The latest from Sony Ericsson’s Walkman branded mobile handsets is the uber-cool slider, the W995 that’s also loaded with an 8MP shooter. So from music to pictures, how does the W995 fare? Allow me to give you my opinion.

Form Factor
I won’t say it’s sexy because I think that would feminize the handset just a little bit and although I have seen a girl use it, I’m of the strong opinion, and I say this without a hint of a sexist syllable, that this looks and feels like a guys handset. It’s slick with a super smooth pop slider, has a 2.6-inch TFT LCD with a 240 x 320 pixel resolution and 256K colors with an accelerometer for specific screens. The keys are well laid out under the display around the large five way nav-pad. The same goes for the main keypad. The keys are properly spaced and most conducive to speedy typing. A VGA camera is located above the display for video calls and a rather responsive light sensor is just a little to its side.

On one side is Sony Ericsson’s ‘infamous’ all-in one port, but wait, this time around, they’ve also included a secondary 3.5mm earphone socket on the top of the handset. This way you can listen to music while charging the phone. The handsfree connector also has a 3.5mm socket. A Walkman key that takes you straight to the music player is also located on the same side. The M2 card hot-swap slot is just under the rear panel on the same side. On the opposite side is where you’ll find a dedicated camera key, volume/zoom keys and dedicated music keys for playing/pausing and skipping tracks.

Aside from the 8 megapixel camera lens and LED flash (that doubles as a torch) that can be found at the back, Sony Ericsson has also included a prop up stand. This will allow you to prop the handset up and enjoy your videos or music via the handset’s stereo speakers at the bottom and top a little bit more comfortably.

Also included in the packaging is Sony Ericsson’s Pocket Home Theater portable speaker, It’s very light weight and provides kick-ass sound that really enhances the whole W995 bundle. Of course you can use it with any other SE handset but it’s bundled with this one along with an 8GB M2 card. BRILLIANT!

Features and Performance
Interface
There’s still absolutely nothing new with the Sony Ericsson UI. It’s exactly the same with animations galore as part of almost all preloaded themes. The Accelerometer still only works with specific features like the browser and media options. So like I said, nothing new, but I’m not really complaining. Sure I’d like to so something different, but the W995 is smooth and relatively quick when it comes to activating functions etc. so no worries. Messaging via the conversations feature is a lot easier than simple ‘Reply to’.