5 inch touch screen display and the other is the Sony Ericsson Julie –which is assumed to be a Windows Phone 7 handset. There have also been hints that the two devices may actually be one and the same.

The Sony Ericsson W150 TeaCake has been featured a lot recently after the device was revealed in a series of leaked images showing off the new handset from the Swedish Japanese joint venture.

According to initial rumors and speculative reports about the handset, the device is going to bring together the Sony Walkman technology with Google’s Android operating system (not that the Android does not have its own media/music playback capabilities, but having the Walkman technology certainly helps.

As exciting as that initial news may be, it seems that Android fans are in for a bit of a disappointment as new screens of the TeaCake’s user interface reveals little to no signs of the Android operating system. Not exactly the kind of news you would want to hear if the previous announcements have made you excite for the handset –but there it is. Of course, one cannot help but think, and hope that the Android mobile platform would still be used in the handset.

After all, the TeaCake is already featuring a phone form factor that closely resembles the X10 Mini and many even thought that the W150 is simply a Walkman-based version of the Mini itself. Should Sony Ericsson suddenly decide to come out and reveal the full details on this device and announce that it would indeed be running Google’s OS, they would be making plenty of fans happy.

While the TeaCake is currently off the ‘sure’ list of Android handsets, Sony Ericsson still has a couple of other devices that will be using the OS –the XPERIA Shakira is a definite shoo-in for the open source OS. The device is virtually the missing link between the XPERIA X10 and the X10 Mini. The X10 Mini Pro is due to be released soon –this handset is pretty much like the X10 Mini with a slide out QWERTY keyboard.

The new Mini Android smart phone from Sony Ericsson is now available through the Carphone Warehouse. It appears that there has been plenty of interest in this tiny mid range smart phone. Despite not having the high end hardware on the XPERIA X10 (which comes with a massive 4 inch capacitive touch screen, an 8 mega pixel camera and a Snapdragon 1GHz CPU), the X10 Mini is actually a pretty practical phone to have.

In fact, for those who are not too picky about their hardware –and are on a budget, the X10 Mini is the perfect solution to many smart phone needs.

In terms of hardware, the X10 Mini is a practical handset. The 2.5 inch capacitive touch screen is not as small as it may sound (compared to the significantly larger screen on the original device), and at close look, the display delivers a pretty solid Android experience for users. Even the phone’s interface comes with a stripped down version of the Timescape tool on the original XPERIA X10.

For now, the X10 Mini will be using the older Android 1.6 Donut operating system –just like the original handset. This probably means that when the larger handset gets an update, so might the mini version, and the original X10 is due to get an update on September (so anyone hoping for an update to the latest version might want to settle for another handset).

The device comes with a very small 128 MB of internal storage so users will certainly want to make use of the microSD card support –it will support up to 16GB cards and according to initial reports, a 2GB card will come packed with the handset.

A 5 mega pixel camera with autofocus, LED flash, geo-tagging and 30FPS VGA video recording will be replacing the larger 8MP camera on the original X10.