Sony Ericsson W995 Review

Further to our recent Sony Ericsson news at the MWC, here is a follow up on the upcoming Sony Ericsson W995. (expected Q2 2009) The Walkman range from Sony Ericsson has always been popular, if starting to get a little tired. What Sony Ericsson needed to do is to bring out a top drawer Walkman phone, that doesn’t skimp in other areas, ‘just’ because it is a music focussed phone. And it may be that the Sony Ericsson W995 will be that device.

The Sony Ericsson W995 available in Progressive black, cosmic silver and energetic red (who thinks up these names!?!) the W995 is a compact slide phone, with a well spaced keypad, and very large 256,000 colour QVGA screen, measuring 2.6 inches point to point. The spec sheet for this phone is formidable, and Sony Ericsson has done a great job in getting all these features squeezed in to such a compact handset. The W995 measures in at 97mm x 49mm x 15mm and weighs in at a very light 113g.

The W995 runs the latest version of the very easy to use Walkman media player, Walkman 4.0. Playback is available for most popular music formats, including the ever present MP3 and AAC. There are various themes and skins available for the music player, and you can also have the album art showing when tracks are playing. As you would expect, tracks can be sorted via artist, album, genre and composer, and you can create your own playlists to match your mood on the device. Shake control is included; this allows you to mix up all your tracks for a huge ‘shuffle’, or skip to the next song in the list by a simple ‘flick of the wrist’ when holding the phone.

Senseme is included too. Senseme will offer track options depending on the mood and style of music you have been listening to, to offer alternative options on the playlist. Lastly, the best music application ever, TrackID, is also included. For those who have not heard me banging on about this application in the past, Track ID allows you to identify the name of a song by simply activating the application and holding the phone next to the speaker. A small sample of the song is recorded, digitised, and sent to the internet. Within seconds, information is returned to the handset detailing song name, artist and album. There is even a link to go online and purchase the music, should you wish. Once again, this is the best music application on a mobile phone, ever.

Very often with branded phones like Walkman, or Cybershot, you get great music, but poor camera, or great camera, and poor music player. The W995 is the handset that breaks the mould in this regard. As well as the above, the W995 is equipped with a fully featured 8.1 Megapixel camera. The camera offers autofocus, face detection, an image stabliser, and LED flash. On top of this, there is also support for Geotagging thanks to the built in GPS receiver. Video recording is also well catered for, with the device able to record in WVGA at 30 fps. Clearly, this camera is not just there to fill the spec list. Finally we have a full featured Walkman music device with an excellent, top class camera, and for this Sony Ericsson should be applauded (it is about time!)

The W995 includes some picture editing software onboard, to allow basic changes such as the removal of the annoying red-eye effect, and also the creation of slide shows from captured images. This is very easy to do; text information can be included to go between slides, or to write over the top of pictures. Add a bit if background music and straight away your slideshow is ready to be shared. The W995 includes blogging support on the handset, so pictures, videos or slideshows can be uploaded straight from the phone to your blog. There is a kickstand on the phone too, so it can be set up on a table top or similar, where you can view captured video on the handset. Very convenient.

As you would expect on a flagship device, the W995 is also strong on data connectivity, Included is support for HSDPA, up to 7.2 Mbps, HSUPA at 2 Mbps, WiFi and Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP support (for listening to music with a wireless stereo headset)

The Sony Ericsson W995 looks promising. Finally we see a combination of the two things Sony Ericsson are renowned for, imaging and music, combined into one tidy device. Check out the great sound track for the W995 commercial below, although we are still puzzled by the random appearance of James Bond!

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