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Sony Ericsson W995 review:

Sony Ericsson W995 spec sheet: Brushed metal body parts Quad-band GSM, dual-band HSDPA 2.6" 256K-color TFT display of QVGA resolution 8.1 megapixel camera with autofocus, LED flash, geo-tagging, face detection WQVGA video recording at 30fps Built-in GPS with A-GPS functionality Wi-Fi with DLNA support Bluetooth (with A2DP) and USB v2.0 Accelerometer sensor 118MB of internal memory and M2 memory expansion (8GB card included) Stereo speakers 3.5 mm audio jack Kickstand Walkman 4.0 music player with Shake control and SensMe FM radio with RDS Multi-tasking support Smart dialing Comfortable keypad, nice sliding mechanism Convergence is the buzzword and the Cyber-shot Walkman affair-turned-marriage is busy producing offspring. And hey, the young Sony Ericsson W995 sure makes the first-born W902 look like a helpless orphan. Easily the best equipped feature phone of the house, Sony Ericsson W995, still more popular as Hikaru, packs in all there is to find at the top of the company portfolio. The full set of connectivity options, the biggest screen on a Sony Ericsson feature phone to date, GPS, Wi-Fi and the great user interface make a sweet enough package on their own. But in the case of W995 they're just the perfect background for the unprecedented blend of music and imaging. The Cyber-shot line is graciously lending its 8 megapixel triumph, while the music dowry includes the latest Walkman 4.0 player, with all the bare Walkman necessities such as Shake control and SensMe. And there's more to make it even sweeter. We called it a marriage and Sony Ericsson have taken due care of the wedding presents. We don't know what else to call the kickstand and the on-board 3.5 mm audio jack. Main disadvantages: Video recording limited to WQVGA No lens protection No DivX/XviD video support (though it's touted as a video-centric phone) Kickstand construction could've been more reliable No office document viewer Audio Quality Sony Ericsson W995 is certainly one of the best efforts from the company in terms of audio quality. It easily ranks among the best examples currently on the market getting an impressive number on every reading in our test. We've been quite worried over the past few devices by Sony Ericsson that went through our sound lab but the W995 clearly shows that they are simply exceptions from the company's otherwise excellent record. The phone flaunts an amazing frequency response keeping within the +-1db range effortlessly with only the lowest of frequencies slightly cut off. Furthermore, for most of its range it is right on the perfect track. Noise level and dynamic range readings are praiseworthy and so are the distortion levels. The crosstalk is also excellent, adding up to one of the industry best quality audio outputs to date. FM radio and FM transmitter The FM radio on the Sony Ericsson W995 supports RDS and TrackID. You can store up to 20 stations and use the auto save feature to scan and save stations automatically. The radio can be minimized to play in the background and controlled via the Walkman keys but, unlike the music player, it doesn't have any visualization on the home screen, not even the RDS info. The previous/next buttons can be used for tuning in - one short click for going 0.1 MHz up or down, and a longer press for switching between saved stations. Update: Due to the high user interest, we want to make it clear that our test Sony Ericsson W995 didn't have a built-in FM transmitter and despite all the rumors we have no reason to believe that the final retail unit will have that as well. Sony Ericsson have never announced that the W995 will have the feature and further discussions on the matter seem redundant. Walkman is catching up with Cyber-shot The 8 megapixel power of the W995 is harnessed in the friendly and efficient camera interface which we've known - and appreciated - across a number of high-end Cyber-shot handsets such as the C905. While the handling and features are quite familiar, the camera quality is not what we expected - no, a Walkman is not a Cyber-shot. The picture quality of the W995 snapper is just adequate, while on the C905 it's exceptional. Bear in mind though that this is a pre-release unit and the final quality may differ from our test shots. The ultra quick-snapping BestPic mode has two varieties - fast and slow. In fast mode it produces 7 full-size 8 megapixel images at intervals of about 0.8 sec, while in slow mode it takes 7 images again but at a longer interval of about 1.7 sec. Sadly, the flash is unusable in either of the two modes. With a built-in GPS receiver, the Sony Ericsson W995 is capable of putting standard GPS coordinates in images. You can enable geotagging (Add position) from the settings to add GPS location data to your pictures. A flag icon at the bottom of the viewfinder indicates that the option is activated. A satellite icon in the top left corner shows that the phone is attempting to get a GPS lock. The proper geo-tagging of images requires some time for the GPS to lock position. The successful lock is depicted by a set of green stripes in the upper right corner of the camera viewfinder (right next to the satellite icon). You can, of course, speed up the process by enabling the Assisted-GPS function, but this generates extra data traffic on your account so bear that in mind. When browsing tagged images in the gallery, the View on map option displays the place where the picture was taken directly on the preinstalled Google Maps. The Sony Ericsson W995 has a Power LED flash, which is also used as a focus assist beam. The flash is pretty bright and surprisingly effective in dark conditions. Of course, nothing can really compare to a xenon flash, but it still does a nice job and can be used for video recording. The dedicated macro mode in the W995 allows you to take images from as close as 10 cm. The optional silent shutter is also a feature worth mentioning. The one shortcoming we found with the W995 concerns the one-way menu layout - to get to the Extra settings you have to go through all the other settings on the toolbar as it's the last item there. Looped browsing of items on the toolbar should have been possible, as with the camera interfaces of competing brands. This problem persists in W902, C905 and other previous Sony Ericsson phones. So what's up with the picture quality? Unlike the 8 megapixel Cyber-shot C905 - whose photos astonished us - the W995 suffers a similar problem to all other Walkman phones: the pictures are noisy and oversharpened, and the lively colors and contrast are gone. Another old friend makes an appearance here too - the purple fringing on the edge of buildings. Even the picture detail is less than on the C905. But, hey, don't get too gloomy over this - the overall impression is good. The W995 camera catches the moment just as any Cyber-shot does. It has almost all of its features and the photo quality is reasonably satisfying. There is certainly work to be done on the image processing algorithm and we really hope this will happen before the phone is out on the market. Finally, a picture is worth thousand words, so here come several camera samples produced by the Sony Ericsson W995. All-inclusive connectivity The connectivity options of W995 are full on. Quad-band GSM/HSCSD/GPRS/EDGE and 3G are all on board, so there is virtually no spot on earth where you will be unable to connect. In addition, you've got the fastest data transfer around provided that a HSDPA-enabled network is available. Besides the network-based connectivity, Sony Ericsson W995 offers the usual Bluetooth v2.0 and USB options. There is also support for the A2DP profile which allows you to listen to music on a stereo Bluetooth headset. The other major connectivity feature is the built-in Wi-Fi with DLNA support, and GPS with A-GPS support rounds out the list. Last, but not least, there is also the M2 card slot, which is often one of the quickest ways of transferring data to and from the phone. Apart from its imaging prowess, the W995 is notable for having Wi-Fi among its connectivity options. It's integrated rather well in the user interface and is quite user-friendly. Once you turn Wi-Fi on, you get a list of the available wireless hot spots and connecting is a matter of single click. It is also available via "My shortcuts" in case you don't want to go hunting for it in the menus. The web browser and all other data traffic is re-routed through the Wi-Fi connection by default. If your Wi-Fi connection is lost, the browser automatically starts to use GPRS or higher speed network connections when available. And you don't have to guess whether Wi-Fi is enabled or not as there is an icon on the top status bar. Auto connect, Wi-Fi networks priority, and assigning a favorite network are among some of the very practical features in the Wi-Fi interface. Additional settings allow you to search networks by their SSID, check your connection status or MAC address (you cannot change that). Browsing is sweet The Sony Ericsson W995 has an Access NetFront browser v3.4 featuring the extended custom home screen, also available in many previous Sony Ericsson handsets (like W902, W595, C905, G705 and T700, which we recently reviewed). Elaborate web pages are rendered well and there are lots of configurable settings too. The dedicated full screen mode is replaced by the auto-rotate feature, which actually opens it in full-screen landscape mode and looks great on the big screen. View modes include Text only, Pan and Zoom, and Zoom page. The Panning/scrolling speed is up to standard. The Sony Ericsson W995 web browser offers a virtual mouse pointer, which is a real pleasure to work with. Another interesting and practical feature is the "Find on page" option. It searches the loaded web page and the first match is immediately listed as soon as you type a letter. Lots of apps As far as the additional applications are concerned, the Sony Ericsson W995 comes with several preinstalled: CamPlus, Comeks Strips, Music Mate 5, Music Quiz, Rock Bobblehead, Sound Sensor, VoiceFX, Walk Mate and a YouTube client. Location services and knowing your way around Available to download for free and compatible with a variety of mobile OS and Java-enabled handsets, Google Maps for Mobile comes preinstalled on the W995. With Location services you can get help finding your way, view information about your current location and save your favorite locations. To use all the features of Location services, internet access is a must. Overall Conclusion: Sony Ericsson W995 is the company's top-ranking Walkman and its spec sheet is clearly set to justify this label. The Flash-based user interface, which we've praised repeatedly, seems to be only getting better. There are no gaps in the connectivity set and the 3.5 mm audio jack is a long-awaited blessing. Sony Ericsson W995 not only spares users the agonizing choice between Walkman and Cyber-shot. It has simply harvested all the high-end goodies and leaves nothing else to want. And all that skill is packed in a compact, solid and stylish body. Now, it's not hard to believe it was all too easy for Sony Ericsson to get carried away. Amid the first ever and best ever hype they somehow overlooked video. Just like Sony Ericsson by the way, and it wouldn't have been a big deal if they didn't make a big deal of it themselves. Why bother put a kickstand when the commitment to great video was never taken seriously? No kickstand can make up for the lack of codec support, inadequate screen resolution and no widescreen aspect ratio. And still, the poor video is the only major grudge with W995. We just hope it doesn't need to be reminded that the devil's in the details. In all fairness, video should not be make or break for the majority of users, especially when all the rest is up to scratch. It's just that Sony Ericsson W995 will be held to a higher standard. It can't help it, just like it can't help the heavy smartphone fire on the high end of premium all-in-ones. Rating Against Price: **** A '4 Star'. Recommended!