The Surprising Sony Ericsson W595

By Author: Jerry Smith
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In this day and age of connectivity and information sharing, who can live without a cellular phone? These wonderfully useful devices, allow us to send text messages, make phone calls, make audio recordings, take photos and videos, enjoy multimedia, store and share files, and access the World-Wide Web with a few easy clicks. What's more, we are able to do all this with a bundle of hardware and software that is about the size of our hand!

The acceleration of information and communications technology has lead to the emergence of newer, faster, more multi-functional handsets, and one striking example of these new-generation devices is the Sony Ericsson W595. At just 100 x 47 x 14 mm and weighing in at only 104 grams, this latest addition to the Sony Ericsson arsenal sports the latest hardware and software that today's busy workers and feature-hungry consumers are looking for.

The Sony Ericsson W595's hardware

Although the Sony Ericsson W595 doesn't look as sleek or modern as many of its competitors, in this ...
... case, looks may indeed be deceiving. Its monochromatic, relatively bulky appearance and small screen (2.2 inches) are counter-balanced by it's TFT (Thin Film Transistor), boasting a bold QVGA display with a 256,000-color range and a layout that is easy on the eyes. An accelerometer keeps track of tilting, and allows users to view the screen in portrait or layout mode.

A built-in camera allows for easy photo and video taking.

Quad band network technology enables users to switch between GSM 900, 850, 1900 & 18OO. This means that you can basically take this phone anywhere in the world, and it will still work well.

By using a 950mAh battery (which Nokia used for its far more energy-consuming N96), the W595 can enable its users to talk for nine hours, or to have 385 hours of standby time/the W595 can support a talk time of 9 hours and a standby time of 385 hours.

A loud speaker phones allows users to talk, hands-free, even in noisy environments.

The W595's Software

Some interesting features of the W595 are:
- A Walkman with a TrackID system that keeps track of the details of each music file (such as name, artist, album, etc.). Users can opt to change tracks by simply shaking the device.
- SensMe software that monitors your mood and selects tracks accordingly, so you don't have to worry about song selection
- FM radio with RDS capability—so you can surf a wide array of radio stations with ease and clarity of reception
- Built-in games and the ability to download new games, which, when combined with the W595's powerful battery, translates to hours of gaming fun
- A WAP 2.0, xHTML & HTML web browser, and of course, internet, and USB port access
- Bluetooth v2.0 with A2DP, which accommodates music handling much better than other phones that claim to be specially designed for music.
- 3.6Mbps HSDPA with a user-friendly mobile browser that makes up for the W595s relatively small screen
- An integrated YouTube application, as well as the ability to upload images to social networking sites like MySpace, Facebook, etc. The newer versions also provide access to Skype, eBay and Windows Live Messenger.
- Image-scaling capabilities, which allows the W595 to be used as a storage device, as well as a copy-paste feature

Some of the W595's Limitations

Although the Sony Ericsson W595 has a 3.2MP camera, Walkman apparently forgot or neglected to include a flash.

Finally, there is no jack that will allow users to use headphones instead of speakers/the lack of a standard 3.5 mm jack limits users to use headphones, which is perhaps the biggest hitch, since everybody has times when privacy is the best option.
Jerry Smith, the editor of http://www.mobilephoneonly.co.uk. An expert on mobile phone and an observer of UK telecommunication market. He writes reviews on latest mobile phones, and also suggests promotional deals and special offers from mobile phone retailers in UK.