Sony Ericsson's new 4GB W950i Walkman phone

A few news sites in the Middle East tipped us off earlier, but now we've got it straight from Sony Ericsson that the W950i Walkman is indeed for real and is indeed sporting 4GB of sweet sweet flash memory.  We're not so sure about this whole "Mystic Purple" color scheme they've got going, but there's a lot else to love, including UMTS, tri-band GSM, a rather large QVGA screen, and a 0.6-inch thickness. The Symbian OS phone also has Opera 8, Macromedia Flash Lite, video playback support, and a built-in FM radio to augment the standard Walkman MP3/AAC capability. We'll have to try the smooth keypad before we pass final judgement, but while sexy looking, it doesn't seem like it'll make one-handed texting any easier.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

[Abbas @ Feb 13th 2006 6:56PM]

its all i ever wanted in a fone... until the next rendition is released?!?

[Andrew @ Feb 13th 2006 6:58PM]

Only downside to this is that it isnt cdma

[Yoshman @ Feb 13th 2006 7:13PM]

Can you do video conferencing with this phone? It has 3G capability but I don't see any camera at the front...

Apparently, the screen is also a touchscreen..hmmm...

[Byron Hulcher @ Feb 13th 2006 7:17PM]

From what I've heard, it uses a touch-screen, so if anything, that could include a whole touch keyboard for your texting needs.

[Maurice @ Feb 13th 2006 7:21PM]

"Can you do video conferencing with this phone?"
Check the specs at the VERY bottom: there is no estimate for video call time.

[Yoshman @ Feb 13th 2006 7:23PM]

The link you gave is crap. UK site give better information on the phone...

[Morockin @ Feb 13th 2006 7:31PM]

Oh man and I was realy starting to love my w800i, I am going to feel really guilty lusting after another phone..

Also, looking at the details it doesn't look like this thing will take memory sticks. What am I supposed to do with all my 2GB memory sticks?

[David @ Feb 13th 2006 7:34PM]

I think you guys mean MP3/ATRAC, not MP3/AAC.

[nersh @ Feb 13th 2006 7:36PM]

Yeah, they've pictures of the stylus over on mobileburn. You can (just about) see the orange edge of it at the top left of the photo. I'd buy this in a second if it had a camera. But it doesn't.

[Ahmed El-Khuffash @ Feb 13th 2006 7:44PM]

This...looks sexy. Unfortunately it seems they dropped the 2MP camera on the W800i...such a shame.

[vincent @ Feb 13th 2006 7:55PM]

It's UIQ 3.0...isn't it? So at least touch screen would make sense...

[crap @ Feb 13th 2006 7:57PM]

No WiFi? Shame.
No Quad-band? Pity North American friends.

[Lance @ Feb 13th 2006 8:10PM]

What are you talking about, that color scheme is freaking awesome

[peety @ Feb 13th 2006 8:10PM]

No Quad Band, No Camera, No WiFi, No Mem Slot, otherwise the perfect phone. Nothing to give up the k750 for.

[crap @ Feb 13th 2006 8:16PM]

Give up K750i for K610i

http://www.sonyericsson.com/spg.jsp?cc=gb&lc=en&ver=4000&template=pp1_loader&php=php1_10389&zone=pp&lm=pp1&pid=10389

[3rdsun @ Feb 13th 2006 8:49PM]

6. "I think you guys mean MP3/ATRAC, not MP3/AAC."

All walkman phones can play AAA tracks.


All you guys dissapointed cuz of no cam ....there's talk of another model with a camera is on its way so chin up

[tiuk @ Feb 13th 2006 9:23PM]

Having four gigs of flash memory on me at all times is a pretty tempting concept. I don't always have my MP3 player on me, but I don't even get up to go to the bathroom at night without my cell phone.

[Dan @ Feb 13th 2006 9:39PM]

No 850 MHz, sigh...

[Brian @ Feb 13th 2006 9:40PM]

Having four inches of erection on me at all times is a pretty tempting concept. I don't always have my girl on me, but I don't even go to bed at night without my hand.

[mjrkjm @ Feb 13th 2006 9:40PM]

anyone else thinks this looks like the m600
different keyboard, but still no camera
wow this could have been the one with the m600 keyboard and camera and quadband

[Wry Cooter @ Feb 13th 2006 10:02PM]

And the camera. Hows' the camera?

[Johnny @ Feb 13th 2006 10:16PM]

Anyone know what bitrates of AAC this phone will be able to play? I was thinking about getting a Moto, but the ones that play AAC will only play 128, I have been unable to find out what bitrates the SE phones will play.

[Dean @ Feb 13th 2006 10:32PM]

If it has tactile response on the keys, I'll be wanting one.
Not having a camera is a plus for me. I don't use them and I don't like paying for them.

[Micah Wylde @ Feb 13th 2006 10:35PM]

Does anybody know if it supports A2DP? That would make it truly killer.

[Karl @ Feb 13th 2006 11:18PM]

So wait, you got this news from the Middle freakin' East? They were the first ones to report on this? wow........just........wow

[tino @ Feb 13th 2006 11:28PM]

Nice. My Treo 650 can also do it too :) Thanks Shadowmite.

[Dman @ Feb 13th 2006 11:30PM]

Sweet! I hope this one costs $800+!!!

[Carlos @ Feb 13th 2006 11:49PM]

aw man i wanted the w900i to come to the US :( i alrady got the w600i but this one is nice.. i would buy if i had the money

[Luis Camino @ Feb 14th 2006 12:00AM]

yes it supports a2dp, to use preferrably with the also unveiled today Sony Ericsson Stereo Bluetooth Headset HBH-DS970:
http://www.clubsonyericsson.com/en/14/02/2006/sony-ericsson-finally-introduces-a-bluetooth-stereo-headset-the-hbh-ds970-2/

i sent a member of my forum to the official presentation and he says the tactile keyboard is awesome. read more:
http://www.clubsonyericsson.com/en/14/02/2006/sony-ericsson-unveils-walkman-version-of-m600-with-4gb-memory-the-w950/

live photos and videos soon.

[Luis Camino @ Feb 14th 2006 12:02AM]

engadget crew, links get html-messy in this comment system.

http://www.clubsonyericsson.com/en/14/02/2006/sony-ericsson-finally-introduces-a-bluetooth-stereo-headset-the-hbh-ds970-2/

http://www.clubsonyericsson.com/en/14/02/2006/sony-ericsson-unveils-walkman-version-of-m600-with-4gb-memory-the-w950/

[Taha @ Feb 14th 2006 12:13AM]

Oh my god... A 4 gig phone! Wow I can't believe Sony Ericsson has announced one.... now I have to decide whether to get a W900 or this.

[frasor @ Feb 14th 2006 2:30AM]

Well, it's a very nice phone, but with one big disadvantage: Why the hell no Wlan.

In times of Skype an SIP, Wlan together with an Smartphone OS like Symbian would bee so sweet on a mobile ;-)

[peter @ Feb 14th 2006 2:46AM]

Not to mention sony DRM that watches where you call and only lets you call a local sony store most of the time. The phone doesn't allow you to listen to anything else but Sony's music, and it will break your stereo and cripple that cd drive in you PC. And all this in the good name of sony protecting it's products. DRM all the way, baby.

[Ernesto @ Feb 14th 2006 2:48AM]

I am glad it has no keyboard. I am getting tired of companies trying to stick a QWERTY keyboard on everything. It has handwriting recognition out of the box-with no new alphabet to learn. If you want to go past 3 sentences in your sms buy a bluetooth keyboard or........USE THE PHONE! I have the SE910 and the P800 before it and ALL my TREO friends are still envious of the ease with which I shoot off messages.

[Cem @ Feb 14th 2006 3:45AM]

Awesome specs, especially if it indeed would have a touchscreen. Seems like it'll be an expensive phone.

[Hipotecado @ Feb 14th 2006 5:32AM]

whithout camera?

[Frank @ Feb 14th 2006 7:51AM]

Let us all start praying that this great mobile will NOT depend on the GOD-AWFUL Connect software!

Sony can kill-off the iPod popularity with easy but... only if they can get their software sorted!

If not, they better make it mass-storage complient or make it Media Player 10 compatible.

I very much like the "music browsing by cover" menu system. Very sexy.
Currently, Apple is the only company that managed to create an mp3-player that THE USER actually wants. The creative Zen is nice, and so is Samsung's YUP, but organizing your songs and navigating the player is no fun at all. However, I do think that Microsoft can create (copy?) a Media Player with a similar functionality as iTunes.

But PLEASE: NO CONNECT SOFTWARE!

But in any case spare us the "Only Sony" solutions!

[3gsm visitor @ Feb 14th 2006 10:58AM]

Been at the 3GSM world conference, and I played with this phone.

The screen and looks are great!

The keyboard is flat, but you have to press each button and then the keyboard surface just drops a bit and you hear a click. It's definitelly not an optical keyboard, but mechanical.

It also has scrollwheel at the side, ....

[Nihls @ Feb 14th 2006 1:24PM]

Sony also announced the W950i Walkman will require special eardrum implant that is availble only from sony and will allow you to listen to this sony device.

[Fred @ Feb 14th 2006 3:08PM]

Excellent, will buy this or a htc muse(if the rumors become reality). I don�t mind the lack of a camera, during my 1� years with my current smartphone the camera has been used once or twice.

[Zeus @ Feb 14th 2006 6:40PM]

Wow... this is the phone I've been waiting for... I have had a Razer V3 since they came out and actually I'm not a fan. I had buyers remorse after about 1 week...

It's a pretty good phone, (although battery talk time blows, unsurprisingly since it's so damn tiny) I just personally don't like how it feels when I'm talking on it and it's features. (Why even bother with a camera so freakin ghetto)

It's kind of funny because when I got the phone it was supposedly new and cool to the geek crowd, but no one else really knew about it so very few people ever said anything. (Which isn't the reason I got it anyways, mainly I wanted small and quad band)

Now, after the last holiday season with the V3 advertising blitz, people ask me about it all the freakin time, which for me is another negative. Now that the V3s are everywhere people are always like "Wow, is that a..." to which I'm like "Yeah.. but I hate it."

I'll gladly trade the camera in my cellie for mp3 capability instead, which I would actually use. (And which my work wouldn't frown upon, unlike the camera.) So will this play unDRMed MP3s fine then? (I'm guessing yes but with these posters talking about Sony DRM, are they talking specifically about this phone or more generally about the rootkit debacle?)

What is it in French?

Le Roi es mort, vive le Roi! (Something like that..)

[Sony Ericsson @ Mar 1st 2006 12:35PM]

W950 runs on Symbian v.91 OS and UIQ 3.0 platform.

Just a some Key features:
Screen:
* 262.144 color TFT
* 240?20 pixel
Sound:
* Polyphonic Sounds 40 voices
Networks:
* GSM 900
* GSM 1800
* GSM 1900
* Dual mode UMTS (2100MHz)
Sizes:
* 106 x 54 x 15 mm (4.1 x 2.1 x .6 inches)
Weight:
* 112 gr (4 oz)

more pictures here: http://cellphonesclub.com/wp/2006/02/16/sony-ericsson-w950i-walkman/

[Sumar @ Mar 2nd 2006 3:09AM]

is the phone only available in black? the color sucks!

i like the orange color of sony ericsson w600i better, http://www.cellphonestalk.com/cellphonereviews/sonyericsson/w600i/screen.html

[Merry Prankster @ Mar 3rd 2006 4:07PM]

I love the looks of this one. Gimme Gimme Gimme!

Just wish they had included a time- and priceestimate...

http://www.smartsoftware.org
http://www.i-q.com

[Alan Byrne @ Apr 25th 2006 6:10PM]

I love the music capability and lack of camera - been looking for that.

I carry a Sanyo HD1 camera in my pocket all the time. Great 5MP stills and 720p HD video. I don't WANT my phone to have a lens..

[loopium @ May 6th 2006 6:13AM]

Aah, *finally* a decent cell without a camera.

They finally get it, if I want a camera
I'll buy a decent camera for that function
instead of having these small crappy lenses everywhere.

Now this cellphone would be the perfect sidekick to a Bluetooth-enabled camera (if any brand actually had one) storing and viewing pictures on the phone.

Anyone know if USB/Firewire to Bluetooth adapters exist?

A w950i it is for me, anyway.

[rgk-nyc @ Jul 6th 2006 4:23PM]

has anyone tried out the SonicStage CP? I downloaded it and it works wonderfully easy. I mean, I was afraid, but I loaded onto my laptop, searched for my old music, imported it all and there it was in my library. I also read that this phone will work with .oma files (i.e. sonicstage). That pretty much seals the deal for me...stunning...and sad to replace my w810 (wife is waiting to get her hands on it)...

[Bones @ Aug 4th 2006 7:09AM]

my precious!! does this device support mac?

[IRUVWE SAMUEL @ Aug 29th 2006 4:22PM]

YES I LOVE THIS PHONE BUT THERE IS SOMETHINGI LOOK FORWARD TO SEE IN THIS PHONE,PLEASE LET THE NEW EDITIONS COME UP WITH A CAMERA,IT MAKES IT MORE PERFECT AND BETTER,HOPE THE CAMERA WAS NOT FORGOTTEN?WAS IT RESERVED FOR OTHER MODELS?

[Simon @ Sep 6th 2006 10:13AM]

Really getting fed up with sony and sony erricsson wish they would aggree on the codecs.. only just changed all my library to ATRAC....