w950i is go!

Hi all. While we don't usually do "official" statements on the X-Series blog, we wanted to provide one given the many, many questions asked regarding the Sony Ericsson W950i, one of the original handsets announced as part of the global launch of X-Series.

3 UK writes: After rigorous testing with the full suite of X-Series applications, we are now ready to release the w950i as a handset which is X-Series capable.

Given that a key part of the X-Series philosophy is to ensure a great user experience out of the box across all applications, we have been determined to ensure we can guarantee this on the W950i. The W950i is an excellent Walkman handset and also has the capacity to handle a variety of mobile internet applications.

Our concern has been that it is able to sustain a stable environment on the handset when pre-loaded with all the X-Series applications from 3. It has taken a little longer than we all had hoped, but this is pioneering stuff, right?!! And we are now satisfied that we can launch it as a full X-Series handset.

So, there you have it.

Some of you will have noticed that the w950i is already being made available in 3Stores in the UK and those of you who have already bought into it will still be able to download and run the X-Series applications as part of our soon to be expanded mobile internet offer.

The X-Series represents a leap forward in terms of the access opportunities it creates to the mobile internet. It also demands the sustained use of multiple applications on one handset. When we launched the X-Series we committed to providing the best of the mobile internet from 3.

We must be fair to our customers and our handset and software partners and we would not want to promote a handset as an X-Series device until we were confident it can do the job for all of us; outside the demo shop in the hand of the 3 customer.

By the way, when you get a chance, check out the quick-launch menu we've put on the handset - it gives you quick access to your favourite X-Series services.

Finally, we'd like to thank Sony Ericsson for their understanding and commitment to our joint vision of bringing feature-rich mobile internet services into the mobile world. It's no walk in the park, but we wouldn't be pushing the boundaries if it was.

Comments

[P M Doherty]

this is wonderful news!
and that'll teach me for jumping the gun.

presumably it'll be out next week then?

[Morgo]

absolutely bloody marvelous...I can't wait to get it in my hands at last!

Thanks

[Morgo]

Just a quick one...I have not been able to get msn messenger on my W950i despite the service being advertised on your website and through planet 3 on my phone. My phone says there is not enough memory despite there being tonnes of space. is this something to do with the W950 being supported and will this be remedied now that X-series is available

my phone software is up to date, or so my updater software says!

Answers much appreciated

[Jesse]

But what about the N95!???

[Neil Evans]

Fantastic! All that complaining acually paid off!

I have the same problem as Morgo - can't install Messenger on my W950i...

Do we need to wait on a refresh of the Planet 3 website?

Can we sign up for X-Series right now?

Thanks,

Neil

[W.A]

Thanks de! you kept your promise, really appreciated.

I have same problem downloading msn, getting an error "no enough memory"

[W.A]

But isn't this another way of saying "Coming soon..." ?

[Ian Chilton]

Hi,

What does "our soon to be expanded mobile internet offer" mean?

Thanks

Ian

[wappy]

im gonna wait till some more phones come out it looks great but i bet there still some ironing out bugs better off waiting for nxt genaration to come out

[Neil Evans]

No sign of the W950i on the X-Series website yet. Can I order X-Series now for my W950i?? If not, when is the launch date?? More details please!

[P M Doherty]

yep, all i need now is an estimated launch-date to stop my repeated F5ing of the 3 site & blog.

Presumably the pricing will (initally at least) be £40 p/m with the phone at £99, as it's £35 (+ £99 for the phone) for the direct talker minus the £5 x-series bump.

What i'm wondering is, if it's possible to purchase the W950i with any of the other price plans and then add £5 for x-series on top? or is x-series only open to customers on the Direct Talker/Texter plans?

Thanks a lot.

[Morgo]

I don't know if I am happier now than when I know nothing!

A taste of honey is a terrible thing!!

[Neil Evans]

According to the FAQ, you can use x-series with ANY 3 mobile. The W950i is recommended as one of the better handsets.

http://www.three.co.uk/xseries/x_series_help.omp

Is this new? I haven't looked at the FAQ in months!

N

[Neil Evans]

Sorry - my mistake :-)

I misread it in my excitement. It does not list the W950i. Silver and Gold are only available on the E65 and N73. Bah.

[P M Doherty]

this is like an eternal christmas eve.
when when when?!?! wheney when when?!!

Thanks.

[W.A]

Coming soon...

:)

[Neil Evans]

Hi all,

Don't get too excited about this, but..

I called 3 today, and they have agreed to enable X-Series Silver on my W950i. I can only use it for internet access, Yahoo! search and email, but it's better than nothing!

I only wanted it for unlimited (fair use) data anyway :-)

I can download Messenger etc when they become available for my handset.

At least it's progress...

N

[Neil Evans]

Update : they just called back, and have now said that I can't use X-series for Mobile Mail.

That's fine by me, as I never use it anyway. Unlimited web browsing is my main requirement.

N

[W.A]

Mine got enabled last month. Mobilcast and mobilemail work perfectly fine.

Agile Messenger is a good replacement for Live messenger because you can even use it with gtalk account, though the data is counted towards your usage limit.

[Daniel]

Yeah, I'm using Agile until Three Aus brings out MSN support on the E65. It's not so bad - I may even keep it, depending on how I go with my data limit :)

[W.A]

I dont think you will ever cross the 1Gb limit for just surfing and chatting on the phone. Maybe if they come up with bittorrent clients!!

@ Daniel try Fring, it has support for skype, gtalk, msn and sip

@ Neil, MobileMail works fine, you can get it here http://mobile.three.co.uk/3prepayweb/pushmail/pm

I will recommend setting up the built in mail client to access pop account rather than using the battery sucking MobileMail

[P M Doherty]

Neil,
since you have the W950i + xseries silver enabled, did you have to opt for the direct texter/talker packages? or were you able to have x-series enabled on another tarrif?

Thanks a lot.

[W.A]

I got the phone in February as an upgrade from my previous contract with a 'Personalised plan' and the xseries sliver as an add-on.
So I do believe it can be enabled in any tarrif.

[Morgo]

Neil

Did they say anything about Skype?

So close yet so far...I'm tempted to get connected also and wait for the other programmes to be supported, but for how long do we wait?

Any clear dates yet DE

[Neil Evans]

Hi all - thanks for the tips! I've got Agile Messenger working now :-)