The Siemens S45 looks great and is amazingly comfortable to hold in
your hand, yet there is something strangely unfamiliar
about the interface…
Before starting the review proper, I would like to say a great big
enthusiastic hooray for the smallest charger on the market. Well done
Siemens!
Ease of use
The first inclination that something may be off comes when I have to flip
the battery sideways rather than outwards to insert my SIM card. No big
deal, of course, but it brings forebodings of a phone that will go its own
ways. Because so many unfamiliar choices have been made I will mention
only a few examples to illustrate.
Sometimes you select an option by pressing a small button at the top of
the key pad, called soft buttons, below a “select” icon on the
display. However, other times, for no discernable reason, the same button
is indicated by a "v" on the display, although pressing the
button executes the same function of making a choice in the menu system.
Sometimes, though, the button name given on the display can be quite
helpful.
Finding the contact list was difficult as well. I bravely entered the menu
system, but found no contacts option. Select "Office" in the
main menu and choose between "Phonebook" or
"Addressbook". Which is which? The user manual explains: “If
entries are copied from the Phonebook to the Addressbook, further data can
be added to them subsequently”. I will let that statement speak for
itself, but in fairness add that finding your contacts’ phone numbers is
easy as pie, simply press the navigator button downwards once and they all
appear, but you have to know about this shortcut to take it.
Setting the phone up and entering URLs, you will sometimes want to enter
information into a bracket where some of the information is already,
graciously, provided by Siemens. However, the letters and numbers already
in place will be highlighted and most of us expect highlighted stuff to
disappear when we press additional characters and digits and will look for
ways to avoid doing so until the highlight is gone in fear of having to
enter http:// etc all over again. No need to worry, it turns out, because
the highlighted text does not disappear as expected when new information
is entered.
Writing SMS with T9 is a joy, the less clicking and scrolling the better,
however when you need to change the word on the display, this is usually
done by pressing a button on the bottom of the keypad until the correct
word appears. Not so on the Siemens S45. When I discovered how it was
done, I was so embarrassed at not having guessed it right away that I had
several other people try it. I would say we are all about average
intelligence-wise and yet none of us guessed off the top of our heads that
the top right soft button is the button to press for word change.
Finally, to get to the @ symbol you need to first click one button for
letter mode, secondly press another to switch off the T9, next press the
same button you used for switching off the T9 twice and the @ will appear.
Then, of course, you are free to reset the T9 using the same button all
over again. Now that you know, you may think: “So, what’s the big
deal?” and really it’s not.
Now, Siemens will be wanting to take market shares from Nokia, Motorola,
Ericsson and the rest, so why make the interface so different. I am not
saying the solutions Siemens has opted for are intrinsically poorer than
those of the other manufacturers, but when all the basics are different it
is like learning to operate a mobile phone all over again, and some people
might not bother. Shame really, because it is a nice little device.
Design/style
I like the feel and weight of this one. The metal feels soft and the
buttons are easy to press even if the phone is small. Some say it looks
like a toy and not a real phone, but I disagree and I love the old
fashioned screensaver clock, reassuringly telling the time all the while
the phone is not in active use.
Vital statistics
GSM 900 / 1800
Weight: 93g
Dimensions: 109 x 46 x 20 mm
High resolution graphical display, up to 7 lines
Stand-by time: 60 – 300 hours
Talk time: 100 – 360 minutes
Stanard battery Li Ion 840 mAh
Integrated antenna
Mobile Internet access: WAP 1.2
Contacts: 500
Voice Dial
Built-in data and fax modem
Infrared
Organizer
Currency converter, calculator, stopwatch
SMS
T9
38 ring tones
Ring tone composer
WAP browsing
The set-up procedure was unusually painless. You can set-up five access
profiles and I got online in no time at all, happily surfing the wireless
Web at the speed of …well… GPRS. I impressed all my friends by finding
flight schedule information between two cities in, literally, seconds and
it is wapping like this that is starting to make people realise that there
is a point to the wireless Internet after all.
The Yahoo! - Siemens site is automatically selected as your first bookmark
and because the name is long, a neat little feature reveals itself. When
names are too long to fit in their designated spot the text gently rolls
over the display for you to read.
You will need to scroll all the way down on a WAP page to find the
browser’s back function. So although this device is fast, the browsing
is to some degree made a little difficult at first due to the
aforementioned interface awkwardness, but you’ll get the hang of it if
you persevere.
WAP related features
SMS difficulties have already been mentioned. Now for the good stuff: For
the first time I have seen pre-written SMS samples that work, sorted into
the categories congratulations, delay and appointment, with blanks at
appropriate places for you to personalise the message. A true time saver.
The ring tones are loud, but not shrill. There is a wide variety of tunes
to choose from so anyone willing to try ought to be able to find something
to their liking. If not, feel free to compose one of your very own.
The S45 can not be set up to send and receive e-mails, unfortunately.
Overall
Although we were all impressed by the looks of the S45, we had hoped for
more finess. There is something budget-like about this phone, although it
has the look and feel of a high-end device. It is priced similar to
Ericsson’s T39, which one you pick may be a trade off between extra
screen size or Ericssons' Bluetooth and tri-band functionality.
about the interface…
