Sony Ericsson W995
Discontinued 15th February 2009
The Sony Ericsson W995 is the
thirty-second "Walkman" branded mobile phone
to be announced, and this handset sits firmly at the
top end of the Walkman range.
This is an eight megapixel slider phone,
and only Sony Ericsson's second such device to market
after the C905.
The 2.6" display on the W995 puts it a little bit
higher in the range than the C905, but quite a lot of
the innovations here are in software rather than hardware.
With the W995, Sony Ericsson are introducing
Media Go, which is basically an advanced multimedia
player designed to take all the hassle out of playing
back audio and video clips. The idea with "Media
Go" is that you can transfer files from your PC
in just about any format you like, and the W995 should
always be able to play them back flawlessly. These are
the sort of features that you would expect to see on
a dedicated media player, and there's no guessing that
this particular component probably came from the very
clever people at Sony.
This
is a GPS-enabled device with Google Maps and a three
month subscription to Sony Ericsson's Wayfinder personal
navigation application. The W995 supports WiFi and 3.5G
data, and the display is a fair sized 2.6" QVGA
panel, although it lacks a touchscreen.
On the back is an 8.1 megapixel camera
with autofocus, flash and face detection. The camera
also supports geotagging, and of course it can record
video clips.. although we don't know just how good the
quality is.
Of course, as this is a "Walkman"
phone then you can be assured that it comes with excellent
multimedia support, including an FM radio. The standard
sales package comes with an 8GB memory card, so plenty
of tracks and clips can be stored on it. The W995 also
comes with a standard 3.5mm audio jack, stereo speakers
and shake control. It isn't a smartphone (although the
supplied software seems very good), and it doesn't have
a touchscreen.. you will have to wait for the Idou
for that.
Underneath,
this is a quad-band GSM phone with UMTS 900 / 2100 MHz
support. There is also a W995a variant for North America
with UMTS 850 / 1900 / 2100 MHz. Talktime on 3G is up
to 4 hours with a maximum of 15 days standby time, and
the whole package weighs in at 113 grams.
Despite the strong feature set, there's
nothing really that new in the phone except for the
"Media Go" application. Just think of it as
a standard Sony Ericsson "Walkman" phone with
all the features dialled up to "11".
We're not sure where Sony Ericsson are heading with
these model numbers though, "W995" doesn't
leave much wriggle room until you get to "W999".
Anyway, Sony Ericsson say that the W995
should be available during Q2 2009 in black, silver
and red colour combinations. No guidance was given on
price, but we think that the SIM-free version of the
W995 will retail at around €450, £360 or $510
or so.
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Sony
Ericsson W995 at a glance
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Available:
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Q2
2009
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Network:
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GSM
850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
+ UMTS 900 / 2100 or
UMTS 850 / 1900 / 2100
(W995a)
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Data:
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GPRS
+ EDGE + UMTS (3G) + HSDPA
+ WiFi
|
Screen:
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240
x 320 pixels, 262k colours
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Camera:
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8.1
megapixels
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Size:
|
Medium
slider 97 x 49 x 15mm
/ 113 grams
|
Bluetooth:
|
Yes
|
Memory
card:
|
Memory
Stick Micro M2
|
Infra-red:
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No
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Polyphonic:
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Yes
|
Java:
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Yes
|
GPS:
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Yes
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Battery
life:
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4 hours talk / 15 days standby
|
|
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