What exactly does $600 buy you these days? If you're looking at Sony Ericsson and you live in the States, the answer is now this, the Walkman-branded W995a, which we've had a chance to play with in advance of its July 6 date with destiny. Charging $600 for any phone -- much less a non-smartphone -- is a tough proposition to be making (particularly in a not-so-hot economy), but the company seems to be very cognizant of the fact that it's putting this out there strictly for the niche enthusiasts who like their hardware totally uncrippled and without a trace of carrier branding inside or out. We'd even go so far as to say that this'll be a loss leader for them -- it's not designed to make money so much as it's designed to keep Sony Ericsson in the hearts and minds of shoppers, keep folks aware that they've got hot hardware available, and take advantage of those who do buy it to evangelize the brand. Read on!

It's not every day that Sony Ericsson custom crafts a model just for North American store shelves, so it's pretty exciting to see that the W995a -- a phone mentioned in passing back in February alongside the announcement of its W995 brother -- is very, very real and imminently destined for SonyStyle shops across the colonies. Following the company's typical naming conventions (well, "typical" prior to the Satio / Aino / Yari, anyway), the W995a is simply a W995 that's had its 900 / 2100MHz HSDPA radio gutted and replaced with an 850 / 1900 / 2100MHz version, making it ripe for 3.5G use both in the States and abroad. Features include a 2.6-inch QVGA display, Bluetooth, Memory Stick Micro slot, 3.5mm audio jack, WiFi, FM radio, AGPS, and an 8.1 megapixel camera with face detection, image stabilization, and autofocus -- in other words, it's packed to the gills with pretty much every feature this side of a smartphone operating system. Sony Ericsson says that it's a perfect match for "unlocked purists and phone junkies" -- language we like to hear -- and will be available to all comers from SonyStyle on starting July 6 for "about $600."

Last time it was the international version that got the FCC's coveted gold seal, but now we're seeing something a little close to home. Meet the W995a, which -- like most Sony Ericssons that end in "a" -- features radios custom-tuned to North America's annoying unique needs. In the final analysis, what you're getting here is nothing more than a standard-issue W995 retooled to support quadband EDGE plus WCDMA bands II and V, which are the coveted 850 and 1900MHz frequencies used in the US and Canada. Interestingly, we have absolutely no idea what carriers might be looking at picking this thing up -- but if both AT&T and Rogers pass, this might end up being little more than a pricey, unlocked, unbranded souvenir ordered out of the SonyStyle catalog after you've put down a few too many cold ones and your better judgment starts to go south. Way south.