Sony Ericsson always proud of their Walkman series handsets but somewhow the of lack 3.5mm jack and have mediocre video playback capabilities turn it down. However, the recent released Sony Ericsson W995, is come without these problem and it is one of the most shining Sony Ericsson’s flagship of this years.
Design
The Sony Ericsson W995 is still having the famous slider form factor design which measures 97 x 49 x 15 mm and weighting 113 g. For a handset that carry 8MP camera, this size and weight is just fine. The device is compact and no problem to fit in your pocket. The front is the 2.6-inch screen. It is still bright and colorful though it is only QVGA resolution. Below the front there is a d-pad, with a central key that can also serve as a play/pause key; call keys, soft keys, activity key, and clear key. The keys are well spaced, but the navi-wheel is missing. The keypad is revealed by sliding the Sony Ericsson W995 open. Also, there is a kickstand attaches itself to the top and back portions of the phone. The Walkman key (music dedicated keys) is located on the left and is large and easy to access and along with it is the Fast Port connector. Overall, phone has a decent design, however 2.6 inches seem too small for a media player, which the W995 really wants to be.
Music FM Radio And Video
The device has the latest Walkman 4.0 music player with all the extras included. In this version, it features skin support where you can change the player skin you like. The player supports a vast collection of file formats and has several equalizer presets and of cause it also features the popular Sony Ericsson Shake control. Sound through the loudspeakers is clear, enjoyable and packs quite a punch, thanks to the stereo speakers on the top and bottom. The SE W995 is also the first Walkman phone to ship with a standard 3.5mm headphone jack, so now user have more variety to choice a headset.
The FM radio in this handset is typical in most Walkman handset. It supports RDS and TrackID and able to store up to 20 stations and use the auto save feature to scan and save stations automatically. Besides, you can minimized the radio to play in the background and controlled via the Walkman keys
Their is a video player in this handset which supports fast-forward, rewind, and slow-mo playback. Movies can play in landscape and has three options for video size – original, auto fit and full screen. The phone actually not support for DivX and even better XviD, or any other advanced video codec. However,it has a feature called MediaGo which is a program that is quite similar to iTunes. It automatically converts videos, so that they can be played on your phone. Since W995 is not a smartphone, third party application is not allowed. So MediaGo is only solution for video codec problem. Video playback quality is only acceptable, this is what we expected since it is only a QVGA display.
Camera
Although Sony Ericsson W995 is a music phone, but Sony Ericsson still give this handset a high resolution 8.1MP camera. It is similar to that found on Sony Ericsson’s last Cybershot device, the C905. The phone has a wide range of camera features like face detection, camera images geotagging, exposure metering, image and video stabilizer, BestPic, auto-rotation, macro mode, etc. The picture quality of the W995 snapper is just adequate, not as good as in C905 though both of them using the same camera. The camera do able to record video at 30fps but it is only QVGA resolution and with rather low quality.
GPS
The Sony Ericsson W995 has a built-in GPS receiver. The phone comes pre-loaded with Google Maps, and it’s an impressive and unique version of the mapping app. There are two different view modes are available – Satellite and Map view and they are worked without a hitch.
Final Thought
Sony Ericsson is trying to make W995 as close as a PMP. However, the W995 is still unable to reach the standard. The video playback and camera capabilities are the weaknesses of the phone. But have to admit that the music and GPS features really impressed us. So what we think about it? It is OK, meaning good, but not impressive.
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