Supersonyc Performer (Sony Ericsson W595)

Member Name: icetsunami

Product:	Sony Ericsson W595
Date:	12/10/09 (23 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Stylish and stand out music player

Disadvantages: Poor camera in most conditions

I recently had technical issues with my phone which meant a quick move to a different handset. After much pointless deliberation I decided to downgrade to this handset as my contract still had some time left to run and I didn't want to spend a fortune.

First impressions:

I have never been a fan of Sony Ericsson phones before. The design has always been 'not quite' what I wanted, particularly the later models. I did find the W595 quite pretty and stylish with no quirky button arrangements or extreme colours. The design incorporates a nice sliding mechanism which feels solid and the whole phone is small and tidy.

Tech Spec:

Dimensions 47x100x14 mm
Weight 104 gm
Network GSM 850/900/1800/1900, UMTS/HSDPA 2100
Screen 2.2" QVGA 240x320
Phonebook 1000 entries
Memory 40mb plus M2 support
Battery Li-ion 950mAH
Standby Up to 385 hours, 3G-384 hours
Talktime Up to 540 minutes, 3G-270 minutes
Polyphonic ringtones
MP3
Video capture 15 fps
Audio MP3, WAV, AAC, WMA
HSDPA 3.6 Mbps
EDGE Class 10, 236.8 kbps
GPRS Class 10 (4+1/3+2 slots)
Bluetooth v 2.0
USB port (mini)
Browser WAP 2.0/xHTML
Java supported
Camera CMOS, 3.2 Megapixel
Digital zoom 2.5x
Max resolution 2048 x 1536
No flash
Night mode

Usability:

Well, its a good solid performer. Sound and call quality are both good and the battery life is above average in what I'd call real life terms. I have made heavy use of the web browser with no noticable hit on power enabling the phone to last 2 or 3 days of general use also.

The screen is small but of good quality and I have to say that the interface is very nice looking. Plenty of themes are available and the layout of the menus is relatively intuitive. Hotkeys are sensibly placed and both the keypad and front surface are uncluttered. The phone itself is available in several colours though I chose the dark grey.

As always the audio support is of a high quality with the Walkman branding. There is a good range of file support and the quality is good too. The control method is simple to use and there is a feature where you can change the track by shaking the phone.

The camera is the main area of weakness with this phone. At 3.2 megapixels it's a the bottom end of what you should expect from a modern phone. The lack of a flash is a disaster but there is a night mode for difficult conditions. There are a variety of effects that can be applied to your pictures but overall its a disappointment. Good photos are available but you need optimum conditions.

The usual additions are present in the form of organisers and alarms etc but the most useful feature for me is the favourites hotkey to access sites such as Google and Youtube.

Final opinion:

Well to say that I downgraded phones, I am very pleased with this handset. Its small form, stylish design and mulitple features make it a good all round phone. I would say that it is capable of standing toe to toe with the average modern phone. Unless you are looking for a high spec cutting edge handset with the hot features such as touch sensitivity, OLED screen, GPS and wi-fi then this will be a good choice.

Summary: Excellent phone

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