Is it a Cyber-shot, with it's 8-megapixel camera, or is this unlocked phone all Walkman inside? We decide in our Sony Ericsson W995 review.
Review summary of the Sony Ericsson W995:
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 The Sony Ericsson W995 gets things right in a few key ways that its primary competitors miss. As an unlocked multimedia super-phone, the real competition for the Sony Ericsson W995 is Nokia's Nseries, and in terms of the Walkman music player with the Media Go software, the W995 proves itself a capable Walkman (to check out recent Sony Ericsson Walkman phones, click here). Since it isn't a smartphone, Sony Ericsson can keep a clean menu design in a way that Nokia cannot. In addition to the music features, the phone also gets Web browsing and Wi-Fi, but though the speeds are impressive, the Access Netfront browser found in this phone isn't. We think the 8.1-megapixel camera is overkill though, and image quality can't compete with Nokia's best offerings, like the Nokia N85. Release: July 2009. Price: $500.
Pros: Great music features, with an improved interface and management software. Surprisingly robust GPS features.
Cons: Doesn't quite measure up to similarly-equipped smartphones. Camera and Web browsing features come up short. Call quality and battery life disappoint.
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Full Sony Ericsson W995 Review:
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Design – Good
We wish we could call the Sony Ericsson W995 a brick, but instead its blocky shell is patched all over with buttons, rocker switches and chrome accents. The effect is a bit over the top, like the chrome 'kickstand' around back. The stand swings out, but it can't actually support the phone, our Sony Ericsson W995 review unit kept falling over. That's why we thought it was some sort of battery door protection, since the battery door fell off a few times when the 'kickstand' wasn't in place. The build quality overall just wasn't up to par. The top half of the slide seemed loose when we opened the phone. The buttons, especially the Walkman button on the left side of the phone, sat too flush against the device, making them hard to press.
We wouldn't be so hard on the Walkman for these minor details, except that we've been great fans of some Walkman phone designs. The Sony Ericsson W880i and W350 come to mind. Instead of being sleek and unique looking, the Sony Ericsson W995 looks like a brick, like a Nokia N85 gone chrome crazed.
It isn't all bad news. The Sony Ericsson W995 uses a fantastic screen. The 2.6-inch, QVGA screen didn't pack so many pixels, but it was bright and colorful, and Sony Ericsson does a nice job providing colorful content that looks great on the display. The menus were basic icon / grid jobs, but the icons themselves seemed rich and colorful, and most of the features had a polished look that brought out the rich color depth of the screen.
Calling - Good
Calls on the Sony Ericsson W995 sounded good, but we expect better from HSDPA phones. Calls sounded a bit muffled and warm on our caller's end, and we got a bit of static on our side. The phone reported solid reception on AT&T's network in the Dallas metro area, with a full set of bars. Battery life was a bit low. We couldn't manage a five hour call on the 3G network. Considering we'll probably keep this phone chugging along with the music player and possibly push e-mail support, we would have liked to see a battery with a much higher capacity.
For our contact lists, we were pleased to find Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync support, so the Sony Ericsson W995 synchronized with our work address book nicely. Otherwise, the PC Suite software can also help get your phonebook onto the W995. We found the search on the contact list to be somewhat dimwitted; it hardly helped us jump to the right letter, let alone the correct name.
The W995 uses voice tags for voice dialing, so you'll have to pre-program your favorites. Obviously we prefer a speaker-independent option, but any voice dialing is better than nothing. Conference calling was easy on the phone, and we had no trouble joining and splitting up our 3-way connection. Thanks to the beefy music speakers, the Sony Ericsson W995 also gets a speakerphone that is nice and loud.
Messaging - Good
Thanks to the sharp screen and the clean interface design, the Sony Ericsson W995 might seem like a better messaging device than it really is. The simple text messaging app looked good, and T9 predictive typing helped us out and looked like a polish system. Still, there was no apparent option for threaded messaging, even though the interface looks built to handle the conversational style of organizing SMS chats. The phone comes equipped with Exchange support, and it can even receive push e-mail. We just wish the notification system was better for e-mail. The phone would buzz and the light-up buttons would throb, but there was no shortcut to jump right into our new e-mail messages, like there was for text message. Instant messaging fans are out of luck on this device, as there's no built-in client on board.
The keyboard on the Sony Ericsson W995 was a bit polished and slick, but there was enough room between the keys that we didn't make too many mistakes. The rows were a bit short for our taste, but we did appreciate the stylish implementation of T9 on this phone, which gave us an easy menu to choose the appropriate word. Text also looked nice and clean on the W995's sharp screen.
Music – Very Good
The Sony Ericsson W995 has some solid music playing features. It really surpasses most other music phones in its class, even the Nokia Nseries devices, but we couldn't help but feel like Sony Ericsson could have gone farther to make this a more powerful music playing device. That isn't to say the phone doesn't pack some power. The stereo speakers on the top and bottom were loud and as full of sound as we could hope for from speakers so small. Bass was absent, but the speakers still managed a full, robust sound. The S/E W995 is also the first Walkman phone to ship with a standard 3.5mm headphone jack, instead of just the Fast Port connection.
Sony Ericsson also includes an 8GB Memory Stick Micro (M2) card, a Fast Port USB cable and charger, and even a relatively decent pair of earbuds with the Sony Ericsson W995. The music player on the phone is also very good. It was easy to find our music, to create playlists and to improve the sound with the built-in EQ and stereo widening settings. We wish the dedicated buttons on the side of the phone were a bit easier to press, but we never hit them accidentally. Plus, we loved being able to jump directly into our tunes with the press of a button. Also, hold down the Walkman button and shake the phone for some basic music shuffle control.
With their new generation of music phones and Playstation Portable devices, Sony has introduced Media Go, a new music management app. We had a good time with Media Go. It wasn't much of an improvement over Windows Media Player, and certainly wasn't as intuitive as iTunes on our MacBook, but it was better than just about every other bit of media transfer software we've used, especially similar offerings from Nokia and Samsung. It was simple and effective. Music was sideloaded onto the Sony Ericsson W995's M2 card in a hurry. Best of all, Media Go made fast work of finding our missing album artwork and attaching it to our tracks. Nicely done, considering the media transfer software usually isn't worth a second look.
Camera - Good
In conversations before the launch of the Sony Ericsson W995, company reps told us they were waffling over whether to brand this device a Walkman or a Cyber-Shot phone. After spending some time with the 8-megapixel, auto focus shooter, we'd have to say they made the right call. While the music features are impressive and perhaps superlative, especially compared to rival Nokia, the W995's camera just doesn't measure up to the best we've seen on the market (to check out our reviews of high-megapixel cameraphones, click here).
Pictures looked fine at a distant crop, used for desktop wallpaper or small printing, for instance. But at full zoom, details became cloudy, and pictures suffered from an over-sharpening that looked like a video screen shot. We saw plenty of purple fringing, as well as significant lighting problems in both overexposed and underexposed areas. Things were okay, better than many other cameras, but compared to the best we've seen recently, the high-megapixel shooter on the W995 just can't measure up. Check out our example shots below to see what we mean.
Waiting Pooch
Sunrise Landscape
In both of these shots, things look okay full screen, but when we zoom in to 100%, the lack of detail and the problems with lighting become much more apparent.
Self Portrait 8-megapixel
Self Portrait 5-megapixel
For comparison sake, two shots of the same ugly mug, taken back to back with more and less pixels.
Ga Ga Pit and Playground Panorama
Panorama stitching was hit or miss. Here, the wooden beams aren't perfect, but having the cool perspective is worth the mistake.
Backlit Pooch
The sun was directly above us, and the camera had trouble with the white dog against the bright, blue sky.
Macro Flower and Bee
Macro Flower and Insects
Here, where we'll want whatever fine detail we can get from a full zoom, it's nice to have the full 8-megapixels.Still, we get a distinctive video glare in the bee in the first shot, and lots of fringing apparent in the second image, especially around the fine petals.
Web browsing - Good
For Web browsing, the Sony Ericsson W995 comes up far short against its multimedia competitors, especially Nokia's Nseries phones. Though the Access Netfront browser on the Sony Ericsson W995 makes an attempt at duplicating the mini map look of Nokia's browser, it didn't render pages nearly as accurately as a Webkit browser like Nokia's Mini Map. Also, navigation was inconvenient. Zooming was a chore, and the phone lacks any navigation tool beyond the 4-way center button. We were impressed with how quickly pages loaded. The phone certainly takes advantage of the fast HSDPA networking, as well as the Wi-Fi connection, which found our open network without any intervention on our part. Still, the actual Web browser was a disappointing mismatch to the high-end networking capabilities.
GPS navigation – Very Good
We were very pleased with the range of GPS features on this device, more than we would normally expect on a non-smartphone. The phone comes pre-loaded with Google Maps, and it's an impressive and unique version of the mapping app. The maps and satellite views look great on the Sony Ericsson W995's screen, and this version also uses a clever little Street View window to see the popular 360-degree view, in addition to a full screen Street View option. Outside of Google's own Android OS version on the T-Mobile G1, it's one of the better versions of Google Maps we've seen.
But the fun doesn't stop there. Sony Ericsson also includes a trial run with the Wayfinder GPS turn-by-turn navigation app. It wasn't pretty looking, not even as slick as recent TeleNav apps we've tried, but it did a good job finding our points of interest and taking us through the motions. Beyond navigation, the phone also comes with a workout and fitness recorder that uses GPS to track your run. Of course, we've seen all of these features and more on a more extensible smartphone OS, but considering the relatively locked down system on the W995, it's an impressive set of options.
Price and availability
The Sony Ericsson W995 will be available for pre-order on June 3, and for general sale on July 6, directly from Sony. The price will be approximately $600.
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