Choice of Phones

Hi everyone,

We need to purchase a few more phones in-country (India) to supplement HTC
Magics we brought. The Magics are prohibitively expensive for us here, so
we're looking into lower end options. A new Sony Ericsson - the Xperia X8 -
is looking good on paper and after web research and an in-store demo,
though it seems that the Sony Ericssons have a reputation for bad battery
life. Has anyone used one before and had a good/disastrous experience?
Even with poor battery life, it is less expensive to get a spare battery
for each of the phones and switch halfway through the day (we're in an urban
setting, where recharging at the end of each day is not a problem). Or does
anyone have suggestions for reasonably solid phones to use that would be
less expensive than the Magic?

Thanks!
Emily