Posted by Mia in 
To call Sony Ericsson W995 beautiful is not an easy thing to do. Rather, it is nice, although a black «brick» could hardly seem nice. Then it can still be assumed that the novelty is executed in a strict style, with elements of light decor. The use of a silver color, with which all the keys and inserts on the lower and upper ends are painted, should be noted as well.
By the way, at the upper end, under the small nets (they quickly «fill» with dust), are the dynamics for the polyphony and in the middle – oh, miracle, a 3.5-mm jack for connecting headphones. In fact, this is the first device from Sony Ericsson (XPERIA is not in account, as HTC is produced), on which this connector is present.
At the back of the Sony Ericsson W995 is a metal rack for putting the phone on the table or any flat surface. Many people (especially on the eve of holidays), take it for a bottle «opener», and some – for a «holder» for the strap. They can be understood; the designers have outsmarted themselves.
At the right end the key of the player management is brought out and the volume regulation button and the camera. At the left end are the start button and the universal connector player. The back cover is made of metal, securely held by a special latch. The grey plastic on the back of the upper lid mat, decorated with circles, looks funny and dilutes the dominance of black.
As for the tactile convenience, there is a problem – the unit slips from the hands at every opportunity, as it is made of slippery (sorry for the tautology) materials.
Keyboard and display
As we see in the photo, Sony Ericsson W995 is simply packed with buttons, so there are already 8 contextual keys. I must say it does not lead to erroneous clicking, the distance between the keys allows to recommend the device, even to a big male.
But the keys of dial are not so comfortable. It is desirable to press them with a finger nail, because the finger pad covers two keys at once – this is one problem, the buttons are barely raised above the surface and the touch is not expressed – this the second one. Personally, I had errors occurring time to time during the typing. The white lighting is not bright, but smooth, and the symbols are clearly legible in the dark.
Also, the experience showed that to govern the speaker volume during a call is inconvenient – the key is not at hand, as well as its modest size … well, you understand.
The qualitative display is one of the chips of W995. Its physical size of 2.6 inches is ideal for such a multimedia phone. As shown, the screen is really good – high brightness with a margin, large viewing angles, juicy colors, coupled with accurate color, ultra-fine grain. Besides, the well-traced menu icons with a large font, that users with poor eyesight will appreciate, should be noted. On the sun the picture is well seen, you can even make images using the screen as a viewfinder, which will, by all means, be useful if there is a 8-MP camera on board.
The menu does not differ (at least I did not notice) from that of earlier models. It is simple, logical, not inhibitory, with the ability of display in one of the three types. Of course, you can choose one of the five themes that look quite stylish.
Camera
An 8-MP auto-focus camera is installed in the W995 with a LED flash as an assistant. After pressing the power key (in the camera mode, it is highlighted in white), three seconds pass, after which the image appears on the display, another two seconds are spent on taking the white balance. The menu of the photo supplement is the same as in previous models, such as the C905. The functions available to the user can be seen on the screenshots, it should only be added that the possibility of recognizing a person works once in awhile.
In the fully automatic mode, the camera stubbornly did not want to switch to the «macro», only after a manual switching it was possible to obtain sharp images, made at close range.
In the W995, like in many cell phones with GPS,you can put geo-markers on images to see afterwards the place of shooting through the Google-maps.
The player and radio
The quality of reproduction is good, but it could be better. The volume was decent, and the possibility of moving small overhead headphones was pleasing. But it was not so with the flat sound, no matter how you turn the EQs or change the settings. I compared the new one with the Nokia N96, and the Finnish child provides more natural (not to mention the volume), live sound that was clear from the first chords.
Of course, a breakdown of the music content is supported, including “by years” or by the tempo of playback – the SenseMe feature.
It should be noted that the “fade in and fade out” works pleasantly, the rewind within a track is performed smartly. The side buttons are comfortable after a slight adjustment; they can be used with your eyes closed.
For music fans it should be noted that you can connect two pairs of headphones – via a standard connector, and through the Sony-Ericson one on the left end. It is a trifle, but a pleasant one.
By the way I turned out to have a compact MS410 «column» for «Sony-Ericsons». It connects to the phone via the company’s plug FastPort at the end, the accessory is installed on the table and … the song flows. It seems that some fans of listening to music in public places will appreciate this device because the speaker gives a decent volume. How much does it cost? It is promised to be announced in summer, if oil prices do not fall together with the «wood».
The radio has no problems with reception, certainly not in the city; outside the city problems like noise and interference are possible. RDS is working correctly, the memory for radio points is little – only 20 cells. According to the tradition, not departing from the cashier, you can find out the name of the composition in air – TackId function at your service.
Other functions
Enough toys- seven pieces, some of them engage a position sensor, such as bowling, Diamond Islands or Nitro Street Racing. By the way, in W995 only full versions of games are presented, not demos, as in some tubes of Samsung.
There is also a WiFi, the sensitivity is average, near the access points it operates normally. The navigation is represented by well-known applications, Google Maps or Wayfinder, nothing new there.
Also there are convenient file manager, and five independent alarms with the possibility of fine tuning.
Someone will like the Music Quiz supplement, something like «guess the melody» game, in which you guess an excerpt from the song sounding from the tube library.
Someone will consider funny VoiceFX, – a funny program to change the voices, sounds, etc.
The fact that a standard audio point is installed in the Sony Ericsson W995 is a great job. After all, how much time it took for this simple operation …
The device will definitely be a success! Good sound, an 8-MP camera, a beautiful display, and a lot of other goods are there on board of the W995. The set will be supplied with an 8 GB memory card, which is pleasant and necessary for a musical model.
