The W995 under-performs where it counts. The screen is small and of a low-resolution and the web browser doesn't inspire web browsing. HSDPA, Wi-Fi and GPS are a waste with the software provided, but worst of all, the W995 is just too expensive.
Design
Here's the thing: we've been gearing up to describe the aesthetic of the W995 as a little boring. Sure, it's a sexy black number with a few pleasing touches of designer flair, but overall it looks the same as countless Sony Ericsson Walkman and Cyber-shot handsets of the last two years. The button placement, the slider, the keypad layout, all work together nicely, but there's nothing exciting here. We want something different, something new.
So while we were preparing to deliver this verdict, a funny thing happened: someone complimented the phone — this happens less frequently than you might think. A friend, having spotted the phone in our hands as we punched out an SMS, said with a cool shrug, "nice phone". Then it happened again, a different friend but a similar compliment. We drilled them for their thoughts, asking "Why do you like it? What's so cool about it?". They told us they like how solid it looked, which we won't argue against. Perhaps it's the subtle, faux wood-grain finish, but the chassis of the W995 looks like its been chiselled from stone.
But our complaints extend a little further than just its same-y Sony Ericsson look and feel, which obviously is sexier than we give it credit for. The W995 is a media-centric phone, pitched at 20-somethings who want video and music on the move. We're impressed the phone includes a 3.5mm headphone socket and comes bundled with an 8GB M2 memory card — plus Sony Ericsson has fitted a kick-stand on the back to rest the phone on a desk — but its 2.6-inch screen is totally wrong for this purpose. We loaded a bunch of video clips onto the phone and struggled to feel motivated to watch anything longer than a movie trailer on this screen size. The colour and contrast are both good, but the size and resolution is so underwhelming.
Around the edge of the W995 you can expect a few extra shortcut keys than your standard Nokia or Samsung. Alongside the dedicated camera key and charging port you find four Walkman buttons; one to open the media menu and three to control what you're listening to. Sony Ericsson gives these keys prominence, relegating the phone's volume keys to two tiny slivers at the bottom of the right-side, making it awkward to adjust volume during a call, and tricky to zoom in and out in camera mode without looking first at where to place your fingers.
Features
The "W" in its moniker tells us that the W995 belongs to Sony Ericsson's Walkman family, a well-loved range of music phones, but one that is coming to an end under the crushing weight of technology convergence. However, its Walkman branding doesn't necessarily mean the W995 has only music features.
For shoppers, the Walkman badge indicates Sony Ericsson's best audio hardware inside the phone, and a decent set of headphones in the box. Though Sony Ericsson has made the strange decision to include headphones that plug into the charging port via an adapter, even though the handset has a 3.5mm port on top. We tested the phone with a nice pair of Bang & Olufsen A8 headphones and it sounded great.
The other attention-grabbing feature is an 8.1-megapixel camera planted on the back of the handset. Matched with an LED-photolight and auto-focus, the W995 does an OK job of playing back-up camera, but we wouldn't recommend using it for important pics. Obviously, the output size is nice, but on close inspection the pictures we took were only average. Under optimal conditions, the W995 returned unnatural colours, leaning towards a pinkish hue, and the slow shutter speed left the focus soft in many of our images. Under less-than-perfect conditions, like at night or in a dark room, the W995 fails to deliver anything memorable. The photolight is great, we're impressed by how our night subjects looked at short distances, but outside of the area illuminated by the light, the images disappear into a grainy mess.
Web browsing is also disappointing. Using a NetFront browser (a relic of mobile browsing), the W995 struggles to render full-size pages. Scaled-down mobile sites, like m.cnet.com.au, is fine and fast to load, but users will find that many of the bookmarked sites on their desktops will struggle to render correctly, creating overlapping images and text on-screen. The shame here is that so many good browsers are available for Sony Ericsson to use, like Opera Mini for example. Here's hoping we see a vast improvement in this area before Sony Ericsson releases its Satio touchscreen smartphone.
Media Go
We tend not to dedicate space in a review to bundled software packages, but Sony Ericsson's Media Go deserves a special mention. Similar to iTunes, Media Go creates a library of media files and lets you sync these files with your handset. Unlike iTunes, Media Go does all the leg-work building your library; it will search your PC for compatible files and collect them in Video, Photo and Music categories.
The most significant feature of Media Go is the ability to re-encode video files before transferring them to your phone. The W995 is capable of playing MP4 and 3GP files, so Media Go takes all your other files; DivX, Xvid, WMV, etc, and converts them to an optimised MP4 file. This process takes sometime, especially if you want the software to re-encode several feature-length movies, but not having to chase a third-party program for this functionality is a godsend.
Performance
It might not have the world's best camera or an outstanding browsing experience, but the W995 does make a great mobile phone. During our tests we have no complaints about our experiences with basic phone functionality. Calling is clear and both the microphone and ear-piece speaker are solid performers. Messaging is fine too with the use of Conversations, Sony Ericsson's take on threaded SMS.
The real stand-out, however, is this phone's stellar battery life. We saw four-day cycles between charging the battery during our tests, and though exciting, this is a double-edged observation. On the one hand: four days is outstanding, on the other it serves as a reminder of how little we used this phone for watching videos and web browsing. We complain about the single-day battery life of the iPhone or of Google Android phones, but the fact is we use them more, we're inspired too by the size of their screens and zippy web browsing. The W995 entices us to neither.
Overall
On paper the W995 reads like a winner. Compare it to the iPhone and you have matching connectivity, similar media compatibility and a vastly superior camera resolution. In practice we found the W995 disappointing. Though you'll pay for HSDPA, Wi-Fi and GPS hardware, the W995 underutilises these features with poor software. As a media player, the W995 makes a fantastic music player but its small screen means it's a less-than-ideal video player, and for its RRP of AU$1109 we definitely expect more. If you want a good Sony Ericsson Walkman you'll get similar performance for half the price if you choose the W705 or a W890 instead.
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