After such a long time in the making, it’s a surprise that this phone has ever seen the light of day. Originally mentioned at the beginning of the year, retailers have seen the release date of the handset pushed back and back until it was beginning to look like the handset would never leave the manufacturer. Now it’s here, is it any good? 

The phone’s main selling point is its 4GB of memory – an impressive amount I’m sure you’ll agree – but…then what? What we have here is an MP3 player you will no doubt be paying monthly for, so obviously cost is going to be the main factor in whether or not you opt to get the handset. So, at around £450 sim free, is the handset really worth it?

Unfortunately, no. Whilst the W950i is only 15mm thick, it is let down by the fact that it is just an MP3 player you can make calls from. There’s no camera on the phone, just room for music. The large 2.6” touch screen is a nice addition though, it even coming with a stylus to make browsing even easier. The music player also supports album art which is displayed fully through the 262k colour screen.  

One of the main uses of the handset, apart from the MP3, is the 3G capabilities. Web browsing is fast and painless thanks to the inclusion of the Opera 8.0 browser and the ability to download RSS feeds, however there are no video calling facilities on the W950i. Because of this, the handset is a fantastic size. The full dimensions are 106 x 54 x 15 mm and it weighs only 112g – making this a very light handset indeed. Battery life follows suit and is phenomenal. 7.5 hours of talktime, and up to 340 hours standby means that it is possible to listen to your MP3s for hours and hours. 

Business users haven’t been forgotten about either. The Sony Ericsson W950i has a Symbian operating system, enabling users to download new applications to their phones, and has all the features of a smartphone, including a calendar, to-do list and the ability to make conference calls. Handwriting recognition is also present, so you can actually write out memos and the phone translates them into text, however like all devices with this feature it means developing crystal clear handwriting to get full use out of this feature. For the rest of us the phone includes 3D Java games, Bluetooth and an FM radio.

The Walkman side of the phone comes with the standard features, including the recent addition of TrackID which was added to the W850i. TrackID enables users to record a few seconds of a song from the radio, upload it to the server, then receive all information relating to the song, such as artist, album, song name and the year it was released. 3G makes all this instantaneous, meaning that that previously unknown song is only a few clicks away.

Song browsing has been made even easier by Sony. Instead of pressing a button to move down song by song, the W950i has a jog wheel on the side which is easy to use and enables you to scroll down lists at twice the speed. This is a welcome addition to any handset in my opinion and, seeing as there is room for 4000 tracks on the handset, means that the days of scrolling track by track are long gone.

So for those of you out there without an MP3 player (however many there are left), and who want a phone that is a reliable organiser, the W950i is up there with the best. However, for those of us who like our phones to have cameras and low prices, there are much better affordable handsets available. Unfortunately, the inevitable high price means that many users will pass this phone by and opt for the more affordable Walkman models, and who can blame them?

More Sony Ericsson Reviews

Review by - Scott Goodacre

Published - 07/11/2006

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