Hi Guys, I upgraded from my W580i to the W595 3 days back. IT is actually a successor to the W580i. So I guess it would be better if I write this review as a comparo between the two phones and my experience so far.
To start with, they look a bit similar, both are stylish phones and look extremely good. The W580i had fancy lights, but this one doesnt have any of tht. And that is infact a good things as the battery life is much better compared to the W580i. I can use it for 2 days without charging and that includes music playback for about 7 hours, messaging and a few calls.
The UI is similar to the W580i, but its way slower than the W580i. Applications take long to open and browsing through menus is also painfully slow. Don’t get me wrong, its not pathetic, its just much slower than what u expect from a high end phone.
Coming to the screen, I find the screen in the W595 is much brighter, its the same size overall though. I wish the screen was bigger as most phones in this price range offer bigger screens. Its still good nonetheless but it does leave u wanting for more when u watch videos and movies on the screen.
Coming to the Walkma functionality and sound quality, the W595 is certainly better than the W580i. The Walkman player is version 3.0 in the W595, and the biggest improvement according to me would be the effectiveness of the MEGABASS functionality. In the W580i it didnt work quite well but in the 595 it works much better and you can feel the difference easily.
The earphones supplied are not in ear types as with the W580i, and that was dissapointing to me. The supplied earphones are decent, but I wish Sony provided quality in ear types with the phone. It would have allowed for a much better walkman experience. The sound quality is quite good overall, nothing exceptional, but good.
The phone has two speakers, one at the top and one at the bottom, the sound is loud enough, but still not as loud as other phones in this price point.
The Camera, just like in the W580i, doesnt come with flash. It is only average, it performs fine in bright conditions but indoor shots and low light images seem very saturated and grainy. And you also have to make sure you do not shake your hands to get a decent picture, otherwise you may end up getting a highly grainy image.
The keypad is certainly better than the W580i, but its still quite firm and not very comfortable to text. The other keys are also quite small, and positioned in a cramped manner. The walkman and volume control keys also do not feel high quality at all.
Overall though its more solid than the flimsy W580i.
In terms of features the phone has a 3.2 MP camera, comes with 2GB M2 card, walkman 3.0, shake feature for changing tracks and volume, senseme, trackID, photo, music n video DJ, cool features for web browsing including youtube and googlemaps. It also has a video calling feature, but u need to use the main camera for tht, it has no secondary camera. So it doesnt really make any sense to me, but anyways.
Not a lot of features I feel, could have done with many more "useable" features than giving loads of "gimicky" features.
The price is also quite high for what you get, but that could be said for most products from Sony Ericsson.
The call reception is also much better than the W580i.
Overall I would not rate this phone very high, its a good phone but it could have been much better for the price. It is better than the W580i, but only just.