Sony Ericsson W395 review

The word budget isn’t the most inspiring one in the dictionary and generally is a code word for plain, basic and, often, boring.

But Sony has tried not to live up to the stereotype with the latest in its Walkman line-up, the W395.

Colour me good
The Sony Ericsson W395 is available in a range of hues, some are funky others are fairly traditional. Ours was a vision in purple, which won’t be to everyone’s taste but should go down well with the younger crowd who live life a bit more vibrantly than us old timers who are set in our black and silver ways.

At 96g, the handset isn’t on the chunky side. Nor is it too light to be credible as a mobile. It’s a solid piece of kit whose vital statistics (47x15x96mm) also enable it to pack in a 2-inch (176x220 pixels resolution) screen and slide out keypad without adding to its bulk. It’s a wholly plastic clad ensemble, but while this can cheapen the look and feel of some phones, the W395 escapes looking more expensive than it is. Just.

We found the display to be quite resilient during our tests, which generally involve pawing a handset until you can’t see the screen for the finger marks. Although we didn’t go as far as getting our keys out to run them across the screen, we get the impression it’s pretty scratchproof too.

On the front of the handset, underneath the screen, there’s – as you’d expect on a phone touted as a music phone – the media console for controlling your tunes. Everything here pretty much does what you’d expect, save for the round control, which doesn’t move around as you’d expect it to.

The slide-out keyboard comes into play smoothly without any jerkiness or lag, presenting you with nicely spaced keys that are pleasant to use and ideal for textaholics as well as those who can’t spend five minutes alone without calling people particularly, it would seem, on public transport.

Jack doesn’t live here anymore
We were very surprised, nay disappointed, to discover that this Walkman-branded handset doesn’t have a 3.5mm headphone jack, meaning you’re forced to use the ugly bundled in-ear monstrosities Sony provides. If you have big ear canals, you’re in luck as the buds were born to make you happy, but they’ll do anything but for those with average to small inner shell likes. The connector attached to the headphones is also quite large and unwieldy. If you want to use your own, more aesthetically pleasing headphones, you’ll have to fork out for your own 3.5mm adaptor, as we couldn’t find one in the box no matter how hard we looked.

But the W395 does excel in other music-focused areas. The media player is nice to use and sound quality is excellent, with the built-in stereo speakers on the back of the handset delivering superb, tin-free audio. TrackID is also onboard, making it easy to recognise tunes, in addition to PlayNow and Album Art.

When it comes to the interface, you’re greeted with the usual Sony pleasantries, with a menu that’s easy to get to grips with and icons that make you want to press them to explore what lies beneath their sub menus.

The hard keys also lead to a world of shortcuts, with the up button serving up some calendar action and the down button giving you one-touch access to all your contacts.

Despite the budget tag, we found battery life to be pretty good indeed (quoted life expectancy is eight hours of talk time and 480 hours of standby). And removing the back casing to get access to said battery and SIM card was incredibly easy, which can’t be said for every phone we’ve that’s ever crossed our paths.

Connectivity wise there’s no Wi-Fi on the menu, but we’ve come to expect this omission with budget offerings. Bluetooth is on offer, however, so that does offer a file sharing option for those keen to do so.

Back to basics
There’s a 2-megapixel camera, with autofocus. It isn’t going to set the world of photography on fire but does a decent enough job nonetheless. So long as you don’t want to use it as your main snapper and just make do on the premise that this is a music, not a camera phone, you won’t be disappointed.  The in-built snapper also lacks flash and video recording is well below par, but again, if you consider this is a music phone first and everything else second it’s no big surprise.

Users also get an FM radio, a Memory Stick Micro slot, a range of games and support for motion gaming for their money.

In essence, the W395 doesn’t possess the premier league of specs either on paper or in reality. But, given the price tag we wouldn’t expect it to either.

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