TechRadar Verdict
We liked the Sony Ericsson W995 - it's still very much a music phone, and it does it better than virtually anything bar the iPod, and even though its camera isn't quite at the top of the 8 megapixel game, it's certainly good enough to make it worth your while
Pros
- +
Walkman music player
- +
8.1 megapixel camera
- +
Decent quality headphones
- +
Supplied loudspeaker
- +
A-GPS
- +
Wi-Fi and HSDPA 3G
Cons
- -
Camera disappointing
- -
Battery life could be better
- -
Weak video stand
Why you can trust TechRadar We spend hours testing every product or service we review, so you can be sure you're buying the best. Find out more about how we test.
The Sony Ericsson W995 is the latest phone to carry the famous Walkman name.
Sony Ericsson's music-oriented Walkman series and photography-centred Cybershot series have been drawing closer for a while now, as the camera phone's music player has improved and the music player's camera has got steadily better.
SIDE: it's not the slimmest slider phone, but it does pack a lot of features
But before we get to that, we have a wealth of buttons to get through, namely the six semicircles surrounded the circular D-pad on the front (call start and stop, plus two soft keys, cancel and the shortcuts menu), and the music controls on the right side, plus a volume/zoom rocker and camera shutter button.
BUTTONS: each button takes on a different role depending what you're doing
On the left side there's Sony Ericsson's Fast Port power socket, a dedicated Walkman button and the Memory Stick Micro slot, though it's hidden under the back cover.
At the top there's a 3.5mm headphone jack (at last!) while on the back is the 8.1 megapixel lens (wot, no cover? For shame…), LED flash and a small metal flip stand so you can set it somewhere handy to watch video.
It's right at the end of the phone though and ours kept falling over until we realised it worked best with the slider open.