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Sony Ericsson phones are like wine, more attractive with time. At the official launch, these phones really lack something, anything that might just make you buy them. If you are a Sony Ericsson fan, then your answer will be quite violent at least in vocabulary, but for the rest of the sane people out there with some brain activity the above mentioned will be understood. The main reason for why Sony Ericsson doesn't succeed in selling from the beginning its products is bad management and marketing.


You see, their products are not all that great, let's say average (however average is good, a lot of people need and buy average products) but released on market for higher price ranges. Therefore, the obvious solution for the careful customers is to wait a few months (six months is the average time, and nine months will successfully bring you a bargain) before purchasing any Sony Ericsson phones. This is the case of Sony Ericsson Walkman W595.


Announced in July 2008, and released on September 2008, the W595 is currently offered for what it is really worth. This phone sports some key features like the 2.2 inches OVGA TFT display, the 3 megapixel digital camera, accelerometer sensor, multi tasking, stereo speakers, and the 3.5 mm audio jack. Unfortunately you can also find main disadvantages, such as the lack of auto focus, cheap plastic design, no office document view or edit, and a few more others.

Because the Sony Ericsson phones usually don't have a direct competitor, the W595 is hard to be included in a specific range. The most logic choice would be the middle audio orientated mobile phones. Even so, only Nokia has to offer a few middle range phones with audio features (with the Xpress Music), but overall the Xpress Music phones defeat by far the Walkman phones (as an overall result, while in the music department the walkman phones are with a step ahead the Xpress Music phones). With a height of 100 mm, wide of 47 mm, deep of 14 mm, the W595 weights about 104 grams.


Therefore, this phone is easy to carry around (not the smallest or lightest), featuring average dimensions and weight. For a phone made almost 70% out of plastic the W595 weights maybe a little too much. Even so, beside the plastic body, you still get a few nice finishes such as the side metallic finishes and the rubber feeling plastic on the back cover. The design is by far impressive or stylish. The phone looks normal, and the build quality is at best average.

The phone doesn't just look a little cheap but also feels so, when handled without patience. On the front cover, above the display you get beside the earpiece, an ambient light sensor, while below the display you can find the navigational pad and the dedicated music keys. Therefore, you get the four way directional keys (up, down, left, and right), centered by the okay button. The center button also has another function, the play or pause function, while the left key involves the rewind function and the right key the forward button.


You also get the call key, the end call key, the back key, two soft keys, and the menu key. Once you slide the phone you get the alphanumerical keys, which are easy to use and nice built. The keyboard is well sized and offers enough feedback for an average user. You should have no problems even if you are used to text more than call. On the right side the W595 sports the dedicated Walkman key, and the volume controls. On the other side you can find the branded connector port. On both top and bottom sides, Sony Ericsson included a stereo speaker. On the back cover you get, either opened or closed, on the upper left corner the 3 megapixel camera lens and that is about all you get, no LED flash, no Xenon flash whatsoever. This camera lacks even protective cover.

The operating system is not exactly full of business applications mostly because it is Walkman branded. Therefore, you have to expect of excellent music features and basic features in rest. This phone runs in both 2G network with GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 and 3G network with HSDPA 2100. Sony Ericsson included in the W595a 2.2 inches TFT display with 240 x 320 pixels resolution with 256000 colors, and a built in accelerometer sensor in order to enable the auto rotate function.


Even if the W595 sports an ambient light sensor, its display will not offer sufficient brightness under direct sunlight. In terms of memory, the W595 has a small onboard memory of 40 MB, expandable with Memory Stick Micro memory cards up to 8 GB. The connectivity is ensured by the GPRS Class 10 (with the common by now 4+1 / 3+2 slots) with a varying speed between 32 Kb per second to 48 Kb per second, HSCSD, EDGE Class 10 with 236.8 Kb per second, 2.0 USB connectivity, Bluetooth version 2.0 with A2DP, and HSDPA with 3.6 MB per second. On board the W595 you can find a 3.15 megapixel camera with a maximum resolution possible of 2048 x 1536 pixels.

Even more this camera is capable of video recording but only in QVGA mode with only 15 frames per second. as any other phone camera the 3.15 megapixel camera sports some nice features such as geo tagging, or editing settings, like effects, white balance and others. Sony Ericsson ships the W595 with a BST 33 Lithium Polymer battery with 950 mAh power. This battery should be enough for about 385 hours of standby time in 2G network and 365 hours of standby time in 3G network. This battery should also offer about 9 hours of talk time in 2G networks, and about 4 hours and 30 minutes in 3G networks.


Because this is a music orientated phone you should know that this battery will allow you to listen to almost 26 hours of music playback. Sony Ericsson provides the W595 with a good balanced retail package, including the USB cable, mandatory charger, a two ear piece headset with remote and two 3.5 mm audio jacks, and a 2 GB Memory Stick Micro card. Overall, after the current price drop, the Sony Ericsson W595 is more attractive than ever in terms of music. If you are looking for a music phone in the first place, then the W595 might just be what you are looking for. However, if you also want some business features or a good camera then you should keep on looking to other mobile phones because W595 is not the phone for you.