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Walkman phones? Only good for music, aren’t they? Not this one. The Sony Ericsson W995 also packs in an 8.1 megapixel camera, Wi-Fi, GPS and 16GB of storage inside. Is this the first Walkman phone to have smartphones on the run?
It so nearly could have been. The W995 is a fantastic media phone, but by sticking with its proprietary operating system, Sony Ericsson has stopped you stuffing that monster memory with 3rd party apps and games. Instead, it’s limited to carrying music, movies and pictures.
That’s not necessarily bad. If Sony Ericsson’s good at one thing, it’s cameraphones. The W995 delivers crisp shots that’re nothing short of stunning. There’s image stabilisation, face recognition and geo-tagging built in, and when it comes to music there’s Sony Ericsson’s latest Walkman software inside.
That means it’ll play tuned based on your mood, or simply let you build playlists, with the results pumped out through a standard 3.5mm socket, so you can use your own headphones too.
Meanwhile, the 2.6-inch screen might only be QVGA resolution, but it’s bright and clear so we’ll let it slide. In practice, watching videos on the W995 is a breeze, and there’s even a kickstand built into the handset.
Unfortunately, and like too many great phones, the Sony Ericsson W995 has an achilles heel. It’s the battery life: it leaks out like water through a fork. We’re not sure what’s sapping all the power, but the W995 is a battery gannet.
That said, if you can keep yourself near a plug socket, and don’t mind the lack of access to 3rd party apps and games, the W995 is a scorchingly good phone.
