SonyEricsson W 995

SonyEricsson W995
(Review)

Try to define Convergence and you will get your answer in Sony Ericsson's best multimedia phone W995- Cyber-shot + Walkman. The latest 8 megapixel camera, Walkman 4.0 player, large display, GPS, Wi-Fi along with Shake control and SensMe additives.

The Sony Ericsson W995 is a slider measuring 97 x 49 x 15 mm and weighs around 113 g. All the colors, Progressive Black, Cosmic Silver and Energetic Red are quite attractive. Brushed metal finish gives it a stylish and sturdy look. Round D-pad and semicircular buttons below the large 2.6 inches screen make a style statement. The keypad is revealed by sliding the phone open. The keys are comfortable and very responsive.

The display is sharp and its easy to see in dark as well as in direct sunlight. The sliding mechanism is smooth. Flash based user interface is very captivating with beautiful animations and graphics. It can be customized using various themes. There are four options for the menu layout - theme based, 3 x 4 grid of icons, rotating view and single icon view.

Walkman:
Sony Ericsson W995 features Walkman 4.0 player which has the skinning support. The player supports most file formats and has many equalizer presets. The dedicated Walkman key adds to the convenience. The music control keys on the side glow so that they can be used easily in the dark. Another delight which is very sort after these days is the 3.5 mm audio jack. 'Now playing' screen offers all required controls.

Sony Ericsson's proprietary Shake control is fun. It allows you to change the current track in the playlist or shuffle your entire playlist by simply shaking your handset.

SensMe is an interesting approach to select a playlist. There is a vertical axis determining the tempo - fast to slow, and a horizontal axis determining the mood - sad to happy. Songs are shown as dots placed accordingly and you use a circle to select the one fitting your mood. But for SenseMe to work, the songs must be tagged by the Sony Ericsson Media Manager software.

Audio quality of Sony Ericsson W995 is one of the best among the mobile phones till date.

Camera:
The latest 8.1 megapixel camera is the other attraction of this phone. A dedicated key on the right side activates it. The camera is autofocus, has LED flash for dim light shots, geo-tagging, face detection and delivers fantastic shots. The picture quality is amazing. One minus point is that there's no camera lens protection.

But most eye catching feature at the back of the phone is the kickstand used to hold the phone while watching a video but is not very stable.

Video player:
The video player supports WQVGA@30fps.The player runs in fast-forward, rewind and slow-motion. It can play in landscape and full screen mode. A good feature of the video player is that you can take screenshot of a frame of video and add it to the picture gallery. You can play it frame by frame too. but there is no support for DivX or XviD or any other advanced video codec which is a disadvantage given that 8GB memory was good enough to store videos and kickstand facilitates group viewing.

Media Center:
The Media Center allows instant access to the Photos, Music, Videos, Games and Web Feeds. Sony Ericsson W995 supports DLNA, which allows you to play media on the phone (music, pictures, videos, etc.) on a DLNA compatible device like TV, Computer etc. over a wireless connection. The photo gallery manages a big collection of pictures with options like latest snapshot, timeline view and tags. The Slide show enhancers are the background music and transition effects. Geo-tagging allows to view the location where the picture was taken on Google Map.

GPS:
Google Maps for Mobile is preinstalled on SonyEricsson W995 where you can see information about your current location and get possible route by defining start and end location but you must have internet access for this. Two view modes are available - Satellite and Map. You can also get Traffic information if it is available for that location on Google maps.

Connectivity:
SonyEricsson W995 is compatible with almost all 2G and 3G networks on this earth, so there is hardly any place where it won't work.

For inter device connectivity it is equipped with Bluetooth v2.0 and a USB port. The A2DP lets you listen music on stereo Bluetooth headset. The phone comes with SonyEricsson's MediaGo media sync manager which is a computer based software that can be used to transfer your music, videos, games etc. from your PC to Sony Ericsson phone.

For internet, there is Wi-Fi with DLNA support. As you switch on Wi-Fi, you get a list of the available wireless hot spots which connects you quickly. If there is no Wi-Fi around you can use GPRS or other high speed connections if available.

Sony Ericsson W995 has an Access NetFront browser v3.4 that enables detailed web pages rendered properly. The auto-rotate feature opens web pages in full-screen landscape mode that looks good. The web browser offers a virtual mouse pointer and 'Find on page' option.

Messaging:
While composing a message, you can attach pictures, videos and sounds and send as MMS. 'Conversations' are set of messages exchanged with a single contact. Emails are as easily accessible as other messages. It can automatically download the settings of Gmail account also. But W995 can not open documents that are attached to emails like .doc, .xls, or .pdf files as there is no document reader although it can store these attachments.

The Organizer:
The organizer that is accessed from the main menu contains all regular applications like File manager, Alarm, Video call, Calendar, Tasks, Notes, Synchronization, Timer, Stopwatch, Light and Calculator. The Voice recorder has no limit to recording length, it only depends upon the free memory available. Apart from these other applications include MusicDJ that creates custom polyphonic melodies and VideoDJ for making your own video clips by mixing existing videos with pictures, text and effects and adding background music.

Applications:
SonyEricsson W995 is packed with several interesting applications like CamPlus, Comeks Strips, Music Mate 5, Music Quiz, Rock Bobblehead, Sound Sensor, VoiceFX, Walk Mate and a YouTube client.

You can make your on comic strips by adding speech bubbles and other comic like additions to your pictures using Comeks Strips application and send them as MMS.

Music Mate 5 is a very interesting application that allows you to play music by shaking your handset. Different musical instruments can be chosen for different direction.

Walk Mate is an application that can count your steps while walking and can be set as wallpaper. It is based on accelerometer.

YouTube client lets you upload your video clips to share them with your friends.

Games:
Sony Ericsson W995 comes with seven preinstalled games namely Bowling, Bubble Town, Diamond Island, Real Football 2008, Guitar Rock Tour, Nitro Street Racing and Playman Extreme Running. Few games like Bowling use motion sensor that makes it great fun. You can play it with your friends too.

Features at a glance:

Network Compatibility	2G - GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 3G - HSDPA 900 / 2100
Dimensions & weight	97 x 49 x 15 mm , 113 g Colors - Progressive Black, Cosmic Silver, Energetic Red
Display	240 x 320 pixels, 2.6 inches TFT, 256K colors Accelerometer sensor
Sound & Music	Walkman 4.0 player Downloadable polyphonic, MP3, AAC ringtones stereo speakers 3.5 mm audio jack Radio - Stereo FM radio with RDS MP3/AAC player TrackID music recognition
Memory	118 MB internal Memory Stick Micro (M2), up to 8GB
Internet	GPRS - Class 10 (4+1/3+2 slots), 32 - 48 kbps, HSCSD EDGE - Class 10, 236.8 kbps HSDPA, 7.2 Mbps HSUPA, 2 Mbps Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g, DLNA Browser - WAP 2.0/HTML (NetFront), RSS reader YouTube application
Connectivity	Bluetooth - v2.0 with A2DP USB - v2.0
GPS	with A-GPS support; Wayfinder navigator
Camera	Primary - 8.1 MP, 3264x2448 pixels, autofocus, LED flash Geo-tagging, face detection, image stabilizer Video - WQVGA @30fps Secondary - Videocall camera MPEG4 player Picture editor/blogging
Messaging	SMS, MMS, Email, IM
Games	interesting motion based games + downloadable
More features	Shake control SensMe Kickstand Java - MIDP 2.0 Organizer Voice memo/dial Vibration mode
Battery	Li-Po 930 mAh (BST-38) Standby - Up to 370 h (2G) / Up to 360 h (3G) Talk Time - Up to 9 h (2G) / Up to 4 h (3G) Up to 20 h music

Disadvantages:

Office document viewer absent
lens protection not there
No DivX / XviD video support
little heavy in weight
the kickstand provided could be more stronger and stable

Advantages:

8 MP Camera
Walkman 4.0 music player
Large screen with good resolution
WQVGA video recording at 30fps
Built-in GPS with A-GPS functionality
Wi-Fi with DLNA support
Multi-tasking support
kickstand
3.5 mm audio jack

Sony Ericsson W995 is the best convergence device from SonyEricsson till date complete with super camera ultimate music, exciting games and applications. Now you need not choose between Walkman and a Cyber-shot.

Audio quality of Sony Ericsson W995 is one of the best among the mobile phones till date.

Games: Sony Ericsson W995 comes with seven preinstalled games namely Bowling, Bubble Town, Diamond Island, Real Football 2008, Guitar Rock Tour, Nitro Street Racing and Playman Extreme Running. Few games like Bowling use motion sensor that makes it great fun. You can play it with your friends too.

Games:
Sony Ericsson W995 comes with seven preinstalled games namely Bowling, Bubble Town, Diamond Island, Real Football 2008, Guitar Rock Tour, Nitro Street Racing and Playman Extreme Running. Few games like Bowling use motion sensor that makes it great fun. You can play it with your friends too.