All Media Solutions

Sony Ericsson has created a niche for its Walkman series of devices, and the latest Smartphone in the series, the W995, will continue to push mobile multimedia functionality further.  Among its features will be an 8.1 MPx camera.

The company wants to blow our minds with its upcoming entertainment-orientated powerhouse, the Satio, but, after using the W995, we’re pretty blown away already, thanks very much. The W995 Walkman phone brings together the very best music experiences of any phone, augments this with best in class video and sharing capabilities to offer the most complete communication entertainment package to date.

This device will have a 2.6-inch, QVGA (240 x 320) screen, stereo speakers, and a 3.5mm audio jack. The W995 will also have a desk stand, enabling it to sit an angle on any flat surface for easier viewing of video and slideshows in stationary moments.

We’ve been long-time fans of Sony Ericsson Walkman music phones, but we’ve always had a huge, heavy axe to grind: the proprietary headphone socket. The adaptor that’s included with, for example, the W705 Walkman is fine for hands-free use with the included (very short) headphones, but it’s a meter long, so when we use our own headphones, we could skip with the cable. It also takes up the phone’s USB port, which is inconvenient since it necessitates unplugging the headphones every time you want to transfer music.

Wireless connectivity via Wi-Fi or 3G will enables the user to share pictures and video, or upload them to a photo service without needing a PC.However; the PC is not left out of the equation. The W995 will include Sony Ericsson’s new Media Go, a side-loading application which integrates the W995 with Windows PCs in order to transfer music, videos, photos, playlists, and podcasts between the two devices.

As well as an FM radio, the W995 has some wacky music features like TrackID, which can identify a song based on a clip of a few seconds, and SensMe, which displays your music on a graph of happy/sad and fast/slow. In our tests, these features gave accurate results, but we’re not sure if we would take advantage of them in day-to-day use.

This Smartphone will use the Access Net Front Web browser. It will also have email software with support for Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync.The W995 will have a GPS receiver, and be able to geo-tag photos. It will have a tablet design with a sliding number pad.

The Sony Ericsson W995 Walkman will be available in Q2 in selected markets and in three color choices:  Black, Silver, and Red.