The new Sony Ericsson W995 is a combination of two Sony Ericsson lines: the musical Walkman and Cyber-Shot for photography amateurs.
Introduction:
Sony Ericsson W995 is a new, high-end mobile phone for demanding users. It has a large and vivid screen, 8 megapixel camera with a bunch of settings allowing for customization, additional features such as face detection, Geo-tagging and so on. Moreover the Sony Ericsson W995 features the latest version of Walkman music player: Walkman 4.0 which is a large improvement when compared with Walkman 3.0.
Sony Ericsson W995 pros:
+ 2.6″ 256K-color TFT display of QVGA resolution
+ Stereo speakers
+ 3.5 mm audio jack
+ 8.1 megapixel camera with autofocus, LED flash, geo-tagging, face detection
+ Brushed metal body parts
+ Quad-band GSM, dual-band HSDPA
+ Built-in GPS with A-GPS functionality
+ Accelerometer sensor
+ 118MB of internal memory and M2 memory expansion (8GB card included)
Sony Ericsson W995 cons:
- No lens protection
- Video recording only up to WQVGA
- No DivX/XviD video support
- No office document viewer
The design:
Sony Ericsson W995 measures 97 x 49 x 15 mm and weighs 113 grams so it is lighter and a bit smaller than its latest Cyber-Shot sibling Sony Ericsson C905. The Sony Ericsson W995 comes n three different colors, all of which make a very nice impression. The phone has brushed metal body parts making it look like a high class device which it indeed is. The front of the Sony Ericsson W995 features the 2.6-inch vivid display working in QVGA resolution. The screen has excellent direct sunlight legibility and is very bright in dark places. Below the screen you will find the D-pad surrounded with some other, very comfortable keys. The left side of the Sony Ericsson W995 houses the Walkman key used for running the media player and shake control, whereas the right side features the camera button, music controls and the volume rocker. The phone has stereo speakers: one at the top and the other at the bottom of the device. One more, very important for music lovers, thing is the standard 3.5 mm audio jack which you can use to plug in any king of headphones. The back of the Sony Ericsson W995 houses the 8 megapixel autofocus camera lens together with a LED flash, but no lens cover maybe because there is the kickstand which you can use to protect the lens or put the phone in more vertical position.
Performance:
The battery in Sony Ericsson W995 is 930 mAh Li-Po which lasts for about 9 hours of talk time and more or less 370 hours of standby. The voice quality and reception are, as always, excellent. Thanks to the built-in accelerometer the phone auto rotates image galleries and other multimedia. The phone handles all the most common message types and has an extremely simple editor. Setting up an e-mail account is also a piece of cake.
Sony Ericsson W995 comes with Access NetFront browser which does a very good job. The websites are rendered very well on the large screen and you can zoom in and ‚find on page’. In fact, the only thing that the Sony Ericsson W995 lacks in terms of its performance is the ability to view (not to mention editing) any type of document files. And the fact that it comes with a few funny apps and games does not make up for that.
Image quality:
The 8 megapixel camera in Sony Ericsson W995 can take photos in up to 3264 x 2448 pixels resolution. The camera features face detection now detecting up to three faces. You get a few shooting modes, picture sizes and focus modes to choose from. The phone can put geo tagging in the photos. The image quality is good but not great. The photos tend to have too much noise and are sometimes oversharpened. One more unpleasant surprise is the menu system which just like in Sony Ericsson W902, Sony Ericsson T707 and Sony Ericsson C905 might be quite confusing. All in all the image quality is very good for a mobile phone.
Sony Ericsson W995 has one of the best image galleries there are in cell phones. Apart from the auto rotation and favourites now you can tag your photos so that you can browse them in a few different ways. Geo-Tagging is also present thanks to the built in GPS receiver. You can also browse your photos as a slideshow with background music and it is enough to pick a specific mood and the phone does the rest for you.
Audio quality:
Sony Ericsson W995 features Walkman 4.0 player which supports all most common, and some of the less common file types. The player has a few equalizer presets and you can create your own equalizer settings. The Walkman 4.0 supports album art, shake control and can display some effects while playing your favourite music. The audio quality itself is one of the best among mobile phones thanks to the stereo speakers. The response frequency is really great and the dynamic range is equally good. Sony Ericsson W995 has also the radio receiver with RDS and memory for 20 stations.
Menus:
The Sony Ericsson W995 has a standard set of different menu views so you get the single icon view, 3 x 4 grid and rotating view. Of course the phone has a few different flash themes so you can customize it to suit your needs. You can easily switch between several apps running at the same time thanks to the running apps tab. Sony Ericsson W995 also supports the flight mode, but as always in Sony Ericsson phones. The SIM card has to be in the phone. The phonebook in Sony Ericsson W995 can store up to 1000 contacts with 20 fields so there is no way you will lack anything here. Of course, you can add a birthday date, custom ringtone and photo to a contact or group of contacts. Although you get only one field for the name and surname of a given contact you can still order the contacts by first or last name. Smart dialing is also present and fast.
Selected Sony Ericsson W995 features and specifications:
Camera:
8.1 megapixel camera
Up to 16x digital zoom
Photo fix
Picture blogging
Video blogging
Auto focus
Face detection
Photo flash
Video recording
Image and Video stabilizer
Video light
PictBridge
Music:
Walkman™ player
Clear Stereo
Clear Bass
Album art
PlayNow™
TrackID™
SensMe™
Bluetooth™ stereo (A2DP)
Music tones (MP3/AAC)
3.5mm audio jack
Stereo speakers
Shake control
Web:
Access NetFront™ Web browser
Web feeds
Photo feeds
Communication:
Speakerphone
Polyphonic ringtones
Vibrating alert
Video call
Messaging:
Picture messaging (MMS)
Predictive text input
Sound recorder
Text messaging (SMS)
Exchange ActiveSync
Chat View
Instant messaging
Design:
Picture wallpaper
Wallpaper animation
Auto rotate
Entertainment:
3D games
Motion gaming
Java
FM radio with RDS
Video streaming
Video viewing
Media
YouTube™
Walk Mate
Connectivity:
Bluetooth™ technology
Modem
USB mass storage
USB support
Synchronization
DLNA Certified™
Wi-Fi™
Organizer:
Alarm clock
Calculator
Calendar
Flight mode
Notes
Phone book
Stopwatch
Tasks
Timer
Location-based services:
Geo tagging of photos
Google Maps™
aGPS
Wayfinder Navigator™ (3-month trial version)
Accessories:
In-Box:
W995:
Battery
Battery Charger
8GB Memory Stick Micro™ (M2™)
USB Cable
Stereo portable handsfree
Sony Ericsson PC Suite
Media Go™
User book
Facts and Figures: 1)2)
Size: 97 x 49 x 15 mm
Weight: 113 grams
Colours:
Progressive Black
Cosmic Silver
Energetic Red
Main screen: 262,144 colour TFT, scratch-resistant
Resolution: 240 x 320 pixels
Size: 2.6 inches
Phone memory: Up to 118MB
Memory card support: Memory Stick Micro™ (M2™)
Talk time GSM/GPRS: Up to 9 hrs
Standby time GSM/GPRS: Up to 370 hrs
Talk time UMTS: Up to 4 hours
Standby time UMTS: Up to 360 hours
Video talk time: Up to 3.5 hours
Music listening time: Up to 20 hours
Video watching time up to 5hrs
Availability and versions
Networks
W995:
GSM/GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900
UMTS/HSPA 900/2100
Other recently reviewed mobile phones:
Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, Samsung M7500 Emporio Armani, LG KF900 Prada, LG KP500 Cookie, Sony Ericsson W902, BlackBerry Curve 8900, Sony Ericsson W595.