Introducing the Sony Ericsson W995!

The latest phone to be announced by Sony Ericsson as you may have already seen from a recent blog post is the new Sony Ericsson W995, the ultimate in mobile media. Not only does it follow the illustrious ways of the cyber-shot range boasting an 8.1 megapixel camera to take on the likes of its step brother the ever popular C905 but it also has Sony Ericsson’s walkman capabilities, making it the first of its kind, bringing media applications together in one stylish, pocket friendly device.


This week I was lucky enough to get my hands on the W995 and I have to say, I think I’ve found my next phone. So first things first, what does it look like? Well from the images you can see that it is basically a shrunken version of the C905 with all purpose slide action but has a more ‘walkmany’ feel, with the characteristics and exterior design of maybe the W880 with dedicated walkman and music buttons. It weighs in at a mere 113g making it extremely light weight considering everything it is packing. It is in no way touch screen which will probably split peoples opinions, however it does have accelerometer and all the latest 3g gadgets such as geo-tagging, Wi-Fi, motion sensors and of course, HSDPA for fast browsing and downloading which does include YouTube luckily.


The main talking point of the W995 is obviously the new culmination of all things fun, be it camera/video, music or even game based, the W995 seems to blow the competition away. The 8.1 MP camera is sharp and precise, it captures colour like any good Cyber-shot should, either close up or from distance. The zoom function allowed me to look at things from some distance with a fair bit of detail however I would advise keeping it just short of fully zoomed as it will tend to get a tad hazy. The camera also boasts features such as face detection, image stabiliser etc and the video recording capabilities are no joke either with 30 frames per second and a secondary lens for video calling.


As for the music side of things, the W at the beginning of its name is really all that you need to know. If you’ve had any experience with a Sony Ericsson Walkman phone before, you know the amazing level of control and adaptability you have with its new 4.0 player, SenseMe and ShakeMe controls plus TrackID recognition. The sound as you would expect is also as good as you will find anywhere, either through the loudspeaker or via the 3.5mm headphone jack placed quite neatly on the top of the handset.


Lastly I think the games on this mobile need a special mention. When I picked up the W995 I knew what I should expect; great handling, yes; easy navigation, obviously, great camera and music features, definitely! But the proverbial cherry had to be the amount of high quality games already downloaded. Two of my personal favourites would have to be ‘Real Football’ which I couldn’t get enough of once I worked out the fairly basic controls… 2-1 England, lovely strike by crouch from outside the box (just a side note, ignore if you have no clue what I’m talking about) and ‘Guitar Rock Tour’ Sony Ericsson’s version of guitar hero which is very easy to get the hang of and is very addictive which im sure anyone who has played the real thing would whole heartedly agree with.


I was going to say that the Sony Ericsson W995 looks set to be a great addition to the Cyber-shot and Walkman families but in hindsight I think this handset will actually be the corner stone of the two genres finally combining and not the end but the putting to one side of either or, with the W995 you can have both! I personally love this mobile as I’m sure you could tell from this glowing review, with an excellent camera and more than enough going for it in other departments too I’m sure this handset will be a massive hit.