As someone who whiled away a great deal of revision time watching old programmes on BBC Iplayer, the chance to test a phone with the service built in was impossible to resist.

Sony Ericsson’s latest offering, the W995, is billed almost as much as a media player as it is a telephone. It comes with 8GB memory and just a touch of a button on the side turns it into your standard mp4 player. Unusually for a phone, it also takes standard headphones should you be averse to using the bundled kit.

Taking the plunge of just popping in my Simcard and seeing what happened, I was pleasantly surprised by just how intuitive the controls were. One particularly useful item on the menu is the location services, which lets you find your location on Google maps, or use NearMe to search for stuff close to you.

Other features on the phone include radio, games, alarms, an organiser and WiFi support, so you can save on your contract’s bundled internet minutes if you can find an open access WiFi zone around or have a password for your uni network.

It also has a camera, but despite being billed as 8.1 megapixels, it doesn’t quite give the quality shots you might hope for – although it’s good enough for drunken pub shots, no doubt.

So if you’re unsure whether to spend the loan on a brand new media player or a top of the range phone (or books, or food etc… Ed.) the W995 could be a good choice. Its high resolution screen makes it suitable for viewing movies and video clips as well as just listening to music. But if the choice is new phone or camera to capture those university memories, perhaps look elsewhere.

Accessories included:

• W995
• Battery
• Battery Charger
• 8GB Memory Stick Micro™ (M2™)
• USB Cable
• Stereo portable handsfree
• Sony Ericsson PC Suite
• Media Go™
• User book

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