The Sony Ericsson W950 is an exciting new addition to the Walkman line. It is a genuine 3G smartphone based on the Symbian 9.1 UIQ 3.0 with a stylish and yet classical design. The large touchscreen TFT display with QVGA resolution is yet another fascinating feature for the nerd market, but it’s pretty stunning for the average user.
On top of that, the 4GB of free space and the dedicated multimedia keys will make any music lover happy – and you have Bluetooth 2.0 with the A2DP profile for stereo headphones, plus a 3.5mm audio jack adapter to plug them in.
Neat extras include a Notes app that can take keyed input or handwriting. And just look at that battery life!
Nothing’s perfect, though. There’s no camera, no memory card slot (and multimedia content is now being sold on memory cards), no WiFi, and a surprisingly uncomfortable keypad.
In the end, it comes down to priorities. The W950 is a great smartphone, a great phone, and a great music player … if you don’t expect your phone to take pictures and you aren’t into texting. That terrific display would have put a WiFi capability to a good use, too, but that would have added to the price.
l Another high-end winner from Sony Ericsson.
FEATURES 90%
SALEABILITY 90%
Neat extras include a Notes app that can take keyed input or handwriting. And just look at that battery life!
Nothing’s perfect, though. There’s no camera, no memory card slot (and multimedia content is now being sold on memory cards), no WiFi, and a surprisingly uncomfortable keypad.
In the end, it comes down to priorities. The W950 is a great smartphone, a great phone, and a great music player … if you don’t expect your phone to take pictures and you aren’t into texting. That terrific display would have put a WiFi capability to a good use, too, but that would have added to the price.
l Another high-end winner from Sony Ericsson.
FEATURES 90%
SALEABILITY 90%
SPECIFICATION
Size
Length 106mm
Width 54mm
Depth 15mm
Weight
112g
Main display
TFT touchscreen, 256K colours, 240x320 pixels, 32x42mm
Camera
no
Connectivity
Triband GSM, 3G, USB 2.0, IR, Bluetooth 2.0
Battery
Standby 340h
Talk time 7.5h
Features
Symbian OS v9.1, UIQ 3.0, 4GB shared memory, Walkman media player, Opera 8.0 web browser
Size
Length 106mm
Width 54mm
Depth 15mm
Weight
112g
Main display
TFT touchscreen, 256K colours, 240x320 pixels, 32x42mm
Camera
no
Connectivity
Triband GSM, 3G, USB 2.0, IR, Bluetooth 2.0
Battery
Standby 340h
Talk time 7.5h
Features
Symbian OS v9.1, UIQ 3.0, 4GB shared memory, Walkman media player, Opera 8.0 web browser