First impression: Sony Ericsson launches mp3-smartphone

A week ago Sony Ericsson launched a smartphone namned M600. It was smaller and weighed less than the previous smartphone from Sony Ericsson. But when it comes to software, it has the same capabilities as the bigger smartphone P990.

W950 is a 3G phone, just like M600. That means the users not only can download their music from tha computer, but also over the air, for instance from the carriers online music stores.

We have already got a chance to try the new W950. The operating system is Symbian and on the back of W950 there is a stylus for the touch screen. The user interface is UIQ, just like the other smartphones from Sony Ericsson

Besides using the stylus you can also navigate the menues with the jog dial on the side of the phone. That means you don't have to use both hands to navigate the menues.

The music player leaves a big impression and is an important element of the screen, which takes up most of the phones front side. With the stylus you can drag and drop album covers and create your own playlists, but when you use the phone the most convientent is to use your finger directly on the screen.

The capacity of the built-in flash memory is 4 gigabyte. Thats even more than Samsung I300, which has a hard drive, and the same amount of memory as Nokia N91, also equipped with a hard drive.

During the launch tonight Miles Flint, CEO of Sony Ericsson, showcased a bluetooth headset for stereosound. The headset makes it possible to listen to music från W950 and the other Walkman-phones that has support for stereosound via bluetooth.

Since W950 is based on the smartphone system Symbian version 9.10 and UIQ there are many other things besides the music player. You can write on the screen using letter recognition. W950 has a web browser from Opera and also an rss reader and the possibility to browse xhtml/wap2.0 pages.

Just as M600, W950 has no camera. That means you can not take pictures or make video calls.