Sony Ericsson's "Shakira" has has gone from rumored to official in under two weeks. The company has officially announced their next Android handset, the Xperia X8. As most predicted, the X8 falls neatly in the middle between the X10 and X10 Mini series. Sony Ericsson pegs the phone with a price point of just under 200 Euro Retail ($245 US) and expects it will attract a new Android audience. Similar to the user interface of the X10 mini, the X8 features the four-corner customizable button for one-touch access to often used applications.

In terms of hardware, the phone falls somewhere in the mid-range of today's Android phones. Powered by a 600MHz, the X8 features a 3.0-inch (320x480) HVGA touch screen and a 3.2-megapixel camera with video recording capability. The phone comes with a 2GB memory card with support up to 16GB. Internal memory is listed as "up to 128MB" so it's not going to store a ton of apps unless you root the phone or Froyo comes along. Rounding out the X8 are support for WiFi, Bluetooth, AGPS, and microUSB.

As of right now, the time frame for the release of the X8 has yet to be determined. The current thought is to put it out with Android 1.6, following a few weeks later with a 2.1 update. On the other hand, they may hold off until it has 2.1 pre-loaded. Sony Ericsson plans to make the final decision on a market-by-market basis.  Choose from a variety of colors (White, Dark Blue/White, Aqua Blue/White, Pink/White, Silver/White) when it arrives in your neck of the woods!