It's not every day that Sony Ericsson custom crafts a model just for North American store shelves, so it's pretty exciting to see that the
W995a -- a phone mentioned in passing back in February alongside the announcement of its
W995 brother -- is very, very real and imminently destined for SonyStyle shops across the colonies. Following the company's typical naming conventions (well, "typical" prior to the
Satio /
Aino /
Yari, anyway), the W995a is simply a W995 that's had its 900 / 2100MHz HSDPA radio gutted and replaced with an 850 / 1900 / 2100MHz version, making it ripe for 3.5G use both in the States and abroad. Features include a 2.6-inch QVGA display, Bluetooth, Memory Stick Micro slot, 3.5mm audio jack, WiFi, FM radio, AGPS, and an 8.1 megapixel camera with face detection, image stabilization, and autofocus -- in other words, it's packed to the gills with pretty much every feature this side of a smartphone operating system. Sony Ericsson says that it's a perfect match for "unlocked purists and phone junkies" -- language we like to hear -- and will be available to all comers from SonyStyle on starting July 6 for "about $600."
posted Jun 3rd 2009 3:01AM
Wahhh I want it!!! Way to go Ziegler for hooking us up with solid release date and pricing info.
Wahh I want it!!! Nice, Ziegler
Ah, woops - thought my first post didn't go through
I'm an SE fanboy and think I would really like this phone... but 600$? The N86 stacks up pretty nicely with this and it doesn't appear it's going to cost as much. Albeit, I really like how SE has music controls on the outside of the unit. When I used my K790 as my mp3 player, I could have it locked and still forward to another random track and alter the volume. With my N85, not so much.
Actually, it's a good phone but don't expect much from camera or video.
Camera won't replace stand-alone digital camera and video is too small to view as it'll hurt your eyes! It's a gimmick!
w995a (Americas model) version just modifies phone to work in N and S America!
Otherwise, it's identical to regular w995 that also works in N. America!
No word if w995a version will include the noise-cancellation (NC) earphones, though highly doubtful.
Parts of Europe get the NC earphones but not Asia!