Sony Ericsson W995 Walkman

By Damian Koh, CNET Asia
Jul 7, 2009

When Sony Ericsson unveiled the W995 Walkman with built-in 3.5mm audio jack at the Barcelona-based Mobile World Congress (MWC) in February, we heaved a sigh of relief. It's about bloody time was the common refrain heard. Now, we typically wouldn't make a big fuss out of a 3.5mm port. Sure, it's good to have, but with the W995 we couldn't help liking it. And the audio jack wasn't the only feature we were excited about.

The handset also packs an 8-megapixel camera, a resolution that's on par with the company's high-end C905 Cyber-shot camera-phone. In fact, it's clear Sony Ericsson is slowly moving away from its Walkman and Cyber-shot brands when the company first outlined the Entertainment Unlimited strategy at MWC. This was announced along with the Satio, previously known under the Idou moniker, a multimedia Symbian S60 touchscreen smartphone. Together with the new Media Go synchronization PC program, it appears the phone-maker has got both the hardware and software worked out at least with the W995.

Design

Moving on with our review, one thing that's evident of the Sony Ericsson Walkmans is that they don't differ much in terms of design, often sporting a mish-mash of circular and semi-circular buttons for the main controls. We do like the contrasting tones between the brushed metal chassis and dashes of bright orange for the onboard speakers on our review unit which is set in silver. The handset is also compact, edgy, with a solid build quality.

The array of control buttons on the front lets you navigate menus and cancel commands and brings up the shortcuts/multitask window and play/pause tunes. You also have the Call/End buttons here. It gets more cramped on the right edge. There are three music playback buttons that light up in orange, volume control and a camera shutter that glows in white when the shooter is activated. Over on the opposite side are the Walkman key, Fast Port connector and M2 memory card slot (an 8GB flash media is bundled) behind the battery cover. You can find the 3.5mm audio jack resting along the top edge.

The W995 has a metal flip stand at the back, which is a mixed bag. This is at one end of the handset and it's easy to tip the phone over if you nudge it a little from the top. The balance improves dramatically when the slider phone is open. While the stand props the device at a comfortable angle for watching videos on the desk, the rather tiny 2.6-inch QVGA screen doesn't provide the best viewing experience. The size is decent for a phone, but as a media player or for Web browsing we still prefer much larger displays.

Although the keypad is a tad flush and slippery to the feel, the buttons provide reasonable travel and we didn't have any problems typing with one hand. Users with larger digits may find it a little more difficult to punch out messages. We also like the sliding mechanism which is smooth and reassuring.

Features

The interface of the W995 is similar to earlier Walkman models, so current users of Sony Ericsson handsets will feel right at home. Four user themes are preinstalled to customize the look of the menus and that's about it. The W995 is also one of the few recent handsets that support threaded messaging. This lets you view incoming and outgoing SMS similar to an instant message chat session, sorted by recipients.

A wide range of applications are preinstalled on the W995 and should keep most users happy for quite a while. You can create comic strips and send them as multimedia messages to friends, apply a variety of effects such as robotic or high-pitch sounds to recorded voices and calculate the number of steps (pedometer) you've walked for the day using the onboard accelerometer. There're also apps that let you compose your own ringtones using various instruments, music quizzes based on the songs you have on the phone. There's also a silly Rock Bobblehead which is essentially an Elvis-like cartoon character that you can jiggle by shaking the phone--useless but mildly amusing for a few seconds. Completing the lineup are a YouTube player and WayFinder navigation software (trial version) in the Applications folder.

On the entertainment front, there are seven games preloaded on the W995. Most of these are not new to begin with as we've seen some of them before. For starters, there's a good range of games from action to strategy and leisure. The only time our heart skipped a beat was when we tried the bowling game. This makes use of the onboard accelerometer and we had to flick the phone while releasing a button to launch the ball. The phone nearly flew out of our hands. So make sure you grip it tightly or use a wrist strap.

The W995 comes with an 8.1-megapixel camera, the same resolution as the one on the C905 Cyber-shot. The usual gimmicks such as smile and face detection are available. There's also an LED flashlight for lighting up subjects in a dim environment. The only disappointments are that video capture maxes out at QVGA resolution and there's no direct support for DivX/Xvid video formats. To be fair, the new Media Go software that lets you synchronize/convert content between the PC and handset now has a much neater interface and is easier to use than the previous bundled software.

Connectivity options are aplenty with quad-band GSM, 7.2Mbps HSDPA, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth stereo. The W995 comes with the Access NetFront browser which is fine and dandy, but we still prefer Opera Mini. The bundled stereo headset connects to the Fast Port on the W995 with an extended adapter to attach the 3.5mm earpiece. The latter, if used as a standalone, has a cable that's too short to be any good. Not even if the handset is in a shirt pocket.

Tags: Sony Walkman, Sony Corp., Connectivity Option, multimedia, Camera

User Discussion

 

• Most Popular

• Upcoming

What's Hot