Siemens CFX65 is a clamshell with contemporary look, original design, holding a varied range of functions and an integrated VGA camera, with a loop antenna that looks like more of a hanger.
After having introduced the basic model CF62 years back, Siemens had come up with CFX65 flip phone also with a lot of experimentation. It can surely attract people with its high quality phonebook, VGA camera, low body weight and a striking chameleon effect overall.
The Overall Design
The phone does not attract everybody at the first glimpse. It comes in two colors- ivory or classic silver. There are no replaceable covers. It is sized 97 x 48 x 23 mm. It weighs 88 g but is not the smallest of the clamshells available in the market. Its unusual loop antenna could surely attract its customers. In fact, that can be used more to hold a neck strap.
There is a blue area on the top which defines a mini outer display on it. You can see the manufacturer's logo on it. It is bordered with a chrome frame below which a camera lens and a light diode are fitted.
The overall remaining phone is just dominated in silver which also gives it a metallic look but which is not the actual case. It is actually made of plastic but looks very stylish. It may be liked by some and may not be liked by some.
The back part is eccentrically made and contains the battery and a loudspeaker. The sides of the phone have more of a German appeal than Asian ones with no curves or waves. The left side has the volume control button and by pressing longer it would also activate the camera and the flash diode. The right side has the slot for infrared port.
The bottom edge has the system connector and an aperture for a microphone. The top edge is very apparently dominated by the loop antenna.
Siemens CFX65's construction is just solid and you can make that out by one look at the phone. Well, the battery too is solidly placed under the rear cover and is a Li-Ion battery with capacity of 600 mAh. It can run for 200 minutes in a normal mode and up to 200 hours in a standby mode.
Very stylish phone
This clamshell would surely appeal to female customers more than males as it is all stylish silver around the edges and the main part is covered with changeable blue color with chrome finish.
The display is amidst the blue area and the earphone is traditionally done with metallic mesh. The whole part is bordered with dazzling silver frame.
The flat Keypad
It is in the bottom part and is completely flat bordered with shiny silver frame again. Both the functional and alphanumeric keys are accumulated at one place distinguishably separated by silver chrome border which is very remarkably done. The inner keys are in silver and the outer keys are in bluish violet shade as how the color changes when the phone is opened.
The main key is the 4-directional navigation key in the middle that is visibly highlighted. Navigating it in all directions takes you to different important functions- moving it right takes you to the received messages, moving it left takes you to camera, moving it upwards takes you to profiles and moving it downwards takes you to the phone book, and pressing it in the middle means confirmation of an action.
The keys are very well placed both vertically and horizontally. They look bulging only when you touch them you could feel it. The illumination is strikingly blue and looks very stylish and goes with the image of the phone.
The Displays
Obviously you could see two displays in this clamshell phone. One is the inner main display and the other is the mini outer display.
The inner display is of 28 x 35 mm dimensions and displays 65k colors. It has good resolution of 128 x 160 pixels and assures quality. But one setback is, the phone uses the outdated STN technology and that makes the display quality low and the fast access is lacking then.
The outer display is the mini display. It is monochrome only. Its size is 20 x 14 mm with 96 x 64 pixel resolution. It displays a digital clock, your GSM provider and a status row that shows the signal and battery strength of the phone. Its background color is creme white.
Environment and Control
The people who have been experimenting with the Siemens phones off late, would not find browsing through this phone difficult. As a matter of fact, Siemens CFX65's display is clear and accurate. The main display shows you a status row that indicates the signal and battery strength; information about date and time and service name; and the bottom status row has context key functions. Then you know how to set a wallpaper in the background to give it an artistic look.
The main menu is accessed with the confirmation key in the middle. It takes you to a grid of nine animated icons and icons can also be listed individually. The next menu levels are displayed in the text form.
The menu can be accessed faster with 3 options for quick menu selection. Firstly by pressing a number (as all the menu functions are numbered), or accessing the list of the most used functions, or by the speed selection (it means assigning a phone number or a function to the key on the keypad).
Then the 4-directional key can also be used with well decided functions by the producer. You can also browse the menu with the side buttons. In the opened position, the upper button starts profiles and a longer press takes you to camera. The lower button activates the voice recorder on a longer press. But in the closed position, the upper button switches on the outer display and the lower button turns on the lighting diode.
Telephony and the Phonebook
The sound is clear and nicely pitched in Siemens CFX65. The side buttons are used for volume control during the calls. The upper side button is used for rejecting the call while ringing. You can also use hands free but that would not sound much as the voice is coming from the loudspeaker that is fitted in the rear part.
The phone has 40 ringing tone melodies but the quality is not par with the Asian phones. You have 7 ringing levels and the 8th is for Airplane mode. You have vibration, calls filtering and illumination intensity settings also.
If you are already used to the Siemens series 65 phones, then you would appreciate the phone book here in CFX65 model. The phonebook can save up to 250 names ie. no big storage capacity but you can assign 14 records to each name with surname, picture, 4 phone numbers, email address, postal address, etc. Searching of the contacts is done with initial letters. Contacts are sorted in groups and each group can be assigned a separate ringing tone.
SMS, MMS and email receive only
Siemens CFX65 supports SMS, MMS, EMS and partially emails. The messaging is satisfactory as no doubt the writing with the keypad is pretty good but the passive display and the phone response slow down the whole process. But it is still fine.
The SMS texting have the countdown of characters, the T9 dictionary that ensures faster typing and 100 text messages can be saved with most important ones in the archive and now that depends on the available memory.
The MMS service has a well-developed editor. Here you can create pages and send messages up to the size of 100 kB.
The simple email client is supported by the phone as the POP3 protocol supports the downloading of the received messages or the headers but it doesn't support email attachments.
Organizer and other functions
The organizing functions are the standard functions performed by any mobile phone. The calender the most used function in this area gives you daily, weekly, and monthly views. It can keep up to 100 records allowing you to select from 6 types of reminders including a voice record. You can possibly set an alarm to reminders.
The To-do list cannot be left behind as it allows you to store 4 types of tasks, assign time, priority and even an alarm to them. They are actually simple notes with 160 characters to each note and also an application to compute the world time.
The Extras category has the alarm clock which can also be repetitive for a selected day. The other functions include a simple calculator, a units converter, a countdown timer, a stopwatch and also the voice recorder. All these functions being standard ones found in a mobile.
The Java games in the phone has been pre-installed only as one game currently called Marble Jam that is sorting color balls. Looks more of a logical game.
The PC connectivity is fast as the Siemens CFX65 supports With GPRS class 10 and WAP browser function 2.0 version. The PC can be connected to the internet through a data cable or an infrared port.
Integrated VGA Camera
Siemens CFX65 can take pictures with maximum resolution of 640 x 480 pixels. The photo quality is below average if you see pictures of other phones in terms of sharpness. The resolution can be decreased to 3 steps the lowest being for the display pictures.
The brightness ratio can be increased by the exposure compensation and the white color balance. 3x zoom is also available and works on the ruling of crops. There is also self timer and nice animated frames if you want to give some special effects to the pictures.
The flash diode just below the camera lens can be used for dull pictures or night mode.
All the data and the pictures, messages in archive or sound records can be saved in the available 4 MB shared memory. This is possible due to a PC file manager that manages all the data in different files and separate folders. You can create, delete or rename folders and in fact can move the files and folders from the phone to your PC through infrared port.
Inference
Siemens CFX65 as mentioned earlier would not attract everyone but rather a class of people who would love to see the combination of the silverish Grey, chrome, bluish violet chameleon effect in the phone. This would surely be something for the female group who would want to go for the sophisticated look of the phone and the sufficient functions availability.
The clamshell's main rivals would be Panasonic X400 and Motorola V220.
Advantages
It is a stylish phone with clamshell design with hidden antenna in a loop, a comfortable keypad, traditional phonebook and low weight to carry in hands easily.
Disadvantages
It does show off its plastic look, have a slow passive display, just a dual band only, and emails can only be received and not sent plus the photo quality is in fact below average.